!adventurous

let's go backwards, shall we? i've spent almost all day indoors, minus a short excursion to walmart to pick up a few things (almost none of which i found).

i've just watched some more tiger and bunny: i can't believe i didn't have the whole season! now i have to watch online. at least i have internet. it was fun at the beginning, but it's become intense. the story is excellent.

i spent 2.5 hours transferring pages from wikispaces to mediawiki. why the hell did the cto have to choose one of the only wikis that uses a proprietary markup?! what a painful experience :(

i've been practising a bit of french; i'm really impressed with duolingo's new iphone app.

i thought the two girls had made a mistake when they so enthusiastically greeted me when i opened the door. my first encounter with carollers. i said "this is awkward, i'm jewish." then i gave them a couple of bucks to go away - it's supposed to be for a good cause. i was amused, and very glad that they didn't sing for me because afterwards i could hear them singing to the neighbours.

i posted a video that i thought was really good, and it offended tpj. he posted a rant and i responded, and he misunderstood my response and we ended up having a private argument that began with him calling me "a retarded bigot". i don't just give up on people whose opinions i appreciate, and we fought it out, eventually both apologizing but as amiably as we resolved it the whole incident left a decidedly bitter aftertaste.

i had a long video chat with pg. i miss her. as much as the internet can bridge the gap of half the globe, you can't hold hands through a screen.

i did laundry and finally took care of the recycling this morning. i was annoyed to find the slip for my gloves' delivery pasted on my postbox: this is the second time i've suffered this, the first being with a penny arcade delivery. not only did my online payment include postage, but there's a reception charge?! i paid $25 for shipping and the receipt says another $25. as i wasn't here when it arrived i wasn't here to refuse the payment, so unless i'm mistaken (and i hope i'm mistaken) i owe the caretaker money.

that stinks.

---friday:

okay, now reversing the chronological order to its original direction.

my birthday. facebook is a thing every year, but i've now established that blocking one's wall is a very good idea. a lot of the people i care about sent me private messages, and instead of just a bland wish on the wall, to get lost amongst all the others, each private message was an opportunity to chat and it made the wishes that much more special. i created a status to catch all the lazy wishes, and that made mass responses much easier.

before pg left she hid my birthday present in plain sight - she knows me well - and i woke up to directions. her gift was absolutely spot on; the card for me is the real gift, the physical part is great but the card itself made me smile and laugh and really, really want to reach out and hug her.

*sigh*

i had a super hot shower before getting dressed for the office, and it was one of those perfect showers that it's practically impossible to finish.

i checked the weather report before leaving the apartment. -13. i was sure there was a glitch. i double-checked. same result.

i have to say that -13 in short bursts really isn't different from -1 or -2. but there wasn't any wind... wind chill is evil.

food of the gods is a brilliant book, but some of his ideas don't sit well with me. i totally understand where he's coming from and so can vouch for the quality of his theory based on my own enlightening experiences, but i have no problem integrating all of the language-magic with an objective reality whereas he refers to science as sophistry and the idea of reality as fantasy as antithetical to what we* are beginning to come to grips with. then again, he hints at connections even as he says that, so i guess it could just be signs of the time of writing.

* i'm being an elitist by presuming that the whole world is on the same level as those at the forefront of philosophical, psychological and neurological studies

the art director was complaining that the company doesn't have branding, and that his decisions are by and large arbitrary. we talked for about five minutes, during which i presented him with two different branding concepts. they were both pretty exciting. "you know," he told me, "you should be a copyrighter!"
i didn't mention that i've been studying literature and am an aspiring writer :P

i was sent an invitation to a video conference that went on and on and never really got to the point. it's bad enough that it was a waste of time, but it was mind-bendingly boring and i had other stuff to do. when i finally started getting back into focus, the cto forwarded me an email from wikispaces informing us that our trial period has come to an end. what timing! so i spent the rest of the afternoon installing mediawiki (the easy part), configuring access to it (impossible, there must be some kind of conflict with the hosting company's configuration and i eventually had to do a temporary workaround) and then importing from the old wiki. see my previous comment about proprietary formats :S

two shitty moments for the day:

the first was when aota called to say the immigration agency has contacted her to inform her that we didn't do something really, really important: the website says that the simplified application process involves three forms; it totally neglects to mention that a federal application needs to be made simultaneously. oh, shit. oh-shit-oh-shit-oh-shit.

the second was when nystire's brother called me on skype. he asked me a question that i answered without thinking, only realized then that i was essentially sharing that private sentiment with everyone within a 30m radius. oh, cubicles, you suck.

while travelling to my aunt's for dinner, i was struck by a couple of intense food smells at random points. i was beginning to wonder if i was imagining it but when some kids hopped on the bus and confirmed that it smelled of fish 'n chips i knew that my nose was fine.

dinner was great, the vegan dishes were delicious, and there were a few guests who made the evening loud and fun. afterwards i joined yang and my aunt's friend's kid for a beer downtown. it was cold outside. very cold. but the place we went to served guinness and the music was alright. i think i got home around 1am or so. i was a little tipsy.

---i'm a little tipsy now, and that's only because i poured a glass of wine as i sat down to post this. maybe i'll go to bed.