Gongaga Yaoi: Diary [2002, October-June]

Oct 31st: Happy Halloween!!! Today I went to school dressed as a ghost. Kyla, Denise and Paul had their faces painted, Jed was dressed as death, Ted was a cowboy, Mike was an 80's runner, and Earnie had bruises painted on for a little while (I think ^_^;;). The funniest thing was James (from Cl 44) walking in completely in drag. It was awesome. He took a few shots of us in our costumes, which rocked on. (^_^)
The day itself was pretty busy but tame. All we had was animation. I worked on my 360° head rotation. It's such a bitch of a thing to do, but I'm half-way through. I have to go in during the weekend to finish that and fix up my Flame FX, which is apparently looking "stiff". Tonight I was planning on finishing character design, but I forgot to bring the god damned sheets to scan! ARGH! I'll do it tomorrow while I'm at home changing for the party. Then I'll finally have that crossed off my to-do list.
So instead I washed my floors and took a shower so I won't have to do that later... Oh, when I was on my way home today, some weird guy ranted to me about artists having the "divine insight" that made them super-human (able to "fly" apparently) if they knew the true meaning of their work. He listed off a big bunch of famous artists, saying I could be just like them if I read a poem he wrote about me. I'm like "Right, if anybody believes you, it's me. But that's my bus. ::Legs it::". WTF. Halloween brings out all the nutters. (^_~)
OH yah! The other thing we saw today was a French film called The Old Lady and the Pigeons (English translation). It was SO cool. And the birds in it were so cute and fat! Oh my goodness. Reminded me of my pigeon. ::Sigh::

Nov 5th: Wow, it's so much fun being sick with the flu! ::Heavy sarcasm:: (>_<) And aside from the muscle pain, throat irritation, nausea, head ache, fever, chills, and breathing problems, people seem to be positively repulsed by me; especially on the bus, they were glaring at me like I was intentionally coughing on them. (o_0) Not to mention the flu has "ups" and "downs", so people who see me when I'm feeling okay, they think I'm slacking, then I go home and collapse into a miserable little ball. Ooooh yeah. And I'm getting SO behind in work. I've been TRYING to complete my head rotation, but man on man it's a tough battle. I can't work for too long before becoming completely fatigued. (-_-) Four more panels. Then labelling... Then cleanup. ::Falls over:: Kill me now.

Nov 7th: Well, my apartment no longer looks like a complete pigsty, and I finally took care of all that incoming mail AND got my head rotation done (I just have to shoot it when I go in tomorrow). I didn't go to school today or yesterday, but I did get work done. It's so messed, I start feeling better around 5 o'clock. ::Shakes head:: At least yesterday I went to the clinic and got a prescription to take care of my throat, which apparently is to blame for a bunch of my other symptoms.

Nov 17th: No, no.... I'm not dead. Just sick and terribly busy. But in the good news column, I'm getting a new hard drive for my laptop. It started crapping out again, so I called a Compaq tech, and not even halfway through the conversation on how to fix my problem, he announces "the order for my new HD has gone through". It took me a while to actually accept that, yes, a warrantee means I get a free replacement for faulty parts. ::Excuse me:: WOOO HOOOO! (^_^) Unfortunately that also means the huge pain of re-installing everything. (9_9) Raaah. And I also have to send my old HD back. ::Cough:: We'll just be reformatting you. (^_^);;
So I'm basically caught up school-wise. I went for quite a bit of last week. I'm going to try for a good attendance record this week, but I don't want to stress and have a relapse, so we'll see. (-_-)
And because of this stupid cold I missed the Harry Potter debut! ::Cries:: I'm so going to try and go next weekend. It's like it's haunting me... With all the merchandising- the board games, the video game, the cards, the posters, the dolls, the condoms! Wait. They haven't overstepped that boundary yet. Oh yah, and the new LotR video game looks like it kicks butt.

Nov 21st: Rahhhhh! Stupid Purolator! They tried once to send me the drive, now I have to walk all the way to Dunsmuir to pick up the god damned thing. I'll do that tomorrow- but ARGH! And they're not open weekends... Or Mondays. WHAT! People are so lazy.
Speaking of which, I didn't go to class at all today. I decided taking it easy and not having a relapse was a good idea. I worked on my character design and walk cycle all day. I think I'm finally getting the walk cycle- I can check it out tomorrow regardless. We have the exact same classes tomorrow as we did today (animation, then work period). That's why I'm going to pick up the HD tomorrow... Since I'll be able to leave before the place closes (at 5pm). Damn... Laziness!

Nov 22nd: Well, I went to pick up my hard drive today, right in the middle of the business sector. Lots of fun people there- and I made the mistake of going around lunch. So, of course, there was nobody at the Purolator office. I decided to take care of my weekly meat-intake by going to McDonald's until the Purolator clerk returned. I actually felt sorry for some kid who was there too. His dad brings him through McDonald's, just to use the bathroom, then leaves. That's so cruel! I mean, really... If you're going to drag a kid through some place just to go to the loo, make sure it's an establishment they don't care about- Like Starbucks. Speaking of which, I went there too after being chased away from Purolator a second time, because (even though she was there now) the clerk was still on break. Eventually I returned around 2:30pm and I finally got service. I was feeling nice too, and apologized for interrupting her lunch break. She seemed cheerful enough, complaining about how little time she had for breaks. Hummm... Oh well. At least I got the stupid drive. I'll install it sometime this weekend. Ah, another thing to add to the long list of things I have to do. At least my walk cycle only had a few minor errors. I had Moose take a look at it today. He seemed pleased with the overall movement. I just have to add detail and fix volumes now. I should have it done by the end of the weekend... Just in time to start the explosion FX assignment! ::Darting eyes:: So much to do... So much to do... Auuugh.

Nov 24th: Well, you can all guess what I did yesterday due to the review of this week. That's right, I went to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I actually left around three o'clock for a 7pm showing, thinking I'd go to the bank first. Of course, they were closed early because everybody in the world is a lazy ass. So I blew a couple of hours poking around Chapters and various other book stores, looking for books that I want for Christmas. Afterwards I walked to the theater and bought a ticket- but I still had tons of time before the movie started. So I grabbed a bite to eat, then sat around in Starbucks drinking their weak excuse for coffee. Finally, after browsing through a few of the stores around the theater, I went to grab a seat. I thought there would be huge line-ups, so I got there an hour early. The entire cinema was empty until about five minutes before the movie started when it suddenly became packed. Anyway, while I waited I chatted on the 'phone with my SO.
After the movie ended I came home and worked a bit on updating my page. I'm doing one more big upload before starting the ordeal of installing my new hard drive... Which I'll be doing now. Gyah. Wish me luck.

Nov 30th: Well, this obviously won’t be posted for at least a week- but this is what’s happening with my computer. As we know, Compaq sent me a hard drive. Mistakenly sent me a HD. So when I called to say “I haven’t worked with Notebook laptops before, could you walk me though the HD installation?” they said “Whoops. You were never supposed to get that. Send it back… Oh, and send us your computer so we can fix it.” I’m like. “I can install a HD. Just tell me where to put it.” So they get all high and mighty, saying I couldn’t possibly do it, and just to send it in the following morning. Of course I have no time in the morning (and get home way too late to deal with Purolator) and told them so. What does the tech say?
“Spend a few less minutes on your hair to make the time.”
Me: “HA. That’s pretty funny, there.”
But I contained my anger, and finally agreed to send the two pieces in (after the tech explained to me how to “send it back” a million times. I swear this guy thought I was a retard). Unfortunately, using Purolator’s services is damn near impossible if you’re not home during business hours. I had to skip several classes- first to send in the HD, then because they wouldn’t take my laptop unless it was in its ‘original box’. So I wasted another night finding that and rushing through BG design since I sorely needed a PC to do it.
So now my computer has been sent away… And I mourn.
It better be back by Wednesday because I need it to build my Character Design model packs… I’m calling Compaq on Tuesday to get an update on its status. If things aren’t going swimmingly, I’m going to rent a computer.
Today I looked into that, actually. There are a few places in Vancouver proper that have computers to rent. I’m just going to the establishment nearest to me. They have PIIs for $140 a week. That’s good enough. I also looked into insurance today. God damn it! Business hours again!!! These people aren’t even open weekends. They close at 4:30pm. FOUR THIRTY! What ever happened to 9-5. I’ll have to skip more class to get this over and done with. Fortunately I took care of Christmas shopping, groceries, rough character design, rough walk cycle, and housecleaning today. I’ve been up since 9:00am… Didn’t sleep well last night anyway. It’s my own fault for napping on Friday, though. (>_<)
Speaking of sleep, I’ll get none in the next two weeks. If I want to get all my stuff for school done before the holidays- Raaah! Life is just one lazy corporation after another…

Dec 3rd: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! COMPAQ LOST MY LAPTOP! I called them today, and, to my surprise, they had never received the PC in question. After many, many strong words on my part, they found it in Toronto… Of all places. So they were profusely apologetic, and told me they’d rush it back to their repair center and take care of it. So I’m now definitely renting a computer. Tomorrow I’m going to pick one up because I honestly need this for school. I may even send Compaq the bill, saying my course credit was threatened by their incompetence, which forced me to spend my cash on a temporary replacement for my PC.
At any rate, I do have good news as well. I finally got the insurance thing settled. I’m officially bound! Woo! Now all I need is a little life insurance in case I lob off my hand or am on my deathbed and want to be sent back to my family. Unfortunately people refuse to insure private school students for some reason. I really don’t know why- all the community colleges can get student life insurance very easily. Oh well.

Dec 4th: I got my storyboards and character designs checked, so I’m just cleaning everything up at the moment. I went and rented a computer too. It’ll be arriving tomorrow- thank god. I’m going through music withdrawal! I never realized how much crap MTV plays until I actually sat down in desperation and watched. AHHH! I have so much work and no way to relax. I miss my computer. ::Curls up in fetal position on bathroom floor::

Dec 5th: Ah, tonight my computer arrived, and I have my cleans done as well as my animation checked. I know the problems with it, which is nice. I just have to fix a couple of volume problems and tween the thing, and it’s done- Did I mention it’s a limping rat? Oh so cute… and Moose (our instructor) thought it was really unique. He laughed all the way through it, which I’ll take as a good sign… I think. Unfortunately we also have a new FX assignment- bubbles. It’s supposedly very easy, though. ::Shrugs:: Regardless, it’s still another thing to add to my long list of things to do.
At any rate, this rental computer is a lot like using a school computer. It’s a little grungy, and very slow (hey, I went from using a P4 to a P300. It’s painful). Oh, and it doesn’t have a sound card. GOD DAMN IT! I can only listen to CDs directly from the drive… And we all know I own a total of three CDs, one of which is the Ranma soundtrack, which basically consists of characters talking and meowing and singing off-key.
Oh yeah! On my way home from school, the building at Pender and Burrard (I have no idea what it is, but it’s the one closest to the bay) was surrounded by a SWAT team! It was so cool… I wonder what was going on. There were police, news people, the road was closed off, and a crowd was looking upward. I think it may have been a jumper because of that- but I couldn’t see the top of the building since the bus obscured my view. When I got home I turned on the news, read the paper… Everything, but nobody mentioned what was up. Weird.

Dec 6th: If you think I went to school today, you’re nuts. After a week of severe PC withdrawal, I just got a computer. I finally get to finish my character design pack, color my backgrounds, and listen to music that doesn’t rot! Not to mention I had that comforting buzz of electronics, so I actually got a good night’s sleep. Well, for the time I was asleep. Guess who called me at 8am? Compaq! They were asking for permission to do a restore on my laptop’s HD. I’m like “I’VE RESTORED IT A MILLION FUCKING TIMES! I NEED A NEW HD! INSTALL A NEW HD YOU PIG FUCKING MORON!” To which they replied “Well, the technician can only install a new hard drive if this one is flawed.” I tried to explain in a logical way that the drive is seriously screwed, but of course it was 8am. So I was less than eloquent, which I’m really regretting right now. I should have probably mentioned that, after formatting the drive, the laptop seems fine for a couple of weeks, and then begins to degenerate… but… it was 8am. At least I got my BG done. Oh, and I received my insurance papers to sign today, unfortunately it came with a stack of conditions about 100 pages long. Ah, bedtime reading.

Dec 7th: Finally. The model pack is finished, and it’s a thing of beauty. ::Sighs contentedly:: I went into school today briefly to pick up supplies… Now I have to start on that bubble assignment. ::Whines:: I don’t want to! Well… At least all I have to do before leaving now is the four-legged walk and the bubbles. ::Eats coffee beans from the bag:: Nyahahahaaaaaaar! ::Look at my amazingly caffeine-jitter-induced line quality!:: I’ve been doing nothing but work for three days straight! LOOK AT THE SANITY! So much sanity.

Dec 13th: It's Friday! I’m free!!! Such an auspicious day to start holidays too, huh? Well, yesterday I was awoken by a ‘phone call at 5am. It was Compaq saying my letter asking for them to pay my rental bill was received, but to lodge an official complaint I had to call a help line. I haven’t had time, seeing as they’re in a different time zone (3 hours later) than me, so not only do I have to deal with business hours, but also with Eastern Standard Time. Rahhh.
At any rate, today I worked straight through the morning cleaning up my 4 legged walk cycle. It seems to be perfected- at least the instructor only found two tiny flaws, which I fixed. For lunch the whole class went out for cheap pizza. Everybody conversed and competed with how much pizza they could eat (it was $5 all you can eat). It was pretty funny- Jed and James confessed they thought, when I was sick for three weeks, that I was actually going to die. I found that really funny since James had asked for my anime collection and spiffy briefcase.
When I got back to school, I shot my walk cycle, handed it in, said good-bye to Kyla and James (the only two people in the room o_0) and went home. Not 15 minutes after I got in the door, the computer guy knocked at my door to pick up the rental. It’s weird… this guy didn’t buzz me either of the two times he was here- he just showed up at my door. People are letting strangers with packages into the building again. (9_9)

Dec 19th: Well, I've been here for a couple of days, but haven't written out of sheer laziness. The flight over was actually pretty smooth- I got up at 7:30am Monday, just as if it were any other weekday, and waited for the cab I had arranged the previous night. Well, the stupid thing didn't show up- which may have been Yellow Cab Company's fault, or an accident on Burrard Bridge; I could see the police cars from the front of my apartment. At any rate, I went back inside to the foyer of the building where 'phone books are kept and called another taxi service, who arrived within minutes and dropped me off at the airport. I didn't have to hang around long, and signed up for airline miles while I was waiting.
The flight itself, from Vancouver to Toronto, was really nice. The person sitting beside me never showed up, so I just sprawled out for the flight and read Interview with the Vampire (more on that later ^_~) for the entire voyage. The stewardesses were so biased, though! They were 100x nicer to older passengers. They actually asked them if they *wanted* ice in their drinks, and so forth. Also, unlike my flight to Vancouver during the summer, only first class passengers got blankets and pillows. Ever cheap. The in-flight meal was pretty disappointing as well, but I didn't expect any different. It was some sort of chicken that seemed to have been steamed in an old sneaker, peas (good lord) and a mystery dessert.
I landed in Toronto around dinner time, though it was already dark and freezing. ::Shiver:: I'm still not climatized. I haven't felt warm since I touched down in Ontario.
From Toronto we had to walk outside to a little bush plane, which was so loud and vibrational compared to the nice jet that brought me over here. (>_<) On the plus side, the person right behind me was reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to his kid, so I just listened for the hour we were in the air. My parents were there to meet and greet me on the ground and give me a ride home. It's so weird being in cars again, but in Sudbury there isn't much choice. Yesterday I went Christmas shopping, and I noticed that there are nearly no buses! I was told they only run once every hour, and there is only one to each major road. Oh my lord! I'm glad I can just be chauffeured around everywhere, because public transportation in small towns is a pain in the ass.
Speaking of asses, the security in Toronto is psychotic! Though we did get metal forks and spoons on the Vancouver plane (plastic knives, though)... Anyway- as I was saying, in BC the security guards just through my stuff in the scanner and let me go, but in Toronto they scanned my coat, searched the pockets, and felt my belt (it was studded, so it kept setting off the alarm). But the lady who was "searching" my belt had her thumbs halfway down my pants in the process. I'm like "Usually you'd buy me dinner and several hundreds worth in jewelry before getting this close to my butt."
So now that I'm here, it's incredibly weird! Everything is so bald! There are vast spaces between buildings, no trees, and yes, there's snow.
Well, I’ll give updates in my less than lazy moments- today I have to go see the eye doctor. Damn this myopic lineage of mine.
Now for my IWTV ranting! The book has a lot more side-quests, for one thing, than the movie... The two that struck me most were Louis and Claudia finding zombie-like vampires (ugly beasts with no intelligence) before encountering Armand & crew. Also, Lestat is the one who tells the theater vampires to attack Claudia and Madeline- he’s there sobbing right before Louis has his little issue with Claudia’s remains. He seems a lot more pathetic afterward than he did in the movie... Oh, and Madeline is a million times different... She’s nuts, for one thing. She owned a doll shop, where she made little replicas of her dead daughter. Once Louis agrees to make Madeline a vampire companion for Claudia, she makes little furniture and so forth for Claudia. She has at least two weeks of life as a vampire before being killed- rather than two minutes as the movie seems to portray. And though I loved the movie a lot before reading the novel, I now see that the actors are so wrong for the roles they play. With the tiny exception of Tom Cruise looking somewhat as I pictured Lestat, the rest look and act completely different. For one thing, you can actually like Claudia in the movie. She’s cute, and seems to do things for moral reasons. In the book she’s insane, and kills (or tries to) three vampires. When Louis is getting horribly beaten on by people, it’s her that’s bashing their heads in with rocks or pokers.

Dec 22nd: Today I went to see Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, and man did it ever rock. I haven’t read the books, even though I saw one in the 25c barrel at my local comic store a couple months back... But, ah, it wasn’t worth that. I was mildly confused by the whole “Two Tower” alliance thing... And I’ll probably, at some point in my life, force myself to suffer through Tolkien’s series. But before that I’m going to track down the rest of Vampire Chronicles before I start mauling people out of repressed curiosity.
In other, shocking news, Sudbury is cold. Very cold.

Dec 23rd: ::Buried in one hundred feet of snow:: Maybe somebody will find my well-preserved corpse in a million years and name it something stupid.
But I also went shopping for A’s Christmas present and tried on fashionable hats. My, do I look great in hats.

Jan 3rd: Well, I can't remember when I wrote last... And my damned DNS is down. So rahh!
Sometime before new years the old gang got together, which was spiffy. I got to see Two Towers again, and make subtext jokes with Adrienne. Ah, and they don't even make us try in this one. The Sam/Frodo tumble was just chalk full of undertones... I mean, if you look at it. Really look... And get plastered. Speaking of which, I found zero new-years parties, and just celebrated quietly. Ahh. It was nice nonetheless.

Jan 4th: Only a few hours until I'm back in BC! I said my good-byes to friends and SO yesterday and woke up around 11am-ish. After eating I went to the bank, thinking to do one quick little transaction before stealing off into the early morning... But my teller was none other than Lauren, who's apparently still in Sudbury. She seemed to feign interest in what I was doing. Made small talk and the such. Ah well. But that wasn't the last old acquaintance I met. I thought I'd be on my own when it came to flying back home, but I met up with a primary-school friend of mine! I hadn't seen Laurel since we went to separate high schools! Today she was going back to Toronto (Where she goes to school now. Her family lives there as well, though they moved shortly after her because of Falconbridge employee relocation). So she was on my first flight with me. It was great to catch up, and made the insanity of that whole flight bearable. Oh yes... Good thing I'm subdued now, because here's what happened;
The plane is delayed, and it takes forever to get our tickets and luggage checked. But finally we go through security, which is stupidly severe. I mean, they won't let you bring nail clippers on board if they have a file attached. The officer actually asked Laurel if he could "snap off" the file bit, then it would be safe for flight. She's like "No! You can't go destroying my things!" It was funny, though. She had to go back and forth to the baggage check, putting all her, so called, dangerous items in her suitcase and not the carry-on. They also made me take my lighter out of my bag and put it in my pocket. WHY? Why. Yes. And I could see the other "contraband" they had confiscated... It was mostly homemade wine bottles and pickle jars. I asked the lady why, and she said they couldn't be sure of the contents. Hum. Yes, well. You know those preserves- Chalk full of ecstasy and uncut cocaine. But eventually we got on the flight, and sat directly behind the loudest, most rambunctious group of kids ever. There was this one toddler -we named him Concussion Boy- who was so spastic that he fell on the ground and rammed his skull right into the foot of my seat. I'm like "that'll calm him down a notch". It most certainly did NOT. But we weren't about to take off... No no. After sitting in the plane for half an hour, and being appeased with flavourless chips, we were told to get off the plane because there was an on-board computer error. Oh whoopy. So that took another 45 minutes to get sorted out, and I definitely missed my first connection to the Vancouver flight. While we were waiting, I rebooked the Van flight to 6:30 instead of 5:30, thinking that would be safe. Oh no. No no no. I missed that one too! And the people in the Toronto Airport were so very, very unhelpful! I kept asking them, "I missed my connection, what do I do?" and they would point in vague directions, trail off into mumbles, and when I asked for clarification, they would tell me to talk to that guy. That Guy. Over There. And he knew just about as much as they did. But I finally sorted it out, and got on a flight that also took forever to get off the ground because Toronto just had a huge snowstorm. GrahhH!!! But once I was en rout it wasn't so bad... One crying baby that eventually shut up... But I got a bit of a disappointment! For most of the time the plane was being prepared I was alone in the two seats around me, but at the very LAST minute a guy sat down beside me. What a nuisance. He kept twitching in his sleep and attacking his meal-tray thing. I was very tempted to poke him, or steal his in-flight snack. Speaking of which, the dinner on this flight was either shoe-fried chicken or mystery-steak-with-noodles. I took my chances with the chicken. At least it didn't have questionable gravy.
Anyway, I finally got into Vancouver around 11 o'clock local time, and was planning on taking the Airporter (a bus that takes you specifically from the airport) when I realized you can't use the BC bus pass with them. What a rip off! That pass is so expensive in the first place, what the hell am I paying for?! I took a cab in the end, but glared at the rich district when I went past it. ::Wails:: How I miss copious money and leisurely transportation!
Now I'm all unpacked, though... And really tired, despite the time-change... ::Slides gradually off chair:: Hmmmmm.... Travelling... Sucks... Monkey... Balls....
Zzz.

Jan 7th: Well, school yesterday and today was pretty good. I left early both times just because I was so tired. So far we’ve had Animation FX- the curtains, Animation- the weight lifter, and Storyboarding- acting. There is great annoyance about the school itself, though. Each classroom has one line testing machine now, which means we had to move around a bunch of stuff to make it fit in the class. It seems a lot more organized than it did yesterday, I just hope everybody’s happy. I don’t really care about where stuff ends up, but it’s annoying when everybody else is agitated. Maybe I might stick around more after class when people settle. (^_^) Or maybe not. It’s nice working at home when I can- not to mention I think I’m still jet-lagged. I’m so tired! I’ve been napping every day this week just so I can get work done, and generally I’m against naps. Rahhh…
Oh, and since I didn’t do it before, I’m going to do the… Gloating Christmas book list:
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien (The illustrated 6-book hardback compilation)
My Father’s Keeper by Stephan Lebert
Sirens and Other Demon Lovers ed. Ellen Datlo
Jack Daws by Ken Follett
The Science of Harry Potter by Roger Highfield
Au Revoir les Enfants by Louis Malle
The Quotable Oscar Wilde

In other news I got a memory stick for my digital camera, a Discman, the Noir CD soundtrack, luggage/laptop case/CD case, jewellery, clothing, a handheld video game, a silver bookmark, a LotR calendar, Spiderman, The Movie, and a dragon ink-stamp set.
And speaking of presents, Happy Birthday Heather! (^_^)

Jan 10th: Today in life drawing we had the most annoying model! At least I thought so. It would take him forever to settle into a pose, and sometimes he would stay still for two seconds, then change suddenly, like he had a “better” idea. Usually that pose sucked more than the first too. Plus he kept insisting on holding positions that were really hard- so he would cut off early, and shake a lot while he was doing it (like, with muscle stress. I don’t know, it just makes me suck at drawing when the model looks uncomfortable).
I finished reading Au Revoir les Enfants today. It was so very sad! I’m planning on renting the movie this weekend, as well as resuming my anime reviews. (^_^) I’ve been kind of neglecting them, but there were extenuating circumstances!

Jan 11th: Yesterday Adam, our life drawing teacher, told the class about a deal at Steamwork’s Pub, where they were giving away free food. So, after an entire morning of color theory, our class and Gideon went there for lunch. The afternoon was also color theory, but I left early since I’d already been through that lecture in the Drawing Fundamentals course. I went back to class and worked on the weight-lifter.
I got home around 6pm, planning to work more on animation and continue reading My Father’s Keeper, but ended up chatting with Libertine. She sent this really god-awful fantasy story named The Eye of Argon. After reading the first paragraph and nearly dying of laughter, I said we had to MST it, and so it began. I was up until 2am, and we still didn’t finish. Tomorrow night at some point I’ll get her half of the MST and reply to that.
Here’s the un-MSTed script: http://www.wulfarchives.com/argon.html
Even without commentary it’s hilarious. So bad it’s good.
Oh, and before I forget, welcome back to the cyber-world, Cherie-pie! I hope you feel all settled in your new Texas home. (^_^)

Jan 12th: Busy, busy day today. I got up at 11am to do groceries, cleaned house, did laundry, and finished the rough detail on my curtains. I’m also halfway through Lebert’s novel now as well. It’s so good! Not well written, but very information-based. My Father’s Keeper isn’t so much a novel as a compilation of information in a kind of narrative form that includes picture and original text inserts from the period.

Jan 17th: Well, I left life drawing early today. I was feeling so antsy and … I don’t know. Frustrated, I guess. I think it’s because I still have so much left to do on the animation assignment. At least that’s the last thing I have left to do for this week. Tomorrow is just color theory.
Oh, when I got home today, guys were renovating downstairs! They ripped up all the carpet, flooring and couches in the foyer of my apartment building. Maybe they‘re trying to excavate the silverfish nest. Hahahah. (>_<)
AND… Happy 20th JAMES! (Though it's not until tomorrow... And who wants to be mentioned as much as possible in this journal.) So here’s my copout gift. ::Dynamic pose::

Jan 20th: I’ve been up since 11am animating. (@_@) But I’m finished the weight lifter and am so relieved! But weird crap has been going on with my apartment. I don’t know if I mentioned this and I can’t be arsed to read over my old entries to check, but there’s new management, and the other day I got this really unprofessional note slipped under my door asking for my information. The thing had typos on it and everything. I haven’t returned it yet for fear of my life. ::Darting eyes::
This week we start doping and slugging classes… I’ve heard nothing but boredom about that. ::Sobs:: I’m going to miss those easy colour-theory Fridays. ::Sighs::

Jan 21st: Well, I feel accomplished. My to-do list is now completely new assignments… Too bad my get up and go got washed down the drain when these assignments started becoming repetitive- three months ago. ::Sighs:: Oh well, it’s not as if I’m going to quit after the cash I shelled out for this school.(>_<)
Ah! But I do have exciting news: The world revolves around my current interests. WTF am I talking about? ! Oh yeah! Last night I was channel surfing, and what else was on Showcase but Interview with the Vampire. Har har. What are the odds? I find the novel while fishing through a 25cent book bin, I rent Nightwalker which is a blatant rip off, and then it’s on TV! Woo! I didn’t watch the whole thing, though, seeing as I passed out due to lack of sleep half way through.
Speaking of which… ::Thunk::

Jan 23rd: Today’s complaint- The markers at my school. Now, I realize this mysterious group of individuals has a lot of work to do, but they could at least put a little effort into marking things that matter. I think every class will agree that they put way more emphasis on labelling of our animation assignments rather than the animation itself. And my personal gripe… Today we got back a bunch of stuff from last semester including character design (did I mention these people are slow assed too? Okay, so that can be partly forgiven due to the mass amounts of stuff we send in…). Most of my work had high marks, despite the fact a few of us had conflicting advice to “use cleaner line” or “loosen up” (it’s either one or the other, people. Maybe a professional can make the fine distinction, but we’re students). Back on the point; one of my character design assignments had absolutely no comments. The only thing written on the mark sheet was this:
“Bad print resolution.
75%”
They didn’t even attempt to mark the drawings themselves, and for the record, the print quality wasn’t that bad. Actually, it wasn’t any worse than the photocopier produces, but people who use that aren’t docked marks. So I used my home computer. Big deal. I needed to reduce the designs to have them fit on one sheet- which we were told to do. I don’t remember ever being told not to hand in PC produced copies, but apparently, assuming I would have received 100% on the assignment, handing in something that is “badly printed” costs 35%.
I’m so sorry I can’t afford top of the line printers now that I’m a student. Oh, and let me just apologize for wanting to EAT instead of spending money on EQUIPMENT because 2D students aren’t allowed into the “good” computer labs. That’s only for the 3D kids. Because they’re special.
But seriously, today was crap. We had a free class during assisting, which I didn’t find out until spending nearly two hours sitting around doing nothing, waiting for the professor. Those admin faeries had secretly changed the posted schedule again, because mine still says “ASSITING ANIMATION”. ::Sighs:: So… So irritating.
Oh, while I was walking home from school today, outside the record store, this guy is like “Wanna be a MTV VJ!?” He was asking everybody under thirty, but I was the only one who burst out laughing at him.
He was wearing hunter’s orange.

Jan 24th: In today's episode of The World Revolves Around Me... Our class probably watchesthe most movies out of the whole school, and for the past few lunch times we've been working through the Back to the Future trilogy. I hadn't seen it before, and actually thought it was genuinely entertaining. Now the me-bit: on tonight's Family Guy, there was a huge skit that made direct reference and jokes about Back to the Future, which I probably wouldn't have found even remotely funny before seeing the actual series. Oh, and speaking of Family Guy, Paul gave me a bunch of the episodes while I was in Sudbury for Christmas break, and what did I return to in Vancouver? Family Guy on Teletoon! Coincidence? Or am I the centre of the universe? You decide.

Jan 25th: I'll review an anime as usual this week, but I also rented Queen of the Damned, which I will bitch and moan about here.
Overall, this movie was painful. The special effects caused mass internal bleeding and Lestat's lip synching made me want to poke out my eyes. And I suspect the producers have been watching far too much Vampire High, because in this instalment, every immortal was hissing. God damnit do I hate it when they're made to hiss. But at least the special effects served to distract away from the element of cheese. I felt as if I was watching some sort of misguided liberal arts college interpretation of a bad acid trip. Everything had multiple silhouettes. You know, like that annoying "trail option" for your cursor? Just imagine every vampire having that whenever they move around. But that's just technological constraints... What's not forgivable are the naked party-goers. They could have at least rendered clothes on the 3D crowds. Honestly. It looked like a big bank of undressed SIMMs sprites. But it wasn't all bad. The fight scenes seemed fairly well done, and I must admit, the way the "real" vampires were identified in the concert's crowd was pretty keen.
As for the new actors (I'll call them by their character names since I'm sure nobody else can be arsed to know these talentless buggers either)... they were mediocre. It seemed like each actor had one emotion they could portray very well, but were stuck on that. Well, except for the kid playing Armand. His acting skills were jammed at 'psychotic gaze'. Lestat was less immortal and more brattish kid throughout the entire thing, and he only resembled Lestat at few angles. Brown hair, brown eyes, plain face... Ah, right. That breathtaking creature we call... Jimmy Plain. But Aaliyah, oh Aaliyah. She was beautiful. The way she moved and looked... Well... All powerful. She's the only character I could really stand to look at for prolonged measures of time.
So it's basically worth watching this movie if you're really fond of Marilyn Manson music and have a very, very good sense of humour.

Jan 26th: God damn mother fucking whore hopping son-of-a bitch! Now, to explain why I’m justified to curse so colourfully…
Last night I came home and noticed a damp bit on my carpet. I didn’t think anything of it. I mean, I tend to spill water when I’m watering my plants anyway. So I ignored it. It didn’t seem to be drying up, either, and I thought it may be spreading, but I chalked that up to the humidity, and after working until nearly four o’clock in the morning, I went to bed. Everything is quiet, save for a persistent…
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
So I listen, and try to find where the noise is coming from. While I’m creeping toward it, I notice the entire spot of rug around my heater is sopping wet, and the dripping is from the pipes, and absolutely no heat is coming from the unit. So, I swear a bit, have a little tantrum, put a bowl under the leak, and go back to bed, thinking to call my landlord in the morning to complain.
But I just wasn‘t fast enough.
I wake up to an irritating knocking. It’s 9am, and I wonder who the fuck is at my door. So I grab the blankets off my bed, bundle up, and stumble over to open it. But nobody’s there. I’m like “ah, it was probably nothing.” and go back to bed. I’m just drifting when I hear a key in a door. Wait, that’s not the neighbour coming home, that’s a key in MY door. So, I die of a heart attack, and notice this lady walk in, asking if I’m having problems with my heating. I’m like “holy shit. Who are you. What’s going on. OMG. Be glad I didn’t lunge at you with a knife. You silly, silly woman do you realize how close you were to death.”
So apparently she’s the weekend care taker of the building, and came because there were complaints about water leakage on the 7th floor. Okay, fine. So I call a plumber, wait half the day for him to show up, he smells up my apartment with soldering, and talks to me about anime. Now my entire day is ruined, and the landlady has sent away for a giant, and apparently very noisy fan that will be brought into my home to dry the rug. Auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
A life of evil may have fringe benefits, but the bad karma just keeps biting you in the ass.

Jan 31st: Today in class we watched a terribly translated version of Giant Robo, which made it all the more funny! That anime personifies every anime stereotype; there's the busty heroin, the irate big dude, the suave drunk guy, the all-powerful kid, the helpless but useful scientist, and a myriad of other comical personalities.
In more annoying news, somebody has a crush on me, and keeps sending me those irritating "online crush" emails, where you don't know who unless you can guess their e-mail address. Well, I'm not playing, and I'm also blocking that stupid crush game, so if you are trying to woo me, try something that will cause me a little less aggravation! Or better yet, find another Gothy swordsman to stalk. Rah!
Anyway, on my way home from the video store, there was this drag queen protesting the sidewalk signs that have popped up around the businesses on Davie. I totally gave her the thumbs up, because those signs are annoying! Especially in a high-traffic area like that.

Feb 2nd:Okay, I know I take a lot of controversial stances on subjects, but this anti-smoking lobby is really getting out of hand. Whatever happened to the right of choice? I mean, people do tons of things that endanger their lives, but you don’t see the government shutting down every McDonalds on the block because half the population is obese and dying of relating complications, and those who relax with extreme sports like skydiving and rock climbing, they don’t have every concerned citizen on their backs trying to get them to change their choice of lifestyle! I mean, come on people. I realize it’s a health risk- but what isn’t? I don’t condone getting people started, but for those who are already addicted, let’s have a little understanding, shall we? A little moderation! It’s getting to the point that smokers are a minority that people are allowed to discriminate against, and be as insulting or cruel as they please. Every day smokers see commercials on television that tell them they’re inconsiderate, that they smell bad, that they’re going to age prematurely, that they’re practically murdering their friends and family. If any other group of people had that kind of stuff said to them, people would be up in arms!
Besides, if the amount of second hand smoke you get from standing beside somebody is enough to kill you, then you may as well purchase yourself a glass bubble to live in, because even if smoking is made completely illegal, the pollution from cars and other exhausts is going to do you in regardless.
Oh, and I should probably mention that I’m not a smoker, but I’m still pissed right off- out of sympathy for people who started smoking when it was socially acceptable, and can’t quit now, so they have to put up day in and day out with harassment. And that’s what it is, people. Keep preaching your anti-smoking ideas if you like, but at least admit you’re just as bad as any racist out there.

Feb 3rd: EEeee! ::Does the happy dance:: I heard from James today that there are Order of the Phoenix posters up in BC bookstores! Yayyyy!!! The release date this time is June 30th, and seeing actual physical evidence gives me hope that this’ll actually be the day I see the book. (^_^) ::Pre-orders it online:: Mwheheheh.
I also saw somebody today who looked exactly like a friend of mine from Sudbury, right down to this trademark coat he always wears. So I was kind of at a loss of what to do- I mean, do you wave? Or just walk by- but if it’s really the person you know, then that just seems rude. So I just did the half-ass-can-be-disguised-as-fixing-hair wave. Turns out it wasn’t him. Ah well. They say everybody has one twin in the world. Strangely enough mine was in Sudbury. (o_0) Hopefully I don’t have another in BC.

Feb 4th: ::Rant rant:: Okay, you know what’s really irritating? When people hover around me while I’m working. Now, I don’t mind at all when it’s my friends, and I can deal with it when it’s other classmates, but when I’ve asked an instructor to correct my work, the people hovering around are pacing back and forth, they’re from an entirely different class, and happen to be upperclassmen, then I start feeling a little claustrophobic! That happened today. A bunch of people wanted to see the animation teacher, and decided to come in while he was looking through my project. And they couldn’t just sit and wait, either. I mean, yeah, I know they’re trying to learn from my mistakes, but the last thing I want people I don’t even know seeing is me failing miserably at animating something! Augh!!! I was this close to telling the prof “thanks, that’s enough grading. I’ll just fix the rest myself, because there are obviously other people who need your attention.” I left class early anyway, so I could have some alone-time on my walk back from school. ::Sigh:: I’m calm now, though. Oh, and as for cool news- there was this huge film shoot going on outside my school today; they had all sorts of old Fords lining the road, including a super old school police car that said “City of Memphis” on it. I wonder which show it was… And the funniest thing was the alley in the back of our building- I think I’ve mentioned it before- it’s full of crack users and prostitutes. At any rate, they “cleaned” it out, and put more trash in there to make it look like an “authentic” alley. Bah! It was way more realistic with the passed out vagrants and flaming mattresses.

Feb 7th: We had class at the 3D campus today, so Kyla and I tracked down Matt and dragged him, James, and another 3D student out to lunch. We all went to the community college for cheap food (since they’re just learning how to make everything there). There were three main places to get food, and the college was set up something like a mall; there was a cafeteria style line up where you could get quick lunches and snacks, a nice looking restaurant, and a bakery that was barred off to the public (the hell??). It didn’t seem all that inexpensive, though, and Kyla’s chicken was some sort of weird “surprise within”. It was filled with raisins and other unexplainables. Well, I didn’t buy anything since I’m poor and just brought a PB&J sandwich- which I’m glad about now. There didn’t seem to be any food worthwhile, and apparently some lady made a big to-do about the use of veal while she was waiting in line for food. Poor culinary students. (-_-) That’s got to be a shot to the self esteem. I wouldn’t want to be their instructor, explaining that it’s not their skill, but the dumbassery of others.

Feb 8th: I can’t believe how much of a fuckwad my server is being… It’s been down for three days, and they still aren’t replying to my messages of concern and ire! Rahhh!!!
In more progressive news, there are little leaves and flowers on the trees here! According to the people who have lived in BC, spring is a month early- but for me, who’s used to only seeing greenery in June, it’s like some sort of insane explosion of mother nature. Okay, that’s exaggerating. But it’s incredibly odd. It feels like winter was the two weeks I spent in Sudbury, and it’s been spring ever since. Huh.
Argh, my neighbours are constantly knocking on something again. (>_<) It reminds me of that comic, though… This isn’t an exact quote, but the joke went something like:
“I like to play my music really loud, which disturbed the neighbours, so to let me know they wanted it turned down, the guy living next door would bang on the wall. I’d weird him out by saying “you have to go around!” whenever he started knocking.”
I don’t’ do the gag justice, but it was damn funny. I haven’t tried anything like that, though, for fear of being evicted and hated by my neighbours.

Feb 11th: The instructor and class made this big to-do about me leaving early today; it was actually really funny, they were all saying how the class just lost all its moral when I left. ::Fluffs hair:: Well, that I can believe.
Oh, but before I could retreat home, I was snagged by a girl from Class 44, where I met Liz, who wanted me to be a potential narrator for her film. (^_^) It’d be cool if I made the cut!
In crappy news, the neighbours upstairs are building something that involves hammering, and my domain was lost when Bluezebra changed their server. I’m going to bother the tech tomorrow to get it up and running.

Feb 13th: I left life drawing early today; I find it so hard to stay in that class. I mean, I religiously show up for every other class, and am always there early to get some work done before the lecture starts, but when it comes to life drawing, something just arrests me. It’s not that it’s difficult- there are plenty of things that I can’t draw, and just keep repeating until I have them down pat, but I just get so frustrated… And feel guilty for leaving, but I can’t help it. I feel like there’s so much other stuff I need to do, and that life drawing is wasting my time- which it really isn’t, I know. It’s the one class that really keeps giving; you can never have enough practice drawing the human form, but… Argh! It’s so hard to explain. ::Sighs:: I don’t know. I’ll try to keep going, at least for half classes. I think maybe it’s just too long for me to just sit and do the same thing. No wait, that’s not true- I sit and read for days at a time. ::Shrugs:: Well, it’s a mystery. An annoying, aggravating mystery.

Feb 14th: Well, today was pretty eventful. On the way home there were a bunch of people forming a protest against war; the actual march is tomorrow, I believe. I guess they didn’t want to have it on Valentine’s day. Speaking of which, nothing much went on. I got chocolates from my parents yesterday via mail, and today Denise was giving out those little message-hearts. The things people got were hilarious- mine was “E Z to Please”. Aww! That makes me sound so cheap. (^_~) That and it’s blatantly untrue! Speaking of Denise, her and a couple of other people that tend to be away a lot got notices that they’ll be kicked out of the program if they’re absent again- I’m like… Whoa. That’s pretty harsh. I mean, it’s sort of annoying when the professors have to wait for a bunch of kids that never show up, but we all paid for this program, so it should be our choice which classes we attend or not. I wouldn’t have a problem with other people’s attendance if the instructors would start at 9am sharp, no matter who’s late, absent, or listening. I paid too, and I’m there every morning unless I’m on my deathbed or dealing with corporation, and I want the teaching I shelled out the bucks for.
I saw the “Wako Jako” interview on Much Music today. Man, Michael Jackson is an odd individual, but honestly, I don’t think he’s perverse or out to be some sort of king… He’s just arrested at childhood. He probably didn’t molest those kids, I bet he just relates to them because they’re the only people on the same wavelength as him. ::Shrugs:: I’m sick of hearing about him anyway. What is there to be curious about? He’s got a skin disease, he’s had plastic surgery, he lives in a big fruity house. What celebrity doesn’t? And if you want to see freaks, just go to rotten.com, and get your fill. No need to harass this poor challenged guy.
In happy news, my scholarship money finally came in today! Yay! I’m rich again! … Okay, so not rich, but at least I can buy some food now. And maybe some curtains that don’t keep falling down… Heheh.
In annoying insanity news, Bluezebra is still jerking me around about this hosting thing. I don’t remember how much detail I went into about this, but when they transferred to a new server on their end, my page “disappeared”. The only backup they had was on tapes (the fuck!!!) which they weren’t too sure how to operate and would take a bunch of time to recoup. So I’m like “fine, even though I’m working with a 56k modem, send me the new information so I can log in, and I’ll upload it again myself”. Unfortunately, the next day my e-mail (hosted by them as well) went down. Hum. Suspicious. So I call again, asking what’s up with that, and if I can have the info over the ‘phone. The tech says he’ll call me back with the info since he has to give another guy a buzz to get it. Great. But the thing is- he never calls back. They’re going to get some very annoyed ranting tomorrow if there isn’t a happy e-mail waiting for me with plenty of hosting information in it. Rahhh!!!
Hey, and bon voyage to James, who’s going to the US of A!

Feb 21st: Argh, my server is still not up. I uploaded (painfully, and at 56k, I might add) all my files, but they haven’t been moved to the domain name server, so there’s just a bunch of garbage showing up at gongaga.com at the moment. God damnit. Not to mention my providers are still assing about with things- not responding to my mail and ‘phone calls… Gr. Just so you know, Bluezebra Hosting has very bad customer service, everybody. There, I’ve said it. And if they want me to retract that statement, they can E-MAIL me. Hahah. Seriously.
On a lighter note, while I was out today shopping, I saw the funniest thing in the “Valentine’s remainder bin”… Crocodile Hunter cards. Be still my beating heart.

Nothing shows my love for you like being bitten in the eye by a poisonous snake!

No, it didn’t actually say that. But I was laughing out loud at the idea of it. Maybe that’s why the clerks were following me around with such suspicion…

Feb 26th: Today our class went on a tour of Bardel Studio. We saw a couple of the projects they were working on including Sinbad and Silverwing… I believe the latter is based on a series of books. Basically it follows the migration of a family of bats along the West coast. The entire look of the show is like The Secret of Nimh. I saw a bunch of character designs, backgrounds, and story boards for it- they all looked so amazing; it’s airing in the fall according to the secretary. Here’s what I could find online about it:
http://www.abcap.org/news%20postings/bardel%20april%200202.htm
We also saw The Mr. Dink Show, which is a flash animated series, mostly intended to be humorous. It’s basically a bunch of episodes following “adventures” of the protagonist, Dink… Did I mention he’s always naked? Yeah. The main theme says “nobody knows why”, but the producer, Ron Crown, told us it’s because -and I quote- “Mr. Dink is challenged- the area of his brain that tells us to wear clothes doesn’t work for him.” The look of the series reminded me a lot of a cross between Daft Planet and Quads - particularly the ending, which featured the exact same credit style as Quads, except for the fact there’s a different ending theme for each episode. We got to see three eps in total- the first was an unimpressive fifteen minutes that rehashed the “we lost a ball in a scary old lady’s yard” bit. That was the last episode in the first season, which will air on the Comedy Network starting May 16th, I believe. The other two episodes were about Dink’s neglectful father, and a sharp shooting contest. I wasn’t really impressed with that series so much, but I’m sure it has some sort of redeeming quality since it won The Animation Award - I saw the plaque on Mr. Crown’s wall.

Feb 28th: This week has been murder work-wise. Luckily we got a bit of an extension on the Werner animation, which is cold comfort. I was looking forward to having nothing to do on the weekend, but now I’ll feel obliged to work on this thing to make it the best I can in the time allotted. Sigh. Next term starts on Monday, and so do the new students of class 48 (I think that’s what we’re at now). Oh, in that class are Keli (who used to be in my class) and Jess, who was in part time with Kyla, James and I! Kyla was at work and Jess was one of her customers. Isn’t that fate or what? Ah, it’ll be nice to see them again, but those lucky bastards don’t have to go to convergence, and they get a class we didn’t: Acting for Animators. A bunch of people from my class wanted to drop in to see what’s up. I don’t really think I want to go near the actors; apparently the graffiti around the school has been pinned on the new acting class. I wouldn’t be surprised, it was the most uninspired defacing in the history of man. Lower than “Whoever wuz hear”… They wrote “VFS” all over the elevators. Um. Okay. So carving your school’s name into your building is something of… pride… for the institution… I suppose. O_o
Tonight there was some sort of party going on, which is -ah-… Okay. But who the hell decided to have a party on the Thursday of the last week of term? Nobody’s going to show up! Well, at least nobody from 2D who wants to pass their assignments. Speaking of which, we just got news that those who have missed any assignments can’t do final film. I’m laughing. I’ve missed zero, and worked my ass off to do it too. Those who slacked, went out to party, and so forth, are screwed! ::Crosses arms:: I think it’s fair, but the administrators probably should have told us earlier, for the sake of the people who had to legitimately work to pay rent.

March 4th: Well, apparently there’s an opening at a studio in my old home town. I’m kind of torn up about what to do- it would be great to get a job there since living with my parents would help me pay off my loan faster, and the experience would be excellent, not to mention I would have the upper hand over most of my classmates because I’m bilingual (unlike most of the people on the East Coast), and am willing to move to that tiny little mining town… But even though it’s an option at VFS, I don’t really want to leave right before final film to get a job… Even though out of all the times to leave, right now *would* be best. Argh! It’s so annoying because I know if I went to get real job experience I could make a kick-ass final film when I came back… And that would rock since a lot of the teachers say that during their school training was the only time they got to do an independent film because when you’re in the job market there’s never the time nor the resources.
Anyway, today was the first day of term 4, and the new class was rearing to go. Kyla and I were talking to Jess before class, telling her about the ropes. Apparently there are only eight people in class 47! ACK! That’s even smaller than us… Huh. Well, people say the March starters are always very few- it’s the first time there’s even been a March class in 4 years. Our assignment today was lip-synch with Ren. It’s so tedious, but it doesn’t seem like too much of a big deal. The huge assignment is this wiener that dances around and signs about horse-meat… Yeah. I’m thinking that too.
In other news, I’m getting annoyed with people that have no social grace. And here I thought it was common courtesy to not insult people directly, not stare at them for prolonged periods of time for no reason, and to at least try not to whip stuff their way when all they’re doing is minding their own business. But apparently, that’s far too much to ask. Oh, and there’s a difference between a dinner fork and a dessert fork, people! AND TAFFETA IS NEVER A FASHION STATEMENT! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Okay, I’m sane again.

March 5th: I finished reading De Profundis today, and it was an exceptional book (well, technically it’s not a book as much as the 80 page letter Oscar Wilde sent to Bosie -Lord Alfred- during his imprisonment) if you can make it through the length numerous literary references. Particularly during the first couple of pages, there are about one hundred footnotes, but the actual content is absolutely inspiring. Basically there are three subjects Oscar covers: his life with Bosie, his self-discovery in prison, and realizations about scripture. The latter was a dry, as an atheist who has never read the bible, I was a little lost, but it definitely humanizes Jesus. Wilde actually compares the man to artists in the way he perceived the world. But of all the things Oscar says, I think the most profound is that one must accept even negative times of their life as growing experiences, and that living constantly in luxury and happiness will only result in the most painful ending because one comes to expect more and more, rather than accepting less and feeling joy when more unknowingly presents itself. Of course I can’t do Wilde’s eloquence justice, so I really recommend reading this, even if it is slow-going, if not for the simple fact nearly every idea the man writes down is a memorable quote then to read about the sordid details of Wilde’s life. But really, you can watch the movie Wilde for that, so do read De Profundis for the philosophy.

March 7th: Today some guy came knocking at my door… It was so bizarre.

Guy

March 8th: It was snowing this morning, just a few flurries, but of course this is Vancouver, and people were absolutely going nuts. The news was like “it’s a blizzard!!!”. I’m like “I’ve walked to school in a real blizzard, and THAT is just the sky pissing. A blizzard is when you can’t see two inches ahead of you, every corner promises the danger of being horribly mangled by a snow plough, and it’s so cold your eyelids freeze shut!” But it cleared up in the afternoon, and everybody settled down again. I’ll bet the cold killed all the cherry blossoms that were blooming, though.
Life drawing was a bigass waste of time. It was nearly completely a lecture; we drew for like… Fifteen minutes, and it was forced structure. I KNOW my structure, and I ace anatomy, I need the flow and so forth of gestures. But noooo. It’s not about improving skills now, it’s about the torso! AEGH.
But all that is forgotten and forgiven, because I got my Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets CDs from Adrienne today! YAY! YAY! Can I express how YAYed I am!!! AHHHHH! ::Does a little dance:: I’m going to watch Draco fall on his butt until I go BLIND God damnit!

March 9th: James leant me this short story, The Machine Stops, which I just finished reading- and I was completely blown away. I think the underlying meaning of Forster’s writing can be summed up in one of the last quotes of his story, “… Beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven.”
What’s really impressive about The Machine Stops is how eerily precognisent Forster’s ideas were; he predicts that, in the future, people won’t interact in person, rather through a network of audio and video apparatus that aren’t exactly the image of real-life human intercourse, but close enough that individuals adapt, and begin to never leave their rooms. But this, directly, isn’t the cause of their downfall; the machine begins to crumble when it is revered as a spiritual deity, and people begin to reject new Ideas, saying that all things discussed should be unbiased “from the taint of personality”. Those of us, in 2003, and, in fact, during the years before us, who have tried to introduce new ideas, can see how chilling Forster’s predictions really are. While old ideas, presented in a new way, are readily eaten up by our quick-fix civilization, anything truly novel is inevitably feared or rejected until it becomes familiar, and even then, those who first begin to accept it meet much the same fate as Forster’s characters, who are punished with Homelessness: expulsion from the machine.
As for Forster’s curiously accurate interpretation of the future, what would make him write such a thing? Was it a guess, an actual prediction, or do those who think about something first set the future of what is to come? Personally, I believe it’s a combination of the three, for all those who have had ideas beyond their time. They may create the ideas from dreams or hopes, but as civilization recovers from its shock at their novelty, it adopts them into its own mechanics, and makes those ideas part of our modern-day machine.

March 11th: Well, I went to the bank today, luckily we had a free class in the afternoon so I just took off after lunch. My bank card stopped working last night; apparently it got blocked because I’d entered the wrong password 3 times in a row- which I did only just last night because it had stopped working. Who the hell knows how that works out, but that’s all sorted out now.
It was super warm today, that kind of warm that makes the asphalt stink… The sudden change in temperature gave me a real pain in the ass too. >_< Ugh. I actually napped for a while when I finally got home… ::Yawns:: And I think I’ll probably just turn in early.

March 12th: I finished reading The Catcher in the Rye today. I was urged to read the thing by Mike, who said it was one of those books that’s considered a right of passage for students. So, in the interest of moving on with my life, I ploughed through it in a couple of days. It was a super easy read, especially after De Profundis, but nonetheless it was also a good story. Basically the whole novel is an anecdote from the judgemental and starkly opinionated main character, Holden, depicting what happens to him from the time he is kicked out of Penecy school to his reunion with his family. It’s a little like reading somebody’s diary, since the author doesn’t even consider the fourth wall- Holden constantly talks to his audience. What really makes this amusing to read is the slang Holden uses; because The Catcher in the Rye was written so many years ago, a lot of the terms he uses have circulated out of use, and it’s interesting to see them.
In less enlightening news, today life drawing was portraiture, starting with a 45 minute “let’s look at a picture book” session, where the instructor interpreted a bunch of paintings by this artist. I forget this name- Andrew something. At any rate, the pieces were basically the same subject, alone, sometimes on landscape, sometimes indoors. She never really changed expressions, either, but the instructor was really hot on this painter, so she kept saying how every piece had these feelings- like prayer, reflection, sadness, protection. I’m like “She’s just sitting there. There’s nothing to interpret.” Of course I didn’t say it out loud… I have this irksome little feeling that the prof doesn’t like me in the first place. I wouldn’t want to go poking sleeping lions in the eye. Wait, is that how the saying even goes? Nonetheless, half our mark is attendance, and the other is… A mystery. But I think we can all fill in the blank.

March 16th: Ugh, I’ve been so crapped out lately. I caught yet another cold, and it’s been hell. Regardless, I went in to school today because I really had to line test what I’d drawn. On the way the bus took a different rout -which alarmed most of the passengers- because of a huge ass peace protest that was going on around Smithe street. I heard from James that’s what it was, and that it went rather well, if not for the flagrent hippy-vibe they exuded. Huff. I’d really like for some serious people to start protesting the war, rather than graphitising signs with “NO WAR” and making up annoying slogans that rhyme.

March 17th: Seems my apartment has acquired a song bird; she’s been singing since yesterday… I wonder if she’s trying out for Canadian Idol? Hah. It’s nice and all, to hear that kind of thing in the city, but I don’t think she’d get into the competition. Ah well, nobody here has started yelling for her to shut up. Not like that homeless opera-guy that made us all puke.

March 26th: Yesterday was our first official day of final film! (^_^) Yay! I’m happy to say I’m ahead of the game for now, today I’ve started on my layouts and have five scenes done in rough. I’ll probably get a hell of a lot more done tomorrow since we have film all day. Unfortunately Friday afternoon is our last life drawing class- featuring dogs. Well, a dog. A Doberman. So I’m totally not going to be able to draw for fear of death! I mean, sure, it’s trained, but people saying “it’ll be okay” does not immediately cure my canine phobia! Why couldn’t they get another sort of animal? A cat! A bird! Something tiny and unthreatening. ::Wails:: Plus we have one “extra” life drawing class on Sunday. It’s for drapery and other stuff. I’m still debating whether or not I want to go. If I really need to fill in my portfolio I’d rather go to Adam or Trent’s classes, where we’re more free to just draw.

March 27th: Somebody up there likes me, because the dog and its trainer didn’t show up for the class today! Woo hoo. But now that my trauma is over, I’m more agitated about my time being wasted. I also learned that my life drawing instructor wrote the “What About Mimi” song. ::Cough::
In other news, while I was walking home from grocery shopping today, there was a huge bank of cyclists (and I think some walking people too) shouting and so forth, slowly making their way down Davie street. There were two cops, one with what looked like a video camera, as well. I just quickly hurried by… Maybe the news tomorrow will shed some light as to what the hell these people were doing.
By the time I got home it was pretty late, though. I stayed at school until six o’clock doing layout, but I’m finally done. I just need to get a professor to check it, then I’ll be on my way to rough animation. It’s a good thing I’m ahead too, because my characters have shading, which will be a huge pain in the ass during DIP and clean up.
Back in Sudbury it’s been pretty shitty as I hear- my poor rattie Pettigrew has a tumour that’s growing very quickly. I kind of expected that since he was deformed from the onset, but I still feel bad that I won’t be there for his last days… Speaking of things on their last legs, my mum’s monitor crapped out the other day, and the new LCD one screwed over her PC… So I’ve been giving technical support over ICQ, and hoping things work out. So far her sound card is the only thing still suffering from that huge screw up, so I’m probably going to end up doing a tech-support thing over the phone. (^_^) Ahhh, we all know how much fun that always turns out to be.
As for me, I’m planning on adding this huge new section to the site- I’m going to summarize and make profiles for the entire first season of Sailor Moon. It’s turning out to be a hugeass job, but I want to make Gongaga Yaoi less hodgepodge. Hopefully I’ll get every series slashed in my archive of fics and art as its own section as well.

March 29th: Yesterday Kyla came over to do her Leica reel, which took a lot of the day but it was hilarious. Her idea is so funny too. Mine’s just plain psychotic. But I’ve been doing layout, which is becoming frustrating because it’s so specific- right down to “you can’t label it in the top right corner, it has to be the top LEFT”, plus it has to be checked off by an instructor before I can begin animation.
I also ran into the most anal-retentive bus driver in the history of man. Just in case you don’t know, bus passes are issued for the next month the last week of the current month, so I’ve had my April pass for about five days. I’ve used it countless times, but when I get onto this bus, the driver’s like “that’s not valid”. Now, it’s the last day of March, but he won’t let me on! Luckily I had my old pass, but that was just retarded.

April 1st: YAY! I’ve finished my layout! Officially! All hail me! Ahh, this feeling of accomplishment was worth all the pointless waiting and annoyances. Now all I have to do is thumbs of my title/end credits and I’m off into the world of rough animation. Huzzah.
I have two new pet peeves today, though. One: big groups of people having impromptu parties in the middle of the sidewalk. Go INSIDE the restaurant you losers. And two: individuals who take an elevator to go up ONE floor, slowing down those of us who live seven stories higher.
In amazing news: HARRY POTTER out on April 11th! ALL REJOICE! ::Shakes fist:: Rejoiiiiice!

April 3rd: I was planning on sleeping and working at home all day today, but some neighbour of mine has taken to walking their crying baby up and down the hall every day at 10am. So I ended up going to school after taking the morning off because it was the one instructor I don’t really like teaching that day… At any rate, I went in during the afternoon and showed Moose my End and Beginning credit layouts, so I got started on animation.
When I got home I watched Swimfan and Perfect Blue (which is this week’s review. It’ll be posted Sunday). Swimfan was such an awesome movie… Seriously, the cinematography was absolutely awesome. And in the end, you really empathized with the psychotic girl, despite how… well, psychotic she was. ::Cough:: Well, I felt for her at least.
Tomorrow there’s some party going on which I’m dropping in on. I won’t stay too long like last time since I have no intention of getting sick again. It’s before 12 bedtimes for me regularly now, death be damned!

April 5th: Well yesterday’s party went pretty well. Everybody was really subdued because they were all on final film, though. I was pretty tired and ended up going home around 1am, in the interest of being healthy. Oh! And I was just told that it was hard to interpret what I meant by my sickness in the previous entry: I mean that I got home late, and then caught a cold. I’m not really in the interest of drinking until I’m nauseous. Just not my style. This morning, well afternoon, I was woken up by my dad calling. It’s a good thing, too, because it was nearly 1pm, and I really dislike sleeping in nowadays… Feels like I’m wasting time. Anyway, we talked about the SARS epidemic corresponding to the war and how that’s happened quite a bit in the past (sickness and conflict in the world) and the more banal news of 30cm of snow Sudbury got. Holy crap! (>_<) Now I know why I like this happy costal weather. Oh well, maybe the snow will burry my SO’s toddler nephew.
::Yawns:: Well I really should get my ass to the video store and return the DVDs before they start calling me in threatening ways. Hee hee. (^_^)

April 8th: I just had the weirdest experience ever… I went to school this morning but suddenly started feeling nauseous around noon, so I went home and went to sleep. What’s odd is I fell asleep really soundly and dreamed very vividly and realistically (I generally don’t have realistic dreams, they’re usually disjointed and well… dreamy). I woke up to people talking down in the courtyard; somehow it made me dream of daycare. I guess that’s because it was the only other place I slept during the afternoon and people weren’t quiet around. I’m not in the habit of napping so when I did at home people were purposefully quiet because they knew it was important to let me get rested. I also felt like I slept a really long time -a night time sleep rather than a napping one- when it was really just an hour and a bit. I hope I’m not more sick than I think, because I tend not to have weird stuff like that happen unless I’m really ill. Anybody who knows me well knows when I sleep, I don’t really; I wake up every couple of hours every night. I seriously don’t remember the last time I slept the whole time between drifting off and waking up in the morning, whether it be by alarm or naturally. It was probably never, regardless.

April 9th: In the wonderful world of Vancouver, the police suddenly decided to clean up our “notorious” Hastings street, where my school is, so when I came in this morning there was some guy getting arrested by like 10 cops right in front. According to James they’re arresting anybody who has an outstanding record for drug dealing/purchase. There’ve been something like 150 convictions already, which I don’t really think will help matters, but I’m not complaining. I’m sick of running into crack heads every time I try to get to class, it’d just be nice if they actually set up a program that works for this sort of thing. I don’t know, “Feed the homeless with the addicts”, something like that. But not everybody is pro-soylent green. Speaking of cause seekers, a bunch of anti-war people were stopping American trucks at the boarder yesterday, which is just stupid. Who are they convincing? The only people who get pissed off are the poor truckers who fear losing their jobs over failing to deliver the cargo. Oh, and the UBC assistants are still striking, clogging up roads during exams and so forth. That really pisses me off; I saw this one piece of footage of a car surrounded by protestors so it couldn’t move.
I would have mowed them down. I really, really would have.

April 10th: We learned how to direct voice actors from Douglass Newell today. It was the most hilarious thing I’ve ever witnessed; the guy did every voice impression you could imagine, and he knew what slash was and asked if there were any Hentai fans in the class. ‘Course I was the only one with guts enough to actually say “woo! Hentai!” and raise my hand, but the fact he knew about it in the first place astounded me. After that we had lunch then animation. Rob, who’s been absent for the past few weeks came in for a little while. He didn’t look so happy- we all thought he was just doing his film at home, I hope nothing’s actually wrong other than his general preference for 3D over classical animation.
Oh, during afternoon class Jed, Mike, Kyla, James and I had this huge discussion about morals and respect for human life. The theoretical question was, if you saw somebody dying on the road, would you stop to help them? They said because of their respect for human life, because they feel responsible as a member of society, they would stop and help, even if they couldn’t do anything to physically help the person, they would stay by their side for moral support. I was the only one who said, no, I wouldn’t stop. It’s egocentric, yes, but I wouldn’t want to be involved legally for stopping, I know no CPR or first aid so I couldn’t possibly help, and I’m not going to risk my healthy life for some dying one. Apparently being super logical about this kind of thing makes me emotionless and the spawn of Satan. (¬_¬`) This is where I burst into evil laughter, I suppose. Mwha hah? … At any rate, I still maintain that if I could do something, or if it were somebody close to me I would stop. It’s just not worth if for some stranger that, whether or not I “might” know them in the future, or “could” provide moral support for in their dying moments, I can’t really help. Besides, if I were on my deathbed, the last person I‘d want to see hovering over me offering half-hearted encouragement would be… me.
When I left for the day I was taking pictures of all the plants that are in bloom to send to my mum, and you wouldn’t believe the weird looks you get when you’re running around town with a camera. I mean, what is the problem, people? I’m taking a picture of a tree. It isn’t something that really warrants turning, stopping, and staring.

April 12th: Today was pretty eventful. In lieu of going to class since we had the same instructor all day I went shopping. It was pretty funny since I had to shop for skirts my size in the children’s section and the lady asked who they were for. (>_<) I said for my niece because it was embarrassing admitting anything else. Not to mention she was a nice old lady that gave me this huge discount on the purchase. It ended up as $10 for 3 pieces of clothing. Damn, it rocks being small. I also bought some shoes, since all I had before were boots. I don’t think an interviewer would be all too pleased if I showed up wearing knee-high lace up leather boots with buckles. Or maybe they would. Hummm.
And of course, the Harry Potter movie is everywhere. My parents said they'd send it as an Easter present, which is so sweet since they already sent me my favorite Whoopers Robin Eggs chocolate. ^_^ Speaking of which, my grandpa sent me chocolate too, which is super-nice seeing as he lives in America and postage is a huge caning event these days.
Tonight I sold my laptop too! My old one, that is. That’s just awesomeness. It was just gathering dust in my closet anyway, now that I have my Pentium IV laptop to use ::Pet pets it:: ::Looks smug::.

April 13th: Well, it’s official. My poor little rat Pettigrew died today. I feel really bad that I wasn’t there in Sudbury to be with him. Not a lot of people understand that, thinking “oh, it’s just a rat”, but think of it as your family dog. If that died, wouldn’t you want to be there with it? ::Sighs:: It was really to be expected though because of all his malformations. On the good side I was told he went really peacefully. It’s always better that way. Some of my rats weren’t so lucky, but I was there for them to comfort them at least. Gosh, I really do feel like I should have been there. I don’t think I’ll be buying any other pets for a while now. Not until I know I can be with them enough.

April 19th: Last night was just… Weird. Luckily, I fell asleep around 8:00PM. This may seem like a bad idea, but what happens next is the bizarre part; At midnight there’s a knock on my door that wakes me up, but by the time I get there nobody’s on the other side. They slipped a note under my door, though. It says “Stop making noise or we’ll be forced to call security (12:10, April 18th)”. I’m like… “Uh, what? I was *sleeping*.” Unless I was screaming insanely in my sleep, I don’t know what kind of noise they were hearing. But then again, if I hear horrific cries of anguish, I tend not to be just like “oh, that’s annoying”. (o_Ô) They probably just heard the party that was going on next door. At any rate, I went back to sleep until 6:00AM, when the fire alarm went off. It went on for about 20 minutes, then stopped. So I drifted off again until it went off again at 9:30AM, but this time it was only on for a couple of minutes. I finally got up at 12:30pm. LoL, what a stupid night. I’m glad I fell asleep so damned early, though, because I’m actually fairly rested now.

April 22th: Okay, this morning was just irritating. Everybody came back from Easter Weekend to find that we were recording sound at 10 o’clock in the morning. Now because the only notification was Thursday night at 5pm (well after most people had left), the usual 70% of students were missing, and nobody was ready. My voice actor was in another province, and I tried to appeal about getting my recording date moved, but they were really insistent about doing it today. Our instructor didn’t even know it was going on, so he talked to the administrators, and everything got cancelled. Normal day again. So we went to work, then a secretary came in, asking why the people with dialogue weren’t in the new building recording. We’re like “because it was just cancelled?”, but then it was back on again, so I grabbed James (who I bribed with lunch at a 50’s diner- Hahah >_<) and had him do my voice. Despite all the shitty organization, it went really well acting-wise.

April 23rd: ::Big yawn:: Oh my lord… Last night -Stanley Cup- we won, I don’t care, but the parties went on until 4AM. People in the city were honking so much that it wasn’t so much separate car horns as a huge wall of ambient noise. And sporadic people yelling “WOO!” and “YeAH!”. I’ll bet there were a suspicious number of absences from school and work today…
Yesterday I also confronted the management about the complaint against me. Apparently there have been several, about “dragging” noises coming from my apartment. ::Slow eyebrow raise:: ¬_¬` Riiiight. I should be more subtle about stashing the bodies, I s’pose.

April 25th: My SO came to BC today! Yay! There was a lot of insanity today, though. It was the last day in the old Hastings VFS site, so everybody was packing up to move. I let James stash his stuff at my place since I live right beside the new school building and he lives all the way in Mission. Afterward I took three buses to pick up my SO, then took a cab back. I ended up walking half way up airport way because I missed the 424 that would have taken me right to Arrivals. Everything was really congested traffic-wise because of the second big hockey game that's going on tonight. I hope that's not too insane (>_<).

April 28th: We went out for Mexican food today. It was really authentic and super good. I had deep fried ice-cream for dessert, which wasn’t quite as spectacular as I’d imagined it would be (it’s just a scoop coated with some sort of nut-paste that makes it fry-able), but it was still good. We also ran around comic stores looking for X-Evo comics, which seem to not exist. On the bright side, I ended up finding 2 episodes for download, which took about a day to complete with a 56k modem, but was totally worth it regardless. In the evening we took a walk on the seawall, which was a lot of fun. The mountains looked really cool while the sun was setting, and we saw this insane goose that wouldn’t run away from us. It just kept opening it’s mouth whenever we came near… But not making any noise O_o There was also some sort of memorial service going near the beach- the flags were at half mast and everything. I haven’t heard anything about what went on, so I’m not sure how serious it was. There seemed to be a lot of uniformed people and police, though, but sparsely attended.

April 29th: I actually slept really well last night, and ended up waking around 11:30am, rather than the 9:30am we’ve been dealing with for the past few days. Once we were up we meandered down to Chinatown to explore some more, and finally found two places that sold cheap anime VCDs. I got Nightwalker, since I absolutely loved that series and one that I’m not sure about- “Pita-Ten”. It just looked really cute. I was tempted by this stack of Sailor Moon CDs, but it was just the R season, which is my least favorite. It seems really tacked on to the show. We even saw a PS2 with built-in gameshark, but we didn’t see the price or if it was formatted for Asian games only, so we didn’t look too much into it. There were also a lot of open-markets with really good prices. I got myself some Hamtaro pyjamas. (^_^) They’re so cute. There were also a lot of crazy food-stuffs for sale. There was this one flayed and dried lizard that looked frightening, some live crabs, and bins on bins of smelly miscellaneous weirdness. Unlike the last time we went, we only saw one drug deal going on this time. Aww, how disappointing. (>_<) Oh, and also all the animation desks that were stacked outside of my school had been finally moved. I think I forgot to mention this last time, but on Sunday or Monday (I forget which), all the desks from my school were sitting out on the sidewalk, waiting to be moved. I thought that was kind of ill-advised in that part of town, especially since some still had the disks in them. I could have easily stolen one, honestly. Ah well, as long as I don’t get shitty stuff in the new building, I’ll be happy. After that we went to the Pacific Centre Mall, but Sears closed at 7pm, and kicked us out. (9_9) Ugh. So we wandered off to the beach, where there was this lame old guy like… Singing up on the bridge. So I held up my camera and said really loud “Oh, oh look! There’s a sight! One of Vancouver’s patented crazy people!”

May 2nd: Guess what I did today. No, seriously. I’ll give you a clue: X-Men. Yes, it was awesome. Every bit as awesome as you think it is. Go out and see it now, right now, at this very instant! Plus Nightcrawler didn’t suck so much as I thought, even though he was hairless and still lame. But that’s his character, so it’s forgivable. Since the story line was all Logan -the “art teacher”- centric it was also easy to ignore that horrible little girl they got to play Rogue. I mean, come on! What! WHAT! Could they have done a worse job picking an actress? Okay, yeah… But not much more off than *that* … thing. (>_<) Augughhh! She and that Halle Barry woman… Who’s okay, but she’s not Storm by any stretch of the imagination. I was also disappointed with Lady Deathstrike’s super-brief appearance. I mean, she flounces around for Striker, has one vicious fight with Wolverine, then dies. No mention that he got to boink her in the past or anything. Okay, so it doesn’t really *add* to the storyline, but we want to KNOW. Of course I’m just cranky because my two favorite characters weren’t in this movie; Toad and Sabretooth! Did they kill off Toad in the first movie? Because he seemed pretty dead. But then again everybody gets hit with lightning and survives in this thing, so who the hell knows. I also thought they could have showcased a lot more mutants in that mansion-raid, but seeing Logan literally kill dozens of men was worth it. Oh, and WTF was with Colossus being American? Can’t have too many weird accents in one movie, right? It’ll definitely cause the general public to become confused and disoriented, and start biting others. No, not really. But I bet that’s pretty close to the reasoning behind it.

May 4th: Well, my SO left today- tonight to be more precise. I went with them to the airport and waited around until 10:00pm. It wasn’t so much of sad good-byes since I know I’ll be back in Sudbury for the summer, even if for a little bit. On the ride over there was this huge rainbow because it was super sunny, but pouring rain. It cheered stuff up a little. (-_-) Huuuh.

May 5th: Well, today was the first lesson in the new campus. Of course everything was still disorganized, resources had lost my animation disk, but were pretty nice about getting me a new one. People had all sorts of stuff missing, and our classroom acquired this “lost and found” that had all these cool dolls in it… I have no idea what that was all about. Anyway, before class James came to reclaim his stuff, which was no big deal since I’m literally a one minute walk away from the campus. There’s this door in the basement of my apartment that leads straight across this little courtyard and into the new building. I’m so amazing for picking this place to live. I think it’s latent psychic powers! WooOOooo! And so forth… The first lesson we had was sound breakdown. I got all of mine done, and then had this really lengthy discussion about the history of computers with one of the techs there. (^_^) That was really interesting, and in the afternoon I animated and line-tested the stuff I managed to get done over the holiday. As for the new building, it’s really professional looking, clean, and… Well, new. It’s really great to be so close to the school, and in a better part of town. For lunch Kyla and I went out for sushi, and I disgusted yet another person with my copious use of wasabe (^_~).

May 18th: I am not dead. But I may be a crook… Very, very soon. If killing pigeons is illegal. One woke me up today at 7AM. It was right in my patio door, cooing louder than possible for such a small creature. And it was looking right at me. I think it wants me dead.
If I don’t write in the next week, assume devil!pigeon has killed me. Or that I’m swamped with work. Which is far, far more likely.

May 25th: I was just walking home when it happened, three of them -ninjas- I swear it. Well, I thought I was gonna die for sure, but I busted out the mad gymnast moves and took down the first one; flying roundhouse right to the jaw. The second tackled me, but I was too quick, dodging out of the way and grabbing his katana before he even knew what hit him. The blade went through the remaining two like butter, so I treated myself to some KFC.
Actually… Um, so little has happened to me in the past two weeks that I’m actually amazed. If my life had an excitement metre, it would have died from boredom. All I’ve been doing is animation clean-up, and my hand is just a gnarled stump of its former self.
My apartment building smells of hot dogs.

June 2nd: Today I fell down a flight of stairs. I’m not so sure how it happened, I may have passed out for a split second, or maybe just tripped… But I don’t remember actually tripping. I landed on my knees for over 6 stairs and kind of just knelt at the bottom. I was torn between crying and laughing out loud (because I was remembering that Family Guy episode where he falls over and sits for like… two minutes holding his shin and sucking in air through his teeth, sort of ::Suck in air:: “Ow…” ::Suck in air:: “Ow…” ::Suck in air:: “Ow…” Yeah, we all remember it). And apparently, though I walked around all day, albeit in pain, during the night my knees may swell and become unable to move (if the patella is cracked) and I’ll have to call an ambulance to get them drained. So, right… If I miss a day of clean-up in class I’m dead in the water. I still have so much to do… And the deadline is Friday. I’m happy my family and friends in BC are supporting me, I usually don’t need it, but now… Man… Stress is really starting to accumulate.

June 9th: Today was the first day of DIP, and man it was great to get away from cleanup, though the OS we’re using is Linux. I’ve never used it before, and I’m having mixed feelings. It crashed a couple of times, which is less than I can say for WindowsXP. Other than that, the instructors seem to be super patient and informative, which is important since we only have one week of instruction, then we’re off to the races of colouring out films.

June 10th: You know what’s nuts? One of the DIP instructors is an HP slash fan! And her friends have heard of me. ::Twitters:: ^_^ Eee hee hee hee. That made class a little more bearable, but I’m starting to find it tedious because many of the people are slower than I am with computers, so it feels like forever I have to wait for the next step. I mean pointing and clicking isn’t a challenge, and since we’ve got a GUI Linux going on, and don’t have to use command line or anything, I don’t see the problem.

June 25th: It’s time for the amazingly-quick rundown of all the uneventful stuff that happens in my very boring life! On the super-cool scale, meeting yet another HP slash fan at school is pretty high on the list- she’s an artist too, and her work rocks steadily on! I just have to remember for more than three seconds to drop her an e-mail, and all will be right with the world.
Work-wise I’m in editing, which is basically picking apart my own work and finding all the tiny flaws that fill me with shame. Then I evaluate whether or not I can be arsed to fix them up, which most of the time ends up with a resounding “YES! I’m an anal-retentive freak”.
Oh yes, how could I forget, OotP!!! It’s out, and I got it, and I’ve read a total of 30 pages. Remember a dozen words ago when I was talking about my school-obsession? Oh yeahhh. It overrides my fandom issues. How is this possible! But I am amazingly far ahead, so I think it’s somehow even in The Great Scheme of Things. I conquer totally!
Before I forget, Happy Birthday to The Grey One!!! … Tomorrow. Yayyy! Let’s all party like it was 1996! What does that saying mean! OMFG! I need a vacation from the smell of my neighbour’s curry. I can genuinely remember nothing more that has happened… Oh, wait, Class 44’s grad is happening this Friday. ::Bawls:: I’m going to miss their nagging presence in the DIP lab. It’ll be so lonely in there! I’m practically alone on the PCs already. What is stir-crazy? Is that the one from not having others around? Or is that the one from owning too many cats?
My cat count: 0
My pigeon count: AHHHHHHHHH! MY EYES! NO! THE AGONY!

June 27th: Today was Class 44’s grad, and it was the first one I’ve gone to. I really had a good time at the showing, and the party afterward was pretty good for a school-organized event. It’s going to be strange not to have the lot of them around the school anymore, speaking of which, I was surprised at how many flash films there were; since I was always in DIP, I saw the people who worked on flash, but about ten more people had flash films too. Maybe the worked at home. It makes me a bit nervous because most of the flash films were super short, and everybody looked really stressed while doing it. I’ve used flash briefly, trying to teach it to myself, but I didn’t get too far. Failing at that still doesn’t sit too comfortably with me, so I’m angsting over this upcoming assignment.
Earlier in the day Kyla and I went shopping, which was awesome because I met up with somebody from Sudbury! It was so weird, Kyla was in a piercing studio talking to the guy there (he was from Saskatchewan just like her), and I heard somebody say my name. I figured it would be a classmate, but it was somebody from my hometown who just happened to know me, and had seen me downtown. He was in BC studying arts as well. (^_^)