Saturday, September 28, 2002

- arabesque -

Christian says this reminds him of me and Hannah. Geez, thanks a lot.

Friday, September 27, 2002

- living on the edge -

According to this nifty CGI tool at work (aptly named "OldFart"), 49.62% of current Amazon employees were hired before me (thus, 50.38% were hired after me). Dangnabbit -- I guess this officially makes me an old timer...

Thursday, September 26, 2002

- scarlet's walk -

3 upcoming concerts I want to attend:

George Winston: Nov 1st (Fri) @ the Moore Theatre
Joe Satriani: Nov 22nd (Fri) @ the Moore Theatre
Tori Amos: Dec 10th (Tues) @ the Key Arena

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

- subliminable -

He looks like a cross between a monkey and a raisin.

- Jeremy on George W. Bush

Monday, September 23, 2002

- let's get cynical -

I did the AIDS walk yesterday. To be honest, I don't feel like I did anything to help the cause. And I wonder how many of the people were there just for the free stuff.

When Stockard Channing won the best supporting actress Emmy last night, she wrapped up her speech by thanking Matthew Shepard. I know this is another very un-PC thing to say, but it really bothers me that he is praised as a "hero." Yes, his death was extremely tragic -- something that should never happen again. But how exactly does that make him a hero?

Same goes for Brandon Teena. Remember that movie, Boys Don't Cry? Yes, it was tragic that she was raped and brutally murdered, but that doesn't change the fact that she was a liar and a petty thief who deceived a number of people who trusted her. Like you wouldn't be booing her if she were to make an appearance on the Jerry Springer Show titled "My Girlfriend Doesn't Know I'm a Girl." It just bothers me so much when people praise her "courage and inspiration" and all the other bullshit.

Then there is Christopher Reeve. No one gave a rat's ass about that guy when his career was going down the toilet. Then he falls off a horse and gets himself paralyzed, and now he gets a hero's welcome everywhere he goes (including a standing-O at the Oscars a few years ago). What the fuck? Are we that desperate to manufacture heroes?

Ok, I'm retracting the claws now.

Friday, September 20, 2002

- yo mama's so fat -

I think Jeremy was a bit offended when I told him I wouldn't have voted for Greg Nickels because he's fat. I know it's a very un-PC thing to say, but it's true. How do you expect someone to take care of a city when he is unable to take care of his own body? Yes, I'm a fatist, and damn proud of it.

In other news, I scored bootleg CDs of Radiohead's June 2001 show at the Gorge -- the best concert I've ever been to, with the possible exception of their Toronto show back in 1996. Thanks Frito -- you rock!

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

- don't call it a comeback -

My private blog is back. You know where to find it.

Monday, September 16, 2002

- that's unpossible -

Read an interesting blog entry about house-proofing a child vs. child-proofing a house. How about neither? My parents didn't do any of that when I was growing up, and I turned out ok. (Well, more or less.) Are we really getting closer toward raising a generation of paste-devouring Ralph Wiggums, just as Jim Caple once predicted?

Sunday, September 15, 2002

- this week's sign of the apocalypse -

DeVry is a "university" now? Good grief.

Wednesday, September 4, 2002

- mopi copi -

Coldplay concert at the Paramount with Hannah and Christian. Not a bad concert, but it was actually pretty boring. Most of the people there only seemed to know "Yellow" and despite (because of?) Chris Martin's best Thom Yorke imitation, there was just no energy/excitement. Hmmm, maybe that Satch/DT concert has raised my standard.

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

- t to the izzo, c to the izzay -

Back in Seattle from my well-deserved vacation to Toronto. Here is a quick recap.

8/22 (Thurs): Arrive in T.O. for the first time in 3 years. Dinner with Jen's curling mates. "Coffee" with Leonard.
8/23 (Fri): Jen's mom took me and Jen to lunch at the Donalda, a real swanky/snooty (or, "shishi" as Jen would call it) country club thingy. BBQ chez Jen at night. In attendance: Me, Jen, Len, Wes, Man, Sophia, Claq, Cara, Werner, Steve, Dan.
8/24 (Sat): Shopping on Queen St. Cosmic Bowling with Wes, Len, Jen, Man, Sophia and Steve. Highlight of the night: Steve, needing 1 pin to tie and 2 to win, rolling a gutter ball, making Sophia the undisputed champion.
8/25 (Sun): My Jesus quota for the vacation, a.k.a. church with Wes. Lunch with Wesley's family at an Indian/Chinese restaurant. Have you ever heard Chinese people speak with an Indian accent? It's very surreal. BBQ @ Ivan's at night, where I got to catch up with Al, Jamie, Julie, Aaron and, of course, Bob (as in Bob Ing the Porno King).
8/26 (Mon): Chilling out on the "beach" with Leonard. Highlight of the night: At dinner, we witnessed the taping of a Blind Date-esque show called "Match Maker" -- I'm told that it runs on TLC?
8/27 (Tues): My cultural quota for the vacation, a.k.a. ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) with Leonard. We also went to see Signs, which wasn't that good.
8/28 (Wed): More shopping on Queen St. My Big Fat Greek Wedding with Len, Jen and Steve. Pretty funny movie though it was really really cliché.
8/29 (Thurs): 24 Hour Party People with Leonard, then off to the Jays vs. Yankees at the SkyDome. And the starting pitcher is... Roger Clemens? Whoa -- I couldn't have planned it better!
8/30 (Fri): Going through my old stuff that have been sitting in Len's mom's basement for the last 3 years. I ended up throwing out *all* my college notes. 5 years worth of education into the recycling box -- how sad... Dinner with Len, Jen, and Michelle at Juice for Life, then a nice evening walk on the U of T campus.
8/31 (Sat): Lunch with Jen and Man, who dropped by unexpectedly. Then Leonard took me to the Joe Satriani/Dream Theater concert at the Molson Amphitheatre. DT was pretty good, though I got the impression that they were more interested in showing off how good instrumentalists they are, than being musically creative. That "we are so good we can play soccer and play our instruments at the same time" shtick was really lame. Satch was simply phenomenal though. It's just amazing how effortlessly he does what he does. Wow.
9/1 (Sun): BBQ @ Jen's parents'. Len and I left half way through to do dinner with Len's mom, and then returned just in time for desserts. ("They were just so nice that I feel bad about leaving early," said Leonard.) The hightlight of the night: Leonard "pulling the Nana" by walking into the screen door (while holding a beer, no less).
9/2 (Mon): Farewell brunch with Len and Jen. The flight home was, well, far from smooth, with an unscheduled stop in Winnipeg. So, I get on the plane to Seattle, and about an hour into the flight, the captain says the both toilets on board are broken (one won't flush; the other one won't stop flushing). He says it's unacceptable to fly like this for another 4 hours (obviously), so he decides to stop in Winnipeg to either get the toilets fixed, or get us a new plane. No big deal. But then on our way to Winnipeg, the plane's electrical system goes completely berserk. Lights flashing on and off, TVs flipping back and forth -- you name it. Didn't bother me too much, except the little kid sitting next to me started crying. Jesus Christ. Anyways, so we fly for another hour or two, with flashing lights and other annoyances and approach Winnipeg. But now the pilot says the plane is too heavy for landing (since it has only used up half the fuel so far). So we circle the airport for a bit, and then go for the rather rough landing. The pilot says through the PA system: "oh well, at least the brakes worked!" Ack. So, we switched planes there (which wasn't smooth as we thought, since we were now back in Canada), and I ended up in Seattle 2 hours later than expected.