Gongaga Yaoi: Diary [2003, July-January]

July 3rd: The downtown core went up in flames today! It singed the 3D building, so they had classes cancelled for the day, and all the VFS students at the old campus were evacuated. Apparently some addict started the fire in the oldassed buildings behind the school’s location, and the hostel there was set on fire. I’m glad our network didn’t go down, though. I would have been so pissed off if it had.
I also finished reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower today. It ended up being an awesome book with a lot of profound ideas; basically the format is one-sided correspondence from this boy who talks about his every day life. It’s fairly easy to read too because dialogue is still used in the letters, so it’s simple to just view it as a narrative. The plot is just as interesting as the novel’s style. It follows Charlie, who is a hyper-creative genius with admittedly few social skills. He finally befriends a punk-ish group at his school, but despite his spirits being lifted by this, Charlie still has to deal with his own internal state; he finds it difficult to stop thinking, analyzing every situation, which often makes him overlook the actual social consequences of his actions. I won’t go into too much detail, since it’s best if everybody just reads the book. I must admit, though, I definitely didn’t understand the end, and had to ask Mike what the heck happened. I guess I overanalysed it, trying to read too much psychology into the whole thing. I really don’t think any other reader would have that problem.

July 6th: Did everybody hear about that hacker attack that’s supposedly going on today, or yesterday? Pretty nutty stuff, if you ask me. I heard it was a repercussion from their community against this States senator who tried to pass a law that he could send this virus into any PC with pirated software, and destroy the HD. The only thing that stopped him is somebody found out the code for this “good virus” was stolen. A pirated virus to destroy pirated software. Hy-po-crite.

July 11th: Happy 7-11 day! Today they were giving out free Slurpies… And though I didn’t get one, it was still cool. But it’s mostly because I forgot completely about the event due to my apartment burning down. I’m not kidding…
I went to school early, but left around 11AM to go take a nap. I woke up from sleeping fairly deeply around 12, because I was so warm… Then I heard the fire alarm. At first I wasn’t worried; this apartment has a lot of squeegee kids that house here, so the alarm gets pointlessly pulled a lot. As per usual, I just sat around, being annoyed. Then I heard a lot of people running out, so I stuck my head out the door to smell for smoke, and it was *white* with smoke outside. I was like “Oh… Fuck…”, grabbed my laptop, and went down the stairs. Then the smoke was getting really thick, and I knew it wasn’t a joke. Everybody in the building had poured out in front to watch this thick black smoke billowing out of the fourth floor. It was insane… I asked the manager what happened, but she didn’t know. I thought it was funny, though, that almost everybody had pets with them- and our building doesn’t allow pets. So I guess their big “secret” is out. Not that everybody didn’t already know.
So I went to school, and freaked out a bit until James took me to Subway, then back home where we gawked at the charred remains the firemen were throwing out onto the road. It was insane how blocked off everything was! Just for one fire hose, the line of cars was blocked all the way up Burrard Bridge. There were news cameras too- which will probably give James and I a bad name because there were all these sullen people, then us *laughing*… I think it was because of some fireman named Krunk. I honestly can’t remember. We made a quick exit after we realised the family of the burning apartment was right beside us (and we had been loudly discussing pillaging the pile of burnt loot accumulating on the sidewalk).
The good thing about all this is, despite the fact the entire complex smells like a big campfire now, is that plumbing renovations that had been planned are postponed! That means no workers coming in and tearing piping out of my walls at 8am for 12 “working days”.

July 13th: Well, I finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix today, so I’m gonna rant. Don’t worry too much, though. It’s mostly just me giggling at slashy bits and pointing out mistakes, so nothing huge will be spoiled for those of you who care. (^_^)
First of all, the mistake. Those Thestrals seemed to be one big plot hole. Why couldn’t Harry see them in previous years? He had witnessed his mum dying, right? Rowling made it out that this year he could see them because of Cedric’s death. Also, the other kids who could see them (Neville, that Slytherin boy), were all surprised when Hagrid was teaching the class about Thestrals. If these kids could see them then, wouldn’t they have seen them every day since their second year? Strange that they would have acted so amazed at something they saw regularly.
Of course, I overlooked this stuff in sheer glee at the amount of slash. I mean, Snape giving Harry private lessons? How many fanfic are based around that! And let me tell you, it’s everything we slashers hoped it would be. Harry leaves Snape’s office sore in the knees (‘course, it’s from falling over…) and with certain bits throbbing (okay, his scar, but use your imagination!). If you don’t mind, I’ll just quote a bit out of context…

“Snape paused for a moment, apparently to savour the pleasure of insulting Harry, before continuing.” (OotP 468 Severus Snape to Harry Potter)

“Snape eyed Harry, tracing his mouth with one long, thin finger as he did so.” (OotP 469 Severus Snape to Harry Potter)

“‘I told you,’ Said Snape, rigid in his chair, his eyes slits, ‘to call me “sir”.’” (OotP 470 Severus Snape to Harry Potter)

“‘Stand up and take out your wand, Potter.’
Harry got to his feet, feeling nervous. They faced each other…” (OotP 470 Severus Snape to Harry Potter)

“‘I thought not,’ said Snape, watching him closely. ‘You let me get in too far. You lost control’”. (OotP 472 Severus Snape to Harry Potter)

‘Manners Potter,’ said Snape dangerously. ’Now I want you to close your eyes.’
Harry threw him a filthy look before doing what he was told. He did not like the idea of standing there with his eyes shut while Snape faced him, carrying a wand.” (OotP 472 Severus Snape to Harry Potter)

The whole “wand” metaphor doesn’t help the situation… For those of us who misinterpret Harry “eyeing Snape’s wand apprehensively”, the whole idea of Severus trying to “break into Harry’s mind” repeatedly doesn’t really remain a chaste encounter.
Snape and Harry’s little liaison aside, the entire idea of Harry feeling what Lord Voldemort is feeling opens up a whole slashy world of its own. Harry is happy when the Dark Lord is happy, angry when He is angry- and I’d imagine ravenously horny would have the same effect.
Unfortunately we don’t get to see too much Lucius/Snape action since Sev doesn’t seem to follow the Death Eaters around at all, though he is, as far as I can tell, fully reinstated in their ranks. The only little Looshie/Sev bit we get is Black being the sociopath that he is:

“Tell me, how is Lucius Malfoy these days? I expect he’s delighted his lapdog’s working at Hogwarts, isn’t he?” (OotP 460, Sirius Black to Severus Snape) But that made me happy enough. Also seeing Teenage!Snape deal with James & co. definitely makes things interesting. Those of us who wrote about the Marauders being conceited -but very gifted- were right. Though the only person I know who wrote James’ school-time character correctly is Lib. James isn’t the nice guy many of us assumed him to be. He’s arrogant, messes up his hair to make it look like he’s just got off a broom, shows off for girls (particularly Lily, despite her hatred for him), and is asinine in general. We’re still not sure why he saves Snape from the Shrieking Shack (he seems to get away with everything regardless), or why Lily finally fell for James. Neither of those things is explained… I mean, I don’t see why James would have felt the need to stop Lupin from mauling Snape. Maybe he was afraid Remus would get in trouble, or perhaps he was showing off for Lily, but it just doesn’t seem likely he did it for Snape as a person. After all, James tortured Snape without provocation, simply because Sirius felt bored. That scene will make a few het-fans insanely happy. Lily comes to Snape’s rescue, though he’s not too pleased with her and calls her a Mudblood. Can’t fathom why she didn’t throw herself at his gothy angst-ridden feet in wonton lust after that one... But back to the slash, let me just say: We were right. James is conclusively into Snape in a twisted domineering way that we all love to see. Wait- maybe that’s why he saved him. At any rate, when James is attacking Snape, he keeps flipping him upside down so his robes fly up and show off Sev’s sexy unwashed underwear (I’m not kidding). But wait, it’s gets better!

I should mention Snape takes his thoughts out into a pensieve when he’s having “private lessons” (^_~) to protect his memories from Harry in case he ends up inadvertently mind-reading. Of course Harry looks in there the moment Snape is out of the room for two seconds.

Over all, I have to admit I probably wouldn't read the series if it weren't for the possibility of slash pairings. That may be the reason Rowling is suddenly putting in so much innuendo, knowing that like me, a lot of readers live from "could be" scene to "could be" scene. Though Rowling is improving, she still gets stuck on certain words and uses them repeatedly… But I can’t complain. BC!James was right, she could dissolve into writing about her day, and we’d still read with rapture.

July 15th: I was pretty pissed off today, so I went to the beach to read alone, and this really strange guy came up to me. He looked pretty shifty and swarthy, and what does he ask me? No, nothing sexual. Nothing perverse. He’s grinning like some socially challenged maniac, and asks me straight out “Are you Iranian?”. Okay, what? I’m like “No.”
Him: “Yes?”
Me: “No.”
Him: “Yes?”
Me: “NO! As in NO, I am NOT Iranian.”
And he walks off. So, I’m thinking, it must have been my frighteningly white skin, grey eyes, and dirty blonde roots that gave him that impression. End Sarcasm. LoL.

July 17th: We had our first Macromedia Flash lesson today… Well, it wasn’t so much a lesson as it was an introduction to what the heck we’ll be doing, and what Flash can do. We just watched a couple of snippets, including stuff from Class 44, which all of us who’d gone to the grad had already seen. ::Shrugs:: Ah well. It seemed kind of like a waste of time, but our new instructor is with it and I don’t mind him at all.

July 18th: Yayyy! Editing is finished, so all I have to do now is sound for my film. I’m really nervous about it, though, because my film is pretty axed on dialogue, effects and soundtrack. I hope Brett has enough time to get my idea going on… On the bad-news side of things, though I have next week off, the plumbers start work on my apartment on Monday. Fucking fuck fuckers… Rauughhhh!!!

July 22nd: ::Yawns:: I’m sooo tired from being woken up early by the plumbers. They cut up the walls today. Yayyyy. Ughhh. Luckily I just sat around playing GTA3 with James all day, so it wasn’t too unbearable.

July 23rd: The plumbers came at 8am today and started drilling, so I escaped into the city, only to discover that nothing around here opens before 9:30am. Well, other than Denny’s and all night Subways. But come on! Even the mall was shut when I got there. So I went to eat breakfast, and by the time I finished Sears was finally open. Though it probably would have been better if I gave up the first time, fall fashion is ugly! My god, everything is brown, tattered, and crinkly. Whoever thought of this new statement should be shot between the eyes.
After I got tired of being surrounded by hideousness, I went to Sophia’s bookstore to buy some books in French. I feel like I’m forgetting it in BC, where nobody speaks French. I mean even this bookstore, it was a specialty store. And the clerk was all surprised when I told him in Sudbury you could go to any bookstore and find French books.
In the evening when I got home I gave my seamstress a call and asked about alterations to my corset. Its’ wayyyy too big around my hips, so I went in to get it tightened for this costume party on Saturday. I couldn’t believe the price, though. It was such a cheap alteration! $25. For a novelty item too. Insane. I’m happy, though. Oh! But while I was walking back from that, some guy came up to me, and he’s like “going to a funeral!?” then ran off. What exactly do people think is so clever about asking me that? Kind of like “Halloween is over”. Right, as if I hadn’t heard that a million times before.

July 25th: I went shopping with Mike for most of the day today. We went to the anime stores in Chinatown, despite the fact he initially didn’t believe they were there (>_<). I don’t blame him though, at first, when I couldn’t find them, we asked another store owner if there were any around, and he specifically said “No anime stores exist in Chinatown”. Then we found two (o_0). Huh.
The funniest thing happened in Sears, though… Other than getting free knives just for listening to a presentation about this “ultimate chopping knife”… When we were on our way out, there was this big crowd of punks gathered around this guy who was holding up a cup of water and putting drops of blue dye in it. We both thought it was some sort of magic show until the guy started asking the crowd “What happened in the Garden of Eden?”. Most of the people were like “They ate apples!” “Satan tempted Eve!” “Eve’s a slut!” Eventually one older guy said “The original sin”. That finally got the presenter to go on with his tirade. He added a drop of dye to the water for every ‘sin’. He was like “Sometimes we swear” ::Adds a drop::, and the audience shouted “FUCK! SHIT! DAMN! WHORE!”, etc… Then he was like “Sometimes we disrespect our parents, and one girl responds “I’d kill my mother!!!”. The presenter obviously saw this was going nowhere, and asked the crowd what was wrong with the water. People didn’t really know the answer this time, but he looks right at me and asks, “What’s wrong with it now?” I’m like “Why are you asking me?” and he says “Because you looked like the most intelligent person here”. I left shortly after that. I had no idea what was wrong with it. I think a real magic show would have been better.

July 26th: Flash started at 9AM today, and absolutely no construction went on in my apartment. The first day my holidays end, the plumbers pack up and leave (¬_¬`). Plus my drywall isn’t finished. Huh. I wonder when they’re coming back. Probably after the weekend is over. At any rate, Flash was a lot of fun, but by the end of the day I felt like my brain was going to explode (o_@). Everything prior to that was really simple to me, but for the last exercise my mind kind of shrivelled up and died. I left shortly after that, but regardless, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s lesson.

July 29th: I've acquired a roommate! All rejoice. Basically James, who lives a 3 hour train ride (and I mean real train, not subway) away from school is screwed for the Flash classes we have past 7pm because the train leaves before that and doesn't come back until the next morning. Oh, and it doesn't run on weekends. Did I mention we have class on weekends? Yeah. That's right. Flash is Satan's personal program of human enslavement. But aside from my "oh, I don't have a weekend to piss away" gripes, everything is good. James is a really polite roommate, and now I have somebody who can cook. Yay! Or will cook, since I've been known to attempt culinary skills so long as washing dishes wasn't involved.

August 1st: I ended up going to Steveston today, which is some weird little tourist place off Richmond... It wasn't as nice looking as the rest of BC, and reminded me strongly of Sudbury. I guess since it's near the peer nothing can be done about the alarming moss and fishy smell. I also learned on the way there that Richmond is a big manmade piece of land that is meant to block the ocean for farming or something, so if ever there was an earthquake, it would sink into the sea and create a huge tsunami. (o_0) Woo. It's an hour away from Vancouver proper, though, and locals apparently call it "ditch-mond". That's a lot more clever than the "I'm-too-good-for-Sudbury" people calling my hometown Dog Patch. I also ended up going to the Legion with Mike's family. The Legion is this chain of lounges owned by war veterans. Despite it being full of people over 40, I thought it was a nice place: Live music, a dance floor and so forth... Not like the grating clubs most people my age go to. But that's probably just my violent lack of dancing ability talking.

August 2nd: Happy Pride Dayyyy! I went to the gay pride parade today. It was only an hour or so long, but it was full of awesome. I've never seen so many drag queens anywhere in my life, and the city is so supportive of everything. Basically the parade was floats from every business imaginable saying they support gay pride, or have openly gay employees. Karen, Mike and I went, and we were standing close to this whole row of guys that got so much attention- mostly because they were right up front, but also because almost every parader took notice of "the cute boys all lined up". I think they ended up having over a dozen condoms thrown at them. There was also this one guy in a buggy-type thing that was driving around the parade in circles, advertising "Gay Communist Party". I don't think he was officially in the parade, because the on-lookers just seemed confused whenever he passed by. There was also a bit of cold reception for the half-dozen religious floats that went by. I was surprised about all those churches being cool with it, and there was even a priest marching with this um... What would you call those people that follow him around? Gathering? -Must not make alter boy jokes- Anyway. It was super hot during the parade (I can't imagine wearing a huge wig and surviving... But that's just me), so afterward we went to Denny's. It was insanely packed, and it was only after Karen went and pestered our waitress that we actually got the drinks we ordered. (>_<) Bah. I spent the other 22 hours in the day working on Flash. But all this diligence is paying off. I'm a couple of days ahead of schedule, but I don't want to slack now since there's a lot more animation in our project than a lot of others. I hope I pick that part up as easily as I did the character construction. My co-producer Mike insists that we're doing it wrong, and since we don't have an instructor until Tuesday, I really don't know... But I think it's just easy for me because I'm amazing. (^_~)

Aug 11th: I did my sound today! It was so cool… Well, not all the way through. At first it was mainly watching Brett (the sound instructor) fiddle with things I didn’t really understand, but by the end everything came together. I wasn’t happy with the acoustic guitar- and just asked him nicely to take it out, which he did, despite not agreeing. I mean, people complained or were worried that during their sessions with Brett he would go off on tangents, which he does, but not if you keep him on track. He’s like an encyclopaedia of media, technology, and music facts. I find it interesting if there isn’t something immediately important he should be teaching (^_^;;). Speaking of which, that’s where I’ve been the past three days. We had morning instructions about sound, which ended up being mostly Brett’s rants about everything but what we should have been learning… Until I took charge and started herding the discussion to actual instruction. The rest of the class was more annoyed than me, but wouldn’t speak up. I did it mostly out of hunger, since he tended to run into lunch. But now that he no longer has to teach me anything, I can go back to talking to him for hours on end about old computers. (>_<) Hee hee hee. Then we get along well- oh, but during my sound session he said I reminded him of his niece. (^_^) I don’t know how to take that, but I’d imagine it’s a sort of compliment.

Aug 12th: Everybody is getting antsy about their Flash projects because they’re due on Thursday. I personally am not too worried, but I still went to Dieter, our head instructor, and asked if we could be allowed in the lab at the same time as Class 46, because at the moment we’re not allowed in while they’re instruction is in session. I argued that I wanted to be a Flash animator, had taken on a large project, and that Class 44 was allowed in the lab while we were in DIP. Unfortunately Class 44 had allowances because they were such a large class and because they lost time during the move. So basically we’re allowed in the lab from 4pm until 9am, meaning we get to stay up all night and sleep during the day. Yay. I’m excited.

August 21st: Well, school is coming to a close and with grad two days away, Kyla and I went shopping. We found shit all, but had fun anyway (^_~). Once I went back to school, she Mike and I worked on the intro credits for the graduation ceremony. It’s funny- We used a caricature James made of each classmate and animated them falling out the back of an insane asylum van.
Tomorrow I’ll be putting the finishing touches on Mike and my flash film, then trying like mad to get my portfolio done in time to apply at Studio B before they stop hiring. I’m just going to gear my portfolio up for Flash since that’s what I want to do, and also because James is applying at the same studio for character design, and I that’s a losing battle on my end. (>_<) Wahhh.

August 31st: Dear God! Where have I been? Well, the answer is… Graduated. Now, most people would think that meant partying or relaxing… Taking a break in general. No. Never. I must get a job! So I’ve been working on my portfolio- Aaaaand helping people move. Last week I spent the earlier part helping Mike clean up to move with his family, then on Wednesday we went to ship Jan and Arwen’s stuff to their new apartment. On account of Danisse (Who’s moved in with them finally) not showing up, Mike and I spent the latter part of the night driving about 25 boxes to their new apartment. Well, I take that back. She did show up, and moved some pillows, then left due to fatigue. I don’t mind though, Jan and Arwen’s new place is nice, and it’s so close to where I live! We’re neighbours now! (^_^)
By Friday I finished my portfolio, so all I have left to do now is a online version and the cover-letter. I’m not sure on a couple of things, so on Monday I’m going in to school (it was closed this week) to ask Dieter, the head instructor, about things like interview process, how to present a portfolio, and so forth. Anyway, Friday night I went over to Jan and Arwen’s to watch a movie. We ended up seeing this movie Mike’s sister lent him- Boondock Saints. It was surprisingly good. Basically it centred around these two brothers who leave the mob to get vengeance on the remaining members of the crime syndicate. Then yesterday I went to see yet another movie, this time with Mike and Karen. We went to the theatre to see Thirteen which was absolutely stunning. The cinematography was great, the story was gripping, and the acting was top notch. Just go see it. I can’t do it justice with description and praise. If you see one movie this year, see Thirteen.

Sept 4th: I went with Mike to check out Jed’s bed today. (^_^) LoL, it sounds even weirder in writing. Well, Jed’s selling it and Mike, who’s moving and has a really shitty bed as it is, wanted to check it out. He didn’t end up buying it, but it was worth seeing Jed’s apartment. It’s so nice! He has this awesome view of the ocean, and it’s clean and really nice looking. Not too bad of a price either. Afterward we were supposed to meet up with Jan and Arwen, but we couldn’t get a hold of them, and played telephone tag until pretty late when we finally found them. Kyla was there too, which was cool, since I finally got to give her her grad pictures. Plus I got her actual phone number so our next dinner date may actually come to fruition. Before we left, Mike and I borrowed some games from Arwen. This one game, Mad Maestro, was mental! It’s this music game where you have to save a bunch of different situations (a lover’s spat, bad weather, a crumbling theatre) with your magical music powers. To play you have to follow the beat of these classical pieces by tapping the X button in time with the music, and depending on how hard or soft your press the button, the orchestra plays louder or softer. If you don’t do it properly, you lose. I lost. A lot. But Mike finished the game in one night, so I guess it’s easy for musicians. I just thought it was funny to see things go horribly awry as I defiled Mozart’s work.

Sept 5th: After Mike left this afternoon I went out on the town… Buying supplies for my portfolio. I got these cool plastic cover things that Brigitta recommended we throw our portfolio and Demo Reel in, and then VHS tape sticky-labels so that I could print out professional looking tags for my Reel. I had then planned to go into school to dub my AVI file onto VHS, but when I got there I discovered that all the systems had been updated, and the old software for doing the transfer was gone. I asked around, in *every* class (feeling alienated for being an alumni in the process), if anybody knew how to do the transfer. Absolutely nobody knew. So when I went over the Jan and Arwen’s later I asked if I could bring cables and do it with their VCR (since I don’t own one). If it works out I’m all set, otherwise I’m stuck paying absorbent fees to people to do it for me. Fuckers. But on the good side I found out the office depot does copies for sooo cheap! I’m going back there tomorrow to get my paper portfolio copied. Hopefully next week I’ll finally be able to start sending out my portfolio. Luckily, as far as I’ve heard, none of my peers have started applying, so I’m ahead of the game in that respect. I’m sure I’m up against only professionals that are applying now. Goodie. (>_<) In cute news, when I got home today, I met the people who own the ferret in my building. They let me pet it, and we talked about owning rodents for a while. It was soooo adorable. And it walked like an inch-worm! ::Coos:: I want a ferret now. I'd name it Felatio. Felatio the talented Ferret.

Sep 6th: I searched all day for Jan or Arwen today to take a look at their laptop to see if it was compatible with S-Video out and would be able to make my VHS reels. Strangely enough, after I gave up looking for them and went to do my groceries, I ran into Jan and Lindsay picking up snacks, so after dropping off my food I tried to find Lindsay’s new place. It was impossible to find! Then I couldn’t figure out how to work the buzzer and ended up having a complete stranger buzz me up. I was just like “Erm. Is Lindsay there? No? I have the wrong number… Um, could you let me up anyway? I can’t seem to get in.”
Eventually we went back to Jan and Arwen’s place, only to find his laptop was missing. Apparently Danisse took it to sleep with her. (>_<) I guess I’ll be back tomorrow.

Sep 7th: Well, Arwen, Jan and I set up the laptop today, and it worked! I’m so happy!!! We just need to find some way to rout it through the VCR because it won’t record the S-Video in for whatever reason. After we finished setting everything up, we went to see their old neighbour perform in a drag-show that was going on at Octane. It was really entertaining! There were two Drag Queens, then their neighbour who was a woman dressed as a guy. She made a pretty good one too- and she sang (well, lip-synched) this song “I wish I were a lesbian”, which was sung by a man about his wife. Aw, it was funny, but still not as entertaining as Helena Handbag singing -one for the single people- “Everybody’s Fucking But Me”. And she addressed *me* since I was the closest person sitting alone. (>_<) Ahahaha. After that we came back to my place and laughed at Jan’s and my old art for a good hour. (^_^;;)

Sept 8th: Ughhhh what a long day. I had so many piddly little things to take care of. I got up around 9am because I just couldn’t sleep anymore, and it’s a good thing since James buzzed me shortly after. He had come into Vancouver to see the second screening of flash (it was being reshown since his film and Kyla’s didn’t get in the actual grad ceremony). So we went into the school to talk to Dieter, then picked up Arwen to go to Radio Shack. Apparently there’s absolutely no way to make my reel at home, despite all the equipment I have, so I checked in with this electronics place on the way back, and they said they’d do it for like $45 bucks. I’m going there. Anyway, when we got back I called all the studios I’m applying to and got their information for the cover letters. Then we (James, Jan, Arwen, and I) all rushed down to the New Media campus to see the screening. It was great! The only other person there was Ted, so it was just really funny to hear people’s remarks. Afterward we all went separate ways, James and I got sushi, and watched Macross Plus until he had to catch the train back home. See, I have this theory about Macross- there’s this one song during Sharon’s first concert (Ep 2) that NOBODY has. It’s called Chant. At least, I think it is. Seriously, search for Macross Plus + Chant on Google, and there’s only two people in the world who have heard of it. I want the song so badly I could BUY A CD! Aughhh! (>_<) The rage in me is feral and devising conspiracy theories. At any rate, after ranting about that for a while, I went back and gave my reel to the dubbers, so I should have it by tomorrow. Once night had descended, I crept stealthily into the school and hole-punched my portfolio. Tomorrow I begin making appointments to drop them off. Then: Jobs. Hopefully. Need Money… Now.
On a side note, I fixed Arwin’s computer today and noticed his login was peculiar… Yes. Yes, it’s true. I’ve been consistently spelling his name wrong for the past thirty entries. Arwen = Arwin forevermore.

Sept 9th: I started dropping off portfolios today!!! I went to Atomic Cartoons, and had much trouble getting in and out of their door. Thankfully, nobody noticed. In an Amazing Coincidence, I ran into Kyla on my way home, and we hung out and she accompanied me to drop off my portfolio at Bardel. We talked about ghosts and politics until she had to go to work, then I went to Mike’s to watch Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust again.

Sept 11th: MY FEET! Oh sweet merciful lord my feet hurt like rough monkey love on a pokey dirt road with a cheap Vegas hooker. I spent the day running around Vancouver in attempts to find Pork n’ Beans Studio. You see, AWN would have you believe they’re situated at Main and East 4th. LIES. All Lies! When I went into this creepy quiet little office that was speckled with cubicles, I approached the first person I saw, who immediately informed me Pork n’ Beans had not been there for years. After getting the right address from them, I was on my way, walking ALL THE WAY BACK to the downtown core. At least it gave me an excuse to pick up black paint and gesso at Loomis paints; they were having this huge sale too. Maybe it was fine art faith that led me there. ::Angelic chorus::
So now I have to go through Yaletown to get to Hamilton and Davie. If you don’t know, Yaletown is THE MOST confusing place in the entire city. Every street is named the same, but numbered differently, there’s absolutely no logic to the addresses, EVERY street ends in an alcove that may or may not be part of that road, the sidewalks have wide enough birth for Kate Moss, and only Kate Moss, and there are cars parked haphazardly all over the road. When I finally got pointed in the right direction by a bakery worker (and this is after ‘phoning the studio again, spending 45 minutes looking with “specific” directions, and failing still) I ran into this producer. A music producer. He asked me if I sang. I said no. He asked me if I played any instruments. No, not really. So he gives me his card and says he needs an assistant regardless. Apparently my “Goth” look would work for me. Now, of course I was suspicious. We all know that “You’re beautiful. Want to be in movies?” line. But this guy is legit. I looked him up and he’s the owner of a company. Huh. I’m debating whether or not to pursue this.
Anyway, when I finally found the studio, it was a quick drop off, then a very long walk back home. I watched "The President's View of 9/11", then I met up with Arwin later, and we hung around until I had to get back home to sleep. And that’s the lame conclusion to my very tiring day.

Sep 20th: Man, I’m feeling so stressed about my portfolio. I can’t get Premier to handle a bunch of my files for a bunch of reasons- some of them very mysterious indeed. So I’ve partially given up, but I may go into the school and try to use their copy and see if I can get this done. It’ll save me a pretty penny if I just have a nice AVI file that I can ask to be transferred to VHS.
After I finished stressing about that, I went to drop off these pants that I broke the zipper on. The seamstress was so rude. I know this sounds very rude, but I think she was taking Chinese customers before me. For example- I was there first, and this guy walks in and she starts chatting with him in Chinese. I was like “Okay, that’s fine. He’s probably a friend.” I wasn’t so forgiving the third time it happened. Oh well, it may have wasted nearly half an hour, but at least it’ll only cost 11$. Bah.
In the evening I went to Dallas’ animation showing. He’s a friend of Mike’s, so I was dragged along to this club where the stuff was being shown. It was really cool, in the end. Jan, Arwin, Mike, Kyla and I went. Danisse also showed up- but not because we brought her. It turned out every Thursday she goes to this club, and she just happened to meet up with us.

Sept 30th: All I’ve been doing for the past few days is writing and watching Yami No Matsuei- slowly. It sucks having a 56k modem, it really, really does. I mean, come on. It takes me three days to download one episode, and people keep kicking me off the transfer because I’m so slow. ::Wails:: Why! I also keep attempting to send my final film .mov file to my friend, but things keep interrupting the connection because it takes so fucking long. Augh.
Oh, here’s wishing Libertine a speedy recovery. She’s been out for a while now- Hope everything’s okay, shug. (-_-`)

Sept 31st: I went to see Underworld with Jan, Arwin and Mike today. It was pretty good. I liked the visuals except for the werewolves. They were bald. Bald like that chemotherapy “Ginger Snaps” chupa. I want hairy werewolves, damnit! POOFY, even. Speaking of which, there weren’t any lady werewolves… Which I found strange since there were plenty of female vampires. Arwin thought it might be because of the ugliness- the first time a chick was turned into a werewolf, all the guy werewolves were just like “Auugh. Fugly! FUGLY! Never again!”
“The first rule of werewolf club is… Don’t initiate girls into werewolf club.”
Hehehehe. (>_<) They just stick to boning the vampires. And while I’m on that boning train of though, the whole love plot was so tacked on! I realize this was a comic first (wasn’t it?) but they could have tried a little harder to develop the characters. Basically it was like…
Selene: “U saved me. Thx.”
Wolfy Dude: “K.”
Selene: “Ur a werewolf! Stay hear 4 tha nite!”
Wolfy Dude: “no.”
KISS! SNOG! KIS KISS! SNOG.
Not to mention the vampires were so weak! Victor died due to inattentiveness. And the entire theatre burst out in laughter because of it. It wasn’t dramatic, it was FUNNY. But that wasn’t half as bad as Selene FAINTING FROM BLOODLOSS. She’s a fucking vampire. What was *that* all about? “Ooh, I feel faint. Why don’t I heal instantaneously? Ah, fuckit. I can drown, CPR works on me, and I can’t really do anything other than mince about with silver bullets. Woo me.” - Selene
Overall, that nutty scientist from the werewolf side was my favourite character. His voice rocked on- it was a pity he was killed by Victor bitchslapping him.

Oct 1st: I was woken up today by 100 decibels of construction noise that went on for three hours! I tried to sleep, I couldn’t. It was IMPOSSIBLE to block it out. My head hurt so badly that I went out with Arwin for coffee and ran some errands. God damn it sucked. On the plus side, I got this hilarious e-mail:

I am contacting you about cross linking. I am interested in gongaga.com because it looks like it's relevant to a site that I am the link manager for. The site is about welder equipment and systems for resistance and laser welding applications. AHAHAHAhaahah! (>_<) Omfg. Nothing could be further from what my site is about. I have no idea what kind of crack this person is on, but if it’s that good, I want some.

October 2nd: Today was so very, very weird. It was still noisy as hell because of the construction, so of course I woke up at 9:00 in the morning to the loudest drilling known to man. It’s so bad that I can’t even wear headphones to mask the noise; so I tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. The last thing I think is how cool it would be if the power cut out so I could stop the drilling; then I’m dreaming about a new icon appearing in my task bar; it’s a little CPU tower that says my computer is overheating. When I look in the back there are little flames inside it, and I can’t seem to shut it down. I woke up to my ‘phone ringing. Half asleep, I notice there aren’t any numbers on my digital clock, and I wonder why it would have broken so suddenly. It turns out to be Danisse on the ‘phone, asking if I’ve seen Jan or Arwin. I tell her I’ve just woken up, and she says it’s an emergency because her power cut out, and she thinks it’s because she hasn’t paid the bill. Then it dons one me: my power is out as well. I tell her as such, and she’s placated. We agree to meet for coffee later.
So I get up, and go to my computer. There’s a new icon in the task bar: “Computer on battery power”. I cancel my downloads and turn it off for good measure, then go to the bathroom to shower. I switch on the light by force of habit, only to remember there’s no electricity, so my windowless bathroom is pitch black. I decide that showering is way too dangerous, so I light candles and fill up the bath. Little did I realize, hot water is an electricity-provided commodity. But that didn’t change the fact I was still smelly, so I took a brisk cold bath, put my makeup on in the living room (the only place with good light), then just as I was heading out the door, the power came back on. I still met with Danisse, and we got coffee. It’s probably better the power came on, since the machines were down earlier. We met up with Jan, who said she got marooned without debit exchanges working.
Later we all went to the travel agency to book my ticket home for the holidays. Half way there Danisse met up with two of her boys, leaving only Jan and I to look for a costume for me for Halloween. We ended up not finding anything, and agreed to meet up Sunday to go to Metrotown and shop.

October 3rd: I met up with Arwin today while returning my empties. He and Jan eventually came over and we played video games and drew insulting Harry Potter pictures all night. I’m thinking of putting up a site dedicated to the whole HP-Spoof thing since I have so many of them now. I don’t know when I’ll get it running, but it’ll have to be on a different server from gongaga.com, I think, since I’m running out of room pretty fast.

October 4th: I woke up about five minutes before Jan-poppo called me this morning to remind me we were going shopping, so I got dressed and we met up for coffee. After reminiscing about school days with Danisse for about an hour, Jan and I left to shop, and halfway through, decided we would speak exclusively French with one another in attempts to improve and not forget our native language. It was so difficult! I didn’t realize I sucked so badly at it. I only assumed that, since I understand everything completely, I could speak it fine. It’s so not true.
But regardless, I found a cool costume: I’m being Frodo! What’s up with my hobbit self! WOOO! Too bad I’m not 4 feet tall and 200 pounds. Hahahah. (>_<)
After our spree, Jan-poppo left since she had to work pretty early. I went to Mike’s to finish watching .Hack//Sign. Now, this series was pretty confusing from the beginning, but what the hell was that ending!? I have so many unanswered questions! Is Sora dead (he was my favourite character, damnit!!)? What is Bear’s job? What was the Key of the Twighlight? What ever happened to that voice that ordered around Tsusaka (the mother?) and the broken man (the father)? Was Maha a player-character? If not, what the hell was he? There are probably more questions, but I can’t remember all of them. I feel so unfulfilled! Especially regarding Sora. Poor lil’ guy. Never saw it coming.

Oct 8th: This evening Mike, his parents, a friend of the family and I went to this dinner promotion… thing. It’s hard to describe. Basically it’s a function held at the local university near Burnaby where a bunch of different restaurants give out free samples of their food. There’s one admission price, then you can eat all you want. I basically hung around the dessert table and ate pastries. (^_^) But I did try shark for the first time. It was good… Tender like chicken, but it tasted sort of… Sea-creature-ish. But not fishy. Huh. Barring all the driving and motion-sickness, it was a lot of fun. The friend-of-the-family (darned if I didn’t forget her name…) was really nice too. She gave me a pumpkin. It’s a little one, so I’m going to paint it instead of carving it… Well, that and I have no carving knives. The nice men in white jackets won’t let me have any. (^_~)

Oct 9th: I’m sick. Blahhh. And I got it from Arwin! ::Narrowed eyes:: (¬_¬) I know I did- because just two days ago he had the exact same symptoms. Damn him! Damn the people at Sears who infected him! Damn Pandora and her plagues!!!

Oct 10th: Still sick. Bah. But on the plus side Mike came over this afternoon and brought me Diet coke and ice cream (^_^). He was in Vancouver anyway applying to studios. Lucky bastard got so many contacts through friends of his and so forth. Everybody knows him now! He even got producer-face-time! Wahhhh! (>_<) And I can’t even do a measly Flash test because of this sickness. ::Lies down miserably and whines a lot::
On the funny side, I troubleshot computer crap with Jan today. Apparently her printer wasn’t working. Well, not her printer, but Danisse’s printer. Since Danisse is in Alaska visiting her “love that was never meant to be” this week, Jan’s printing out her portfolio. So, basically, the printer kept jamming. The reason? A flower. A dried flower was IN the printer. Danisse had put, or accidentally dropped, a flower in there. Of course it got sucked in, fell into a million pieces, and Jan had to pick it out. Luckily, and after much heart-ache, the printer is now fixed, and the flower is resting in peace. I shouldn’t judge, though. I’ve had M&M’s in my printer. ::Pause:: What? The package exploded! It couldn’t be helped. ::Harumph::

Oct 12th: I went to eat Thanksgiving dinner at Mike’s today; it was great food. I brought a pumpkin pie to thank his mum for inviting me. (^_^) Somebody else brought a home-make pumpkin pie, which was pretty good, but I still like the store-bought sort because it’s more… Custardy? Ah well. Later we lured Jan and Arwin to join us for dessert, then we played some board game that was based on making money. I lost because I kept gambling in the game and blowing my fortune. (^_^;;) Ahahaha. Afterward we played strip-scrabble. Jan and I figured because of our advanced knowledge of the English language, we would kick ass. I lost almost as badly as Arwin… Even though we kept giving Arwin words like “Hogobs” and “Hohonuts”. (>_<) I swear scrabble is as much chance as skill. I mean, I should be good at it, but when you get U, U, W, V, S, and T left, you’re sort of screwed regardless of how large your vocabulary is. Ah well, it was worth getting Jan’s top off (^_~) Haahahaha.

Oct 16th: I managed to coheres Jan, Arwin and Mike into watching my favourite movie today. The Pest was viewed and loved by all! Well, they didn’t mind it as much. (^_^) Muahahah. We also ended up playing a lot of Frequency, only to come to the conclusion that I’m the suckiest player out of all of us. (-_-) Wahh. I thought my hand-eye coordination was fine, but apparently not.

Oct 17th: Today Jan and I ventured around and bought pool-passes at the Aquatic centre! After running a few errands we went to pick up Arwin at Sears (he was working today) and shopped a bit. It was funny- we went into the kid’s section after determining that everything else was way too big on Jan, and found some really cute skirts that fit: and one that didn’t. It was hilarious! I kept prodding Jan to buy this one-piece dress that was meant for an eight year old because it was soooo short and tight. I’m like “make it a gift- you can wear it for Arwin!”, but she wouldn’t be convinced. (^_^) Hehehe. I don’t blame her.
Afterward we went to the pool for our first swim! It was kind of confusing. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the pool because it seemed everywhere lead to doors that were exit only. We also found out a bit too late that you have to have a quarter to work the lockers- and we didn’t have one, so we locked out stuff in one of the changing cubicles. Jan volunteered to crawl underneath to lock and unlock the thing so our clothes wouldn’t get stolen. So then we swam, and it was fun. As usual I was the last out of the pool and continued swimming way after Jan got too cold. She insisted we go find the hot tub- and I eventually agreed even though I don’t like them since the heat makes my heart do that thing that results in me passing out. (>_<) But we didn’t end up going in anyway- the tub was full of fat old men. And of course, as two attractive young girls, when we walked in, the room was like… SILENT. We slowly crept out back to the main pool after that.
We couldn’t escape the annoying men-types, though. (^_~) After we got back to the pool, there were all these adolescent guys who started goofing around in the pool and pissing of the life guards. Eventually the pool started to close up, so we left.
Going back in the change room was funny too. Jan said all the “naked people showering made her uncomfortable”. Hahah >_<. I’m like “think of it as life drawing”. She wouldn’t have it. Apparently it’s hard to imagine if you don’t have a pencil. Anyway, we got back to the cubicle where we locked our stuff, and there were people standing nearby. So when Jan started to crawl underneath to unlock it, they were like “GASP!”. I quickly explained that we had no quarter to use the locker, and locked our stuff in there to stop it from being stolen. Unfortunately they weren’t as quick to believe me. Ah well. Jan can’t go with me tomorrow because of work, but I think I’ll drop by. This time I’m going to buy a swimming cap, though. Having four feet of hair and swimming without one is cumbersome and irritating.

Oct 20th: Oh nooo! Jan and Arwin might be moving away! Their roommate, after returning from an impromptu two-week vacation to Alaska, just sprung the news on them. This totally sucks because Arwin’s dad has been waiting for an excuse to ship him home and see his son again, so he’s totally taking advantage of this, not even giving Jan and Arwin time to find a cheaper place that they could manage without a roommate. Wahhh! (>_<) I hope they don’t have to leave. What would I do with all that free time?

Oct 28th: Agitation!!! AughhH! We all remember Danisse, right? Well she asked me in all sweetness for HTML lessons, that she would pay me for. Fair enough, I’ve taught it before. But in our first lesson, she cancels right in the middle of it. I didn’t find that so odd, though- she was under a lot of stress and probably didn’t feel like learning. So she rescheduled for the next day. Now, she has a reputation for not keeping dates, so I’m like “why don’t you call me on my cel when you want the lesson?” but she insisted I call her. I agreed sceptically, and it was well founded too, because the next day I called at 12 (she said any time after 12). No answer. I called at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm. All no answer. Now, my day is gone, and I’m feeling pretty pissed off. I call at 4pm, and she finally picks up, laughs, and says “oops, I just got home from lunch with my friend! He’s doing all the HTML for me now” or some such stuff. I was like WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME! UAHGHH! MY DAY!! So yes. That’s that. But that’s not the end. Today she suddenly decided that she wouldn’t pay me for the lessons she cancelled. Now, wait. I gave her grace on that entire day of mine she wasted, but she definitely should pay for that lesson she booked. Ah well, I convinced her to pay regardless. While we were on the ‘phone she went through these three personalities; first she’s like “oh, I understand. Your time is precious.” then, the guilt. “Everybody wants money from me! I have none” (erm, that trip to Alaska??? The fact she dropped 3 VFS courses? The fact she even had money to take four more of them????). And then finally, abruptness, in which she curtly wished me luck and hung up. Huh.

Oct 29th: Yaaaaaay! It’s the day of my birthday party (the actual birthday is tomorrow). Mike came over pretty early with my gift- it was a sushi set. (^_^) Yay! Now I don’t have to spend all that money on store-bought sushi. I can make it myself! So that was the plan for later that night, for dinner. But first we went out to brunch and agreed to meet up with Kyla, who called and revealed she would be in Vancouver. So while she was making her way down, we went to pick up the sushi fish from this shop. It was so cute, the girl who served us kept bowing as we left. (^_^) She was so cute and helpful.
But on the way back, get this- Mike and I were on the bus, and Arwin gives me a call. He tells me that the money Danisse left on the table for me was gone, and she had taken it back, saying “I thought about it, and I don’t owe her anything”. ::Eyetwitch:: Okay, I’ll deal with that later. After my birthday.
Afterward we met up with Kyla and went to PD’s Bike Shop to get me a Skull Skate hoodie. (^_^) I’m officially a Vancouverite now. Muahah! (>_<)
Once we got home, Jan and Arwin came over, and we all made sushi. It turned out fairly well too! Except for the fact my first roll looked more like a burrito than sushi. (o_0) Still tasted good, though. Then we had cake, so Arwin could finally eat with us (he hates sushi) and ended the night with mass competition at Frequency.

Oct 30th: Happy birthday to me! (^_^) I’m so old now! Look, look at the elderliness!!!
Heheh, but today was fun. After getting up, and eating more sushi (there was soooo much left over!) Mike and I met up with Arwin and went to the pool for like… Two hours. By the time we got back we were all so tired! Mike and I just lazed around, and watched the second Charlie’s Angels movie. It wasn’t bad- but it was pretty lame. I mean, I like some of the humour, but I found the store so hodge-podge and fast that it was difficult to catch all the jokes. I know they were trying to do a bunch of tributes to the first film, but it was sort of lost in the melee of hot chicks kicking.

Nov 1st: Halloween went pretty well; Jan and I paraded around in our costumes for most of the day, Mike dropped by for a while before going to Karen’s, and Arwin came over and we ended up watching Willard instead of actually making an effort and doing something. The movie was worth it, though! It was so cute! The adorable little ratties! And the plot wasn’t too bad either, plus it had that creepy actor that looks so great. What’s his name… Thin Man or whatever… From Charlie’s Angels. (o_0)
Anyway, my computer did something strange the other day- I don’t know if I mentioned this, but it was like my play list started “skipping”. I defragged, then suddenly I had all these music files that were 0 kb. Plus Word crashes every time I use spell check and Real Player doesn’t work at all. At first I thought all three were unrelated, but all of them had a bunch of those 0 kb files. I’m definitely going to call Compaq tomorrow and have a little talk. Sure, I reinstalled Real Player and the music, but Word is a different story. It came on a compilation CD of all the shit Compaq gives out… Including AOL. Now, my crazy conspiracy theory is that AOL is a virus… Because it ACTS EXACTLY THE SAME! You can never *really* get rid of it, and when you finally think you have, you DL another program that has it embedded in it. Eh!? EHHH!? Virus. (¬_¬`)

Nov 4th: Yesterday I finally got the birthday package from my parents! My mum sent me a cook book of all her favourite recipes. (^_^) Yay! Now I can bake deliciousness as well.
Today was so tiring! I spent the whole day running errands. This morning I called Compaq about the problems with my HD, only to get the run around with their new ‘phone system. Can’t they stay at one number? I mean, what the fuck. That’s horrible customer service to keep moving your help line around. ::Shakes head:: And the guy who did answer gave me their “new” number, which didn‘t work at all. Anyway, after that, I called Rogers to see if I would be charged long distance if somebody called on my cel during Christmas Break when I was back home. Well, um- yes. If they called from BC, but if they call me locally, it’s not a problem. How weird. (o_0) “local” follows me around, it’s not just BC.
After that I went to return some old electronics to Radio shack- I had a hell of a time too because I had had these things for over a year. It was the same deal at Compu Smart, but they gave me this cool trade in deal, so I got myself a Power Hub. MARVEL AT MY USB POWER!!! MARVEL AT IT!!! ::Cough:: Right, so after that I went grocery shopping and … Omfg. I saw the grossest thing. It was a luncheon meat- “ham, cheese, and macaroni”. In slices. ::Shudder::
Once I dropped my groceries off at home, I went to the bank to deposit a cheque. Of course there was this huge line up, and everybody was so agitated. This one guy actually started shouting at another employee who wasn’t serving customers (he was doing something else, obviously too!). Strangely enough, I like the bank. It’s a good excuse to scrutinize a place without looking like a weirdo lurking around the food court.
When I finally made it home I started watching the next anime I’m going to review, then eventually met up with Jan and Arwin to go swimming.

Nov 6th: Today’s entry shall be called: The Secret Ingredient in Oxyclean is Holy Water

After a day of running errands, I decided I would sit down and paint…

Resulting in dire consequences :

When I finished screaming, weeping, laughing, and screaming again in turn, I got a ‘phone call from Jan, who, after hearing about my predicament, decided to come help out. Jan and Arwin arrive.

Arwin: “Is that it?”
Me: “You mean the big half-scrubbed spot that looks like I killed a man and tried to cover it up?”
Arwin: “Nobody will think that. It’s black paint.”
Me: “A giant grasshopper then. I’ve committed insecticide.”
Arwin: “That’s just self defence.”
Jan: ::Enters:: “Oh my god.”
Me: “I know.”
Jan: “It’s horrible!”
Me: “Don’t remind me.”
Jan: “You’re doomed!”
Me: ::Weeps::
Jan: “It’s like a swirling vortex of evil.”
Me: “It sort of looks like Al Gore.”

We started scrubbing, but it didn’t really do much.

Jan: “I think it’s working!”
Me: “Try scrubbing the other way… It comes back. It always… Comes back.”
Jan: “I’m thinking you’ll need to hire a carpet cleaner.”
Me: “Maybe I can just blame it on somebody. Like… The plumbers.”
Jan: “Then they’d take you to court.” ::Gets Comet:: “Let’s add some of this.”
Me: “Maybe we shouldn’t mix detergents. It might dissolve my carpet.”
Jan: “Nah.”
Me: “Actually, that would be better. If there’s a big hole in my carpet, it would be easier to explain.”
Jan: “You could get a throw rug.”
Me: “I could say- I could say there was a little hole when I got here, then I caught something in it and it ripped up a big section.”
Jan: “Or cover it with laundry.”
Me: “Yeah, that’s what I’ll do if it doesn’t wash out. Cut it out.”
Jan: “You’re serious?”
Me: “… Maybe just desperate.”
Jan: “Just do the same thing to the rest of the rug.”
Me: “It’s getting awfully frothy.”
Jan: “It’s all the soap.”
Me: “What if the soap doesn’t come out and this part of the rug has a different texture from the rest…”
Jan: “That’s the least of your worries.”
Me: “… You’re right. The huge bubbling black void is a bit more obvious than lack of fluffiness.”
Arwin: “Do you have bleach?”
Me: “I’m not going to BLEACH it! Then instead of a big murky grey spot, I’ll have an huge unfixable white patch!”
Arwin: “Just dillute the bleach-”
Me: “I don’t have bleach.. And I’m glad. Or you might actually keep on with this idea.”
Jan: “Or… You could bleach the WHOLE carpet.”
Me: “NO! No bleaching.”
Jan: “Wait- wait! I know. Just splatter paint on the rest of the carpet too, then it’ll all look like the same sort of swirly grey… You could say you had it replaced.”
Arwin: “Or call it modern art.”
Me: “Yes, I’ll just sign my name in the corner over there.”
Jan: “Let’s go with that.”
Me: “Let’s not.”
Jan: “Well, we could use Oxyclean.”
Me: “… Right, right. I like that idea.”

So, we applied the Oxyclean.

Jan: “Wow, it sure takes a lot.”
Me: “It’s a big spot.”
Jan: “Let’s rub it around a bit.” ::Rubs it around with her hands::
Me: “Okay.” ::Rubs it around too::
Jan: “It doesn’t look like-”
Me: “AHHH! Oh my god! AUGHHH! IT’S BURNING ME!!!”
Jan: “What?”
Me: ::Cradling hands:: “IT BURNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Jan: “You’re joking.”
Me: “WHY AREN’T YOU IN AGONY!”
Jan: “Because I was baptized.”
Me: ::Sprinting to the faucet:: “OH MY GOD! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!”
Jan: “You okay?”
Me: “Yeah. I’m fine.”
Jan: “… Good. We have it wet it now.”
Me: ::Trying to spray water evenly on it, but not succeeding:: “This would be easier with a watering can.”
Jan: “Or a hose.”
Me: “So now we let it sit.”

We let it sit. Then, we were supposed to towel it up.

Jan: ::Patting on the towel:: “It’s absorbing a lot of the water::
Me: “Too bad we put three buckets worth on it. This will take forever.”
Jan: “Yeah, the towel’s soaked through-”
Me: “AHHHHHHHHH! THE BURNING! It’s coming through the towel! MY HANDS! AUGHH!!” ::Runs to bathroom::
Jan: “You’re kidding.”
Me: “Noooooo.” ::Shows hands that have skin dissolved off of several places and are really red::
Jan: “EW. No wonder you were screaming.”
Me: “Why did you think? I’m trying out for a small part in a Broadway musical?!”

So we left the spot to dry, I opened my patio door really wide, hoping it would dry when we got back. It looked even worse with the lights out- the fact it was still wet accentuated the grey and made it look even more like a grotesque portal to Satan’s lair.

When we got back, not only was it frigid, still wet, and really windy, it smelled like nobody’s business.
To be continued…

Nov 7th: Today was another not-so-great day. My demo reel was still in the works, so I couldn’t send out my packages to the studios as I had planned. I had some good news with Bardel, that they’ve passed my portfolio down to the floor, but I won’t be able to get the test until Monday. In computer news, some things are still screwed up- I found a few Windows files were affected by that weird crash, so I installed Norton (what’s crazy is the version I got with my AMERICAN computer is French o_0). I tried getting a few of the files I was missing from Mike, but it’s still crashing in odd places. Sigh.
And the rug.
Yes, it took more abuse.
I had this brilliant idea to vacuum. Now, the last thing I had vacuumed up was soil. Little did I know that my vacuum is a piece of crap that, instead of sucking up the remaining dried oxy-clean, SPEWED SOIL ALOVER THE STAIN.
Later, I was returning all the empty beer bottles from my birthday party. Now, I’m going to say right here I hate beer. The smell is disgusting, the taste is disgusting. My friends drink it; I don’t. It’s just so gross. So what do I do with this vile stuff? I SPILL IT NEAR THE STAIN! And it smelled. It smelled SO disgustingly. Not only did I get it near the stain, I got it on my coat, my bag, and my scarf.
Nobody on the street asked me for spare change.
I smell of beer.
When we got back Jan and I spent a good half hour with two hair dryers, trying to evaporate the rest of the stain. The rug around it is officially greasy. I don’t know why. It just is. Tomorrow, I’ll vacuum. With Jan’s vacuum. Which I borrowed on account of my vacuum has been POSSESSED BY SATAN HIMSELF!

Nov 11th: Jan, Arwin, Mike and I went to see Kill Bill today. I thought it was an awesome movie, save for the rotoscoped animation, and the seemingly pointless color changes. I mean, why is it she kept phasing in and out of colors? It didn’t seem to add anything to the plot or to the scene. We all liked it though, except Arwin, who hated the style of the film. He hates the director as is (we had a long involved discussion about From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, which Jan and Mike hadn’t seen) and just didn’t like the choppy presentation, use of music that didn’t fit the film in a conventional way, and storytelling in general. I don’t know about the music- I thought it added charm, and the way the plot was presented made a run of the mill action flick a bit more tolerable. Not to mention GoGo was awesome. I mean, come on. Best schoolgirl ever.
After we came back there was much discussion about what would happen in chapter 2. Jan and I both agree that Bill won’t die. Arwin piped in because it’ll be because Bill is actually a vampire. (>_<) LoL. I agree. And I also predict that the final battle of truth will be between The Bride and her Daughter.
I’m aware the girl is four.

Nov 14th: For the past couple of days I’ve been watching The Ring, and its original Japanese counterpart, Ringu. And overall, I found Ringu a lot more frightening. The girl herself was a lot scarier because they never really showed her face fully, and it was less shock horror than the American version. It was more of the mystery- you’re scared because of what you don’t see. I liked that aspect. Also, I found the characters by far less irritating in Ringu. They were mature adults, and seldom acted pointlessly passive aggressive like The Ring characters.

But by far, it was the back story to the satanic girl in Ringu that made it superior. I liked the fact her mother was psychic and younger. It added an “in the past” feel to the whole thing, and the entire circumstances of the relationship between the doctor and the psychic girl who conceived the satanic girl were strange enough that it explained a bit more realistically why there would be such a strange child born by this couple. I also found it more believable that the satanic girl didn’t want herself to be heard (children just don’t think that way), she was attacking the sceptics who questioned her mother’s psychic abilities. This lack of belief (and the fact people kept dying from the disasters she predicted) is what caused the psychic girl’s suicide. She did not kill herself over her daughter, nor did she kill her daughter:
The father did. And it’s a lot more plausible that he would do this since he didn’t seem to love her or her mother. Further more, he’s not as raving mad. He doesn’t commit suicide. In fact, he helps the main characters try and find the answer to solving the Ring deaths. Why wouldn’t he? The reason he killed his daughter in the first place was to try and save people.

The parallel in Ringu between the two families (the main characters, and the satanic girl’s family) kept my interest much more than the lack of attachment in The Ring. The little boy’s father is psychic- this is why he’s so removed from the relationship. He feels his abnormality makes him an unfit father, and he should have never conceived a child. Anything strange about his son would be his falt. But it is this power that lets him find out what happened to the satanic girl, and allows him and his ex-wife to track her to the well. Although this is much less realistic than old fashioned research, it is much more plausible that somebody with psychic leads would find out the whole story, than somebody who only had spotty bits of newspapers and observation alone.

Overall, I’d say it was the subtlety of the original that sold it for me. In several parts during The Ring I was irritated at how childish the supposed grownups were acting. The child, on the other hand, was irritating because he acted nothing like a child. I realize he was supposed to be creepy, but he wasn’t. He was just badly characterized.
Finally, the horse scene. Where that woman keeps poking at the horse in, The Ring. I laughed so hard when it came rushing out at her, cracked its legs on the boat’s edge, and flew into the rudder. That was hilarious. I’m glad I wasn’t in a theatre, because people would have questioned my sanity.

Nov 18th: I got a job offer today! But it wasn’t what you would expect. A pornographic screensaver company wants to hire me. ::Hugeass grin:: Everybody says I should take the job (man, do I have a reputation with my friends ^_~).
In more poetic justice news; I was making chicken for dinner, like I have a million times before, and when I went to pick up the glass dish to turn the chicken over, it exploded in my hand. I wasn’t cut, luckily, but there was glass everywhere. God damnit. The oven is way too hot to clean, and the glass melded itself to my floor and throw rug and so forth, so I have to leave it for tomorrow. ::Sigh:: ! (>_<)

November 19th: Jan woke me up at 10:45 this morning. Now, that may not sound early to most people, but do keep in mind I go to bed around 5am. She had this notion that it was a “glorious day” (since it wasn’t raining for once) and dragged me out to the park to have a garage sale. It was such a pain in the ass dragging all the boxes there (especially after Jan kept dropping my stuff all over the place!), but it was worth it. We made a killing. I think we got around 120$ altogether. People seemed to feel sorry for us because it was cold. Actually, one guy just stopped to ask directions to The Cambie, and despite not buying anything, or even looking, he gave Jan a toonie for our efforts. (o_0) He may have thought she was homeless on account of her toque. We got hit on incessantly too! First was this guy who tried to give me his number for “French Lessons”, then he pestered me, then left, then came back to ask if I was sure. Uh. Yeah. That’s fine, my French isn’t that bad. Then there was this flamboyant French guy (what a coincidence). He wasn’t exactly hitting on us, since he was obviously gay, and told us stories about this old boyfriend, but he kept scaring away customers by speaking to them in broken English about these “two wonderful French girls” and that “everything here is from Paris”. And lastly, the med student. He was so old, and didn’t care which one of us he got, so long as one of us was single. Then he gave us his e-mail address, verbally, and said he would like to be friends, or maybe something more. He sounded like a love-line add. He’s probably on quite a few. Pft.
In the end we had much less to cart home, and we were relieved to be home in warmth (and food). We also cleaned up the left over glass that was still all over my kitchen. I hadn’t had time to clean it up in the morning, on account of waking up at an ungodly hour (¬_¬`), tired Seagull JAN-Poppo!?

November 20th: Last night James and I got into a hilarious conversation about the Vampire Chronicles. I just have to post it:

The Vampire Armand

James

Of course after I told James I was going to post this, he demanded to be drawn into the conversation. Now, I generally draw people when they’re present, but just to placate James, here’s an amazing work of art depicting our next conversation… Which was about God. Far beit from me to doubt on my debating skills, but I haven’t even cracked a bible, so why debate with me about God? Anyway, James took the stance that when referring to God, it should be “She”, since God’s acts are feminine. I took the well-worn stance that God is, if anything, a cactus.

Nov 21st: Wahhh! He’s gone!!! Yesterday was Arwin’s going away party. (-_-) We were walking around the city earlier in the day before everybody congregated, and we met up with Kyla! So it was nice that he got to say good-bye to her as well. She had just returned from Saskatchewan, with stories of conquest, bull riders, and going back (wahh!). So I’ll be the only one left! So far as I know Arwin, Kyla, Jan, and Ted are leaving within two weeks. ::Cries:: Whyyy!
Well, today was Jan’s going away party, which was slightly less sad since she isn’t actually going until six days from now. Plus it was a joint birthday-party/going away party for several people, so it wasn’t as intimate. I hardly knew anybody there, though it was nice to see a few of our old classmates (Ernie and Ted) show up for a bit. After we decided to leave, Jan and I dropped Mike off at the sky train station, and went for McDonald’s. We sat there talking for nearly two hours before venturing out into the cold, dark night.

Nov 22nd: Today Jan and I watched anime all day. It was pretty cool until we watched one called The Laughing Target, which reminded us of Ringu.

So we made these screen caps to compare the two, which involved watching Ringu. This pretty much freaked the hell out of us, particularly Jan. I was pretty cool after we had a walk outside, and after we went back to her place, she asked me to stay to “protect” her from Sadako. (>_<) Now why would she invite me when she’s afraid of pale-skinned girls with long black hair attacking her.
Once we were in bed, despite me being there, she started getting all freaked out by the mirrored doors on her closet, and thought she saw Sadako.

It was laundry on her door, but still, she had to get rid of it.

After that she was pretty calm. (^_^) LoL. Aww, Jan-poppo. and You said horror films don't bother you!
But the main reason I stayed was because the security guard came to my place again while Jan was gone momentarily to tell me to stop making noise. He again looked a bit ashamed of being called since I was alone, and reading quietly. But he said he would send plumbers tomorrow morning to check if the pipes were making the noise. Ugh. Since I didn’t want to deal with that, I just avoided it. I mean, what noise could it be? It could be me dancing around, but I doubt it. Jan and I plan to check it out tomorrow.

Nov 23rd: Yes, we checked out if me jumping made noise. Jan went on the floor below me, and in the hallway I jumped up and down and she listened. She could only just hear a tiny bit of padding. I know it’s not my music too, because my immediate neighbours would have complained, and they don’t- plus it’s not a complaint about “music too loud”. And it’s the neighbours below me that suddenly have some sort of problem with me. I have no idea what their issue is. I’m such a quiet tenant. I don’t throw parties. I don’t play instruments. I don’t yell. All I do is sit at my computer, read, or watch TV. I work out, sure, which could be the thumping, but that’s retarded if they’re going to tell me to stop working out because it’s “too loud”. (9_9)

Nov 25th: We had to move some of Jan’s furniture to my place today since she’s leaving tomorrow. We also hauled a couple of tables, which was a real pain in the back, and people just kept staring at us. Finally Jan got fed up, and when this tall guy walked by, she’s like “how about helping out?!”. He did- in fact, he lifted with one hand the table we had been struggling with for nearly half an hour, and carried it to my door. (>_<) Ow. My pride hurts. After that Mike came over and we watched a fairly boring anime (>_<). It was called A Wind Named Amnesia or something like that. Ick. My review of it will not be favourable. I was so beat by the end of it, though. Jan and Mike were all awake and energetic, and I was like “it’s nearly five in the morning. The sun is rising, I must SLEEP!”

Nov 26th: Today Jan, Mike and I met up early to go see Scary Movie III. Remember? That’s the entire reason I started watching this whole Ring thing, so that I would understand this movie. And I did, and it was hilarious. I really liked it, and I laughed really hard through the entire thing. The best thing about it was, there were only three other people in the theatre! So it was all ours. That was awesome. After we left the theatre, Jan and I went home and Mike went to Bardel Studio. We met up later, and ran into James as well, so we all went out for dinner. It was pretty uneventful except that the waiter commented on my eating speed- but he said “did you breath?” or something like that, and I didn’t understand what he meant. Jan said I was so rude for it. Hahahah! (>_<) Anyway, once we got back to my place, James parted ways with us to go with his girlfriend Heather to see a movie. We were invited along, but since we had just been at the theatre hours before, we decided against it. We did end up seeing Ringu again, though. I had to show it to Mike to prove it’s the superior version. He wasn’t entirely convinced. But I’m satisfied that Jan is now- she agrees that Sadako is much more disturbing than Samara.
After we watched Ready or Not (it’s a tradition Jan, Arwin and I started- where we watch it and bet on what sort of episode it will be, like “friendship”, “peer pressure”, or “self esteem”), Jan had to go pack up Antonio’s van so she could start the journey home. I can’t believe they’re driving all the way to Montreal! Well, Jan’s getting off in Winnipeg, but my god… That’s like a six day trip, since the only driver with them is Antonio. And let me tell you- that van had the stuff from three people in it. It was packed full. Jan had to leave a box with me on short notice because it just wouldn’t fit. There was barely any place for her, Antonio and Amanda. (>_<) I wouldn’t trade places with her for the world. Yikes. Mike had this notion that he could reorganize the Van with his awesome CostCo packing skills, and make it all fit with room to spare. I “strongly advised” him not to bring it up since it was already midnight. (^_~) We said our final goodbyes to Jan, and she promised she’d be back. So here it’s is in writing- you’ve got to return, Jan-poppo!

Nov 27th: Today Mike and I hung around; we went and bought another play station controller and played this snowboarding game. I sucked major balls at it. My god. I made dinner too- but the dessert didn’t turn out. I attempted this chocolate pudding in chocolate sauce, and it tasted salty. (o_0) The hell.

Nov 28th: I went into the school today to ask about that pornographic screensaver job I was offered. I forget if I mentioned it before or not, but it is a legitimate company. So I asked the instructors if it would doom my career to work for them. Professor Paul said no, because I could just choose not to mention what the nature of the work the company did was. I went to talk to Keli and Ben too, and they were being instructed by Wayne, who I also asked (^_^ LoL!). He said pretty much the same thing, just to do some background checking because they could try and rip me off of pay if it’s on commission. It was funny, though; Keli and Ben volunteered to help if ever I had any overflow work. Hahahah. Of course they would help. (>_<)
I also called to cancel my insurance today. There weren’t altogether clear on what I had to do- apparently just write “cancelled” across the policy. I couldn’t find anything that said “policy” right on it, so I found the closest thing and signed that. I hope it’s enough.

Nov 30th: At the last minute Karen called me today because one of her friends cancelled on going to the Le Chateau Christmas party at the Caprice club, so I was invited along. (^_^) Hey, it was a lot of fun. Tonns of fashionable girls and fashionably gay guys. The club itself was pretty cool, they even provided food ,which stayed there for the duration of the night. ::Snark:: Funny thing is, whenever I party with animators or the punk/skater crowd, the food doesn’t survive past five minutes into the gathering. (o_0) Oh my, the cost of beauty is the sacrifice of chicken wings, who would have known.
Mike and I left around 1am (Oooo. We party so hard). And the next part of this entry, should any authorities read it, is fictional! Get ready for story-time, children.
I got home only to discover the X-Men II movie I was attempting to download was, in fact, Snoop Dog Porn. No, I’m serious. It was probably the scariest piece of smut I’d ever seen. It was like the Clock Work Orange of X-rated movies. Basically it was sex-scenes interspersed with Snoop Dog rapping. And I mean CLOSE UP on Snoop Dog singing, back to the sex, CLOSE UP on Snoop… What guy would not be traumatized by this?!

Dec 9th: Ahh, I’ve been gone so long! Basically last Wednesday I got a Flash test from Smiley Guy Studios (the makers of Odd Job Jack), which was due today, so I’ve worked on it tirelessly doing very little else. Mike came over on Thursday to give me some suggestions on how to arrange the whole thing (it was set up the same was as the test he took for Bardel, so he could shed light on how to organize stuff). He also dropped by Saturday to critique the scenes I’d finished- then I sent it off to instructors to get their point of view.
In awesome news…
I have this great big compilation of the Lord of the Rings series, which I’ve been reading lately.
After I finished reading Fellowship, I thought I’d watch the movie again to see the new perspective. I actually like the movie a lot more now that I’ve read the book- though I don’t think they really captured the length of the journey. In the book it feels like they toil for ever, and the travelling is very epic. In the movie it’s as if they _easily_ reach each destination within a day. Now that I know all the names they’re pronouncing, I thought, at times (especially in the mines) the music was way too loud and drowned out what everybody was attempting to say! I was also sort of disappointed with Boromir’s character. He seems just… Evil… In the movie. I mean, he’s only human. In the books it’s really clear that everybody with a position of power, or with a strong goal is really tempted by the ring. Some are just stronger and fight it, and The Fellowship is made of tough stuff. Boromir is just the most normal of them all, so of course he’s tempted! He has things to fight for- his kingdom depends on him, and he knows it’s only a matter of time before it falls if he doesn’t gain outside help.
I loved Balrog, though. He rocked my world. Just like the Red Bull in The Last Unicorn. I only have one question, why is it EVERY SINGLE monster makes the same noise as T-Rex from Jurassic Park? Seriously. The cave troll… Was that supposed to be paying homage to the T-Rex scene or what? Because I’m pretty sure they just stole the FX from it.
The fight scenes: my god. Did they do that to disguise shitty animation? Or did the actors not know how to fight, so they had to hide the lack of ability with constantly, violent, chaotic CAMERA SHAKES?! That, and- well… I’m not sure about how fighting was done when it involved swords and what not, but is it really customary to first have your sword right in front of your face before you attack the enemy? Aragorn does it, the Wraiths, do it… The hell? It seems needlessly dangerous.
Now, this is my theory about the elves of Lothlorien… They’re the Rats of Nihm. No, really. They are. Watch the scene again! Doesn’t their tree remind you of the rat bush in Secret of Nihm?
The thing I found most funny, though… Was Sauron. Why did I never notice his cheesiness before?! I spent the entire beginning scene LAUGHING MY ASS OFF. He’s like a fucking human tank with horns, that has the presence of Darth Vader, and stole Golbez’s suit. I also had problems not laughing every time Elrond spoke, or floated disembodied in Frodo’s head. Hey, captain lame, we’re glad you don’t play a bigger part because you make me feel the urge to drive a pike into my eye.
But honestly… Could there be any more touching between Frodo and Strider? I mean, really. The man is more of a pervy hobbit-fancier than Boromir- and that’s saying something if you’ve read the book. They keep describing Boromir as “trying to get a glimpse of Frodo’s face”, constantly touching him, and staring. Seriously, if he were after “the ring” as we’re lead to believe, why would he be so intent on Frodo… And not on his pocket? Where the ring is kept. Er. That sounds wrong. But regardless of what Boromir thinks there is in Frodo’s pocket, he should really find a more suitable bride or his kingdom might be a bit uncomfortable. Wait, one last question- why is it, whenever Frodo uses the ring or sees anything Sauron-related, he ends up flat on his back? No, really. Watch the movie again. Practically every time he ends up on the ground, struggling and moaning.

December 19th: Mike and I went to see Lord of the Rings, Return of the King today. So, of course, this entry will have spoilers. Well, not big spoilers… But regardless.
Spoilers!

First: awesome. The movie was amazingly well done. I laughed, I cried, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The laughter, though, caused some problems. See, I find the most inappropriate things funny. Example: Frodo in the spider’s cave, yelling “it’s sticky”. I also had a chuckle when Gollum was thrown off the cliff the first time. I mean, come on! Frodo was trying so hard not to kill him the whole time, then just sends him hurtling into a chasm… I was like “woo--oops.”, which started Mike laughing as well. By the time Frodo and Sam were discussing Shire strawberries, cream, and being naked in the dark, I couldn’t hold back. I was just laughing out loud uncontrollably.
It didn’t help that any time Legolas spoke, I couldn’t keep a straight face- and the only thing I could think of when that stand-in king went running around in flames, was “stop drop and roll, man!”.
But by far, the last scene had both Mike and I laughing the hardest: Frodo, in bed, saying “Gandalf!” with a shit-eating grin, then Gandalf responding in kind. Sure, I was just chuckling at that point, but when the Hobbit dog-pile on Frodo included Gimli, I was in total hysterics. Hold me back! HOLD ME BACK! (>_<) AHAHAHa the memory in itself cracks me up.
On the same point, any scene with Theodin and Eowyn had me in tears. It was just so touching… I couldn’t help it. (.-_-.)
::Breath:: By the time we got out of the theatre, the entire place was shut down. It was 2 o’clock in the morning, and the place was absolutely deserted, save for cleaning staff and one guy who fell asleep during the movie. How??? It was Lord of the Rings, fool!!!

December 21st: Just to catch up, I’ve basically been getting ready for Christmas, and working on the Bardel animation test… Since I didn’t get the Odd Job Jack position. Yea. I was pretty disappointed and down on myself about that, since I figured it was a sure thing, but the way they phrased the rejection “didn’t meet our expectations”, kind of makes me wonder if it was some sort of auto-response, and they had simply filled the position before I finished the test.
Anyway, today I went for dinner at Mike’s. We had this thing- called “hot pot”. Basically there’s a pot of boiling soup in the middle of the table, and platters of uncooked meat, seafood, and noodles that each person can cook at their own leisure in the main pot. It was great for me- I like my steak ridiculously rare, and this way, I could just sort of dip it in the water (^_^). After we finished eating, we (Mike’s family and friends of the family that joined us) played Cranium. We went guys against girls, and guess who won? ::Polishes nails:: Hee hee. That’s right. The girl’s team. ::Fluffs hair:: (^_~)
After that Mike drove me home, we had fun with a dead car battery and trying to flag somebody down at 4:00am, and finally ended up paying a cabbie 5$ to jump us. (>_<)

January 7th: Where have I BEEN?
Sudbury. I went home on the 23rd right after Mike’s birthday. It was so nice of him too- he drove me to the airport, which saved me the grief of taxi fare.
The flight was pretty good- I was sitting beside a fellow literary fan, so we spent the flight taking about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Once I got to Toronto, though, my flight to Sudbury was delayed because of “bad weather” (they even warned us that the plane could get turned around), but when I got to Sudbury, the weather was clear. (o_0)
On Christmas eve I met up with Stef, which was generally awkward… Especially after he started pressing me to have a “good long talk”. After I told him I was on holidays, and would only get together for pleasant meetings he relented, but unfortunately I had to leave early due to an interview, which only served to piss him off further. (9_9) Ah well. At least he wished me luck eventually.
The vacation itself was a lot of fun. It was nice to see my parents again- not to mention not having to do anything at all. The first day I was back I applied for a job- and I got it! Basically an independent producer wanted a team to make his vision of a comic to educate the 3rd world. On January 3rd I went down to Toronto (luckily I was still in Sudbury when the interview was called) and met with the director and the rest of the team. It went really well. I stayed at the Royal York, which is this super posh hotel. I was immediately at home with the king sized bed, fully stocked food and drink bar, and the fact that, despite only ordering a Personal Pan Pizza, it came on a silver platter complete with flower. (^_^) The next day, after the interview, I met up with Heather… Eventually. She told me to meet her in the Union Station, and I speant nearly three hours waiting. The thing is, so did she! She was just one floor above me. It was crazy- finally Heather and her mom called my cell and we met up and went shopping. Toronto is a lot like Vancouver, the stores are the same, the people are slightly more alternative, and the homeless are subdued by the cold.
After I returned I met up with Angie, who is well, alive, and going to an art college in Miami. We exchanged portfolios, made fun of my class reel, and tried to find a restaurant that was open at 5pm on Sunday in Sudbury. There aren’t any.
Anyway, somewhere in the middle of that (before my interview, after Christmas) I met up with Heather for the first time. She came over to my house and it was just like old times. My parents were all enamoured with the little escapade back in time; Heath and I did all the stuff we used to do, including digging up My Little Ponies and watching The Lion King.
I also got together with Scottie, had a couple drinks, then watched the unaired episode of Family Guy. It was every bit as awesome as I thought it would be. (^_^) And Scottie was his ol’ self, full of entertaining anecdotes and a new record for Most Stuff Snuck Into a Theatre. This time it was a cutting board, knife, cheese, crackers, and a box- A box of wine. (^_^)
The rest of the holiday I pretty much just bummed around, worked on my Flash Test for Bardel, and ate delicious meals. (^_^) The only sucky part was that by the end of my holiday both my parents had the flu. And now I have it. That’s right. I woke up this morning with my chest burning, feverish, hacking up various things, my muscles aching, and I can’t walk all that well. ::Whines:: Not to mention that production I was hired for has been postponed, which isn’t a big deal, I’m just slightly concerned about things being cancelled. That would definitely suck, but I doubt it’ll happen.
Oh yea! Before I forget- I got an external 120g HD for Christmas (WOO HOO!), some classic novels (WOO! Education), and the Harry Potter board game (Which my parents and I played incessantly).

January 15th: A week. A week of this.

And despite all this James dropped by unannounced (with his friend) for my help on his portfolio. (@_@) I nearly passed out scanning. Nughhhhhhrrrrr. ::Dies::

January 17th: I spent most of the day working on Bardel’s Flash test, then in the evening I met up with Kyla. We had found a house that looked pretty good, but after asking her boyfriend, we found out it was in a really bad part of town. So we decided against going to check it out, and had dinner instead. (^_^);;
In literary news, I’m taking a break through LotR to read some more Ann Rice. I zipped through The Vampire Armand pretty quickly, though I *still* maintain it’s a 500 page testimonial to how rock hard Marius’ glutes really are. Queen of the Damned has… Well, honestly, a lot more lameness. Not only is there the most awful poetry featured at the beginning of every segment (Stan Rice’s work, no doubt), but the new vampires make me want to put a hot poker in my eye, as to save me from ever reading more about them! Baby Jenks be damned! I cheered, danced, and threw a modest party when she met her demise!!!
And so was inspired this bitey conversation about Rice's writing:

Mamie

Armand: "You may go, I will not kill you. Your eyes are violet. Run away, your tapes are beside you. I have ADD."

Mamie

Jan 21st: I spent the entire day working on clean-up today… Then went for new-years-eve dinner at Mike’s. It was really delicious- And it was nice not to have to cook for myself. (^_^) hee hee. But in awesome news- I go a job! I’m moving to Toronto to work in-studio for Smiley Guys! YAY!!!! CHEERRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Jan 26th: Oh my fucking god what a stressful day. I spent the entire morning and afternoon sorting out my affairs. Firstly… Greyhound. What the hell are they doing?! They’re such lazy bastards. I called, and I’m like “I need a truck today”. They’re like “that probably won’t happen”. So I say, “Well, I need it by tomorrow.” They reply “Oh, well… We’ll see.” So now I’m angry. “No, you idiots! I NEED IT BY TOMORROW BECAUSE AFTER THAT I’LL BE GONE!”. So after calling Purolator, to verify that I had indeed miscalculated and I had not just spent $32000 on shipping, I found out that Greyhound and Purolator cost the same… But Purolator arrives within an hour, is polite, and doesn’t SUCK DRIED MONKEY BALLZ! So I sent my stuff with them… Stuff being all the crap in my apartment I wanted to keep, but can’t bring with me, so I sent it home to my parents. (^_^;; Heeh). Anyway, more pain in my ass came with trying to cancel and reroute my bills. Half the places I called were automated messages that lead me around in circles. But I finally got everything taken care of (except Visa… Ngrgg), did laundry, and got all spiffy so that Mike and I could go out for dinner and a movie, which was excellent. We watched Human Traffic, which was fairly funny… Though I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody who hasn’t at least touched on the whole night club… er… Scene.

Jan 28: ::Bawling:: I left Vancouver today! ::Sniffles:: I’ve been crying since last night- But Mike was nice enough not to be like “ass, let me sleep!”, while I was wailing like a baby. The cab driver was less understanding, and seemed distinctly uncomfortable around my crying self… Same with the stewardesses on the plane… But eventually I settled down, and did clean-up and inking for most of the trip… Basically the same thing I’ve been doing off and on when I’ve had time for the past week… I haven’t really been able to get the same amount of work done, but that’s no surprise sine I had to organize this impromptu move… Thank all that’s good and true that my mom was willing to help me sort out a lot of the stuff like… Where I’ll live in Toronto. By the way, it’s awesome. I pay $530/month for one room… But get this, it’s all utilities included, plus I get a breakfast of my choice, and laundry included, and high speed internet… Oh my sweet lord! Look at the awesome. FEEEEEEEEEEEL it.
Ahem, back to the flight… Once I got settled, and some time had passed, the children sitting behind me became… Unbearable! They were pulling my hair, staring over the seat at my drawing, kicking my seat, yelling, and running around the plane… Good lord. But aside from that, I like HML airways (or whatever the hell they were called) better than Air Canada. Despite the fact I accidentally went through the air Canada check-in line at Vancouver… Which is an easy mistake! It says “check in here” and it’s right in front of the fucking door. Sure, it has the Air Canada logo on it, but SO DOES THE BUILDING ITSELF! Ugh. Luckily (and this is one of the reasons I liked it so much) the HML airway check-in had no lines. None. It was excellent. I had to pay for extra baggage… But it wasn’t so steep. Plus they give you free wine on board the aircraft. Now that’s awesome. If I didn’t have so much work to do, I would have partied down… And probably gotten mean!drunk and beaten those children senseless, causing the plane to emergency land in some state that we flew over… OH! Back to reality, the flight took only 3 hours and 45 minutes. So short! I dunno what HML does differently, but that was a hell of a lot better than the 5 + hour flight I keep having to endure with Air Canada.
Anyway, once I landed, figured out how to use the trolleys here (you have to pay a buck… Ugh), I met Jonas and am now staying at his mom’s house. Huzzah! It’s really homey. (^_^) I called my mum, and Mike… Who called me back at 3am, just so I wouldn’t worry about him not responding (awww). ::Yawns:: But man oh man… I’m so jet-lagged.

Jan 29th: Today I went in to the studio! It was a really fun experience… Everybody there seems really nice and laid-back. They even had instruments set up should anybody want to play. Half the guys were in the midst of a ping-pong match. Afterward Jonas SmileyGuy!Mike and I went to Stinky D’s (I think it was named), which is a Mexican food place. I was totally reminded of VFS with the Mouse and Bean, which was our resident TexMex place. (>_<) Ahahaha. Afterward Jonas drove me back to his mum’s place, since he had to go cement the deal with Molson by going drinkin’ with them (or so is my understanding). See, now that’s the sort of business ethic I like.

January 30th: I’m sitting in my new room right now, finally all installed and unpacked. I left Jonas’ house around 1 o’clock. Nobody was home- well, except the maid who woke me up around 11 with her vacuuming. At any rate, Sara came to pick me up, and brought me to the house. We waited around for a while for the girl who was living in my room to get home and ship out. Sad good-byes ensued.
Anyway, now I’m living with the amazing force that is high speed internet! Muahaha! It works just fine, though Sara tried to convince me that I need wireless internet. Hm. Maybe. I dunno, I like being able to unplug my computer from the ‘net if worse comes to worse. Wireless doesn’t really offer that unless I feel the insane urge to pull cards from my computer… And that would involve a really nasty case of flooding to force me into that.
I should mention that Sara is the lady who owns the house- she’s actually a lot younger than I expected. Maybe early thirties? She’s basically a den mother that keeps all the girls that live in her house in line. At the moment there are two other girls living here with me, and one room for rent. It’s all very cool- it’s basically really homey. I don’t have to pay for laundry or anything, and everybody cooks for everybody else. (^_^) He heee. I have a good feeling about this- though my window is frozen shut. That sucks balls since my room is about 100°C… Oh wait, I feel right at home. It’s just like the heat in my Vancouver apartment that was constantly stuck on so I had to have my patio door open all the time… Though keep in mind that opening doors and windows here means letting the Freezing Bitchass Wind of the North into your house. My god there’s so much snow. And everybody keeps assuming I’m from Vancouver. So they have this impression (often a patronizing one) that I’ll be all sensitive to the cold and not know what snow is. Um. Yea. Sudbury=arctic. Sudbury=my home town. I know of people dying from giant icicles impaling them. Homeless people freeze, cars don’t start and must be plugged in, and guess what- gloves are NOT optional. And if you look out the window and it’s a crystal clear winter’s night where you can see every star, you can bet your frost-bitten ass it’s below 40°C.

January 31st: It’s difficult sleeping in a single bed when you’re used to double at worst, queen-sized most of the time, and even king once or twice. I kept falling off the edge and smashing my hand on the dresser. To complicate matters… I wasn’t aware that Sara had children. Three children. An infant, a toddler (who yells… And yells… And ceaselessly… Yells…. ::Tired voice:: yelling… rughhh) and a 7 year old. Plus this toddler keeps coming in to my room when my door is open (which is sort of necessary to keep things acclimatized since the window is frozen shut). Luckily his sister (the 7 year-old) saves me by dragging her brother, kicking and yelling, away. Strangely enough the whole dynamic- the noise, the house, possibly the hardwood floor, reminds me of Heather’s house when she lived in Sudbury. I suppose that fondness is why I haven’t gone on a killing rampage or encased the kids in duct tape with rags of chloroform to sooth their (yelling) agitation.
But it could have been worse. Apparently when my housemate Jenny first moved in, the toddler would run after her trying to bite her and bang on her door. ::Laughs so hard:: I guess I got off easy with annoying visitations. Then again, I bite back. ::Eyetwitch::
Today I went wandering around after Sara took me on a drive-by tour of Toronto. It’s so odd… I live in the Portuguese district, so I have to learn bits and pieces of yet another language. Sigh. The funny thing is, Sara is all impressed with my ability with chopsticks. I was eating ramen last night, and she was in awe at my ability- because I was white. ::Bursts out laughing:: AHAHAHAHAHA. (>_<) You don’t live in Vancouver for two years without learning how to use chopsticks right quick.