Gongaga Yaoi: Diary [2002, June-October]

June 3rd: Well, I’ve been writing like crazy, adding to all my fics. I guess that’s why I haven’t updated in a while. Last week I picked up my grad robe hat deal-ie, and I’m picking up my diploma at the ceremony on Tuesday. Apparently we have no English class that day because the teacher is decorating. I also learned that the dance is on Wednesday, not Friday. Good thing Becky told me! (o_0) Later today, after lunch, I have practice for the diploma procession; everybody does. I hope it’s not too boring. Anyway, yesterday, I spent the whole day frying chicken. It was murder! I think I mentioned before to avoid eating either lasagna or spaghetti (the only two things my mom would make on Sunday), I offered to cook every Sunday so we could have a variety. Every meal went really well, including this one, but it was extremely fatiguing. First I made custard pie, which involved scalding milk. In other words, I got to hang about a hot stove waiting for this milk to boil and become tacky... That took about an hour. (>_<) Afterward, I fretted over the pie because it wasn’t solidifying, and I had to leave it in for 30 minutes longer than the book said. Luckily it turned out all right, even though the recipe said if the pie “sweated” (got water on top after cooling) it was made wrong... And mine had some water on it. Oh well. I think that book is cursed anyway. We got it from a house where an old woman died- and it’s her book. WoooOOoo... (^_^) Heheh. So, on with the chicken. For the main course, I made Japanese chicken, which would have been fine if my mom hadn’t bought four pounds of the stuff, and said to make it all and freeze the extra. For nearly four hours I was halving, breading, and frying chicken. After every load, I had to change the butter too, which was really arduous. Finally, after I filled a dish with them, it was time for saucing and baking. That wasn’t too bad, but it involved way too much playing about in the oven. I had to baste them every 10 minutes (for 45 minutes). Not to mention my baster was a piece of crap that kept falling apart. At one point I nearly died laughing at myself, when the baster fell apart, and I’m like “Mummy, mummy, my baster broke in half and rolled into the oven.” And I proceeded in picking it out with BBQ tongs.
...
Yes. Anyway, after getting so well acquainted with the chicken, I didn’t have much appetite for it, to say the least. The pie wasn’t too great either, but my dad seemed to love it. He ate two pieces! I’m sure my SO will finish off the loads of chicken we have left.
On Saturday I conned my parents and SO to watch Harry Potter. They all enjoyed it a lot, even though my SO compared Draco to Martin from A.I. “If he had a brother, he’d melt his face.” ::Laughs so hard:: I’ll never forget that movie just for that one scene. Anyway, I have the Harry Potter video, plus I’m getting the DVD. (^_^) I’m so spoiled. Lyeheheh.
Oh yes, I also got my grad dress back from the seamstress. It’s great. I might post pictures if I feel inclined. (^_^) Apparently I’m winning some specialty awards too... I don’t know for what, though. Most people say art, but I’m pretty sure I had the highest history mark too. Maybe it’s a specialty award for my work on the webpage. Oh well. I’ll know tomorrow.

June 4th: Well, grad was a big lot of waiting around for no reason at all. We lined up, waited. Sat around, waited. When we finally got in there, Jenny sang the national anthem. It was really cool. Very well sung. Then there were a couple of long speeches before awards began being handed out. I won Writer’s Craft, Art, and History. I also received a special award from a Folk Arts association. I’m not quite sure why, since it was awarded because I had a “joy of life”. (^_^) Oh well, I’m still happy. I spoke to my art teacher beforehand and had a nice long conversation about Vancouver. Anyway, everybody looked really nice. We got out of there around 9:30pm. Did I mention we arrived at 6:00pm? Blargh. There were a lot of graduates there I didn’t know, and had never seen before, which was odd. (o_0) Oh yea, one of the “most successful girl” or whatever, awards went to Bonder. I nearly died laughing. She was wearing a corsage and instead of wearing her hat normally, and looking like a dolt with the rest of us, she had it bobby pinned at a jaunty angle. Later Lindsay told me her sleeve caught in Bonder’s hat, and the chick had this huge fit about it. ::Laughs:: Anyway, afterwards I was so hungry. We got Subway and I lazed around until I finally fell asleep around 2:00am. I’m just glad the whole deal is over, though I’ll be even more relieved after tomorrow; the dance.

June 5th: Ah, the prom was pretty good... I spent the whole day getting ready. My SO arrived with flowers and a gift. It was very sweet. Of course, we took pictures, and drove to the grad dance. I felt like the only person not pulling up in a limo- but it was cool. Nothing beats arriving in a big purple van with a dream catcher hanging off the rear-view. Hehehehar. So we met up with my nerdy-table friends. The conversation was pretty good. Mary brought her friend from St. Ben’s. He was almost exactly like her! I can see how they got along so well. The food wasn’t as bad as last year, though they played elevator music through the entire dinner and we were right beside the speakers. Then there were speeches (they mentioned that poor dead girl again. Just let her rest in peace! If I had passed away, I wouldn’t want people dredging up bad memories on their grad. Anyway!) and the “nice ass” type of awards. Mary won three; shyest, nicest... and something else. Maybe Quiet. Anyhow, after that the dance itself started. At first the only people on the floor were our student council president, who looked like Marylin Manroe- she was wearing this tight, bright red dress, and kept doing the assy dance. With girls. Oh, did I mention Bonder won “best legs”? How they got that, nobody will ever know. (o_0) The rest of the awards were pretty fair. Well, as fair as “only popular people can win the decent awards” goes. Anyway- back to the dance. After they stopped playing rap, they cranked the volume up so high that my SO and I could hear it from the gazebo nearly a mile away. Eventually we went back due to bugs outside and danced a couple of times. “Girls Just Wanna have Fun” was one of the best. (^_~) Around 11:30pm limos started pulling up again to take people to the after party. So my SO and I went to get changed. Since the guy’s house was near ours, we walked to the party afterwards. It was the stupidest thing I’ve ever been to. It was in Vinay’s back yard... But apparently after Beck, Dan, me, and my SO left, the whole thing became a blast. That might be a lie, though, since I think Becky heard that from her friends, who reduced her to tears at the party itself by attempting to make her stay when she was tired, bored, cold, and just wanted to go home. So after they finally let her leave, we walked half way back to my SO’s house to give Dan and Becky a ride. We ran into Mary, who had also left due to the nut-suckage of the party, and she drove us to our van. Then my SO and I drove Beck and Dan to their house... And eventually I found my own way home. (^_^) All things considered, it was a pretty good night. I’m just sad Becky didn’t have the time of her life; but I think she expected way too much out of our little group of teens. I was prepared from last year’s grad.

June 7th: After a day of recuperation and spreading grad pictures all over the ‘net, I went back to school. Becky presented in Writer’s Craft, and so did one of her friends. They did Urban Legends and Horror Movies, respectively. I think Becky will get good marks, because unlike her friend, she actually knew the stuff and didn’t just read off a sheet. I know that gets a lot of extra points because I used to be one of those fact-readers until I figured out that was the cause of only semi-good oral presentation marks. After the class, Becky signed out and I hung around with her until her dad came to pick her up. I then went to the sparsely populated computer class, then home. My driving is finally all set up so I can get it over with before I leave. There was a problem because my instructor wouldn’t call me back. I called her twice, and she said she’d call me, but there was absolutely no communication for a week. That’s why I called the school itself, even if it meant talking to Maurice. After that not too much happened; I went out for dinner.

June 13th: My driving lesson today was insane! We passed almost every obstacle a new driver can imagine; we had to pick up Stacey’s little girl, so I navigated children and school buses. It was also rush-hour, which meant road construction and high traffic. But this is the real kicker- there was a car, on fire, in the middle of the road. Stacey didn’t know whether to tell me to plow through or back away. She was terrified it would explode. We went past, but later, I had to do the ‘off to the right’ thing because of the ambulance and fire trucks that came. Few. Crazy stuff. School isn’t that exciting. We presented the screen play proposals today, and my Writer’s Craft exam is on the 19th. I haven’t gone to programming lately due to extreme fatigue, but I’ve been told it hasn’t been eventful.

June 14th: Well, I had to go to the ministry today to update my health card so it would be accepted in Vancouver. Let me tell you, the government is totally stupid. My mother looked at their webpage because she couldn’t get any information from their automated ‘phone system, and found we needed a photo-ID, acceptance to the school (to prove that was my actual reason for going), and the old health card. We got there, picked up forms, and were promptly told that we also needed my birth certificate. Unfortunately, that was (and still is) with the passport people who needed it to issue me a pass. So, after returning home and filling out the papers they had given us in the mean time, we returned with my birth papers and name-change certificate. This made them completely confused. They thought I wanted my name change, and completely ignored it when I tried to explain that I had had my name changed for seven years already, and only needed a new health card. After that was sorted out, we gave permanent copies of my acceptance, and there was a long bout of pointless waiting (and I do mean pointless, since nobody was doing anything, only staring at me, but not calling my number). Eventually I was called, and had my picture taken for the photo-health card. The first time it didn’t turn out, but eventually they got it right, and get this- asked for a permanent copy of my acceptance to Vancouver Film School. I’m like “I just gave it to the lady that sits TWO booths away from you. ASK her for it.” For whatever reason this meant another ten minutes of waiting while they sorted themselves out, and finally, we were allowed to leave. I picked up something to eat, a new bag, and went home. I spent the rest of the day drinking Strawberry Daiquiris with my SO, and went out to dinner.

June 15th: I had to go to my relative’s house today to celebrate my aunt’s 70th birthday. I couldn’t believe that was her actual age; she doesn’t look a year over 45. The whole gathering was fairly uneventful, mostly with people cooing over this child that was there and asking me about Vancouver. After a while I escaped to go draw. The food was okay... The only really awful bit is the drive there and back, which I’m told is only an hour, but it feels much longer. Anyway, I got home, rang my SO then cleaned out my CG gallery (not that anybody’s going to notice). (^_^) I needed the space. Also, I had very little else to do since fanfiction.net is down for quite some time. Tomorrow is father’s day and I’m making dinner. Since I’m not done my dad’s gift yet, I’m giving him one of those patented “coming soon” cards that everybody cheeps out when they’ve been too busy to actually get things done. (-_-) Oh well, the final product will totally be worth it.

June 19th: Yesterday I went driving and we met up with baby ducks crossing the road, and a guy who rolled into the intersection when his truck stalled. Today we did highway driving, and we saw a transport truck that had creamed a road sigh. Funny, I get all the fun stuff. (o_0) I went to school only in the afternoon because it was the last day of class, and I had to be picked up for driving lessons at the school. Did I mention the caterpillars? They’re so gross! Oh my god! At one point I drove over a section of street that was so densely covered in them, that I could hear them popping as the tires squished them (>_<). ::Shudder:: In the school yard the cherry trees were crawling with them. I rethought going to sit under the trees after seeing the trunks wriggling... Anyway, computer class was a mad rush as everybody tried to get their programs done. I think my group did, and Christian and Eric got their program done. There was only one bug in it, but the teacher didn’t seem impressed. I don’t think it’s because she doesn’t like our programs, though- I think everybody went above her level of programming skill, so she’s just confused. Instead of seeing the insane number of lines that went into making the RPGs, she just sees a student-made game that looks a little off. ::Shrugs:: I’m not going to be there tomorrow for our team’s showing of the program because I have my Writer’s Craft exam. I hope we do well. Oh, and we have class tomorrow. Isn’t that stupid? Four short classes, and exams start in the afternoon... ::Cough:: ... Who exactly is going to be in class? What will they be teaching, exactly? Gosh, my time is better spent studying at home where it’s quiet and not +50°C.

June 22nd: On Monday I’m taking my final hour, so if I do well I’ll get my certificates. Since my dad is gone to Toronto, and my mom finally has the car, she’s been really nice about giving me extra lessons about stuff I didn’t learn, like parking in full lots and so forth. Yesterday we had dinner together and went shopping for suitcases; I also bought two hoodies and a nice bag. I’ve been shopping a lot lately. A couple of days ago, I think it was Thursday- I went with my SO.
Anyway, too bad I couldn’t go with my father to his conference, if I had I could have seen Heather, but I guess he was terribly busy. I didn’t even know he was going until the morning he left. (o_0) I was like “what’s going on?” and he’s like “I’m off to Toronto”. Not much else to tell, other than on the 19th I wrote my Writer’s Craft exam. It was fairly easy; we had three pieces to choose from, and on each of them (a different one every time) we had to do an analysis, a critique, and either a parody, a news article or something else I can’t remember. I did the parody on this poem about love by Margaret Attwood. It was like “Love is a word we use to fill space with”, but mine was about the Canadian word “Eh”, and ended with “You can ask somebody what it means, but nobody really knows”- which really worked well since the original first line was “You can hold on, or just let go”. Before the exam the principal told me that I had to make the school famous by mentioning it when I become a celebrity. I’m like “no pressure, though!”. Oh yeah, and you wouldn’t believe this, because I was away the morning of my exam (which was 4 short period classes- don’t ask me what they were going to teach or do since all the desks were moved to the exam hall), the school called to report me as away. The automated message says “A student in your household was away, please provide them with a note upon returning tomorrow morning”. But I’ve graduated. I’m not going back. ::Laughs:: Luckily I didn’t get a call yesterday.

July 5th: Well, I haven’t written in quite some time because, frankly, nothing has been going on! Other than people being generally snippy due to the heat, and my SO having fits every second day because I’m moving and they can’t seem to accept that... Well, things have been boring. I’ve drawn quite a bit, and I’ve been writing too. Hopefully I’ll get around to posting my fics when I finish them. I guess the highlight of the past few weeks has been talking to Libertine- who introduced me to Harry Potter through her Snitch series. (^_^) Gosh is that ever cool. When she first e-mailed me back, I called my SO, and I was not exactly coherent. I’m like “Libertine mailed me! Bwheehehe!”
SO: “Uh... So?”
Me: “It’s like God talking to you! I talked to God and she talked back!”
SO: “I see...”
Me: “And God’s cool!”
SO: “Can we talk about something else now?”
Me: “And God’s nice as well!”
SO: ::Sigh::
(^_^¿) Eheheh! Speaking of Harry Potter, though, I had the absolute weirdest dream last night; there was an HP play going on at my old school, and my friend from the past, Andrèa, was in it. She was playing Professor Snape (McGonagall and Dumbly were there too) -which was really odd- she looked the way she did in Grade 9... And was really nervous. That kind of makes sense because, when we were in grade 8, she was in a play and couldn’t get over stage fright. The stupid thing was I was the only person in the audience during the dream, oh, and Maggie was in it too. (o_0) But that makes sense as well, since she’s in drama.
Not much else to tell, other than I’ve been watching Buffy again. Woo... It’s very confusing. Oh, and I flip back and forth from that to Dragon Ball Z. Vegeta makes me ill to look at, but he’s still my favorite character. (^_^) Lyeheh!

July 10th: I actually slept pretty well, and didn’t feel any butterflies so to speak. I feel bad for not telling any of my friends the precise day that I was leaving, but near the end things got kind of kaffufled, plus I was afraid of how my SO would react. Anyway, we left for the airport at a quarter to six for our flight that was supposed to take off at 7:35. We said good-bye to dad, and went through security. It was very strange; they asked me to open my laptop and digital camera, and turn them on... I don’t know why? They did scan them, and if I really had stashed a weapon inside, it wouldn’t have stopped the thing from working. Oh well. The flight was delayed, and we were so scared we would miss our connection in Toronto. We even asked the stewardess what she would do, and she said “run”. So we did, and my mom nearly died, but we made it. There wasn’t any wait, at least. The flight was a continuation from Vancouver to Hong Kong, so you can imagine that most of the passengers were Chinese. So the flight attendant speech was trilingual; French, English and Chinese. It took five hours to get from Toronto to Vancouver, and the food was completely bad. We had this bread served to us -I called it “butt bread”- because that is exactly how it tasted. The rest of the meal was a tiny serving of sliced cold ham and cheese, some strange cake with gelatin on top, grapes, a grain bun, three noodles (honestly), one piece of lettuce, a smattering of chocolate, and one Alpine chocolate. The movie we watched was called John Q, and it was pretty boring. I thought it was too drawn out, and there wasn’t enough action. Afterwards there was a circus presentation aired... Well, that was after a big bout of showing the course of the plane, altitude and temperature over and over. To make things worse, there was a crying baby near us. What are the odds? Ugh. The bathrooms weren’t too bad. They had Herbal Essences Orange hand soap, which I found surprising. After feeling like I had been born on that stupid plane, we finally landed. Too bad it was 3am (Sudbury time), and everything was pitch black. The Vancouver airport was nice. It had statues of gods and descriptions of them, but sadly also a lot of native art. I didn’t take any pictures inside there, but I did take some on the plane and of the other jets taking off. The round-trip aircraft was huge. But there was an even bigger one that had landed from Asia; it was a double-decker plane. Anyway, after exiting the airport, we got a taxi by asking this guard to call one. I think that was his only point in his job, because he kept asking other people that were waiting around if they needed a cab. Oh, that’s one thing that really surprised me; there aren’t tons of people here! It’s a lot like Sudbury population-dispersion-wise. It’s a lot prettier though. Unlike our city, this one is green. I mean, really, really green. There are vines over every stone surface, huge trees, and generally very nicely laid out buildings. On our way to the hotel, we went past Queen Elizabeth Park, not that I could see it in the dark. Heh. The hotel was the SandMan, and it was less than desirable. It was hot. It was small. The pop machine didn’t work. And worst of all, there was this air conditioner that we had to leave on to survive, but it was deafening! We had to sleep with it on, and I think I only got 3 hours of sleep in total. The time shift (three hours) didn’t help much either, plus we stayed up until 5 o’clock Sudbury time (2 am here) waiting for pizza. We were absolutely starved, with nothing to eat because the hot was completely without any vending machines (except for soda and ice), and there was nothing around that was open for 10 blocks. Holy crap. That’s as bad as Sudbury. I figured Vancouver would be open all-night long. Anyway, we ended up calling a pizza joint the guy at the front desk recommended. He must have known the managers personally and wanted to give them business, because the pizza was terrible!!! It was burned, we asked for Diet Coke and got regular, and there was dried parmesan cheese all over the thing. Ew ew ew. It smelled so bad we stashed it in the bathtub so we wouldn’t have to smell it. What I saw of television was okay. We get UPN without cable. Hmmmm!

July 11th: Okay, I’ll talk completely in Vancouver time, now. We got up at 9:00am and picked up the keys to my apartment. Outside the hotel there was this really funny graffiti that read “ball has no sides”. We then went back to the hotel, picked up our bags, and went to the apartment itself. The cab fees here are awesome. A lot cheaper than in Sudbury, and the drivers are much more sane! My apartment is really nice. Small, but nice. There’s new carpet, a nice couch, two chairs and a tiny granite table. I have a small balcony as well, and it’s very homey. The overall color is white. I went for a walk while my mom unpacked to get us some basic stuff. The corner store near me is insanely expensive! I bought some conditioner, dish soap and a bottle of Coke, and it cost me $11! Ahh! I went to a deli to get lunch because I have no pots or a microwave to make anything. The deli was cute. Picture Subway, but with everything made methodically and slowly. The guy creating my sandwich looked so Zen while doing it, I didn’t have the heart to tell him to hold the tomatoes and cheese. I just picked them out when I got home. My boxes are supposedly arriving from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. right now it’s 1:00pm. I wonder how they’re going to get into the apartment? I have a key for the front door as well as my room. It seems fairly spacious here, and there’s a nice lounge. I only met one other tenant, and he was very nice. He let me out of the elevator first. I’m glad people here aren’t totally ass-big-city-ish. But I’m going to have to ask Adrienne for some basic Chinese, because 90% of the population are Asian (including all the merchants near me). They can’t understand me, and I can’t understand them. I tried to ask for an ashtray, and the guy thought I wanted Aspirin. I started making hand gestures, like “Putting out the cigarette” “smoking”. Finally he got the point, but didn’t sell any. Oh well. Right now I’m laying on my new bed typing on a 486 laptop. I can’t wait to get my new computer. Surfing with this thing is murder and a hatpin. There’s construction outside. Blegh. But I can hear the gulls (I’m right near the ocean) and birds, so I’m happy.

July 12th: My SO called me yesterday, and it went pretty well. Of course there’s a lot of sadness that I’m gone. I think my father is especially lonely.
Last night I slept well. Even though I have no AC and the city noise never really stops, I didn’t find it hard to fall asleep. We went to bed before eleven, so today we got up at nine o’clock. We then went shopping, looking for pillows. There wasn’t one linen store for miles! Instead I finally got my television and computer. The T.V. is arriving later today, and the computer (a laptop) should be in by tomorrow. The guys at the store were thrilled that we spent so much money. I took it as a good sign when Harry Potter was playing on their demo televisions. Oh! And the older guy that was there loved Harry! I bought an HP mouse pad, and we started talking about the DVD. I told him how to find the extras. Both guys there knew people who had been in the animation program and loved it.
When we were walking, we found this one mall that had nearly nothing in it but food courts. My mom said she didn’t think it was possible, but she’s getting tired of smelling so many different foods. Speaking of which, last night I went to Mr. Sushi. It was really good, though my mom hated it. It might be because normal people find it “too spicy”. Hee hee. I have notoriously dead taste-buds. While walking I saw a place that needed English teachers, and would give free Japanese lessons in return. I’m going to look into it if it doesn’t take too much time. It would be nice to know at least one of the languages spoken here (other than English). Nearly nobody speaks French. Last night I finished unpacking. The only box I have left is the one with my jewelry box in it, which I can’t put anywhere yet because I have no tables. ::Yawn:: It’s really lazy here. I don’t find it too warm. It’s just right, and there’s a pleasant buzz. I like my apartment more and more.

July 13th: Yesterday we waited around all day for the cable guy, and he never showed. I called three times. Once to ask where he was at five o’clock (he was supposed to appear between 12 and 5), another time to ask if the actual connector would be supplied since I didn’t have one, and then the last time to ask again where the hell he was (at 7 o’clock). Shaw then told me he had already been there, but didn’t need to contact me. So I had cable, I had a television, but I didn’t have a cord to connect the two. Remember how I said everything closes at five? Yeah. I was extremely lucky that it was Friday and Radio Shack was open late. I got a cord and everything’s A-OK, even though I still don’t have a table for my television so it’s kind of hard on the neck. Oh, more bad news concerning my lap top; they didn’t have it in stock, and the other ones they offered were crap. So I’m waiting until Monday to know if the one I want can be shipped from the States. If it can, it’ll be here in a week, if not, I’m going to have to settle for another computer. Anyway, we keep running into utensil and appliance shortage problems. Like my mom bought herself coffee and filters, but we had no can opener... I had no kettle to make ramen, and we ordered Chinese food, but had no forks and knives to eat it with. Oh, the Chinese food here is a lot different than in Sudbury. It’s kind of worse... Though I liked the chow mien better. With the problems of not having household items in mind, we went shopping at the Metro Mall today. It’s in Burnaby (the next district over from mine). It’s about a twenty minute drive by taxi (meaning going way over the speed limit), but it was the only place that actually had stores and a Zellers. We bought everything I needed: dishes, knives, forks, spoons, can opener, kettle, bathroom rugs, pillows, shower curtain, and so much more. When we got back, we went grocery shopping because it was getting expensive living on deli foods. I also sent flowers to my land lord. Hee hee. I’m such a brown-noser. While we were in the mall, I saw a whole shop devoted to the cute kid-anime like Hamutaro, Keropi, Hello Kitty, Tare Panda, and so forth. They had everything with these little guys on them. I didn’t want to buy any, though, even though it was very tempting. I’m saving my money for when I find real anime. There was one store that sold a few DVDs, but it was mainly a music store. The had half Chinese pop and half J-pop. I was going to buy the full Sakura sound track, but meh... The coolest place was this Japanese dish ware shop. They had everything! Tea mugs, dipping plates, ornamental hashi, and the lucky kitty! Very very cool. In a dried goods store I found Pocky snacks as well.
Just a point of interest, all the strict regulations that were put on this place are totally untrue:
1. There is to be nothing hanging, suspended, or cluttering one’s balcony.
Everybody has crap on their balcony. They have clothes lines, flowers, trees, chairs, piles of boxes, it looks like one guy has a fridge...

2. No holes are to be made in the walls or woodwork.
My place is full of tiny holes and hooks. Why would I need to make any?

3. The curtains are to be cleaned once a year.
No, they haven’t. I can vouch for that by the grime layer on them.

4. There are to be no pets in the apartment complex.
Hee hee! This one’s funny. At first I thought it was okay to have little birds, fish, and lizards. I saw a guy with an iguana when I was out in the lobby waiting for the cable guy (when we still thought if one person was on the ‘phone, we couldn’t hear the door buzzer. But we can. Oh, and the guy who told us the number to press to get the door open was 9 is a jackass. It’s 6). Anyway, I grinned at him because -well- he had a lizard! He just looked all snooty. Whatever. But this is the kicker- nearly everybody has dogs! At first I thought they had received special permission because they were all tiny dogs, but on my way back into my room after the cable guy didn’t show up (or so I thought at the time), I saw this huge white dog being walked down the hall by a lady. And she was definitely a tenant because she was using the garbage room. Not only that, but this morning, there was an abandoned dog barking out in the park behind my balcony. Er- so much for the rules.

July 14th: Today was Sunday, and even though we thought all the stores would be closed, we went furniture shopping anyway. Actually, everything was open today, except they only let people in at 12:00pm. Since we get up so early lately, this meant waiting around pointlessly. Everything was so expensive. I see why people totally freak out at the cost of living here. It really is enormous. I didn’t buy anything.

July 15th: I’ve finally learned my ‘phone number! Even though everywhere in this city you have to dial the area code... Which is strange and adds three of the same digits to every number. Today we woke up around 10:00am and went furniture shopping. I got a really nice cherry wood desk and night stand which were delivered today. Then we went and picked up a little rolling television table, which I carried home from halfway down Davie. Ow. Before that I went to Radioshack and found out the computer I wanted was discontinued. Unfortunately I had to spend another five hundred dollars, but I got a kick ass laptop. It’ll be in on Thursday. Not much else happened today, other than the plumber coming to fix my taps, and me arranging furniture. Hm. Oh! Some guy came up to me when I was going to buy the television shelf, and started talking to me. I gave him two bucks, because he was nice and starving. Not to mention I really wanted him to go away. I haven’t really been bothered by any other homeless people. Maybe I just have that I-have-no-cash look. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised. It might be the hair.

July 16th: We rode the buses today. Seriously, that’s all we did. The problem in this city is, there’s no city bus depot. But we asked for it anyway. People kept telling us to go to Main street. So, we took the bus, then the sky train, and ended up in Main, which is way far from where I live. There we were pointed to this big gray building that was surrounded by construction fences. After much walking we found a way in, only to discover that this wasn’t the city bus depot, but the Trans-Canada lines, that take people out of province. Out of desperation we asked one of the attendants there where the *city* bus depot was. They informed us that Vancouver didn’t have one. Ohh-kay! I guess it wasn’t too much of a loss, though. I found out the sky train is just like a bullet train. I expected it to be one of those really slow air-born tourist things, but it’s really a subway that you take to get to the neighboring districts like New Westminster and Surrey. After sorting that out I went to my school by bus, which was fine. Everything seems to be in order, and VFS is so ritzy! My school is all marble and brass! Oooo.... (^_^) Hee hee! Then it was time to go back home. My mom figured that taking the same bus would be cool because it would make a full circle. I’m like “that or hit the end of the line and drop us off in Cracktown”- Simpsons reference. It actually did hit end of the line, but there was another bus there that eventually took as home. And I mean eventually. We spent two hours on the bus and saw the entire center of the city. We were also told that to get a bus pass or a schedule, you had to buy them at the local 7eleven. ?? Uh, yeah. I went there and they didn’t have passes. Apparently they’re only given out the last week of every month, and there’s a new bus schedule each month as well. I really hope this doesn’t mean the actual bus routs change. Argh. That would totally kill me.

July 17th: I’m going to be in an episode of some cop show. Yup, while shopping, this guy waves me through, but warns me that it’ll be background for the series. I’m like “okay”. It wasn’t anything special, and since I didn’t know the show, I saw no actors. The only annoying thing was that it got really crowded, since the streets usually aren’t very bustling. After shopping I really needed to buy myself a calendar, but the only ones left were pin-ups. I bought one anyway and got a discount for some reason. (o_0;) Later today I’m just going to do laundry, then ride the bus again to make sure I’ve everything sorted out. I can’t wait until tomorrow afternoon... Laptop laptop! Har har har!!!

July 18th: I got my laptop yesterday! It’s totally awesome, but unfortunately has no 3 ½ drive. I had to run back and forth from RadioShack nearly a dozen times to get everything I needed. I kept forgetting things. And I’m still not completely done setting things up, but at least I have internet access. I can’t seem to get my FTP agent to work. Annoying. (>_<) I spent all last night playing with it. Today I haven’t had too much time, but that’s because I had to sort out my bus schedule and go back to school to pay the rest of my tuition. I also took out a loan at the bank and did my laundry. On Saturday I’m going to see my old friend Nancy. She used to serve us at Caswell for the Friday night dinners. She lives on The Island, so my mum and I will be on a three hour ferry ride there, and another one back. I’ll try and take a lot of pictures, since it’ll be the best view of the ocean I’ve had so far.

July 19th: Today we went to Science World, which was basically Science North, but a lot more boring. The extent of their live animals were bees, assorted insects, and one sleeping snake. There were pelts and a stuffed beaver, though… Which was kind of creepy, especially since the beaver was stuffed in an up-right position like it was about to lunge. (o_0) The most interesting bit was when we went outside to see what there was to see, and looked at sea gulls in the bay. There were barnacles over everything that was even close to the water. We had a nice view of the mountains as well. Unfortunately the stupid entrance stamp still won’t come off my hand. ::Scrub::
After that, disappointed it was so stupid, we thought about going to some other sites. Nothing sounded promising except for an aquarium that was two cities over, so shopping ended up being what we chose. The problem was, the stuff left on the list was hardware, and all the home stores are on East Georgia. In theory, getting on the West Georgia bus, and keeping on the line, would eventually lead to the East side because it’s all one street. Well, no. After riding in heavy traffic for nearly two hours, we ended up in West Vancouver, and we went to the Royal Park mall. Luckily, what we were after was there, so the shopping list is nearly done regardless of taking the wrong bus. We also got to see Stanley Park, a great view of the ocean, and a really close-up spot to the mountains. The only annoying thing was, this was the rich part of town; bungalows built all the way up the hill, everybody was an asshole, and traffic like you would never believe. I guess that’s what happens when mom, dad, and both children all have cars, which they all separately drive back from work. (9_9)

July 20th: We got up at seven AM, and rushed out to take the bus and sky train to the coach station. Eventually this brought us to the ferry depot, where the bus was loaded and we were allowed to get off. Since I hadn’t had time eat yet, I got one measly piece of chocolate cake that I had to wait in line for nearly half an hour to get. After eating I went out to the upper deck. It was really a beautiful view, though it looked a lot like my camp. There were little peninsulas of land, rocks jutting out of the water (it was green-brown), and tons of pine trees. We had been told that earlier cruises had seen killer whales. We didn’t see anything until the return trip; then we saw seals. They were the little brown ones, and really hard to see from so far up. At first my mom thought it was a turtle… Anyway, this morning, after the ferry ride, we met up with my friend Nancy. She had warned us her knew hubby was hideously ugly- but he totally wasn’t. I think her stuck up friends made her think that, because if she hadn’t mentioned his teeth, I would never have noticed. Oh well, I guess it’s her choice to hang out with such a superficial crowd- except for the guy himself, of course. He was really nice, quiet, and was very rich. He owned a couple dozen apartment buildings, and talked Nancy into buying her own. So now she has a cute little apartment block in which she also lives. Her cats were good and well. Tsuzi and Tsindi, I think their names were. Cute little Siamese kitties. =(^_^)= After talking with Nancy for a while, the three of us decided to go shopping. She bought me a cell phone! Holy cow. It’s a nice little Nokia handset. Unfortunately signing it on and so forth took so long we were nearly late for our coach back to the ferry! My mom had to run and buy return tickets, but we made it, and the bus was hugely packed. When we got onto the ferry again, on the way back this time, we had a little dinner and sat around on the upper deck enjoying the sunset until we needed to get back onto the bus. We didn’t have to do this the first time because Nancy and Gary picked us up right off the boat, so we were new to the whole “wait for the driver at 7:30pm in the hold”. It was so gross! Our driver took forever to show up, and the bus was parked right beside horses. They smelled *so* bad. (>_<) Then we spent two more hours on the coach, sky train, and bus. I’m so tired right now it’s not even funny. ::Dies:: Oh, but Victoria, the island, was really nice. We saw the Olympia mountains and the range with St. Helen’s in it. The city itself is beautiful and very high-class. It was much more different than downtown here. I also found the drive there much more homey. There were wildflowers and everything. (.-_-.) Makes me miss Sudbury. The island was really hot, though. A lot more warm than here.

July 22nd: Yesterday I bought a houseplant, and today I walked halfway across Vantown to buy an external 3 ½ drive. Everything works just fine. (^_^)
My course started today, and it didn’t go overly well. First I arrived at the main building, and the guard tells me it’s in a completely different place. He keeps pointing down the road, saying the new studio is down there, but I still knew I’d get completely lost. Luckily there was this nice Chinese guy who walked with me all the way, and sat and talked with me while we were waiting. He said his “English name” was James. Huh… Anyway, he told me he came from a place with lots of crime and drugs- I’m like, “here”? Hahah. No, seriously though then the rest of the class came in. James told them it was really a tough course and everybody starts doing pot halfway through to relax. We had students going into 2D and 3D animation and one split. She sat beside me, and her name was Kyla. She used to be a nurse, but didn’t like seeing people die. Aww! (^_^);; The guy who sat behind me -I forget his name- used to work for Microsoft. He was also really cool. The instructor was late, so for the first fifteen minute of class everybody talked. Well, I did a lot of the talking, and people jumped in when they got over their shyness. (^_^) Kyla was also very talkative. The instructor arrived and handed out the equipment packages and explained what each tool was for. He had a British accent and used Brit-lingo which made me constantly think of Harry Potter. (^_^);; So he taught about 1 and 2 point perspective, vanishing points, and how to calculate height in reference to the base triangle’s dimensions. Oooh, fun stuff. (^_~) But honestly I was glad for the refresher, and some of it actually was new to me. I made a couple of mistakes, which the prof said he’d berate me for, but never did. It was kind of embarrassing how my stomach kept growling, though- but I was starving. I guess they really know about the “starving artist” now. Anyway, class ran 20 minutes over time, so I gave my mom a call on my cel. She seemed relieved, yet worried. I was completely disoriented when I got outside, since it was night and very dark. I went the wrong way, and ended up on West Hastings -worst part of town. I was still on the ’phone, though, so that deterred some homeless guy that started approaching me (since you can’t really see the ’phone when I’m on it, so it looks like I’m gibbering to myself). Luckily, I turned around and ran right into my instructor, who redirected me to the bus stop. God bless him. ::Breath:: After that I huddled into my hoodie until the bus came. I was still on the cell, and my hood was up, and I was clutching the bag with my art supplies in it. I must have looked really psychotic, because this old track marked crack-whore who walked by asked me “Are you all right, hon?”. Hahah. I said yes. Eventually the bus came, and I made it home. My mom was relieved, but right pissed off at the school for moving me around when we took the time to arrive here in BC early, just to *learn* the freaking bus routs. (9_9) Oh well, hopefully it’ll go better tomorrow. It’s back in the normal building. ::Sigh:: Unfortunately I have class on Saturday from 8:30am to 5:30pm. Bwee!

July 23rd: Today was busy! I got up, did my homework, read over the course booklet, took a shower, and went grocery shopping. I got home and ate, then left for school. Today it went a lot better than yesterday. I felt much less lost! Happily we did gesture drawings, which I knew all about. I’ll have to call Mrs. Cantwell and send my lurve! She taught me all I know. (^_~) Anyway, we had alive nude male model. He wasn’t completely hideous, but one starts to notice a person’s flaws after drawing them repeatedly for three hours. Not to mention he kept having to make “interesting” positions for our class. I can sum up the whole experience in one word: dangly. People were shy to draw his groin, though- except me. I guess that comes with the territory of “yaoi fan girl”, huh? Oh well, eventually the instructor told people to leave space where his willy should be. Hah ahah! (^_^) I had a nice conversation with my fellow classmates. Again I’ve made friends with more guys than girls. Ehar. (^_^);; Of course, I got home safely.

July 24th: This morning I went shopping, and investigated the new campus that class was held in tonight. Depending on the night, we have three different locations for class. The lesson itself went very well for me. We were doing prop drawing, which was basically still life pieces with a little less time given. I was complimented for knowing intrinsically to put a drop-shadow to make the drawing look more grounded. (^_^) Yay. Trent (the professor) also asked me if I painted. He could tell by the way I played with values. I feel a lot better since the first class kind of put me off -I really don’t like using a ruler and being all mathematical about my art. But I guess I have to. Oh well. ::Sigh:: Kyla and I got into a strange discussion about Smurf porn, which I found so funny. (^_^);; But most of the class Mathew and I ranted about computers. We’re like the two nerdy people in the class- hee hee! On my way home I had a pretty lengthy anime discussion with James while waiting for my bus. (*_*) It’s so spiffy to find another anime fan! He also mentioned a foreign bookstore where un-translated manga were sold. ::Big grin:: I’m so going to investigate that. Unfortunately it’s on West Hastings. Maybe I can rope him in to coming with me.

July 25th: I’m #1 on the Yaoi Top 50 list! Thank you to all my fans! (^_^) Hugs and kisses to all of you that voted.
Other than that, today was pretty bland. I played about on the computer until it was time for class. We were supposed to start with a new teacher, Lil, but she wasn’t there. Unfortunately we had a woman who was really axed on skeletal positions, which made drawing a bit choppy. She emphasized flow- that the axis line and gesture bit of the portrait should, but then she starts adding things that weren’t there on the model, just because they “should” be put into a portrait (like clavicals and shoulder blades, and all those things that don’t show when the model isn’t bone-thin). It wasn’t too bad, though. James seemed to have more of a problem with her than I did, but he already has a style of drawing (a really good one too -_-;), while I don’t really, so I’ll just follow along with what the teachers say and eventually piece together the techniques I like into a way I’m comfortable with. (^_^)
Problems with my provider keep on going… I still can’t access my site! I’ve been told by Blue zebra (my .com people) that I should talk to my ISP because the problem is definitely on my end. I’ll give them a call tomorrow. ::Sigh::
Oh yes, in life drawing we had a female model this time. She seemed a lot less zealous than the guy. He was all active, using props, moving around, she just kind of … Tilted. Tilted the hips, move the arm. She sat down I think two times. ::Shakes head:: She also started talking to us near the end, asking if anybody could give her a lift to Burnaby. (o_0) Professionalism? Where are you? She was also afraid to wait for her bus alone, so she got some of the class to stay with her. ::Crosses arms:: Now that’s just unfair. I have to *walk* to my bus stop and wait there for nearly half an hour EVERY DAY, and she gets all whiny over one little night. Plus I’m attractive. I’m more likely to be attacked. ::Rolls eyes::
Oh yeah! James told me that VFS has a resource room that features anime tapes. ::Maniacle laughter:: We all know where I’ll be found from now on. (^_~)

July 27th: I went to bed at 3am and got up at 6am… Due to a giraffe obsession. Well, I didn’t get UP because of it. Anyway, class was eight hours long today. From 8:30am to 5:00pm. Grueling, to say the least. I felt a little sick in the morning which didn’t help affairs. (>_<) The class itself was fine, though. For the first bit we had theory until the model arrived. She was not overly zealous, but she made facial expressions with every pose. ::Nods:: Hmm. By the time lunch arrived (Kyla, James, Me, Matthew, Jessica and... argh, I forget who else went... to a Korean place) my back was thrown completely out of whack from the sketching tables. ::Dies several times over:: Luckily after a bit more theory we got go outside and sketch trees… In a park full of homeless people and crack heads. It was very distracting, but I did manage to draw one tree despite the jokes of taking pictures Matthew and I kept making. He had this pocket scheduler thing that also took pictures (it didn’t even look like a camera). Very sneaky Mac user. Ahahah. (^_~) Due to the early departure, I wasn’t sold into slavery. The bus ride home was uneventful!!! YAY!

July 29th: Well, the Indy Races, Light Festival, and something to do with fireworks all passed by without me going! ::Beams with pride:: Today I got up early to rush and get a bus pass- only to discover they come out *tomorrow*. Freaking … Arg! So I did some grocery shopping then went to class. Apparently my perspective homework was wrong (>_<) Ahhh! I don’t get this stuff at all, and even though I’m lost, we moved on to grids, which are the most bastardly art platform of all! And for assignment we have to draw something on each perspective grid -the suggestion was Titanic. ::Beat:: … Yes.
And in closing, - Reference triangle my butt!!!
PS: Since Matt thinks I’ll mention him, I should say he gets changing height of perspective, so he can roast in the briny sea.

July 31st: Today is the fireworks festival (different countries put on shows and blast music to compete), and everybody is nuts. I just got home. At first I was going to go, since James said he had a place just us art students could watch from. Unfortunately that didn’t pan out, and I really didn’t feel like standing around in vast crowds of people, and trust me *vast* is the right word. Just as I left my classmates, my bus drove by. I’m like “Oh god, I should really catch it”, so I ran a bit, and after some banging on the door, he let me in. It was absolutely *packed*. There was no more room, all the seats were taken and the isles were full of people. It was so bad that the driver had to skip some stops (much to the chagrin of the people trying to get someplace). I was really glad I made the effort to catch the bus at that point. Also I got to stand right next to this really cute Japanese girl in a kimono. Awww! (^_^) Anyway, the bus was taking a different rout, so I had to get off far away from my house. It didn’t really matter, though, since the streets (even where I live, not too close to where the festivities were) were absolutely packed! Tons of people, just streaming toward English Bay. Like I said- nuts. I’ll have to ask everybody how it went when I go to class tomorrow. The booms of the fireworks are making dogs bark all over. Plus people are honking and screaming at each other like we were downtown New York. (>_<)
In other, less eventful news, I went grocery shopping and did the laundry. ::Nods::

August 1st: Today I scoured the city for a good Japanese store- I walked all the way down Robson, and spent two hours on foot looking into each shop (One was called "Fcuk". Hahaah. Oh my. I’ll have to take a picture) I finally found one, but was way too shy to buy anything. Not to mention I felt *so* out of place. I was the only non-oriental person in the store. (>_<) But I’m going back with Jessica tomorrow- hopefully that’ll make me more brave. Hee hee. We finally had Lil as a teacher today, and she was really good. She showed us some of the production art from “Something Else”, an animation show she’s been working on for the past few years. It was so crazy- the style reminded me of doctor Seuss, and it was just ornate. Honestly. Detail, detail…
On my way home I scared some guy… I was leaning against this trash bin so people wouldn’t bother me, and he came from the other side, didn’t see me I guess- But I saw his shadow, so I move my bag before he steped on it, and he’s like “AH! Geez…” then kept going. (^_^)
It smells like a skunk outside my apartment. Eww... (>_<)

August 3rd: Yesterday I went shopping with Jessica; we both bought candy (really gross gum) and discovered those cool Japanese books were mostly novels and really old school manga. Then we went to ABC Comics, and ate pizza. (^_^) It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I missed out going to Granville island with Kyla to buy art supplies. She said it was wise of me, though, since they got lost and walked for miles, only to discover there was an aqua-bus that would have saved them all but five minutes of a journey. (^_^) hee hee.
Today was the horrific 8am-5pm day. Gah. Luckily Giddian is so funny. I had trouble stopping laughing at some of his jokes. We spent the whole time discussing Color Theory. It was actually pretty interesting. For the last bit of class, we watched this movie called “Bagdad Café” (actual spelling). It wasn’t exceptional, and reminded me a lot of Monster’s Ball (less plot, more character focus), but it had an exceptional soundtrack. I actually downloaded Calling You by Jevetta Steele, thanks to A who was lovely enough to find it and DSL it. (^_^)

August 5th: I started out the day by going to Opus Paints on Granville Island. Getting there was fairly easy; I got three canvases, basic acrylics, and sealant. There was an amazing selection! Anyway, after paying, I called a cab to get back on the mainland. I waited for nearly half an hour, and the guy didn’t show up. So the girls who were at the front desk told me to call again. I did, and the taxi receptionist wasn’t exactly encouraging, she says “Well, there’s a lot of traffic. I’ll see what I can do.” Ah, yeah… (>_<) Apparently she couldn’t do too much because after fifteen more minutes, the front desk girl just told me to walk to the nearest market and find a cab that was already there. I used my womanly wiles to get this idle cab. (^_~) The driver was this insanely wacky German guy. He kept calling me a beautiful lady, and saying that he and I made a great team, and that he was nothing without me. Hahah… (o_0) Oh my. The traffic really was nuts, though; it was the pride parade, and my normally fairly quiet street was absolutely packed with people!
After settling in, I started painting for a bit, then went online and wrote the funniest collaborative story with Libertine. (Hot dog!!!) I’ll have to post it when I get a free minute.

August 8th: There was some music show going on in the park today. We could hear it from our class. Today Lil was teaching us, and it was another study of structure. We also did portraits, which is really hard. She said she liked mine, and only corrected it on eye position. Apparently it had ‘character’. Hee hee. I’ve always hated drawing portraits anyway, since people get offended when they see it.
When I was waiting for the bus, this weird guy tried to sell me a wooden flower for a cent, and then started throwing lame come-ons at me. He left after I told him to go find a crackwhore down the road. When I got home the most disgusting thing was in my ice cube tray: A silverfish. I always thought it would be cool when I first saw one, but it’s not.

August 10th: Today was an arduous death-day, all of which I spent at school; I am so dead tired right now. The class wasn’t too bad, though. It was life drawing with Trent. We had some theology, then the nude model (he was freaky, and looked exactly as I imagined Sirius would. I kept sniggering to myself, remembering the doggy luv fic. Heh heh.). Afterward there was a personal evaluation, where Trent saw us individually, and showed the progress of our work, from various pieces he’d collected from the classes we’ve had so far. I’ve hit a plateau in my skill, so I’m going to listen to his recommendation and buy an anatomy book that features hands and feet, which I need to improve.
Oh yeah, I went to class all gothed out today. (^_^) Hee hee. Everybody was complimentary- after they recognized me, that is. It was nice to be back to normal, too bad I can’t do it more often (when I go home late and have to walk the worse part of town).
Oh, and the painting I’m working on to pretty up the ol’ apartment is going along just fine. I’m about ¾ done now.

August 11th: Today was shopping-laundry day. I bought some art textbooks and also this really funny Harry Potter parody called Barry Trotter by Michael Gerber. Honestly, you should all go buy it right now, even if you liked the original series… Well, maybe not if your favorite character is Ron, though. ::Snigger:: Everybody gets a little beating-on, though. Here’s one of my favorite bits:
Barry made sure he and Lon stayed far away from the infamous Buggering Birch. Whenever anyone would stray too close, this loathsome plant would reach out and- no, it’s just too disgusting to describe.
::Laughing so hard:: I read most of it while I was doing my laundry. (^_^)

August 12th: Perspective class was actually not very painful. I think I finally understand the concept of the grids- I just had to fine tune it a bit. I didn’t know that on the triangle base, the grid including the horizon line only had 3 intersecting points; the midline, and the two ORs. Now that I know that my grids will be more precise, so I’m glad. Unfortunately I still suck ass at perspective itself… “Nothing outside the base, distortion happens. Nothing outside the base, distortion happens.” I actually should have to write lines, but who cares… (^_^) I made Matt look good. Hahaha. Oh man, and after mocking him so thoroughly too. I think it’s poetic justice (^_~).

August 15th: Well, I went to the bank and bought Coke today, as well as paying my ‘phone bill. Nothing terribly eventful happened… I only have one more element left to add to my painting. Oh, while I was waiting for the bus, there was some biker laying on the side of the road with the other cyclists around her. Police and eventually an ambulance arrived- There was no blood or gore, though. They were just kind of sitting there. Maybe it was internal injuries- or overreacting.
In class we watched a movie called “Royal Tanenbaums” or something of the sort. It was actually very funny. That was our last composition class, and most of it was spent watching the film. The last bit we were assigned the final piece, and Trent told us a little about the ropes of animation; what work-load to expect, the kind of pay, and how certain dynamics work. I thought it was all kind of sad. (.-_-.)

August 16th: I met up with Jessica and Kyla today to go anime shopping. I bought Gravitation and Tokyo Babylon. We spent the day together shopping around. I also got Adrienne’s birthday present (^_^). We had our last class with Lil today. Matthew actually showed up (he skipped all her other lessons). She was slightly confused by his presence. Haha. (>_<)
For the last bit of class we did portraiture and expressions. They were impossible to do. The model seemed to have problems holding the expressions too- I think maybe she’d never been asked to do that before because she peeked over Jessica’s page to see. She’s never done that before -we had this model previously- actually none of them have; except the lazy lady who just tilted her hips for each pose. That was on “torso day”. Oh man. The first lesson with Lil (she was away, though, so we had a sub). At any rate, it was a good last life drawing lesson. Tomorrow is usually a day off, but I have to go anyway to make up for the perspective class with Giddian that we missed due to a national holiday. Then there’s torture-Saturday, and orientation on Monday. ::Wipes brow:: Few.
On my way home some lady warned me about “rent-a-pigs”… There were security guards milling about, which I found encouraging since people were very drunk and at large tonight. Actually, later, one of the guards came up to me and asked where the nearest sky train station was. I told him Stadium. ::Shrugs:: I also got to talk to the guy I bought my wig from. He was outside the shop, and didn’t recognize me at first- I had my hoodie on, so I don’t blame him. We talked a bit and exchanged life drawing stories. He had to take some for fashion school.

August 16th: ::Laughing so hard:: I was on my way home from school, but the bus was 30 minutes late because the ticket machine was broken. We had another 10 minute wait while some tech tried to fix it (and failed), then the bus jerked forward, and some old lady "got hurt". She was such a crotchety old thing! It’s not like she was even that hurt, but she was screaming and freaking out. She kept saying "You have to keep seated while the bus is moving!" And calling the guy who fell into her "a big man". The guy was so humiliated he got off the bus. Everybody followed because she requested an ambulance, so the bus couldn't continue. I ended up walking home.
In school things weren’t so eventful except for Giddian making really funny jokes about Lord of the Rings. He said Legolas set of his "Gaydar". Hahaha (>_<). It was the make-up class for perspective, so there were stage people in our usual classroom. I wasn’t sure that anybody else would show up since I was first to arrive, but eventually Matt and the rest came and we got started. Tomorrow is the very last class so we’re going to go have dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Gastown (this really ritzy place that’s all cobblestone roads and whatnot. Funny thing is, you walk two blocks down from that and it’s a dive that you don’t even want to walk in broad daylight).
I found another silverfish today. That’s number four. I’m starting to take a liking to the little guys. Not that I’m going to stop squishing them or anything…

August 17th: Today was the last day of class (-_-). In the lesson itself we did a color theory review and watched Mulan, The Emperor’s New Groove, and some of Hercules. Giddian also told us he had amnesia after a car accident… Which brought on a lengthy discussion about the true self and what that means. I really wanted to argue more intelligently, but I couldn’t remember enough of what my father taught me. I really wished he was there and was tempted to call him and be like “argue for me! Tell the prof about the brain and how it actually works!”… Though I must admit Giddian did have some interesting ideas. I don’t suppose anything is actually wrong or right when it comes to something as philosophical as “who are we and what makes us ‘us’”. Earlier, before class started, we (the students) got into an argument about which Disney characters had nipples. James said Tarzan was the first to have one- but we proved him wrong. I don’t even know who had the first… At any rate he heard it on a special about the feature, so I think Disney is more inept than I had given them credit.
After class everybody went out to have a drink at Honey’s. I got to meet the girlfriends of Christian, James and Matt. They were all really nice ladies. (^_^) Our two teachers, Trent and Giddian were there too, and bought the first round (though I didn’t drink at all -not even Coke. I felt guilty for having an instructor buying me something). I did eat corn chips off of Christian’s plate, though, and stole a good bit of Devin’s pop. Hahah- I’m such a moocher. Afterward the people with significant others trickled off, and the only people that ended up going to the Spaghetti Factory dinner were Kyla, me, Jessica and Oscar. I’m glad Jess came since she’s not going on to study with us full time until the next starting term (-_-). Christian is also leaving- he’s going back to Japan. That is just so cool…
I got home and watched TV for a while before getting off to bed. I was wiped.

August 19th: Well, orientation wasn’t so bad. Today was the first day, and next week we have two more days of it. They all start out with a convergence at Tinsel town Theater, then each program separates out to specific information sessions.
Anyway, getting up early was hard- but luckily the first bit was just movie-watching. Some of the other stuff was… weird. Especially new media. I’m glad I didn’t go into that, and the film people totally got gypped. After only about thirty minutes of actual information in the theater (before that we had our ID tag pics taken and filled out questionnaires) James, Kyla, Matt, Devin and I went to have some lunch. It was three hours until we had to split up and go to the next information session. When we finally did nothing extravagant happened. We met a few of the profs and they discussed the rules and where we would be. We’re class 45! Yay! (^_^) Kyla and I are meeting early next Monday so we can grab good animation stations. Heh heh. (^_^)
And Matt gave me a ride home- kick ass. He owed it to me after lying about the walk-length to that restaurant. ::Grumbles:: (>_<) Why does everybody do that? Is it because I’ll refuse to walk anywhere that involves more than five minutes of transit? … Seven minute walk my butt. Arg- ooh! DBZ is on... ::Wanders off::

August 20th: After being awaken at 11am by a live band playing in Anchor Square (right below my window, seven stories down), I got up and went to investigate. I saw the people playing, and they weren’t anything special. They had attracted a tiny crowd, which looked mostly like annoyed tenants. Actually some guy shouted “Turn that shit off!” while I was getting dressed. LoL! They were playing a bunch of songs by various bands… Like “Wonder Wall” and “I’m a Believer”. I lost interest and meandered to Sunset Beach, then thought I’d be a sight-seer and take pictures. So I returned for my camera and spent a good part of the day just hanging about snapping photos.

August 21st: I met saints today- honestly. I went out to get my supply of Diet Coke, and came back to the apartment with six cases in a buggy. Of course, the elevator was broken, and I was stranded seven floors away from where I lived, with a ton of pop. Then these two guys came to the door (I had to let them in, they had their hands full of lunch). So we traded, and they both carried my buggy all the way upstairs. I thanked them profusely, and we agreed all ill-karma they might have carried was definitely wiped out. (^_^)
I also got the cutest gift from my father today- it’s a little rat plushie. He’s just so adorable. Oh, and my mum sent me door handles- okay, that sounded bad, but I’m glad to get those too because I didn’t have them before. (o_@)
I gave my painting a coat of glaze, and started my new one too… That’s about all the news I have, though.

August 22nd: AHHHHHHHHHRGH! Okay, we all know I think most women’s rights is a pile of crap, right? Right. So let’s not think I’m a feminist when I say this about the “ultimate man-house” I saw on television. Apparently it was a kind of charity to raise funds for prostate-cancer awareness, which is just great by me. The problem was, everything in the house was stuff *I* would want in *my* dream house. Black leather couches, DVD/VHS/etc fully wired living room, a laptop in the bedroom, study, den, and a TV in the bathroom. There were a bunch of other specs too, and other than the urinal they insisted on having, I don’t think there’s one thing I wouldn’t have used. ::Eyetwitch:: Freaking... Argh. ::Cradles remote protectively:: GRRRRRR!

August 23rd: I got together with Kyla and her boy Mike today to go get paint on Granville island. It was a lot of fun; we ended up walking back around Yale town (after a freaky sea bus ride) and having dinner. Afterward we gave Mike a quick tour of the school, during which we saw a hooker! (Oooh. Ahhh.) Heh heh. Seriously though, it was a really relaxing day, despite all the walking. Beforehand I did a tiny bit of painting, but nothing eventful. Other than that, I’ve been working tirelessly on my fic, Secret Valentine, which has finally matured into slash away from Tom yearning for Harry. ::LoL::

August 26th: Well, highlights from that past two days would be finishing my story, and seeing some people protesting Esso fuel, waving banners and screaming at motorists.
Today was my first day of school. I got there early and met up with Jed and Ted who were also keeners like me. We picked out our desks, and when enough people arrived that we had a proper posse, everybody headed down to the resource center to get our free stuff and supplies. Mountains of crap, I’m telling you. I felt like a pack-mule when I was going home since my lock didn’t fit the cubby, I had to haul everything with me. I had the free book bag full of gifts, my purse, my own bag full of supplies, and the full-sized VFS umbrella. Of course, the bus *had* to be packed. ::Massages head:: Anyway! Back to natural progression of time…
After picking up our supplies and ID tags it was already 9:00am, meaning most of the 2D crew was late for convergence. But in all honesty, we should have been later. The whole thing is bollocks, let me tell you- It’s basically a big group therapy session in which we meet our “new family” at VFS. I was just about ready to die through the entire thing. Darien, the main lecture-guy wasn’t so bad, but he was the typical psychologist. The thing is, when he was explaining how beliefs and religion can cause conflict in groups, he defended atheism and religion simultaneously by saying neither one is proven, just as much as neither is disproved; “There might as well be invisible pink elephants flying above your head, for all you can prove.” And that’s a quote from *him*. Hm. Sounds awfully familiar. Just a little less crude. At any rate, this lecture got deep into the philosophy behind censorship, personal morals, and what should be banned. Darien and the class pretty much argued back and forth until 12:30pm. And guess what everybody? We had to be in class for 1:00pm! A half-hour for having lunch, getting back to the main campus, and (for some people) picking up supplies! Woo hoo. Luckily, our instructor Brigitta was totally understanding. Oh, and she's from Sudbury like me! She even went to the same secondary school as me. (^_^) Quite some time ago, but all the same- small world, isn't it? She’s a really awesome teacher too -very patient. She worked on things like American Tale, My Pet Monster, Ducktales, Dog City, Tarzan and more! She actually had cells there from Ghostbusters! I was so blown away.
As for actual assignments, we’re learning about different ways to animate. Today we animated some basic shapes by using the shifting method. It’s actually easier than I thought it would be, but still pretty challenging.
During one of the few breaks when Kyla and I went outside the feed our addictions (Hee hee, she went for a smoke, I drank Diet Coke) we met up with Giddian, who told us for life drawing we’d be going to the zoo. Kick ass. ::Scratches that off the “places to see” list.::
We also saw Trent during class, and apparently we’re getting our drawings back tomorrow- but the marks will be another two weeks at best. (-_-)
In other news, James challenged me to a who-can-plaster-their-workstation-with-more-anime battle (“Oh, it‘s already been brought!”), instant buckwheat noodles taste like butt, and my bus stop is being discontinued! Bargh!

August 29th: The last two days have been busy! Oh lord. Yesterday was the last group therapy session, and it was both retarded and hilarious. At the end there was this “I swear it’s not hypnosis” thing where Darien spoke softly and guided everybody to their “happy place”. The funny bit was, Matt was like ‘The Playboy Mansion’… That was funny in itself, but it only got worse when Darien said our happiness was in a “box”, and to “open the box” to “smell and touch”… “How does it feel? Warm?”. I was rolling in the isles laughing. Well, not literally- the entire room was deathly quiet, so my sniggers were the only give-away. I don’t think the hypnosis worked on me. Hahaha. (>_<)
Today was the death-day. Eight o’clock in the morning until eight at night. ::Falls asleep at keyboard:: Though it passed more quickly than I thought it would, it was still grueling. The first thing we had was life drawing, then animation, and finally film theory. They were all a lot of fun. I got to finish up my bouncing ball animation, though I still have to go in on Saturday to line test it. I don’t mind though since I can go anytime I like, and Kyla’s doing her line test on that day as well. Besides, it’s a long weekend.
Film theory was an absolute riot. The guy who teaches it knows everything about film! We watched a cartoon called Red Hot Riding Hood which made me absolutely bust a gut.
Hm, it’s hard to tell what else has happened. My brain is like… on dead-zone at the moment. I think I’ll just call it a night.

August 30th: Well, today we had character design and clean-up. I actually liked cleanup better than the design, since we had to cartoon people in our class, which was slightly traumatic.
Even though it was really long and involved, clean-up was fulfilling in a head-ache causing kind of way. Oh, but I discovered some people have no idea what I’m talking about and think that’s really easy or can be done with computers. Let me explain:

Fun, huh?

Sep 8th: I liiiiive! ::Whips up from grave:: Rawwwr! Okay, so everybody's wondering what the hell happened to me. Let me tell you... ::Squints one eye and brandishes finger:: Having your system directory suddenly and inexplicably become corrupted is not a walk in the park! This happened to me last Monday, and I've only just revamped my computer today. The problem was, I never ever had time to fix the thing since I was at school from 7am-9pm most days. Also, the help line for Compaq was organized in such a confusing way that the only option they give for the first ten minutes you're on the line is "visit our website for assistance!". I was like "Oh, super. That's just great. I'll just take my computer that WON'T BOOT and trot on over to your URL. WANKERS!" So after cursing at the automated message for several minutes, I was told that you have to wait a couple of minutes after the message finishes to get a live tech. Now how the hell do people figure this out? ... By accidently staying on the line for prolonged periods of time, apparently. Anyway, I finally got ahold of these people to complain that my Authentication Key just wouldn't register, was hung up on once, then they told me they didn't have any extra keys, and I would have to call Microsoft. Fair enough. So I go through that whole waiting-through-automated messages thing with Microsoft, only to find out I need a "badge number" for the employee at Compaq. Great. I call Compaq back:

Tech

Yes, I finally did get the new key, and now everything is going swimmingly.
In other school-takes-away-my life news, I had bus troubles for several days because I was never home long enough to buy a September pass. I finally got one of those too, though. So no worries. For school itself, we've been animating the "jumping flour sack". Mine dies at the end. It gets woozy, falls over, then busts a seam. Hee hee. Perspective is going as expected, and character design is getting better. I'm still not a pro at styles that don't have any basis and aren't anime.
It's started raining here. I had to go buy Coke in a storm today. Oh, and when I did my groceries yesterday, some homeless guy (about my age) was like "Could you NOT spare some change, so I can at least get a positive answer?" I told him I didn't speak English.
Oh heeheh. Iron Giant is on. I still think that Mr.Manly is a pedophile. It's written all over that barn interrogation scene. ::Laughs maniacally::
So I have to hand it to Microsoft, eventually, their product ideas work... Eventually.

Sep 10th: I had to stay until 8pm today since our Film Theory course was moved around because of the 3D people. Speaking of whom, Matt dropped by for lunch, which was spiffy. It was right after perspective, though, so I couldn't be too chipper. We started three-point grids, and my mind has successfully gone into hibernation. ::Cries:: Whyyyyy! All my genius seems to evaporate when anything remotely mathematical is mentioned. (.-_-.) Oh well, we got to watch the Psycho-stabbing scene repeatedly for Film Theory. It's actually pretty gross for an old slasher flick. We also saw some Woody Allen films, which I discovered I hate with a passion. That man grates me.
After leaving the theater, I went back to class and finished up the volcano-smoke assignment we had for assisting animation, handed in my geometric shape inbetweens and flour sack portfolio.
When I finally left campus, I saw the cutest and saddest thing, there were these skaters barreling out of the park on their boards, and something caught my eye- a flash of scampering; there was this cute wild rat trying to escape from the guys, and it was being flipped over and around. The poor little thing looked so terrified! I wish I could have helped. I hope he's okay. People are so cruel! (>_<) Oh well, their karma will catch up to them, probably in the form of a car trying to run them down. POETIC JUSTICE! BUahahahaah!!! ::Ahem::
Speaking of justice, keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow is completely uneventful. ::Crosses fingers::

Sep 17th: Man, I haven't written in a while... Mostly due to business. In school we're doing the animated rat-tail, and this gopher that goes from sad to perky. It's surprisingly hard to in between that little bastard. Composition is going fairly well, we learned about carrés, foreground midground background (FMB), and golden sections.
But enough about that. Let's talk about the homeless. No, really. The other day, a group of us were walking home and this guy starts screaming about whores as we pass him. When he was out of earshot, I'm like "He was talking to me specifically." It was pretty funny, mostly due to the fact nobody was horribly murdered. I mean, the guy did have blood down his front. Ewww... ::Shudders:: So infested. There's also some opera-singing wad near my apartment that I can hear every night. And no, he doesn't sound good. He's just some crazy freak that launches into "tunes". If I could legally own a shot gun... ::Froths::
Speaking of insanity, my classmates are traitors! Today involved much too much walking about... First I went to the main campus to see the posted schedule, and sure enough, we were in the Bear Pit (A block's walk away). So Kyla, James and I went, everybody else assuring us they were right behind. After waiting at the Bear Pit for 15 minutes without anybody showing up, we went back to the main classroom. There we learned that class was indeed being held at the other location... And a mass exodus ensued. ::Eyetwitch::
The coolest song ever is the choral bit from Devil's Advocate, though lately I've been stuck on Chant from the Macross Plus soundtrack as well.
::Dithers:: Tomorrow's that long, hell of a day... Up to eight PM. This makes it very difficult to get this parcel that's apparently trying to make it's way to me (I keep getting notices in the mail). ::Wail:: School! Why do you spite me so?! AHhhhhrg!
In good terms, I finished a good bit of my painting. I just have detail, foreground, and the hair to do. I'd say a couple more days and I'll be done. So two weeks from now (Snarl) I'll be shellacking the thing. ::Rolls around beneath computer desk in aggravation:: (.-_-.)
Let me see now... I'm planning on doing a weekly review of anime from now on. So this weekend, in addition to painting, I'm going to rent an anime from my local movie store. (^_^) Oh, that reminds me (for some reason) about life drawing! We have to memorize major bone structure. It brings back memories of my childhood, when my parents used to drill my little five year old mind on which bones were in my legs and arms. ::Sighs in fond nostalgia::
I think I'll close in saying...Woohoo! MATT RULES!
Oh no wait! ::Blathers on:: I saw this cool show... I think it was called "Bitchy Bitch" or something. I nearly died laughing. I hope I can find it again. Watch it now or my minions will destroy you! RAaaaawwrRR!

Sep 20th: Well, today was strange. The first thing we had was character design with Nuranee. He had the funniest way of "encouraging" people not to be late. When Robert walked in fifteen minutes after class started, Nuranee was like "I don't think I'll let you stay" or something like that. Rob was actually about to leave before he realized it was a joke. Denisse also got pegged- When she walked in late, Nuranee told her that everybody had just sung their country of origin's national anthem, and she should go ahead for Mexico. She got really embarrassed and said she forgot it. (^_^) I would have burst into song right there if it had been me, but hey, not everybody is a big ham. Class itself was also really entertaining. We're starting to imitate people's styles, and one of them was the "Line quality dog", which was basically just a scribble with a canine-like silhouette.
After lunch we had story concepts with Marv Newland- the guy who did Bambi Meets Godzilla. Unfortunately it was all one-on-one, where he saw people individually to discuss their ideas. Not a lot of people had concepts yet, so it was basically a work period. When class finally ended I rushed out to go pick up a package that was trying to be delivered to me all week (but I was never home due to school, so...). First I went to the wrong post office, but that's okay, since I had to pick up the anime I'm reviewing this week anyway (It's X! Ooh, sneak peek for all those freaks who read my journal ^_~).
Speaking of cool DVDs, the package turned out to be gifts from my parents (aww!). And they sent the coolest thing- a frog fridge magnet! (>_<) It's so cute! Oh, and LotR! Hee hee. I don't know which is the winner, though. The frog is on a spring, which gives it heads-up on Legolas, who only has nice, nice hair. ::hehehe::
Arg, has anybody noticed that everything on MTV is crap!? Ahhh! I also found dried paint on my 'phone. I really ought to be more careful with that stuff. What? What's on my face? ::Scrub scrub:: (^_~)

Sep 24th: Perspective day. Shoot me, honestly... Do shoot me. Right here ::Points to temple:: in the head. Not only was my lack of understanding, accent (apparently I've got one now), and high school standard of mathematics made fun of today, I also had fun freezing in the stupid negative degree temperature of the Main Theater! ::Growls:: At least I think I understand 360° rotation. Only time will tell... Tomorrow I'll work on plotting that out. Tonight I did the 3pt curve grids.
::Bashes head against the desk, slowly:: You know what perspective is? It's algebra and geometry, fused in a Satanic marriage of pure evil, and posing as an art form! That's what it is!
Oh, and our class was apparently evaluated by some board today. It was just some guy who came into the class, watched us for a few moments, then left, after having a few words with the instructor. Hmmmm.
In other news I downloaded some of the LotR soundtrack- the Black Rider background music, to be precise. Kickass stuff.
::Falls asleep abruptly::
Zzz... So little... ZZzzz.... Time... ::Slides off chair::

Sep 26th: Last day of Film Theory! ::Sigh of relief:: I don't blame James for completely skipping; today's lesson was about sound, but the instructor still wouldn't stop talking through everything. The most annoying thing was when he was describing "room noise" (the "silence" of the buzzing and so forth that exists in every space).
Instructor: "So if we're all really quiet, there will still be noise in the room (doesn't even miss a beat) yeah, like that! So unless you want a strange silence, always put a background noise ambiance into your film." Not to mention the whole lesson was so rushed. The guy somehow planned too much for the amount of time. But now for the good news, and extremely insane-invoking awesome news...
I finished most of my homework for the week (woo)! And today I acquired... ::Drum roll:: HARRY POTTER DOUJINSHI! ::Insane laughter::
So just FYI, I'll be reviewing those for the next few weeks instead of anime.
Today in life drawing Adam was sick, so Trent came to instruct us instead. He hovered around the old drawng-fundamentals crowd. I wonder if he was admiring how much we had improved? (^_~) The coolest part about the lesson was that we got to do light and shadow, which basically involves sitting around in the dark sketching to mellow music. Luckily it was enough fun that I didn't nod off.
Tomorrow is story concept again... I hope it's another free-esque class so I can finish up my cleanup. That way I won't have to come in on the weekend, and I'll have all this free time to scan doujin pictures! (^_^) Ahahaha!
WTF is going on with DBZ.... There's some old Supreme Kai chanting "wiggy wiggy" to unlock supreme powers... ::Backs away slowly, avoiding direct eye contact::

Sept 29th: LUCIUS!!! Ahahahah! I just downloaded the newest Harry Potter trailer, and Looshie is in it! God did they butcher him terribly, but I don't care! ::Maniacal laughter:: AHhhhhhhhhhh ahahah!
Okay, so they did keep the Whomping Willow... Even though it looks like a marajuana plant, but why is there all that "added suspense" of Harry falling out of the car and nearly getting run over by a train? WTF! In other news I finished my second painting and started the third today. ::Big grin:: I feel established... And very very cold. When does the heat come on in this stupid building. ::Shivers:: (>_<)

Sept 30th: Note to self... Buy bus pass tomorrow. I'm not going to get caught in that stupid problem again. In other fine news I got a little "line quality" lecture in life drawing. It's so much to remember! Motion... Wait structure... No! Line quality! Ahh! ::Head explodes::
Today was also our very first professional-esque assignment. We're doing tweening and cleanup for the Honors Program Pilot. I get to tween and clean a walk cycle of some strange looking old man. It'll be something super cool to put on my resume, though. The promo is being shown to Cartoon Network executives ::Squeal:: (^_~)
Okay, in funny news, I was looking to expand the different series included in my slash archive, and ran across a lot of Yu Gi Oh slash... Yugi and himself in particular. Like young Yugi and "Yami Yugi" (I think). Innnnteresting. I don't know enough about the series to post anything yet, though. I'm actually watching it right now... For... Research... ::Shifty eyes::

Oct 2nd: Aww, the final History of Animation class is finished. (-_-) It was totally kick ass, though. We got to watch "The Führer's Face" and "So White" and a bunch of other banned Disney and WB cartoons. God they rocked hard! So much WWII propaganda... ::Sighs contentedly:: I feel privileged for having seen. (^_^) Apparently Keith is auctioning on E-Bay for yet another censored War-Animation with Daffy and a rotoscoped Hitler. I'm so dropping in on the class he shows it to. What I don't get is why this stuff is banned in the first place. I understand censoring the hate-type lines, but there aren't that many. It's mostly just Hitler-bashing, which isn't any different than all the Bin Laden-bashing that goes on today, completely without censorship, I might add. Anyway, after all that jazz, we finished off the night by watching Spirited Away. It is by far the best anime I've seen in quite some time. Not only is the entire thing eye-candy with a Mononoke-Hime flare for plot, but the characters are absolutely adorable. Haku, you're on my slash list today. Buaharharh.
Though everybody else went to Steam Works to celebrate, I went home afterwards. Half fearing I wouldn't be let in, and mostly to do perspective. But I finished! So much work. (@_@)

Oct 3rd: Funny start to the day today- the model for life drawing was late, so Robert got up on stage and posed ...Yes, with his clothes on. (-_¬) All you echhi out there. LoL... until she arrived. The class itself went pretty badly though. I was having the worst drawing day ever because I was so ill last night. During lunch we watched some of My Neighbour Totoro. It's nuts. Completely and utterly nuts. We basically MSTed the whole time we were watching. After lunch we had our first Layout class with Brigitta. I'm not sure if I like layout or not... It's fun because it involves backgrounds, which I love doing. Oh, let me explain layout. Basically, the layout people get a piece of the story board; an image with all the characters, backgrounds and props in it. The layout person will separate that image into a background (without the character on it), the character (by himself on a cel) and anything else that animates. We're doing this scary Batman picture; he's sitting at an animation desk with a picture of Robin taped to it. ::Stares:: ::Eyetwitch:: I kneeew it.

Oct 5th: Yesterday was our first Camera Techniques class, which was all lecture and pretty boring. It was taught by this super-French woman, though. (^_^) Ah, it reminded me of home. During lunch James and I went to China Town to pick up a tea pot for the classroom.
Today was a little more eventful. I went in around 12 o'clock to finish up the honors cleanup and jumping frog keys. It was actually pretty cool; down in the park there was a rally going on. The people were squatters fighting to have the old Woolworth's building converted into community housing for low-income families. It made me super nostalgic because there were several punk bands, and so many people looked like my old friends... Well, at least from what I could see while standing six stories up. Speaking of which, while Mike and I were reminiscing about old times and making fun of the people down below, a group of them started looking up at us and pointing. At first we waved back at them, then they left to regroup, and came back with a couple of friends. It looked as if they were attempting to find a way into our building, like "Hey, how did those two get up there??" So we pointed toward the entrance of the building, but they just got confused and shrugged up at us. Eventually they disbanded, but not after one of them took a picture of us (well, of Mike, I hid behind the windowsill. Hee hee).
When I got home, there was an ambulance and fire truck in front of my apartment building. (o_0) I wonder what happened? I haven't heard anything. Hmmm. I still have to go do some laundry, maybe I'll get some gossip down there.
Oh, and weirdness happened around 5:23pm where my server went through major lag and Global TV crapped out. Hmmm.

Oct 9th: Well, on Saturday I saw the queen's procession of cars. Not her, but the bus got stopped by police so the big long line of cops-on-bikes and limos could get by.
This week has been SO busy! And to make it worse yesterday my computer completely crashed. "Un mountable boot volume" my ass. Thankfully I got it fixed. I also finished my 360° today... Worked on the frog, and I only have one more tween to do on the monkey assisting. I'll get Brigitta to check it tomorrow, then I can finish that little bastard up. Unfortunately we have layout tomorrow as well as life drawing, so that promises more homework. Arg! I haven't even started on the stupid pendulum perspective. ::Rolls:: Hopefully Mike will help me with it tomorrow. (@_@) I feel so un-self-sufficient. Kyla had to help me with the room rotation too. Poor girl was sick today as well.
I stayed late to finish up the rotation's detail, and James from class 44 came in to ask people to go clubbing with him. The whole thing resulted in the strangest conversation about what to look for in a girl. (o_@) I think the conclusion was money, personality, and looks... All to be found in a discotheque. ::Nods very slowly:: Uh... huh.

Oct 12th: The week just sped by! So much work... But the end is in sight. I got my monkey tweens and cleanup done today. I also line-tested it just to see. His head changes shape a bit, but I'm past caring. I also did the keys and overlay for the pendulum and finished layout and the newest character design assignment. It was a cool class. We did another short presentation; this one was about our "appealing" characters. I redid mine since Dog-boy and Rat-girl just weren't doing it for me. I ended up with Bill the Sailor and his Geisha love. It looked a lot better, at least I think so. After that the class degenerated into a big discussion about how little work animators get and how inept producers can be. Eventually we did a fun little assignment where we took pre-designed head shapes and stuck features on them. Ted and I ended up thinking of pretty much the same designs. (o_@) Great minds, I guess.
After lunch we were supposed to have life drawing with Gideon, but the office messed up, so there was no model scheduled and Gideon was nowhere to be found. We had a work period, which was to everybody's relief. I got a lot done (after having a lengthy discussion with Jed and Keli about the nature of existence... I'm still thinking of another constant other than death and life... (^_^), and only had to stay two hours after class! I'm still going in tomorrow though to fix my frog (it jumps strangely) and tween the pendulum... Though I'm not quite sure how that really works out. Oh well.
Once I got home, I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom. Finally it smells of something other than... Rank. I'll finish up tomorrow when I do laundry and shopping... After going in to school, of course. (@_@) Arg. So much work. ::Explodes::
At any rate, in case I don't get around to writing after Sunday, Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians! (^_^) A few of my class are going to Brigitta's house for dinner. It's in the State's though, so I didn't really want to go. I think I'm just going to take that day to paint and relax. This piece is really starting to bother me... I can't *not* work on a painting for so long.

Oct 15th: Well, yesterday we didn't have class in the morning because Gideon was feeling ill... Though he did come in during the afternoon to mark our 360, composition, and pendulum projects. He said he hadn't slept for two days. (o_0) I think his "sickness" was less the flu and more working on his paintings for the exhibit coming up. It was fine, though. While Gideon marked us one-on-one, the rest watched Metropolis. It was fairly interesting subject-wise, but the character designs bothered me. They were so... fat. I don't know. Plus it was overly long for the plot, so the middle was a bit boring.

Oct 16th: It was a free class all day today. Deter was sick, apparently, and we didn't have a supervisor for the afternoon, so I just left. I had all my work done, anyway. I did a little grocery shopping and ended up painting. It went really well. I'm nearly finished, though I still have to detail the lady's corset. (^_^) I was really tired, though, and ended up falling asleep sporadically until I actually went to bed. Arugh.

Oct 17th: This morning we had Torso Lady! ::Laughs:: Adam, our life drawing instructor, was away on a trip and the sub was none other than that woman that "concentrated on the torso" during the art fundamentals course. The moment she even mentioned the word "torso" James walked out in moral outrage. Well, maybe not outrage... But he did indeed leave the class for the rest of the three hours. He got his layout done, though. That's what we had in the afternoon. We didn't start a new assignment as planned, but I did get the hookup pan finished. Gosh, layout is just so much labelling... Repetitive labelling. ::Dies:: And cam keys that appear to be pointless... Except for the truck/zoom in. That needed a bit of camera instruction, obviously.
After class I told Kyla and co. I'd meet them at 7:00pm to go to Gideon's show. So I rushed home, ate, watched the South Park episodes I downloaded... Oh man! I saw the very first episodes- the one from Spike and Mike's, and the pilot. Jesus vs. Santa and Jesus vs. Frosty are so damn funny. But my all time favorite episode is still the one with Damien. Anyway! Like I was saying, I got changed and went back to school, then walked down to Gastown to see the exhibition. It started out as a quiet thing, with people thoughtfully looking at the pieces. James, Kyla and I were fairly early, but people began to trickle in. Between the big schmoozing party that eventually happened, and the early quietude, these two bald British guys dressed in thousand-dollar clothes walked in and out, looking very serious. Also, one of the paintings, which was up for $7500 sold within the first 20 minutes. Holy fuck. I didn't talk to anybody I didn't really know... Except some guy from 3D who was talking about his first beer... Which he drank that night. (9_9) I didn't drink out of respect for the paintings. How would I properly look at them if I was buzzing? And on that note, I'm not even going to try and explain Gideon's work. Just go to http://www.theflitt.com. That's his site, with some scans of his work. And no, they're not photographs. His paintings are SO flat on the canvas... You can't see any brushstrokes. i don't know how he does it. I certainly felt inspired to go work on my own paintings, though. Not that I left early, like most people. I ended up getting home at 11:20pm.
But it was surprisingly easy to leave the gathering... We just found Gideon and our remaining friends, and took off. I expected it to be like the other parties I'd attended, where people are just *constantly* stopping you at the door, trying to talk your ear off. OH! Speaking of which! I got the oddest and coolest call late last night. My friend Nancy gave me a ring, telling me her and her SO are going down to South America on a trip. She had just come back from a cruise to the Arctic, which was apparently very beautiful and relaxing. It was nice talking to her again. (^_^)
Well, tomorrow is my last character design class with Nuranee. In the afternoon we have life drawing with... You guessed it- Gideon. Heh. I wonder if he'll show up? It's kind of odd, I want to ask him about his trials and tribulations with painting lace. It's come up in my latest piece. What a time-saver it would be if he'd share his secrets. Hmmm. ::Looks thoughtful:: Heh heh. (^_^)

Oct 21st: We're no longer the newbies! WOoo hooo! Class 46 has officially arrived and we start term two. Strangely enough 46 has a lot of girls in it... Generally it's the opposite for animation studios. A lot of guys. Not that I'm complaining. (^_^) Bwheheh. ::Gets sniped by Kormir:: Dwaah. Today we had background design, which is a lot of fun, even if James says mine sucks. But the truth is, I am god. No wait...
... Then we had life drawing. ::Cough::
This weekend was uneventful. I painted, shopped, and baked banana bread. Raah. Oh, and I read chapter 10 of Draco Veritas by Cassie Claire, so I'm addicted again. But who wouldn't be with school-aged Tom Riddle running about and wreaking havoc on various Weasleys. Rahahah. If you haven't read it, I demand you do! As a proper Gongaga fan! ::Cracks whip:: Mwa.
In other, uneventful news, my arch nemisis is moving to Vancouver. ::Beat::
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH! ::Satan-ifies:: WHY DOST THOU FORSAKEN MEEEEEEEE!... oh, oh. All that horrible stuff I did. Hah. Stupid poetic justice.

Oct 24th: Well, the first week fo second term is going well. I've finished all the rough keys for my candle, and started on the head rotation. They're the two big projects I have to do... Well, at least until tomorrow, where we have a whole day of layout, which promises tons of work in itself. (-_-) And everybody's getting sick! ::Gobbles Vitamin C:: Ted was on his deathbed today, but refused to go home. Every time we (including the teacher) told him to go rest he insisted he was in the process of leaving. But in the end, I went home before him. (9_9)
When I got back I went grocery shopping, cleaned house, and did laundry in attempts to free up the weekend so I could do my pre-birthday shopping spree. (^_^) I'm treating myself to some new clothes.
Speaking of which, while I was downstairs doing laundry, some weird guy walked in, said "Hey", like he knew me, then "Oh, never mind", like mistaken identity. Fair enough. But then he didn't leave! He asked what I was doing (I was drawing), asked my name, my last name (I'm like... "Uh, no, buddy."). When I asked his name, he sat there thinking for a while.

Him

He also wouldn't stop acting amazed at me, like I was some spectre. Okay, so I was wearing a black robe and drawing on an overturned laundry basket, but that's usually not enough to "freak out" (his words) a 20-so year-old guy. Later, when he seemed like he was finally going to leave (because a much hotter chick walked into the laundry room), I was like "nice to meet you, 'Leroy'." He says "Leroy. Uh. Yeahhhh." What a loser. Later he came back to harass the cute chick and completely ignored me. He asked her where she lived too... And she told him. (o_0)
Tomorrow seems like it's going to be a super cool day after school. Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted film festival is in town, so a bunch of us are going. Hopefully I'll get some directions to the place so I don't miss out. (>_<) Bah.

Oct 26th: Yesterdays' film festival was awesome! They had soooo many funny films. One was Happy Tree Friends (http://www.mondominishows.com/shows/happy_tree_friends/ Go see it, you won't regret it.), about these super-cute little forest animals that ended up constantly killing each other. Okay, so that doesn't do it justice, but honestly. They had dozens of these little addictive shorts. There were also quite a few super squicky videos, but they were all hilarious. It didn't last too long either. I got home around 1 AM.
Today I took myself b-day shopping and got some excellent clothes. (^_^) Even though most of them were from second-hand shops- which are pricey in themselves, here. I also poked around the Pacific Mall, and good lord... Crap is expensive. 150$ for a "wrap", which is just a piece of cloth that you throw around yourself. It seemed like the smaller and less material an outfit had, the more expensive it became. Like a sheer tank top... 88$. Getting the hell out of that mall... Priceless. Plus the shop keepers were so snobby! The minute I got out of the shops around Pender, people turned into such ass holes... Not to mention the trend-factor in every store made me nearly die.

Oct 30th: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
Today was such a great surprise!
I was woken up at 7am by my dad singing me Happy Birthday over the 'phone, which was nice, because then I slept for another hour and got up feeling fairly refreshed. This morning's class was character design- I came up with this super evil guy for the facial expressions. He seemed to be a hit with the class- Mike suggested using him in my final film. Too much line-milage though, and not that ambitious.
Lunch was a big surprise- Mike and Kyla bought me and Jed (Who's b-day was a few weeks ago) a cake! It was soooo sweet. Ted also brought me a pastry and Earnie, Paul and Denise gave me chocolate. (^_^) Aww! They're all so great for doing that. I seriously didn't expect anything!
Life drawing rocked on too! Gideon was in a good mood, and actually sat down during the 30 minute sketches and drew with us. He defaced his first drawing with Mickey Mouse ears and a nose, though, which was hillarious.
After class Kyla and I went shopping for our Halloween costumes. We first went to this fabric shop that was PACKED with people. I'm not kidding. We had to wait in line to get down the isles, and at some times came to a dead stop, surrounded by people, unable to continue shopping because of the crowd. I bought some white fabric and got out of there- We were off on the hunt for a cheap white shirt, white tights (I'm being a ghost. Hehehe) and snakes for Kyla's Medusa costume. We never did find her snakes... Though I suggested she sew gummy worms into her hair as a substitute (got the idea from Heath's mum, who did that a couple of years ago with Jane's Medusa costume).
Eventually we went back to class to pick up our stuff, and took off. Tomorrow I'm dressing up as well as Friday for Class -er, I mean- "Studio" 44's party. Woot.