Cótes des Neiges (Snow Hill)
So school is in full swing again, and unfortunately this blog has taken a toll because of it. I have a few extra minutes tonight, so I feel like writing something. I’ve got a whole bunch of other random stuff and thoughts I’m gonna write down sometime, it’s just a matter of laziness.
The start of my third year has kind of come in as a whimper versus a bang. My schedule is very forgiving this semester, I only really have class on Monday and Thursday. Tuesdays has one class @ 7pm, and Fridays are off. So it’s pretty good. Again due to the program, I’m taking a mismash of courses, including the Art and Architecture of Ancient Greece. So hopefully things will be good as the year progresses.
Luckily, Girlfriend and I have still managed to maintain seeing each other fairly often. You’d think more often than we do, given we live in the same house. I am surprised how well the living situation is going. Being roommates is great, we usually have breakfast together and then do something in the night together, so it’s nice. The owners of the house are great and the cat loves me. Which is nice. Unfortunately my parents are under the assumption that Girlfriend and I share everything (food wise) and thus they have stopped pitching in for my food bill. I suppose this is fair, but hopefully when they come at the end of September, they will see how little we actually share, and have a change of heart. (Doubtful – but here’s to wishful thinking)
$500 Music Box
In other news, I’m spending too much money lately! I’m in the process of purchasing an Mbox Pro2 (pictured below) for $500. Which is a steal of a deal considering you generally pay $1200+ for it. It’s great because I can use it to record, I can plug in my other box into it, and I get access to the most used software in the business.
You see! Digidesign, the company who makes the Mbox, has also produced a program called ProTools which has become the industry standard. Well, Digi has also made it so that you can’t use ProTools unless you’re hooked up to an Mbox. So this is not cool. Thus I am buying one.
Secondly, I just bought VIP tickets to the Alexisonfire show that will be happening here in November. This means I get: a ticket &
- meet & greet
- tour poster
- exclusive laminate
- 7″ (DEMOS from OC/YC….super limited)
- early entry into venue
The guys I'll be meeting
Most importantly on this list is the meet & greet. Alexisonfire has grown to be one of my favourite bands, and having the opportunity to talk to them is going to be awesome. I’m already thinking up questions to ask and all this other loser stuff. Victoria is the first stop on the tour, so I’m gonna be one of the first people they meet! Aweeeesum.
In other nerdy music news involving me, there’s a guy coming to our school to talk to us about working in a well known studio. This guy has worked with K-Os, R.E.M., The Tragically Hip and Rise Against to name a few. These are a lot of big names, and a lot of bands that I listen to. I’m super pumped to talk to him and see what he says about the industry. So I’ve got another list of questions going for him too.
That kinda runs injunction with some other news of mine. I’ve taken over the Facebook group for my program, so I’m being a big n00b and posting all the time in the group to keep it relevant. 
Umm…other than that, I’m not really sure what else is going on with me. Trying my best to stay active. Girlfriend and I have started playing tennis, and I’ve joined a ball hockey team as well. So I’ve got lots on the go.
Oh! I suppose I can talk about what happened in the last bit of the summer. I’ve been working at the Gap most of the time, and still am continuing into the fall (5 classes, and 2 jobs – great). The Gap is great, and I love working there, right now it’s mostly weekends and Friday’s so the hours aren’t fantastic.
Also – this summer was probably the first summer where I actually read more than 2 books that weren’t comics. I read:
- The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
- The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
- The Producer as the Composer by Virgil Moorefield
- Think of a Number by John Verdon
All of them were really good, but I have to pick two out of the mix. Think of a Number was fantastic, probably the best book I’ve read in a long time. It’s a great serial killer/mystery/crime/psychological/fuck-with-your-brain type of book. Which I really enjoy. So I’d definitely recommend that one. 
The second, The Producer as the Composer, I would recommend for anyone with any interest in music. It talks about the producers role in making music all the way from Motown to DJ’s of today. It was the first book that got me to listen to an entire Beatles album (Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and it made the music actually interesting to me. I went out and bought Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, just so I could hear for myself what Brian Wilson did in terms of mixing and arrangements. So for me this book had a significant impact on my musical life and how I want to pursue my career.
I think that’s enough for tonight. Ima go to bed now. More specifically…girlfriend’s bed! 
If there’s any books you think I should be reading, please let me know!
A Little Less Strange than Eviction
Sigh, so I had said that I was going to try and write more. And…I haven’t been.
I guess I’ve just been tired or bored or just not into writing about my life.
Mostly because nothing interesting has happened to me in the past month.
I moved into my new house and quickly realized how it was nothing as I had first imagined it as. The house is loud in the mornings, creeky, etc etc. The laundry machine shakes the entire house (the first few times I thought I was experiencing an earthquake when I saw my mirror shaking.). The street just outside my window is usually busy. There’s no toaster! No friggen toaster! What the hell is that all about?! And with no TV, there’s not a lot to do here. I’ve actually read more books this summer than I have read in the past few years. More to come on that later.
And that’s just the little things. My landlady is fuckin’ nuts. She is probably bipolar and OCD and something else. Most days she spends her time on her computer in her little room and we can go days without seeing each other. Other times (usually when her kids are over) she’s all uppity and wanting to interact and blah blah blah.
So the first weekend, Girlfriend was here and we had a nice dinner, and wine, and all that grown up stuff, and then we played a game of scrabble, (which, much to Girlfriends sha-grin, I kicked her ass) and then it was late and everything was parting off to their rooms. I asked Landlady (hereafter referred to as LL) if it was okay if Girlfriend could stay the night. And LL kinda laughs, and stammers and is just flat out “No.” Which is a little unexpected for the both of us. She seemed to really like Girlfriend and I and seemed like the kind of lady that wouldn’t have a problem with it. But apparently so. Thus Girlfriend went home unhappy and I went to my room and the awkwardness only got worse from there.
I eventually sat down and talked with her about it and she basically said that she didn’t feel comfortable having Girlfriend stay over because she likes feeling comfortable in the mornings and apparently that wouldn’t happen if Girlfriend stayed. Also she didn’t want to have 2 tenants staying here for the price of 1. Because apparently the cost of electricity and water would exponentially grow when she’s here. The distance to her house is so small that I don’t think she would ever shower here. Basically her reasons where invalid and just stupid excuses.
I left that conversation even more confused and frustrated with her. Told Girlfriend who was equally frustrated and spent the night staying in my room.
The next day just after noon, she sent me an email stating:
“I need to inform you that it would be best if you sought a more suitable accommodation in which to live as this arrangement does not appear to be a good fit for either of us.
It is of utmost importance that we are both comfortable with living arrangements here in the meantime.
My experiences thus far in letting rooms in my home have all been seamless and I need for this to be a continuum for many reasons.”
Now, not only did she send me this email, she printed out a copy of it and placed it on the kitchen table in case I didn’t see it. I also can’t believe that she said that it is of the utmost importance for us to be comfortable. Well! Now it’s even awkward for me to go downstairs and cook, or hang out, or anything. Girlfriend hasn’t been over since this conversation and she won’t be over while I still live here, if LL is still here.
So basically my only choice is to move out. I never responded to the email because I think that that’s probably the most immature way to talk with someone when they’re in the same house at the same time. She could have very easily walked up the stairs, knocked on the door and talked to me. But she decided to be immature and cowardly and email me.
I went a few days without seeing LL after that and did my best to avoid her and her daughter as much as possible. Mind you this was maybe a week, week & a 1/2 since I had moved in. So I was not aware of everything in the house.
Which is why I received yet another email a few days ago. This one telling me that I need to a better job of cleaning and picking up my share of the work load. Which is fucking ridiculous because I do my own dishes, empty the garbage, haven’t lived here long enough to validate vacuuming, and was told that LL was going to take care of the bathrooms for the first week. So – what was there for me to do? This lady is very very retarded and childish. Words can’t really describe how much this woman confuses me.
So I am moving out on August 15th, Girlfriend lives in a house with the same kind of situation, she shares with a couple and 2 other roommates. Well lucky for me one of the rooms is opening up, so I’m going to move in there on the 21st. Maybe Girlfriend and I will go on a vacation for those 5 days….that’s an idea.
Well, I think that’s enough for tonight about my crazy living situation. Go check out this guys landlord, I guess it could be worse.
I suppose it could always get worse...
http://strangerthaneviction.tumblr.com/
At least the dog likes me.
This Week In News
Well it’s been a while since I’ve done this…. So I feel like reporting some news! Thing you might have seen or might not have! Enjoy!
Some crazy 13 year old kid climbed to the top of Mount Everest today. He promptly then called his mom. Great. 13 year olds are doing things I’ll never do in my life. Good grief. http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1087094
The youngest climber to reach the peak of Mount Everest hugged his tearful companions and told them he loved them. Then 13-year-old Jordan Romero took the satellite phone and called his mom.
“He says, ‘Mom, I’m calling you from the top of the world,’” a giddy Leigh Anne Drake told The Associated Press from California, where she had been watching her son’s progress minute by minute on a GPS tracker online.
In other news, Venus Williams won the French Open – and decided to wear her lingerie to the match.
I guess that’s one way to make tennis more exciting. At least she decided to wear underwear.
I saw IronMan 2 today. It was pretty good. Probably better as a renter. All the toys were pretty cool and all. But the plot was weak and the battle scenes bland. The final battle only lasted 2 minutes or so. When I think of good end battles, I automatically thing of Return of the Jedi – and how long the fight between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader – and then Lord Sidious went on. I was expecting that from IronMan, or something similar. But alas. Whatever. Scarlett Johannson was pretty dang good looking though. Must be the curly dark hair and leather body suit – Girlfriend taking notes?
In Albertan news, some kid who wants to wear a kilt to graduation isn’t allowed. Part of me wants to be on his side and say go for it – stick it to the man and stand out. But part of me is just like – eh who cares, wear it to the dinner, when people will actually see it. Just my opinion.
Orchestral Set No.2, II a
So I am busy doing some ‘studying’ for my listening to music class. Which is really just sitting here and being on the internet while I listen to some odd, and modern, and terrible music. All in preparation for my first of two finals on Monday. Not that both finals are on Monday, I just have two, and one of them is on Monday. The other is on Saturday. It’s in computer science. In case you cared.
Life for me has been rather peachy lately. I’ve done the more ‘partying’ in the last two days than probably all year. On Thursday after work, I came home and had some wine and drinks with my roommates. And yesterday I went to a friend of mine who I used to live in residence with and played poker. It was a $5 buy-in, and I thought I had a pretty good chance going in. I ended up placing third and a hand that I played right. I just got beat by a pocket pair. Unfortunately. Other than that, the night was good. We had to cab home because the stupid buses don’t run past 11:30 here. (That’s a little bit of an hyperbole, it’s more like 11:35.) We cabbed downtown and tried to catch a bus, to no avail, then we managed to meet up with some guys my friend knew, so we shared a cab with them, all the while talking very loudly with the cabbie about hockey and politics.
Thursday was a crazy adventure of it’s own. I had to go downtown to work. This involves me bringing: a recording box, 100 ft cables (x 2), two microphones, two microphone clips, a microphone bar, and a microphone stand. Well first, I take a bus down there, lugging all this equipment, then I get to the church, to discover that I can’t get in for another half hour. So with nowhere to go, and a big tub full of recording equipment, I head to the place where all the crazy’s go. McDonald’s. I essentially sat there for 20 minutes just watching all these 16 year olds come in with their 25 year old boyfriends and socialize. It’s so odd. Once I did get in, I start setting up, and realize that I don’t have a microphone clip. Just one, for two mics. Great. I made a few calls, with no success, so I decided to wait that one out and focus on my other stuff. Well that didn’t go so well either. The recording box I was using decided to not work for me. At this point the choir started showing up…
Now side-note: Everybody I have ever met has known That Guy. He’s the one in the class who seems to know everything about everything and feels the compelling need to tell everyone else what he knows. Well in my case, there were TWO That Guy’s in this choir. Both of them are in my recording techniques class and definitely wanted to help me out with the problem. Now, to make this simple, the recording box has one cable that goes from the box to the computer. So you can’t really screw that up. But nonetheless these guys were crouching down, trying to figure out what’s wrong with the cable, jiggling it, plugging it in and out. Even though it really wasn’t their job and they just wanted to be the hero. So ONE guy, who just so happens to work at a music store, get’s on the phone with his boss or someone, and starts asking what the problem is. By this time we’ve acquired a small congregation of onlookers trying to see why the recording guy is fucking up.
So when another member of the choir arrives, who is another recording tech, I ask him for his advice, and he said we should go get a new cable. But since he needed to be there with the choir, he gave me his car keys to drive back to the school. Which was quite a shock for me, no one has just given up their car to me for something like this. I thought maybe he’d drive me or something. But that was fine. It was the first time I’d driven a car in almost 4 months, but it’s just like riding a bike. Or so I’ve been told. (Thanks Dad)
Eventually I get back to the church with what I needed. And when I did get back, the other recording tech guy came in with a brand new box. Apparently he had gone to Long & McQuade and picked up a whole new rig. Anyways, the stuff eventually worked and the show went fine.
Goodness that was a long convoluted story.
Umm…Trying to remember what else is happening around here. Girlfriend and I are back together. We’re working things out, and going to try long distance over the summer. And see how that works out and then make a call then. (I think? Right Girlfriend?) She always searches my posts for mention of her name. So here it is! LOOK HERE GIRLFRIEND. Hi 
.
So, my second year is done. And after all these thoughts of switching schools and dropping out, I think I’m deciding to stay here. It just means less courses each semester. I feel like I’ve been doing better in most of my courses this year. We’ll see after I get the marks back. I’ve definitely become accustomed to getting B’s and C’s now. It’s not great, but I feel I’m learning it and still enjoying myself without pushing it to the breaking point.
The whole housing/living situation is getting pretty interesting here. My one, more well-off, roommate’s parents were here over easter. And it’s look like they’re going to buy us a house to live in next year. This is a crazy idea to say the least – in my opinion. I am perfectly fine living wherever and I feel like a house would be a little over the top. I have made this clear to these guys and I’m considering other options for living. Girlfriend and I still want to live together, and hopefully that can happen if I make lots of money this summer.
Well I guess I should get back to ‘studying’. I leave you with one of the pieces of contemporary music that I really like.
Later Days,
- J
Allegretto poco Scherzoso
I am finally coming off of one of the most hectic weeks of my year. Last week almost killed me. Starting on the Friday previous, making that the 12th. I worked that night, the next night, and the night after that. On that Wednesday my parents arrived in time for my jazz band concert on Saturday. That Thursday night I had a rehearsal for said jazz band, and then a midterm the day after in my recording class. Then Saturday was the concert and dress rehearsal, so that day was basically a write off. And then to top it all off, on Sunday I had to finish a 1300+ line assignment for my computer science class. Throw in seeing your parents everyday and them harping on you about just about everything. It did not make for a good week.
My parents being here caused me a lot of stress. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned, but Girlfriend and I are, or were, hoping to move in together in September. As of now it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. My parents flat out told me that if her and I wanted to live together then I would have to pay for all on my own. My parents very generously cover a large amount of my expenses while I am in school. And depending on whether or not I find a job this summer, I could have little to no funds of my own. This has caused a point of conflict for me and girlfriend, and for my parents and I. Girlfriend is questioning whether or not she wants to maintain this relationship, when in the long run it is probable that it will not last due to our individual goals. My parents like to think that they’re letting me make my own decisions in what I do, when really I feel as though they are adding a significant amount of influence by saying that they won’t pay. It’s ridiculous and stupid and grr.
In other news…well I don’t really have other news. It’s looking like I’m moving back to Calgary this summer. I really don’t have many other options, nobody here has looked promising with jobs. And I’ve been applying much earlier than I did last year. The thought of taking more courses has crossed my mind. But I think I would go insane going almost 3 years straight without a break. Maybe I’ll apply to Banff again. They rejected me this time, but that could be because the competition was so great and my recordings weren’t that good.
Speaking of recordings, I get to do something pretty cool tomorrow. My recording class wants to do a session on recording drums, so I get to play for them! It’ll be fun being on the other side of things for a change. Hopefully I’ll be able to listen to something to drum along to…I feel that it’s really hard to play drums to nothing. Oh well, we shall see tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get a recording of it and I can post it for everyone to hear!
Oh drums! Jazz band. Sucked. Go figure. I played my three songs and left. There was nothing to stay there for, our ‘leader’ was just using the forum as a promotion for her and her band. The ‘guest’ artist she invited is a blues harmonica player. Together, him and our leader have two bands together, and they will be touring to Germany in May. Definitely a big fucking joke. I was so pissed at that, and really glad I left. The school is trying to find a new jazz teacher. Thank God, and one of the candidates is Matt Brubeck (Dave Brubeck’s son) and he taught us a class on Friday which was pretty cool. See video of Dave Brubeck playing piano and you will understand how good his son is.
And with that, I think I’ll sign off.
Later days,
- J
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Greetings faithful following!
If you do follow this, neat! You should leave a comment and let me know what you think or what you want more of.
So I haven’t really written anything for a few weeks, so I’m gonna sum up my life into maybe 1000 words. Umm last week I went to an Alexisonfire show! It was amazing as always. I don’t think I will ever be able to find another band who has the same energy as them on stage. So that was great, I got another t-shirt from them. I feel like I have some obligation to buy a shirt from a show. To say that I saw this band when they came and I support them. Dunno, that’s just me. Girlfriend was commenting on how she’s never been to a show before. And I couldn’t believe that. She was like “What do you do?” And I kinda felt stupid saying things like “sing along with the band” and “jump up and down” and “try your very best to make eye contact with them.”
sigh, My heros.
It’s weird, especially with a band like Alexis, I feel that they have a certain almost ‘god-like’ attribute to them. You could say that I idolize these guys, and wish everyday that I was playing music I loved for a living. I still have secret dreams about meeting some random guys in university and making it big playing drums. Doubtful that will happen, but hey, as my dad says, “A man has to dream.”
And then I can get all philosophical about the whole mosh pit thing. How it’s like one whole collective that ebbs and flows as one person surges to the front and how each person has to pick up the guy beside him when he falls and you’re all trying to seek the same common goal. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but there’s something somewhere in there…Anyways.
Speaking of playing music, I found out that I get to play 3 songs in my jazz band concert coming up. There are 12 in total. I find this is fucking ridiculous. I put in the same time and effort as the other drummer, and he gets more songs than me. There are two I feel that I should have for sure. I walked out on a rehearsal last week because the songs we were going to play in the next hour weren’t mine, so I felt it was pointless for me to stay. That rehearsal, I played for 10 minutes out of two hours. It’s completely frustrating being there and going to these things twice a week. I feel that my band director has a grudge against me because I missed two rehearsal’s in the last month. I don’t get it. I’m basically set on giving up on it soon.
School is good, been pretty busy with most of my classes. My recording class is probably my favourite as I’m actually doing something I enjoy. For the first time ever in university. I was doing a course evaluation for one of my classes yesterday, and one of the bubbles asks “Why did you take this class?” and never once have I filled out “My own interest”. Every class I’ve taken is a “Program Requirement”, and for that, my program sucks.
So this last weekend kinda sucked for me. I had all these great plans with girlfriend that didn’t happen like I wanted, so I was really sad about that. And then Sunday was just a blunder. They had to cut the power to all of campus for all of Sunday to fix something. So there was really nothing to do. One can only read so much throughout a day. It didn’t help that it was grey and rainy most of the day. Luckily I had a plan, get my haircut. Well, I spent the 45 minutes getting to the mall, and then another half hour waiting for the hairdressers to be open, because apparently I was going to be the first appointment of the day…Which was the first problem. Eventually I find out my hairdresser is late and so I rebook for later in the day. So dejected I went home, and preceeded to play guitar, and broke a string. Blah, it just sucked.
Anywho, bedtime for me.
Later days,
- J
Tonight Feels Like a Matthew Good Night…
Blahh. That is the best way to describe the entirety of today. Blah.
I officially hate reading break. It’s so terribly boring. I have absolutely nothing to do. I suppose I could be playing guitar or recording or actually doing some reading, but I just have no motivation. I am in just a very blah zone this week.
My friend told me about one of his friends who is putting on an art show featuring younger people, and he told me to look into it to display my photos. So I did and I am going to be in this show later next week. So I’m trying to prepare to get some photographs together, and I’ve decided I’m going to get 3 printed for this show, two 8 x 10′s and one 11 x 14 to kinda be the feature piece. So I put in my order to Black’s and figure they’ll be ready by the afternoon sometime. So a few hours go by and my two 8 x 10′s are ready, and I’m like okay, the 11 x 14 will take a little longer that’s understandable. So I wait and I wait, constantly checking my email to see if this 11 x 14 is done. Eventually I got sick of waiting and met up with a friend for coffee (which is probably why I am up so late yet again). And she told me she had the same problem with Black’s last Christmas, she said it took them a week to print her photo because they have to do it in Toronto or something. So I was like fuck and eventually went home, called Black’s and they told me it should be ready in about ten days, which is just fucking great, I’m not going to have it in time for the showing. So I basically wasted my entire waiting for this photo to be ready, when really it’s going to be a whole week.
Hopefully tomorrow will be better, I’m going to go pick up my 8 x 10′s and find some frames for them @ Value Village. Maybe I’ll do something productive. Unlike today.
This whole week has been full of waiting and hoping. Girlfriend has been busy just about everyday except Monday (my birthday) with her papers, and with one roommate at work, one roommate in Calgary and the last having his long-distance girlfriend here, I’m pretty lonely. So I’m waiting for either Girlfriend to be done for the day, and then I get to spend a little bit of time with her before she goes back to work or to bed. And I’ve bought those shoes and waiting for them to come, I also won a new camera lens on Ebay, so I’m waiting for that, I’m got an iPod for my birthday using Aeroplan points, and that’s going to take 4 – 6 weeks to get here, so I’ m waiting for that to arrive, my best friend sent me a birthday package yesterday, so I’m waiting for that, and my brother is suppose to be sending Girlfriend her Christmas present sometime, so I’m waiting for that too. All in all, I’m waiting for 6 things to get here. And whoever invented package tracking sucks. Because I will check the status of these things about 15+ times a day to see if they’ve moved.
I’m not sure what else there is to say…my life has been far from interesting. Oh!
So it was my birthday last week. Well technically still this week, and for that I got some nice Lego and a guitar strap from Girlfriend, and amaretto and a mini-tripod from my roommates. But the best part was what my mom gave me. Well, made me. Well…knit me. I got a dark purple sweater vest from her. Great. Just great. She had me open it while I was on the phone with her, even worse. I had to pretend like I liked it. I am never going to wear it ever, I will provide a picture for your comedic enjoyment. So that’s just perfect. Now she can knit big things, I’ll be expecting a full sweater and mitts and toques for Christmas now. Blah.
I feel like I’ve probably posted this song before, but it’s one of my favourites. And since I said it was a Matthew Good night, I figure I should post some Matthew Good.
And with that, I bid you adieu.
- J
The Sleep I Should Be Having…
Just isn’t happening…
So I lay in bed with Girlfriend as she’s asleep and I’m not. This was reversed about 3 hours ago, but being the idiot I am, having a nap @ 9 pm, makes sleeping hard. I suppose I’ll write a nice blog entry.
Puke
Today, well officially today, is Valentine’s Day. So to all you lovers out there, enjoy your guarenteed sex. Girlfriend and I will be spending the day at the museum, then massages, then dinner @ the Keg. I had to book our reservation on Monday, and we get our table @ 8 pm. Which is crazy if you think about when you would have to call to get a good time. I’m not very good at Valentine’s Day. Never really have been. Especially being away from home makes me lazy. I don’t have the supplies to make a handmade card and I kind of just don’t like it. I don’t know, that’s just me. I know I should be one of those perfect boyfriends who gets a present and makes a card and blah blah blah, but for some reason I don’t like Valentine’s Day. Maybe it’s because I was born the day after and it’s just really annoying. I always feared the idea of getting a Valentine’s day card for my birthday and people being like “Happy Valentine’s Day! Oh, and yeah, we’ll just get you one card for your birthday too.” It’s stupid, but eh. For this reason, Girlfriend and I didn’t celebrate V-day last year, a mistake she’ll never let me forget; but nonetheless I’m trying to do better this year. She’ll be getting the heart shaped box of chocolates, some other chocolate, and I want to get her flowers, but it’s going to be so goddamn expensive. Why does society say that I have to buy my girlfriend flowers on this specific day?! I’d much rather buy them for her at a random time then for her to expect them. Blah, stupid holiday. I also really hope that Girlfriend doesn’t read this blog so she finds out what I got her….
Speaking of holiday’s, I am on one for the next week. School is out for reading break and thus I will get to relax and enjoy some time off. Unfortunately I will probably spend a few days strictly doing homework. Sigh this is the life of a student.
Another holiday coming tomorrow is my birthday. Those of you who read my blog via Facebook will notice a discrepency between my real birthday and my Facebook birthday. This is a stupid social experiment of mine to see how many of my friends really know my birthday and how many rely on Facebook to tell them. I’ve already had a few people send me messages expressing statements of confusion. I received a package in the mail from my parents for my birthday, and to be honest, it sucked. I got a comic book which I already have, and I think they got my brother years previous, and some chocolate. Also I told them I had got it and opened, but not opened the wrapped presents inside, and my mom told me to open a specific one. My Mom knit me a sweater vest. A purple sweater vest, that I will never wear. It’s dumbfounding how tacky it is. My Mom told me she knit it for me because she thought I liked sweater vests, I own one, which was a gift, which I got 3 years ago, which I also rarely wear. You would think she’d pick up on this. Now I feel obligated to have to wear it at least once. Or more than once since I will be asked everytime I go home, “Oh where’s your vest? Do you wear your vest?” No.
So hopefully the rest of my birthday will be better. In other news, I found my shoe! Silly roommates brought in a bar(like an actual drink bar) and placed it over my shoe a couple of weeks ago. We moved the bar last night and found my shoe under it. Yay.
Yet again, I fall back to the topic of Facebook. The social networking site has now turned into an online forum to express beliefs, rants, feelings, and blah blah blah. I feel like FB is the new place to protest and attempt to make social change. People make all these stupid groups saying they’ll donate a cent to Haiti for every person that joins, there are memorial groups for every second person who dies, there are groups for schools and for trying to change your school. But do these really do anything? In my opinion no. Nothing will change because someone made a Facebook group, no one is really going to get out there and protest. Groups are the easy lazy ass way for someone to show that they care about the world and it’s causes but they’re too lazy to get the fuck out there and do anything about it.
Anywho, I think I’m gonna try and get some sleep.
- J
Mess Up My Bed, With Me
A great song I haven’t heard in ages. Accompanied by a nice video of Pam and Jim from the Office. Girlfriend and I have recently rewatched the entire first 3 seasons of the Office and we’re on our fourth. So this is for her.
The song is “Paperweight” by Joshua Radin and Schuyler Fisk.
Lost for Words
Oh man, this blog has been a long time in the making.
My last few days here in Victoria have consisted mostly of this.
- Wake up, check email and blog and facebook
- Review a CD
- Watch Sportscentre
- Watch my roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Check email
- Watch roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Have Dinner
- Watch roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Stare at books and hope that I learn something from them
- Say to myself that I’ll study tomorrow
- Watch The Office/Secret Life of The American Teenager with Girlfriend
- Watch roommate play Modern Warfare II
- Sleep
I really haven’t done anything. Yesterday Girlfriend and I went to the mall and we she shopped for 5 1/2 hours. Which I think is the longest time I’ve ever spent in a mall. It was also the most exercise I’ve gotten in probably the last two months. So tired afterwards. It’s no help that I’ve been fighting off a cold, so today I was even more tired. It made studying almost impossible.
When I was in the mall yesterday, I heard a lot of music from a few years ago. Nelly Furtado, Backstreet Boys, etc. It made me think about the music I listened to growing up. This coupled by watching the most influential moments in music history on MuchMusic a few days ago added to my nostalgia. I was just thinking about how I’ve gotten to that point in my life where all the things I’ve grown up on are now gone from the mainstream lifestyle. The cartoons, the music, TV shows, the people, the hockey players. It’s weird to think that all the hockey players I grew up watching, and idolizing are almost all retired now.
This is the same with music. Bands like Blink 182 and Greenday don’t put out CD’s anymore. Sum 41 has a greatest hits CD out for crying out loud. They’ll be doing reunion tours sooner or later. The punk lifestyle has taken it’s toll on them and they have ceased to exist. Basically. Same with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake. The list goes on. The generation of music that we grew up is over. Now we’re into the age of autotune, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers. Sigh I miss my old music.
Yesterday while watching mine and Girlfriend’s new favourite obsession; The Secret Life of the American Teenager (more on this later), I heard a song I hadn’t heard in ages. After struggling and finally watching the scene again and copying out the lyrics, I discovered it was a band that I listened to a long long time ago. Something like 6 years ago. When I was 13. (It was “Unforgettable Night” by And Then I Turned Seven, for those of you who are curious). It makes you think how much your musical tastes have expanded since then. I know mine definitely have. I’m slowly working my way through 8000+ songs on a mission to listen to them all.
While shopping, I saw the book “1000 Recordings to Listen to Before You Die”. And I want it. For Christmas. I want to start a new project. I want to listen to all of those recordings. Or something like that. There’s another book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. Maybe when I have more time, or when I get the book I’ll figure out what I want to do with it. Maybe I need to write my own “100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”. The sad part is I don’t think I’m old enough to be able to come up with 100. It’s most likely going to be a quest to locate a copy of each of those albums, and listen to it, if not own it. Maybe I’m just a dreamer.
Anywho. Secret Life Of The American Teenager. When Girlfriend and I were in Seattle earlier this year, we were in our hotel room watching TV and flipping through channels. We stumbled upon this gem. SLOTAT is about a 15 year old girl who is pregnant (this happens pre-episode 1) and how she grows up in high school with this baby. Well her baby’s father is banging just about every girl in school, and has one particular lover. Well the male half of a hardcore Christian couple wants to have sex, so he finds the baby’s fathers love, who does god knows what. So the female half starts hanging out with the baby’s father, while the baby’s mother gets her own boyfriend, who says he loves her and wants to marry her (after about 4 episodes) and she’s still trying to figure out how to tell her parents, who are splitting up because the baby’s mother’s father is cheating on his wife. We aren’t even half way through the 1st season! It’s so great! It’s like Jerry Springer, Degrassi and 7th Heaven all mixed into one. If you followed any of that and like any of the aforementioned shows, you should definitely give this one a try. So good.
Moving on. If you read this blog often, you’ll know I do CD reviews. I write them for my school newspaper and there was some day a few months ago where I saw someone reading one of my reviews as I walked by, and it made me think about how crazy a university is. (Also, sidenote, why is university the only word I can think of that starts with a vowel and isn’t preceded by “an”?) I was thinking that you walk around campus, and you sit in class and you don’t realize the people around you. Some could be doctors, professors, people who write in your school newspaper, athletes, who knows what! And we all have this level of anonymity because of just the sheer amount of people. I thought it was pretty cool. No one’s ever come up to me and said “Hey you’re the guy that writes those reviews in the Martlet right?” Maybe one day.
I think that’s enough for you guys to read tonight. Hopefully you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave me a comment about anything you read or for suggestions on my quest.
“I.” Sometimes “M.”
I just read this comic by Stephan Pastis. It’s from the series Pearls Before Swine. If you don’t read it already, you should. I really liked this one, mostly because I really like the Abbott and Costello routine that it’s adapted from. Pastis is great at stealing from popular culture and making a pun out of it. I love it. Below is the aforementioned “Who’s On First Routine.” Oh man.
So I decided to put off studying for my electrical engineering exam today to do some recording. The product of that is in the post below this. There’s a few songs that I might finish sometime in due time. On Sunday, I bought some monitors off Ebay, so if you were planning to get them for me for Christmas, don’t. I got it covered. Hopefully they’ll be here sooner rather than later. But ugh, don’t remind me. Exams. I have 3 in the first three days of next week. It’s going to be terrible. I really hope that I pass three of these classes. I definitely don’t want to have to do them again.
My house has magically become a Christmas wonderland. And by that I mean my roommates hung up lights in our living room. There is a lot of lights. We have two little trees and some other random Christmas stuff. I’m not really big into the whole Christmas spirit or what-have-you, so this is kinda silly to me. I just like the presents part.
Happy Birthday to Girlfriend’s mom yesterday (as it is the 2nd when I am writing this) and Happy Birthday to Sam (collaborator of JuSTB) today. Even though neither of them probably read this.
Classes have come to that point where nothing seems to matter anymore. I haven’t done two of my last Software Engineering assignments. I’m just hoping that I can pass that final. I feel like you have to have a lot more prior knowledge going into that course to be able to do well (like knowing how to program in C). So I’m pretty apathetic to it all.
Blah, I don’t feel like writing anything else today. Nothing interesting happens to me anymore. Or ever.
Later days,
- J
Roll With It
So, I’ve decided that I am never going to bed before 9 pm. Ever again. My body has some weird problem/curse where no matter when I go to sleep. I will wake up 6 – 8 hours later. So last night, I went to bed at 9, and I was up at 4 am. Great. I had to leave Girlfriend’s house to come home because I couldn’t fall asleep. We watched “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” yesterday. Which is about an eight-year-old boy who grows up in WWII Germany. His father is the kommandant of the extermination camp Auschwitz. It’s quite a tragic story and I would highly recommend seeing it. Girlfriend didn’t like the ending though. I did, I think it was probably the most realistic thing that would have happened given the circumstances.
In case you DON’T know. I had lost my computer to problems for the second time in about 3 months. After about 3 weeks of waiting I finally got it back this week. And I am definitely happier with it. Is that sad? Probably. Oh well. I had a lot of stuff on here that I couldn’t do. Like a music paper, a whole bunch of CD reviews and writing blogs! So I am getting started on that again. Maybe I’ll finish all three of those things this morning! It could turn out to be a productive day!
My jazz band concert is tonight. Great. I am so excited. Except not at all. I have dreaded jazz band and hate the class. I barely do anything so it’s practically a waste of time for me. I guess I set myself up for this, my teacher/conductor lady said that I’d be bored most of the time. I originally wanted to play vibraphone, but that doesn’t really happen because it’s so much of a hassle to get my instruments. I had to go buy a shaker for myself so that I had one to use. So once this is over I won’t have to deal with it for a while. I’m probably going to send an email to the conductor of the Symphonic Band for Non-Music majors and see if I can join that next semester. It should be more rewarding.
Plans have been made for coming home @ Christmas. I will be arriving on the 19th, staying the night in Calgary, going to Thunder Bay to visit my grandparents there for 3 days, and return on the 23rd. This second part is tentative, but probable. On the 23rd, Girlfriend comes home too! So I get to pick her up at the airport and bring her home (hopefully.), then we can go to a party with my friends. I’m pretty excited for that, no one has met her and I want to show them the girl I’m happy to be with!
What else is newsworthy here….I finished my season of NHL 10 yesterday. This really means nothing to anyone but me. But I feel like sharing. I created a character and played through a whole 82 game season and then playoffs. I finished with 120 points in the regular season, 31 in the playoffs. I won 7 awards and the Stanley Cup. Man I am a loser.
It’s been pissing rain for the past 3/4 days. It absolutely sucks. Everything is so fucking water-logged and soaked it’s just gross.
Christmas is coming up slowly. I’m probably just going to get my parents/family/friends small things. I saw ‘Up’ with my mom when I was in Calgary this summer, so I might get her that. Or a puzzle. I’ll probably get my Dad some movie that he always says is so good. Or maybe I’ll buy them “The Proposal.” There’s a funny story behind this: When my parents came in October, they told me and Girlfriend, “You guys should go see the Proposal, we saw it and it was so good.” And Girlfriend and I kinda look at each other…and we’re like…what? Is there some kind of hint behind this? Awkward….So now we’ve kinda made it our own personal joke.
School has been going terribly for the past few weeks. Every Monday comes around and I say to myself “It’s just going to be one of those weeks.” Well, when every week has become “one of those weeks,” I think somethings wrong. I hate all of my classes, nothing really interests me and I just want to do what I enjoy. Because of this, I’ve looked into going somewhere else for school. The next closest thing to the program we have here at UVic is in Lethbridge. I am not at all close to deciding on a place and I’m just inquiring now. Next semester I am going to drop the two Computer Science courses I have scheduled to take, and maybe take a photography class. Or something that legitimately interests me. None of this stupid electrical engineering crap. I’ve only talked to a few people about this, and I am planning to meet with my boss (who is also the head of our program and become kind of a mentor for me) and see what he has to say. I sent him this lengthy email about how much I hate the program, he said we should go for lunch and talk. Which will be good.
Hopefully I’ve given you something to read and enjoy and think about. More to come soon.
Later days,
- J
Say It Ain’t So
You’re singing that song by Weezer now aren’t you? Well if you weren’t, you are now. And if you still aren’t…here you go.
So it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Which is saddening I know. You all love to read my blog so much and somedays you just can’t live without it. Well rejoice! I am writing again. One of the reasons I haven’t been writing is that my computer has died AGAIN. I was watching the Office with Girlfriend last week, and the screen just shut off. The computer works fine, I am just not getting anything on the screen. If you remember my post from this summer http://silenceassound.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/tragedy-has-struck/, you’ll remember that this has happened before. And I spent two weeks this summer whining and complaining about my lack of computer. I won’t bother you with that story as you can read about it on your own time. Anyways, I called Apple the next day, they said they’d pay for it again (lucky me) and then I took it into a computer store. They said it should be ready sometime next week. Which is nice, but then again. Not really.
I was really hoping to get some homework done this weekend, and maybe review some CDs. Alas, my computer is gone, so none of that can happen. Being in my house sucks without a computer. There’s not a lot to do, so I’m spending even more time playing video games. Really. Such a nerd.
Yesterday was Halloween. Hurray for that. My house was hardly exciting last night. Girlfriend (Baseball Player/Emo) and I (Elvis Costello) dressed up, and we forced my roommates to make some impromtu costumes. We eventually sat around and watched Troy for most of the night. And it really isn’t that great of a movie. Rather boring if you ask me. But still a good time hanging out. K, and his girlfriend carved a pumpkin which was kinda cool. But eh. I thought that it’s quite a pointless endevour. I think they ended up getting smashed by someone over the course of the night.
I’m really not a big holiday guy. Halloween was never about anything more than the candy and Christmas and such is never about anything more than the presents. I guess you could say I’m just greedy. My christmas list will be coming out soon for all of you who want to know what to buy me.
Today is another lazy day, like the rest of this lazy weekend. I’m at work right now. I will be here for most of the day, then home to relax some more. Weekends have become the only time for me to really relax and I definitely don’t feel like doing anything but nothing during them. Maybe if I get my computer next week, I can record. Maybe this week I’ll force myself to play guitar more so that I’ll actually have something to record.
I scrapped by my mid-terms last week with 2 52%’s and a 67%. Thank god.
My parents were here all last week. And this is a visit different from any other that they’ve had here with me. We didn’t go on a big shopping spree and spend $300+ at Wal-Mart or whatever. So there really wasn’t much to do. We went for dinner and lunch lots so I was fed well all week. But I think they were pretty bored. They were on TV for the Torch Relay when it arrived in Victoria. This was a pretty big deal and probably my mom’s highlight of the trip.
Anywho, the show is about to start so I suppose I should pay attention. Em if you are reading, I have not forgotten about our music challenge. I just haven’t been listening to enough good music lately to be able to post anything!
Later days
- J
On nights like tonight when no one’s around
Good morning to you all in internet-land! It’s been a while since I’ve posted so I figure I should do one since I’m up so early! Or earlier than usual. Hopefully this won’t make me crazy tired later in the day.
I have been quite busy and equally distracted lately. I find that I tend to have a bit of an obsessive personality. I will find something that I enjoy doing, or something that keeps me mildly entertained for a while, and I will just do that forever. The last few weeks, it’s been Bejeweled on Facebook, and I got all the way up to 279 000 points. And now, my roommate bought NHL 10 for the PS3. Which is all fine and dandy with me, but now it’s more or less the only thing I want to do when I’m home. I don’t know why I find it so fun or whatever but I just enjoy it. Hopefully this fad passes sooner rather than later so I can get some homework done.
It’s been one of those weeks where I don’t really feel like doing much of anything ever. I just want a break sometimes. I know reading week is coming up for us soon. So maybe that will be a good time to relax. I have been having the urge to just play guitar and write down some new stuff, but no time or motivation. I feel like I’m addicted to all the wrong things, Bejeweled, video games. One of the guys in my program is like “I wanna get home and play with this new MIDI controller that I have hooked up to all these faders and effects and stuff.” For those of you not musically inclined, this won’t make sense. But I just wish I was doing that kind of stuff. I have my recording gear here and a few mics. But I feel like I have nothing to record or nothing to do to it. I personally like music that can be recorded straight from the floor. As in, there doesn’t have to be any effects added to it. So I generally don’t do that. I’ve fooled around with positioning and stuff, but who knows.
Speaking of my career choice, the school newspaper for which I write is putting on a concert on November 5th, and I get to be the sound guy! Which is pretty nifty. It helps to have connections to different parts of the school I guess. This is either going to be pretty sweet or pretty difficult as I’m pretty much setting up from scratch, (I think). Oh well, lots of time to plan.
One “song” I’ve been thinking about is my current Msn name, it goes something like this:
Dear Friends Forgotten; Measure your success your way, I’ll do the same, I’m happy to never see you again.
Basically I’m planning on writing a song to my friends who I’ve lost over the past years. I was thinking about this a few days ago and how people just seem to fall out of your life. And what if you had the chance to talk to them or see them again, or write them a letter. And that’s what this is about. I feel like if I saw my one friend, We’ll denote him E for “privacy” sake, that he would be all like, “Oh yeah? Well I’m going here and I’m going to be doing this and when I get done I’m going to be on TV and make a shit load of money.” Where as I know what he’s really been doing for the past year *coughwashingdishesandsnortingcopiousamountsofcoke* So I feel like I might not ever become as big of a global “success” as him, but I know that I will be better off for doing so. I was also thinking about my friend who I completely cut off, you may have read about her in earlier posts. I have yet to hear from her or about her. She’s clearly made no attempts to be my friend, so that message is pretty clear to me. I’ve heard a little bit about her and people are saying that she’s really changed. Go figure.
If there’s one thing about Calgary I miss a lot, it’s the gossip. I’m horrible for wanting to know what’s going on in other people’s lives, and who’s dating who, and who screwed who and who is dropping out of school and what so and so is doing. I am just curious like that. And with Em over in England, I don’t get to find out as much. We were both complaining how we miss out on the gossip because we’re away from home. But I think that that’s the smallest of reasons to go home.
In leiu of home, I need to call my parents today. I haven’t been a good son and called them for a while. Blah.
My girlfriend is going to be experimenting this weekend with the whole “Tights as Pants” dilemma. It will be chronicled in full on the JSTB website (Link in the sidebar). Things have been going good with us, school often keeps us busy but we’re still trying to see each other lots and watch lots of the Office, and Hell’s Kitchen, amongst other things. I’ve already started planning for her birthday in December, should be a good time!
Also, it’s definitely fall here in Victoria, all the leaves have turned and it’s making for some great picture taking. I really need to get out there and snap a few to show you guys! Hopefully this weekend. There’s also this really creepy crane that the school is using to build a new residence, and the light on it is always on every night. Definitely makes for some eerie stuff. Will snap photos soon.
I guess that’s all I can think of really for now. Maybe I’ll catch the blog bug again and start blogging lots today.
Later days,
- J
A Few Thoughts on the First Month
So September has turned over rather quickly and already we’re into October. I find this quite amazing, I’ve survived a month of school.
Let’s take count of what I’ve done so far.
- Moved into my 4th home in one year.
- Started six new classes
- 4 Electrical Engineering Assignments
- 3 Linear Algebra Assignments
- 4 Music Theory Assignments
- 1 Listening to Music Assignment
- 5 Jazz Band Rehearsals
- 15 Hours of Work
- 25+ boxes of Peak Freans
- 5+ Solid Hours of Rock Band Played
So as you can see I’ve been a little busy. School is hectic and work sometimes makes that nicer, and sometimes not. Like today. Work tonight was really lame. Some world renown singer came in and made noises that I’ve heard my girlfriend make randomly. And apparently she gets paid to do this. I would compare it to listening to a Pentacostal worshipper speak in tongues. Weird stuff.
The last two things on that list relate to my roommates. I have moved in with three guys that I knew from last year and I think that has made a huge difference. Knowing each other, we can joke around and be a little more confrontational if we need to be. It makes living together a lot funner and easier. We all share meals, and D, who has become a good friend of mine, cooks most (if not all) of our meals. And we eat together. We divide up the food and the bill on a whiteboard and everything is generally hunky-dory. Three of us have a Peak Frean obsession (the cookies with the cream and the fruit jelly in the middle) and we can go through about 5 boxes a week. It’s a fun, slightly ridiculous thing we all have. And then there’s our rockband. My one (rather wealthy/frivolous) roommate went out and bought Rockband for the PS3 within the first week of living here. We all created outrageous characters and then a band. And it works out perfectly as we all have an instrument in which we enjoy. K, isn’t comfortable enough to play hard guitar, but medium is too easy, so he plays bass, I naturally play drums, D sings gloriously (seriously, the dude sounds like an angel sometimes) and B plays guitar. So we fit. They want to dress us as our band for halloween, but I’m not too keen. My character will be quite hard for me to reproduce on a budget. I’m thinking of just going as Elvis Costello/Buddy Holly.
Halloween Costume - Elvis Costello?
Halloween Costume - Buddy Holly?
We had a party last week which was eventful to say the least. We had some friends over and watched the Flames beat the Oilers, and then K’s girlfriend wanted to watch Animal House. The rest of the party goers didn’t think this idea was too hot, but she was fairly addament about watching this movie. I find this is kind of ridiculous, and this applies to anyone who throws a party at someone else’s house. If you are throwing a party, make that clear, don’t leave it to the house owner to throw it, you should be there. You should be there before to clean up, prepare and help out, not arriving at the specified time. This way, you can make your plan clear, and organize any alternatives if need be. So already that was not going well. Then she added alcohol to the mix and things did not turn out in her favour, which looked even worse on her part. She did get to watch her movie, albeit on a laptop in the kitchen. After the game, some friends from my old old (original) rez and I went back to see the new renovations that had occured over the summer. And the place is so nice, it sucks to be the last one in a place that gets changed after you leave. It’s happened a lot to me…
Anyways, I get back home, and my friends take off, and then, the real fun starts. 7 RANDOM people, walk into our house, and start snooping around and eating our stuff. By this time, K is dealing with his girlfriend, and B went off with his, so D and I are left to defend our kingdom on our own. We eventually get them settled into the living room, and it is clear that these folk are drunk, high, crunk, whatever the fuck you wanna call it. They were gone. So that was fun to handle. I did my best to just be chill and accept them and try to get them to leave on their own terms, but D wanted them out ASAP, but was far too kind to just kick them out. Eventually we did get them to leave, and immediately locked the door.
So Saturday was an interesting night to say the least.
My reviews have been peppering the Martlet in the last few weeks, and I got an email from the new arts editor this week about meeting him about doing some more stuff. So maybe I’ll be able to do show reviews and band interviews and stuff! Budding new music journalist here! Watch out!
In other news, I am staying here for Thanksgiving. My girlfriend and I are going to a potluck which should be nice. (No dishes! Woo!) Also, my jeans should be here soon! So very excited for those! Thank you again if you read this!!
I’m trying to think of what else to write about. Jazz band is frustrating as always, still no respect from the percussionists. Still can’t practice. Haven’t got anything to play. So it’s pretty lame. I had to put the vibraphone in a recording room last week because no percussionists were there to let me in. Apparently the percussion instructor guy wasn’t too happy. But I really had no other choice unless he wanted someone to steal them. But whatever.
The VJ results get posted in 6 days if you are keeping track! So stay tuned for that. Also, more videos to come in the Em Vs. Jay challenge! Me thinks I’m winning. I might also do a post soon of what I’ve been listening to lately!
What has your September been like? Done anything thrilling? Tell me!
I think that’s about all! Have a good night, morning, day, wherever you are.
Later days,
- J
Top 3 News/Links of Today!
So parusing the internet today, I found some pretty interesting/nifty/sad things.
First of all, DJ AM died yesterday. He did a lot of music for pop and from what I hear he was pretty influential. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25998044-12377,00.html
Secondly, and to my girlfriend’s dismay, John Krasinski (Jim from the Office) announced his engagement to some girl. http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20301117,00.html
(Also, I really like this sweater he has on)
And lastly, here’s a funny website! http://peopleofwalmart.com
Mornings.
It seems to me that all my posts come first thing in the morning. I can’t explain it, perhaps over night my subconcious thinks of all these great things to write about and then come morning, I just have to get them all out and thus, these blog entries happen.
This morning I had the weird sensation of taking my first breath of the day when I woke up. This sounds really confusing and even more fucked up I guess but whatever. I woke up taking a breath in. It was really quite weird. I can get all metaphorical on your ass and talk about how this symbolizes the start of a new day and how the first breath represents the beginning of the day anew. But if i were reading this blog, I’d probably stop reading right about then, so, I’ll spare you.
I think all this metaphyiscal talk may be because I’ve been reading “The Picture Of Dorian Grey” lately. It’s quite a hard read in my opinion, and I feel like I need to be taking notes for the discussion we’re going to have in class the next day. I’m slowly getting into it more and I read an interesting quote yesterday that I really liked.
Dorian Grey and Lady Henry are talking about a Wagner Opera,
I like Wagner’s music better than anybody’s. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says. That is a great advantage don’t you think, Mr.Grey?
Dorian smiled and shook his head: “I am afraid I don’t think so, Lady Henry. I never talk during music – at least good music. If one hears bad music, it is one’s duty to drown it out in conversation.”
I think this is a nice quote on music, and as you can probably tell already, I quite enjoy music. Although I would never do this in a setting such as they speak of, it’s an interesting notion.
As I was reading last night, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “I wish I could speak like they do in this book.” To which she gave me a look somewhere between confusion and disgust. For some reason, I always like the proper form of speech that this time period had, saying things like: “Are you disengaged Tuesday night?” “For you I would overthrow anybody, Duchess.” I just think it’s pretty cool and wish I could talk in such a manner. I try to a little bit everyday, and I think I write more like that than I do speak it.
Another thing I’ve come to realize about the English language is, is that it sucks. A lot. Case and point – The word Grey. The word grey can be spelled “grey” or “gray.” Apparently “grey” is wrong on my computer and has that little red squiggle under it. Why can’t we just pick one friggen word and stick with it? Either everybody use the A, or everybody use the E. They both mean the exact same thing, so why not just simplify it?! Which do you use? Grey? Or Gray?
I feel so sorry for anyone trying to learn to English, it is so friggen confusing. Another point, the letter combination ‘ough.’ There are ten different ways to pronounce words involving that syllable, shown in the chart below.
| Pronunciation | Example | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| /ʌf/ | tough, enough, hough | Compare “huff” |
| /ɒf/ | cough, trough | Trough is pronounced /trɒθ/ by some speakers of American English |
| /aʊ/ | bough, plough | Pronounced like the word ‘Ow’ |
| /oʊ/ | though, dough | |
| /ɔː/ | thought, bought | Regularly used before /t/, except in drought /draʊt/ |
| /uː/ | through, brougham | |
| /ə/ | thorough, borough | Both pronounced /oʊ/ in American English |
| /ʌp/ | hiccough | Variant spelling of “hiccup”, though the latter form is recommended in both British and US |
| /ɒk/ | hough | More commonly spelled “hock” from the 20th Century onwards |
| /ɒx/ | lough | A lake; Irish analogue of Scots “loch” |
A Day In The Life…
Aloha Internet,
It has been quite some time since I have posted because I have been pretty friggen busy over the last three days! So I figured I’ll write a post early this morning and get it out of the way!
So on Friday my brother flew into Victoria and he’s spent the last two days here. He leaves tonight, so we’re going to try and cram as much as possible into today. On Friday it was our last party in our current residence, and it was SUPPOSE to be a costume party, but I guess no one had costumes, so I was the only one dressed up and looked pretty lame. So I quickly changed back to normal clothes and enjoyed myself. 2:30 am sleep on that night.
Saturday we were woken up early, 7:15 to be exact. By our other roommate. He was moving out. Very nosily. At 7:15 in the morning. After we had had a party. In other words, this guy is a douche bag. He was banging around in our hallway and running back and forth from his car. My other roommate and I were sitting in our living room, and watched him run by over and over again. We never heard him say good-bye or any of those general courtesys associated with living with someone for four months. But whatever. You know what this guy did that pissed me off most? He stole my fucking toilet paper. I had bought a 24 pack of NICE toilet paper, not the construction paper stuff that you get in rez, but nice stuff. And I had used about all of one or two rolls. And when I went to go get it. It was gone. The fucker stole so much of my shit and he’s just a fuckin douchebag. I’ve deleted him off facebook and don’t want to ever hear about him again.
After that, my brother and I went to the beach here, and then downtown and did a little shopping. I picked up a nifty track-jacket and then we went to the harbour and then home. Later we (being girlfriend, roommate and brother) went to see the new Quentin Tarantino film, “Inglorious Basterds”, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I might do a review of it later on here, but not yet. It was great movie, you definitely get what you pay for. I was laughing, cringing, and gripping the edge of my seat. This was the first movie in a long time that got me worked up over the ending. I highly recommend it. So after the movie, we all went to the keg for a fabulous prime rib dinner. Yum yum. And then after that, girlfriend and brother and I went to a bar downtown and had another drink. Then we went home and promptly passed out.
Sunday started early, I had to move all my stuff from cluster to my girlfriends which took a few hours. We definitely left that place in tatters, we hardly cleaned up. But frankly, I don’t give a damn. Haha woo go me for quoting Gone With The Wind. Once that was finished, the four of us headed down to watch the Victoria Seals play the Calgary Vipers in a baseball game. This was definitely the highlight of the day, if not the whole visit of my brother. We were the only 3 fans from Calgary cheering in a sea of 4 225 Seals fans (My roommate was a loyal BC/Victoria fan). It was really quite awesome. We got to the be the obnoxious fans who booed the home team and cheered when the away team got a home run. I think we got a little out of hand, apparently a little kid in front of us started crying, and then eventually they’re whole family moved. I feel kinda bad for ruining a family’s day out but on the the other hand, I was enjoying myself. Calgary ended up scoring 7 runs in one inning, and after that…we toned it down. The final score was 14-4. As much as I do enjoy being here, I have a little bit of Calgary pride in me.
After the game, brother and I went for another steak dinner, and then we ended up at the pool hall which I apparently take all my family when they come here. I took my parents and grandparents to the same place when they visited earlier this summer. So I guess pool is a family tradition I guess. Needless to say. I lost every game.
Anyways, that’s all for today.
Later Days,
- J
Morning is a Great Time For Existentialism. Hell, It’s Always a Good Time for Existentialism.
I feel like the title of this post should be a Panic! At The Disco song title. It’s just long and obnoxious.
Anywho, Greetings Internet! How are you on this lovely Wednesday morning? I hope all is well wherever you are!
Surprisingly it’s only 9:15 in the morning, and I think I have something to write about, but not surprisingly, I was up @ 4:30 this morning. Sigh. But as bad as it may seem, it really wasn’t that bad. So, I shall explain. One thing you must know about my girlfriend before I share this story, is that she likes to ask questions. She is very curious and needs the answers to everything. Which can sometimes prove to be very frustrating. I’m thinking I’m going to have to buy her an encyclopedia soon. So for any question she asks, there is another 10 that will be asked after that. Which is what happened this morning. I think there’s more to it, but I can’t remember it all.
Laying in bed @ about 5:30, we somehow stumbled upon the topic of the Earth and how it was formed. So from what I know, there was Big Bang and over a couple thousand million years, enough dust collected, compacted, made the sun, then enough gravity from the sun caught something that became Earth. Yes, that is compressed and a compacted version of the scientific creation of the Earth. So with that out of the way, explaining how the world would be fucked if it stopped spinning because we’d lose our gravitational field and such. And how gravity works between two masses, a distance, and a gravitiational field (High School Physics Woo!)
I was then queried about space. “What is it? How does it work?” The best analogy that I could give was that it’s like a bathtub full of water. The bathtub represents a finite universe, and all the water is space. If you fill a small bucket with sand, and drop it in the tub, that’s Big Bang. Then when all the sand clumps together you have stars and planets, and all the water that is still floating around is space. I think that was a clear enough example. From that I was questioned about how big the universe was, and I couldn’t answer that without a diagram, so here it is. (It’s really big, so it doesn’t show up very well on here) http://pixdaus.com/pics/mfgFtiqVlYHDnTqPSF.jpg
With that we stumbled into religion and evolution and Big Bang. It was hard to make clear that it happened over MILLIONS of years, but it was understood that from single cells we eventually got fish, and those fish grew feet and wings and became reptiles and birds, and from that we got mammals with fur, mammals became monkeys, and monkeys became man. Evolution in under 100 words. Man I am good. The following are two small examples of evolution.
This was quite the talk for what was now 6:00 am in the morning. I was impressed by her questions and creativity, this is one of the reasons why I enjoy spending time with her and love her so much. I think this is nessecary for both of us to get down somewhere so we can actually remember everything we talked about. And I think we need to start a fund to get her this encyclopedia. Donations?
Later Days,
-J
