quick turns

today was coloured by the phone call that i received in the afternoon informing me that i've been cleared through the first interviews and will be invited back for the rest. that - is - AWESOME news ^_^

so i've got more studying and preparation to do for those, but it's so nice to know that it's working for me!!!

---after posting yesterday, i went to take all my tax documents to vfmp who's going to hand them over to his boyfriend, the tax expert. on my return i waited for a while at the wrong bus stop, and some mentally handicapped dude saw my hesitation and wanted to help, and he was so sweet (he was telling me how he got lost, and how he cried) that it was hard not to take his advice when i was sure that it wasn't good. after missing another bus i *did* cross to the one he was suggesting and it turned out to be the right choice.

after my last experience i decided to skip the french meetup and instead put on puss in boots in french with french subtitles. it appears that animated kid's films are the way to go.

boxing last night was really good, and i was pleased to find that after the last week or two my legs are already back to being tough enough to handle the heavy bags. my ankle's good again and i guess the fact that i've been cautious about using it is why i softened up...

my yoga instructor offered to pass my resume through to her boss, and after i sent it she suggested that considering her company's policies i might want to play down my military experience. i told her that if her employer has a problem with my military experience, i'd have a problem working with them. there's no room for discussion on this.

aota contacted me out of the blue for a chat, which was nice, and i was surprised to hear her speaking well of darn who has apparently begun to shine since megaman left. i'm glad to hear it. a little disappointed to hear that they finally moved into decent offices *after* i left, which they'd been promising to do since before i joined them...

i made an over-sized, delicious salad and watched the rest of puss in boots before lining up a bunch of other films. and then it was late and i crashed.

---today:

i began the day trying to figure out how to sell my books that pg's keeping for me. this isn't easy because facebook won't show my posts if they're not engaged with and the only second-hand website in israel isn't open to use from outside of the country. that's kinda dumb.

i took a pair of pants to the dry cleaner, trying to sneak in some recycling by carrying them on two dry-cleaner hangers covered by dry-cleaner plastic. i was so pleased when the woman there actually put the hangers with a bunch of others :)

i headed out to fcmg's new place to discuss the comics for the first time since before she gave birth two months ago. the metro was experiencing some serious issues and in addition to the crazy congestion that caused, someone in our car was freaking out every time we came to a stop and the lights went out. this happened in between stops, and i had my earphones in so i didn't hear what was said but i noticed that everyone around me was giggling...

rain + metro issues = CRAZY packed.

so fcmg's pad is awesome, her daughter's really cute and she has a couple of very cool cats. the difficulties with working and tending to an infant quickly became apparent, and so everything was stop / start but we got through whatever we needed to get through. i walked out of there uncertain of where we're going but sure that we're going somewhere.

i'd read 18 ugly truths about modern dating that you have to deal with in the morning and i'd been thinking about the mixed messages from aaa that i'd been receiving over the previous couple of days. i became convinced of two things:
1. that she wasn't really interested in me and that it was time to call it.
2. that, like the japanese, i'm done with all this dating shit. it's bullshit, and lots of it.

on that note, i sat down at la panthère verte for their meal of the day, a delicious vegan stew, then returned home to watch pirates of the caribbean dubbed in french (eh, not too bad) for a bit and wonder if my back could handle the evening's training. that was when i got that phone call, so i was super stoked and relieved :)

i was pretty tired, so i downed an energy drink and headed off to the gym. i don't know if it was the drink or something else, but as i walked out i developed a bellyache that wouldn't go away until halfway through the class...

[holy crap, i just saw (finally!) weidman vs silva 2 - it doesn't matter that i knew what was coming, that was absolutely insane to watch.]

... so there's this girl at the gym that i've been friendly with for a while and who just joined our kickboxing class for the first time. we were partnered up and everything was as usual until the final exercise, about ten or fifteen minutes of kick / check drills. i gotta admit, at some point i found that i was concentrating less on kicking and checking and more on checking out because she's quite sexy and between her movements and semi-transparent training outfit my brain's wired to stare. i didn't miss a beat, though, so that's cool. i guess that was actually good for me because i was checking unconsciously :P

...

aaaaaaanyway, after all the negativity surrounding aaa i got home to find she'd called and left me voicemail... so i called her back and we had a good, positive chat for half an hour. so i guess she *is* interested, and i'm just a little girl when it comes to relationships. that's okay, i can deal with that.

well, time for bed, and an exciting couple of days ahead. things seem to be moving in a good direction and if i play my cards right, they may just become awesome! if not, they'll be shit. so i'd better get it together.

---so, québec - the liberals have won the elections. while everyone's jumping for joy, i'm hoping that this means that things will stabilize (apparently they've already stabilized, and it's only been one day) and remain stable for the next four years. because that's just how long i need to become a citizen, assuming i land a job soon. after that, i'll be happy to vote and pray like everyone else :)

birthday weekend 2013 - part i

friday night:

i headed off to vfmp's and from there we went together to meet his boyfriend at the theatre. before the lights went down i had an sms conversation with a girl i'm going on a date with soon, and was quite proud of myself for managing to transmit my sense of humour. apparently getting hit in the head wasn't all bad :P
in addition to the aggravation of having forgotten my antibiotics at home, my phone reminder went off loudly even though it was set to vibrate and that was horrifically embarrassing! paranoid, i held my phone's silence button at the ready for the next while and it felt like i was receiving tons of messages or phone calls... eventually i turned it off. after the movie, i turned it back on and there were no missed calls or messages. :S

out in the dark - it's an absolutely brilliant film, and does a fantastic job of portraying, in my opinion, a good deal of what makes israel tick.

like a time-bomb.

it's got an excellent story and covers the angles with deeply disturbing accuracy. every time security services opened their mouths i got chills! overall, i loved some of it, hated most of it and appreciated all of it. not the happiest birthday movie - not cathartic at all - but i'm very glad i saw it.

and then i had to rush home to take my pills.

---
saturday:

i wasn't ready to get up when i did, and the idea of snowboarding was too much. most of my morning (and it's barely stopped even now, three days later) was spent responding to birthday messages - which was awesome! i don't let people post on my facebook wall because i feel it's inappropriate and impersonal, and i've been rewarded by soooo many long catch-up conversations with people i care about and have been out of touch with ^_^

...

i read through wired's "guiltless gift guide":
i think they can drop the "guiltless" pretense, most of the items are just more stuff. it's cool stuff, to be fair, but very little of it is superior in any way to any other equivalents when it comes to being mindful of the planet. i'd have been very glad to see a real "guiltless" guide, but seeing a regular guide labelled "guiltless" is nothing short of offensive.
i'm also still very disappointed by their lack of a digital-only subscription and their physical promotional spam.

...

getting my opus card fixed / replaced at berri-uqam took about two seconds, i was a bit shocked when the woman turned back to me with a smile on her face and wished me well. "is that it?!"

as i purchased by bus tickets to saint sauveur i realized that if i wasn't going snowboarding right after brunch then i could have picked them up any time...

godmother picked me up from the station and we went to an awesome place in old montreal called olive and gourmandeau. it's super hipster funky with great food (two vegan options) and excellent atmosphere. after breakfast she took me to a skate shop to buy a bag for my snowboard - sweet! i quickly settled on a backpack with appropriate straps, so i can have the board on my back and only need a single bag for travelling ^_^

after another round of birthday messaging i stopped at subway for lunch on my way to the starbucks to work on my comics... the nutritionally well-endowed gentleman who works there always appears to be stoned, but this is the first time i've registered him making himself a sandwich as soon as he finished with mine. what a perfect job for a stoner!

on my way out i called fcmg to ask if she'd like to meet during the week, and she was all "sure! i can meet you in ten minutes!"
no, shit! so i flipped my plans, did some rushed shopping (subway's next to the supermarket), dropped everything off at home and then went downtown to meet her at cafe depot - i'm a regular there already :P

coffee and comics were great fun, with a lot of inspirational moments. additionally, she loves my space epic pitch (next project!) and was happy to discover that she knows someone who actually applied for mars one :)

one of the problems she had, and she was embarrassed to tell me this, was that she couldn't read one of the source texts because it's written in middle english. i'd told her that it's not easy, that you have to "relax" your linguistic rules, but while i can do that easily i failed to take into account that i studied literature for two years in addition to my being a poet...

as i'd read in wired that morning: "any communication - is a problem of empathy. you have to imagine yourself in the mind of someone who doesn't know something that you do." that's hard, man. last night i spent a few hours on modernizing the text, and while fcmg responded enthusiastically to the results i'll refrain from publishing it until i've reworked it to a satisfyingly poetic translation. not that it doesn't sound good, but i'd like to maintain the metre and rhyme as much as possible...

after our meeting i returned home to lose more time to once upon a time... omg that series is awesome. the writing is incredible! over the last couple of days i've found myself consistently blown away by the series, and towards the end of the first season (i have two episodes to go) it's become one of my top-rated series of all time. i've actually shouted at an ending for being an evilly clever cliffhanger...

i was eating dinner while watching, and as has become normal over the course of the past week i was eating insanely slowly... we used to laugh at tahoma for eating slowly, but now it's me taking an hour to eat a bowl of salad :(

i was hoping to meet with sagirl who'd just arrived in montreal, but she couldn't get a fix on her plans so i went to vfmp's to play thunderstone instead. we had a great time :)

---sunday:

we enjoyed an epic finish *just* in time for me to catch the bus and metro, and i headed home. there's something magnificently creepy about a parked metro train with the lights off in the middle of the night.

i got home ready for the deepest sleep, but instead woke up soaked in sweat. i dumped the sheet, showered, and spent the next few hours trying out different methods of not overheating. eventually i settled on moving to a cold spot every ten minutes... this has happened every night since, and it's very frustrating.

...

in the morning i had a chat with lipgirl, who wanted to know why i didn't even want to visit israel anymore. i gave a few reasons, but what i didn't say to her - i wrote it out and then deleted it - i'll share here:
it's so hard to deal with the barbarianism and that begins precisely at the point at which you join the line for passport control at ben gurion airport.
...
the psychologist i spoke to prior to my release from the air force warned me to make sure that the terrible things i experienced don't become a great stone around my neck, but no matter how much i made good on my life afterwards each and every negative thing accumulated... it's the country, the government, the lack of national cohesion, not the individual that has brought me to this dark point where i cannot bear the thought of returning.

[continued...]

first french finale - part ii

[... continued]

why does battletoads give me such an intense sense of deja vu??? and what's with the havana nagila soundtrack???

---saturday:

it was too late to comfortably get home so we continued playing and i crashed on the couch. my back and neck were already hurting and vfmp's couch is really, really horrible :(
i had a shitty night and woke up early to take the bus home. when i'd left my place the night before it hadn't been so cold and i knew i wouldn't have to wait long outside so i didn't have a second layer under my jacket, but in the morning the wind came up and the bus was late. i was cold. so cold that i didn't mind the bus being overheated.

the screen in the metro described the air quality as "bonne" with a temperature of -2, i had to smile in spite of my misery.

i showered and crashed, waking up later still feeling exhausted and super slow. after doing some chores i went to the subway for lunch and almost got run over: if you can't keep your attention on driving then don't get behind the wheel! some idiot pulled off from a stop while i was crossing and i had to jump out the way to save my legs. i stopped and stared angrily while her husband / father / whatever gestured frantically at her and she stared expressionlessly straight ahead through her giant dark glasses.

i returned home to continue the week-long fight with the caretaker: why don't i get a functioning toilet? i had guests coming and i'd have to explain to them how to manually fill the tank to flush :$

i don't know why i was being a hero, i got through most of the day without caffeine and it was partially due to that that i was stuck on the couch for a lot of it. i downed a cup of coffee just before horseman arrived and we talked and tekkened for a bit before heading out to walmart - which was closed. so we stopped at wendy's instead.

fcmg, who was going to be bringing the food for the evening, called to cancel at the last minute; when bnw and her husband arrived we agreed to order chinese and that turned out to be a pretty good idea. the night was fun, we watched some invader zim in spanish and then good will hunting, which made me tear up even though it's the third or fourth time i've seen it. i did have a bit too much to drink, though, and i managed to say something to bnw's husband that came out all wrong and might have properly offended him :(

---sunday:

my body was sore and i still had to clothe the bed. that sucked.

...

it was a lazy sunday morning until my doorbell rang and i shot up to let the caretaker in.
"i never work on sundays, but you're right and for you i'll make an exception."
huh. maybe i will give him a christmas present after all.
maybe.

there was something deeply satisfying about successfully cleaning and tidying after the previous night had left my kitchen and living room looking like american college students had had a small party. i headed to aota's to spend the afternoon with her, newk'd and newk'd's girlfriend. and drink coffee, a fair amount of ron abuelo rum and eat aota's crazy delicious version of pad thai.

she was all depressed - and i mean really depressed - and i tried to talk to her about things. we ended up arguing a lot and by the end i was ready to give up on her, she's really in a shitty situation and she doesn't have a lot of options. i kept telling her that she at least needs to be kind to herself but when you're in a rut it's hard to see out. when i got home i sent her a message apologizing for lecturing...

i watched some more once upon a time, did some arbitrary online stuff, contacted some friends and family in london to make arrangements to spend some time with them and started posting. i think i'm about ready to pass out now.

---philosofly - hip-hop homophobia: the sound quality is absolute rubbish, unfortunately, but i suggest trying to hear what he has to say anyway. this is the piece that won the finals for toronto team.

i've almost completed the poem that i've had slow-roasting for the last while. it amazes me how much i've gotten into my own head with it and how much it's changed as i've progressively learned more lines by heart.

big weekend equals sore smiles

there's not much that feels better than a hot bath after a day on the slopes ^_^

---friday:

on thursday night i went to bed with a headache again. i took tylenol and it relaxed enough for me to sleep, but it returned later. that plus a temperature spike to six degrees celsius plus our building's heating saw me waking up hot, sweaty and not in the best of moods.

then i, half asleep, fired up penny arcade's gamers vs evil to take my turn and i deleted my best card by accident; there's no undo feature, i was really unhappy :(

french class: i was asleep at the wheel. i did have a proud moment where i realized that the voir / avoir / savoir and prendre / apprendre / comprendre share a relationship that makes them easier to remember: first you see, then you take, then you have, then you learn, then you know and finally you understand.

bone: there's been a definite reading improvement, i've been re-reading from the beginning and getting very comfortable. bone was definitely a good choice!

i rushed home to look for my x-ray referral. you know that weird moment when being too well organized leaves you in complete disarray? i'd put it in a convenient place and proceeded to search everywhere else :S

the x-ray procedure was simple and efficient and it turns out i don't have pneumonia. i had a long wait for a doctor (it was a good opportunity for a nap, i think i needed that) who then sent me to another doctor who decided that unless i want to try codeine i should see a specialist. so i'm doing that on tuesday and hoping that they will have some idea of how to fix this labored breathing bullshit.

the bus back to the metro took forever to arrive (should have walked) and then i remembered that it was rush hour and the metro made me feel a bit claustrophobic.

i didn't have energy for training or for housekeeping so i finally gave myself a rest. during that rest i was invited to a big sports bar to watch with a bunch of other tristar guys and gals, so we agreed to join forces and suddenly we had reservations! very cool :)

in 2012 there were two snow white movie remakes. while i enjoyed both mirror, mirror and snow white and the huntsman, it wasn't nearly as much as i did the first two episodes of once upon a time. it reminds me of the alice miniseries even if it's a little less jaw-to-the-floor.

on my way to vfmp i sat down next to the elbow tugger on the bus and we had a pleasant conversation. i'll still be avoiding him in the gym, though.

we enjoyed a couple of great games of carcassonne and i *just* caught the last bus home.

---saturday:

i finally got around to sorting out papers and dishes and other stuff that's been bugging me for a while, put some more work into my poetry and played zork. achieved a personal best, too! (i've always been quickly eaten by a grue, this time i did stuff :P)

i spoke to my toronto cousins and we discussed a possible visit within the next couple of weeks, after which i walked to the starbucks to work on my comic script. first, walking through a quiet neighbourhood in the sparkling sunlight - it was ten degrees and somehow, even with a cool breeze, it still felt like how i remember cape town summers used to be. second, i finished translating my sketches into a proper script and finally moved on to the next chapter. it's so exciting working with someone who will read my text and completely handle the illustration!

on my way to the other supermarket: an elderly couple, both bent over with age and she was guiding her blind partner to cross against the light on an intersection with heavy traffic (O_o)

i was in a hurry to get to bnw's so i picked up a falafel subway and ate half while walking and half while riding the metro (i could have said subway). i waited on the second eating, though, because the first car i stepped into was filled with little kids screaming and a bunch of other passengers eating food with aggressively loud smells.

i was pleasantly surprised to find myself arriving precisely on time, perfect metro timing! unfortunately, the other metro line was having trouble so fcmg came much later. the great news is that bnw and fcmg got along famously ^_^

i couldn't stay longer than our scheduled time because i had to get to the sports bar... the place was packed and i was disappointed to learn that our reservation was in the smoking section. also, our screen was teasing us by coming alive for only a few seconds at irregular intervals, so we had to watch ones further away :S

i was also disappointed when vfmp and his boyfriend arrived and they'd had dinner without me (not according to plan), so i was the only one who hadn't eaten and all i could go for were french fries and onion rings. which was fine until vfmp's boyfriend informed me that the onion rings weren't vegan.
*sigh*
well, they weren't exactly healthy anyway. at least i got a good baked potato off the menu.

on another note, our waitress was also tristar which was awesome :P

the fight night itself wasn't great. three of the main card fights bugged me: first, evans did not look satisfied with his win. i realize that he didn't really want the fight, but still... second, watching mcdonald not doing anything was painful and gsp vs hendricks? well, if you've been hiding under a rock then SPOILER ALERT: i agree with the outcome, i don't that anybody was robbed. but neither of the two really won, to be fair, and that's extremely disappointing. they were both fighting defensively and we should expect more from champions. it occurred to me that at some point george "rush" st pierre became plain old george st pierre. he's still awesome, but i was upset every time he connected and then let hendricks reset. if he'd kept pressing forward i'm confident he would've kicked his ass... massive injuries or no massive injuries.

---sunday:

late to bed and early to rise... i got ready pretty quickly, a friend (icarus) picked me up and we headed off to saint sauveur for the day.
shock number one: $300 for a locker for the season?! sod that. i'll keep getting some exercise.
shock number two: my feet were really hurting me and eventually i decided to bite the bullet and toss $20 to rent boots. i was busy filling out the form when one of the guys who works there pulled me aside and showed me that almost all snowboard boots have insteps. i removed my insteps and they immediately fit well. sorted! and for free :P

i spent the day getting progressively more comfortable, by the end i'd returned to decent form and had some really good rides through the moguls.

we stopped for lunch at the worst possible time, because as we were finishing it began to rain. we stopped at the bar for a pint after which i decided that i HAD to go out for one or two last runs - that was a sodding good idea! [see what i did there? i returned sodden.]

the ride back in the rain combined with the music he was playing to put me to sleep. i wanted to buy a rammstein album when i got home but either apple or my bank have screwed up the billing somehow :(
after bathing and watching once upon a time and some fights, i went shopping and started blogging. now that i've covered the weekend, it's late and i haven't even looked at my homework. i'm bombed. and very, very pleased with how this weekend went.

new blast part ii

[... continued]

yesterday:

i've realized that i'm not a winter person, i'm a montreal winter person. it's not miserable perpetually grey winter, it's very cold but mostly sunny and pretty.

fcmg brought me her initial sketches... amazing! i'm really pleased ^_^
as we were leaving we were discussing a complex rape scene that i expanded from a single line and she was excited by the imagery i employed - i feel that our conversation might have seemed a little inappropriate to the cute british girl waiting to meet the teacher as she didn't have any context... it's kind of like leda and the swan.

...

another girl from our class asked me about saint sauveur and travel options, there's a good chance she and her husband will join me so that we can cut our costs :)

i went home for a quick lunch then returned for another french / english session. it amused me that my partner developed a headache when it was his turn to struggle because that's precisely what happens to me after too much french :P

training: i finally went back to the gym! i've decided i need to get those lung x-rays done as i was out of breath just from the jog there. muay thai was good though i spent more time coaching my partner than drilling. boxing wasn't bad at all, but i strained a muscle in my upper leg / butt and i got home in need of some serious stretching.

it was strangely warmer outside when i left the gym than when i'd gone there. i'm no meteorologist and that shit confused me.

i watched some ufc 2011 highlights and then made the mistake of starting fanboys when i had homework to do. it's a great film and i couldn't stop it before it was over.

...

a quick chat with nystire during which he reminded me of how badly the army mismanaged my pension funds. while we were talking all i could think of was bruce willis' voice from the fifth element saying "thank you for reminding me".

the homework took a while and i was as tired as it was late before i finally went to bed.

---thursday:

a scary dream of a temporary sojourn in britain gone wrong. something about videogames and stopping a train to toss unlabelled contraband, then being caught by their outrageously ubiquitous security cameras and being interrogated by a terrifying older woman.

a second morning of endless snoozing.

french class lesson: try not to be an asshole. i found myself unintentionally condescending and was not impressed.

after class i went hunting for a sports bar i could make a reservation for saturday at, but either the places were fully booked or they weren't allowing reservations on such a big fight night. i returned home and tried to figure out how to watch pay-per-view on my ps3; i couldn't locate the live events viewer that everyone talks about and i'm not confident that the youtube experience will be good... so i guess that's a last resort if we don't find seats at a pub.

i was so exhausted that i cancelled the french practice session. exhaustion for the unemployed means a solid nap, though, so that was good. i woke up and hurriedly began posting, and almost finished but ran out of time and rushed off to jiu-jitsu. it was a good class and i learned a lot, though when it came to rolling my technique's so shoddy that i relied on power which isn't fair when you're partnered with somebody several weight classes below you. and that makes it even worse when they manhandle you with technique :P

i followed up with kickboxing and was incredibly disappointed by my breathing. at one point it got so bad that i could feel that my brain wasn't functioning correctly due to lack of oxygen. i tried the ventolin afterwards but it didn't help at all.

vfmp came over and i made dinner, we ate while discussing relationships and communication then played a game of carcassonne. it's now past my bedtime, he's just left and i have a decidedly difficult french assignment to complete... and my body's screaming for some r&r. a massage would be nice :P

news blast part i

it's been a good week, and so busy that i'm now trying to post this as quickly as possible before heading off to the gym and then entertaining. this is a particularly difficult task because i've just gotten up from a long and desperately needed nap and i'm still groggy. [failed, had to wait until after training, dinner and board game]

---tuesday:

i tried the mustache thing for movember before showering and going to bed, and decided that i simply cannot leave the house looking like a used car salesman. i decided that i'll have to find another way of spreading awareness. i was thinking of just stopping random strangers and asking "excuse me, sir, when last did you have a professional insert a finger up your bum?" but considering the fact that i'm spending most of the rest of the month either in the village or in a fighting gym it doesn't seem like the wisest of plans.

since tuesday my toilet's been busted, and i have to manually control the tank refill every time i flush if i don't want my bathroom to flood. this is properly annoying and the caretaker is dragging his feet as usual :@

...

real winter has begun! we're expecting another spike on the weekend, but other than that we've been exclusively sub-zero and it's awesome :)

note to self: the problem with good gloves is that if your hands are cold before you put them on they'll stay cold even in your pockets.

...

class: wow, i have zero patience for people who don't make an effort. it's so obvious that the weakest link isn't making any effort outside of the class and she's doing a fantastic job of wasting our time.

on a completely different note, i'm finding myself (almost) addicted to the tiger balm i'm using for my neck. rubbing it on my nose to shield me from the stench of smelly girl takes me back to the days of deeply inhaling it on ecstasy, even though in that context it was much more pleasurable.

...

the homeless one-armed man at guy-concordia set his begging cup on the slope of the escalator, removed his prosthetic to use as a barrier and was playing skeeball with a large collection of pennies. this would have been funnier if he didn't scream curses every time he missed because the constant stream of people on either side kept freaking out.

on the way out of the station some activist noticed me looking at his posters (it wasn't clear what he was on about) and when i continued walking he shouted "okay, just stick with the opinions you've been fed by the media". when i called him out for being pretentious and condescending without knowing anything about my opinions he told me "you don't have to take it the wrong way".

"is there a right way?!"

...

my new fillings were all wrong, so i had a painful lunch while waiting for the dentist to return and then climbed back into the chair feeling as if monday night's visit hadn't ended. he did a lot of filing but now that two days have passed i think i'm going to have to go back again. :(

...

i sat at cafe depot drinking coffee and reading bone (it's a great way to get comfortable reading!) and was joined a while later by the guy from saturday. it's official: trading private english lessons for private french lessons is a jolly good deal!

there was a man sitting next to us who i overheard saying that he'd come for the poetry last week. i unfortunately didn't get an opportunity for a random discussion with him...

... speaking of which, after the slam finals on the weekend i've been inspired to write again, and i've spent a fair amount of time working on a couple of the ideas i've had since. hopefully i'll be ready to share soon [vfmp just reviewed one and it made him laugh, it can't be all bad].

...

i had dinner with godmother. the evening was pleasant but yang was behaving really badly and i felt progressively less comfortable. there's something very wrong with that kid, he makes a great case for setting boundaries for one's children.

...

over the course of the day i learned a very important lesson about not eating while wearing my new sweater: i'm not materialistic at all, but i've become really attached to it and it's so bright and loud it needs to be kept totally clean. when i got home i rushed to scrub the front with dishwashing liquid (my answer to everything) and chuck it in the washing machine so that it'd be done before they locked the laundry room. success! it came out all shiny :)

...

facebook: a flood of meh to counter the intriguingly insightful and interesting week before, but i'm still spending a stupid amount of time reading my feed. i really need to quit that.

[continued...]

first snow and slamming poetry

as i begin writing this post the anaesthetic from an hour and a half of dental work is beginning to wear off and the strain from keeping my mouth wide open for most of that time is making itself felt. everything's tingly and distracting, which i feel is the perfect time to begin reporting on my weekend.

and what a weekend it was!

---friday:

shortly after posting, vfmp came by with his boyfriend and we put on the avengers, pausing only to debate whether torino mousse chocolate is vegan because while the ingredients and kosher certification proclaim it so, it still contains 7mg of cholesterol... that's a heck of a lot for something that's supposed to be plant-based :S

that didn't and wouldn't stop me, but i feel i must note that eating that chocolate in the dark saw me covered in it afterwards :$

a couple of vfmp's friends (well, i guess the couple are now my friends too) joined a bit later and the guy turned out to be able to bring some pretty solid tekken. we didn't get too many games, though, because it was decided that a mission to wendy's for their baked potatoes was in order. that *is* a good baked potato.

---saturday:

before going to bed i had a chat with my mom and was pleased to hear that my uncle who's been suffering post-op psychosis for the longest time has finally been sent home and is feeling much better. i just hope he stays on top of things.

...

vfmp was going to call me to join him at the gym in the morning, but he didn't and instead i lay in bed feeling good; calm and at peace for the longest time watching cartoons play on the backs of my eyelids. the beeps and bells and buzzes of my phone were like a knock at the window which i managed to ignore until i was ready to get up :)

on friday i'd invited fcmg to join me and newk'd and his girlfriend at the poetry slam finals, but by the time she'd decided to come with there were no more tickets available. it's not my fault that happened, but i feel bad for inviting her and getting her hopes up :(

i plucked up some courage and headed downtown to my first french meetup. it was incredibly intimidating, crazy awkward, deeply embarrassing... and ultimately far more successful than i'd expected! at first every time someone spoke to me i'd begin sweating profusely and get stuck on things i know, later a senegalese guy arrived who wanted to learn english and the help he gave me really boosted my confidence, so i'm happy to trade him for english lessons :)

i'll be doing that again.

there was supposed to be a free french documentary that we were all invited to and we walked a long way in the cold only to discover that it the movie itself wasn't free but the lecture beforehand was. hooray. i bailed and walked into subway for a quick bite; i would have ordered a foot long but i remembered that i still had the previous night's six inches in the fridge so i had that when i got home instead :P

...

someone told me that montreal appears to suit me: i tend to agree.

...

i returned home for a very short rest and protein break, then headed out for the slam finals.

i arrived at the rialto on time, it's an awesome theatre and even before they opened the doors the crowd looked groovy. newk'd and his girlfriend arrived about twenty minutes late, which gave me ample time to stand outside and enjoy the first flakes of snow of the season. it was awesome :)

it seems like canadian time and israel time aren't too far apart, as we had to wait about an hour before the night actually got started. not that we didn't keep ourselves amused during that time, but still.

---the evening opened with a native american elder speaking and singing in a mixture of french and his native tongue while beating on a drum: every word sounded like solid gold, heavy and beautiful, but what the heck was someone like me supposed to do with them?

what followed was a guest of honour with a stunning voice and perfectly performed yet pretentiously patronizing poetry, but holy words! the poetry slam itself started with a bang and managed to get progressively better. amazing!

there was a lot of incredible stuff, very little meh, but it was philosofly ftw. what he brought to the slam made this look like amateur night - i'm hoping he'll make a video of his performance or the text itself available [i just asked, he says he will].

overall the evening was utterly inspirational.

---sunday:

i got into bed knowing i'd need a good couple of hours' sleep in order to wake up early to go snowboarding. instead ninja words kept sneaking in to leave words and phrases that would keep my mind spinning all night. i felt complete for the first time in ages.

in spite of that i was up and ready to roll by 5.30am with adrenaline surging through my veins - only to discover that the "snow" weather forecast turned out to mean "slush from above". i was not impressed! i went back to bed an woke up five hours later... the current conditions and forecast were set to "snow" and that was verified by a call to saint sauveur. alright!

i finally checked out communauto and established that a car to the mountain for the day would cost about the same as the bus, so while it's cheaper for multiple travellers it would be smarter for me not to use it alone. i got my shit together and got on the bus which was practically empty. the route was longer than i'm used to but it was a comfortable ride spent reading bone and relaxing.

it was only when we hit saint jerome that i became super disappointed: it was raining. the closer we got the more it looked like the day would be a (literal) washout, and when we finally arrived at the village the driver handed me my board with a smile full of pity and the words "no snow today"... i couldn't have extended my ticket to continue to tremblant even if i'd wanted to so i was stuck there for the next three and a half hours.

having learned that the weather forecast and the updated condition reports are completely useless (and so i should only go when the temperatures are below freezing), the constant light drizzle melted my hopes for an awesome evening but i chose to walk the fifteen minutes to the mountain anyway even if only for a beer or two; i was just thinking how in spite of the unnecessary expense the little trip wasn't such a bad way to spend a sunday when i turned a corner and saw a slope not only operational but with a fair number of skiers and snowboarders on it!

i sped up a little, quickly changed when i arrived and headed out for the last runs of the evening - in spite of the weather the open route had been kept in great condition and i've now had an excellent opportunity to try out my new bindings and remind my muscles who's boss...

especially exciting was short-circuiting a massive wipeout after landing an accidental mogul launch right onto another mogul :)

not a bad day at all, i feel like i earned my aprés-ski pint ^_^

---late 90's house mixes were the perfect post-piste soundtrack! i had the biggest smile on my face on the way back to the bus. i had time to wait so i sat at mcdonald's for tea and fries (amiright?) and one of the staff and a 16 year old took an interest in my boarding... the kid was also interested in practicing his english so we traded conversation until the bus arrived. it was kinda weird giving advice to someone half my age on how to quit smoking and doing so partially in french...

both on the bus and the metro rides i was primarily occupied with my thoughts. it was quite pleasant.

i tried watching the avengers in french while i ate dinner (eh, not so helpful) and afterwards decided i was far too tired to do anything except go to bed early.

---today:

shit, i'm such an idiot! that meant that i didn't do the french homework so i had to rush it this morning.

thought for the lesson: you'd think the not-so-bright girl would at least make up for being obviously slowest in class by revising a little - it's just pathetic. is it mandatory that every language class have one of those? we had one in the classes in tel aviv...

after class i picked up the builder bars i'd ordered and tipped the rest of the boxes over on an already hard-to-reach shelf :$

i returned home, ran laundry and called bell to ask about the bill i received. not only was the guy helpful, but he also informed me that there's a promotion on and for no additional charge i can up my data plan to 2gb. alright! i'm very pleased, that means i can stop worrying about reaching the limit.

bnw called to cancel our beers this evening, which i'm kinda glad she did as my dental state wouldn't have made it much fun.

the dentist: an hour and a half? damn. i'm not sure whether i or my dentist and his assistant deserve more pity. my jaw's still tender from keeping it open for so long and at one point i couldn't stop nodding off - aside from relaxing my jaw i kept losing consciousness with a start... weird. and dangerous :(

...

i just took a break to have dinner - oh gods, the new filling isn't sitting right *and* the tooth's suddenly super-sensitive :'(

and on that note, homework. i'm ready for bed again. this feels like punishment for enjoying the weekend so thoroughly :D

---linkage:

doesn't this history of israel make you want to rush over there to be a part of the story?

...

lie detecting neck tattoos: anyone who understands the basics of lie detection knows that galvanic skin response is not an indication of a lie, it's an indication of interest or excitement. whoever wrote this piece is a moron or a troll, likewise whoever wrote that application.

the age of research is dead! long live the information age!

...

to this day is shane koyczan doing a very special spoken word piece for ted. excellent stuff.

bon hiver!

last night's protein shake was thwarted by the cleaning lady having thrown out a necessary but otherwise useless little grey cap. i'm not happy about this.

---i woke up really early to call my insurance company and then remembered that it was friday already and the israeli work week was over...

... i subsequently had trouble getting back to sleep. eventually i did sleep a little, and dreamed of trying to take two dogs for a walk and that action somehow becoming complicated. suddenly i was on a bus and a boy referred to the banana he was eating as meat (freud, you there?) which sparked a debate with another kid over the ethics of battery farming. i ended it by saying that even the bible tells us not to be cruel to animals. i woke up feeling dirty.

---before class bnw called me up to invite me to her birthday party tomorrow night, which is unfortunate because i already have tickets for the national poetry slam finals. we agreed that i'd come visit on monday (which is her actual birthday), and that we'd have beers to celebrate but not discuss work. i'm down with that, but at the same time concern is developing that we're not making much progress.

...

after class i had coffee with fcmg (french class myth girl) and we spent two and a half hours discussing the project. so far she seems like the best fit of everyone i've met, she's really enthusiastic and she even appreciates my script! that was quite flattering. what was really sweet was her tearing up when i described the background of the story being told - to be fair, she's pregnant and emotional, but she didn't tear up when it would have been inappropriate :P

so now she's digging into the mythological texts and my script and once she's returned to me with her version of the storyboard we'll arrange to introduce her to bnw so she can compare notes and match styles where necessary. a part of me suspects that she'll be taking over some of bnw's work at some stage.

---during the class i used tiger balm not only to relieve my neck (the area around my slipped disc is inflamed and i can feel it now that the rest of my muscles have relaxed a bit) but also to mask the scent of the girl who arrived last and so allowed us to be absolutely sure that it's her :S

regarding the french level: i should have found an intermediate class, but this is still helpful. my groundwork is much stronger and it's been quite a confidence boost; i'm reading bone with a dictionary but the experience is still pleasurable. also, tomorrow i'll be joining a french meetup with strangers. this should be interesting!

---it's gonna snow this weekend - so i phoned mont saint sauveur to verify that i wasn't confused... the slopes are officially open for the season!!!

i'm pretty darned excited, i'm gonna go up on sunday ^_^

---after reading more bone and taking a nap i went to walmart to pick up some folding chairs so that my gaming guests will have a place to sit tonight. i deposited the chairs at home and went to the farther supermarket to pick up chocolate for bnw (okay, and myself and my guests tonight) with a groovy house mix accompanying me through the chilly evening air. that made me extremely bouncy and maintained the big smile on my face that the rest of the day had so kindly placed there.

i stopped at subway for a quick bite and the guy advised me to try the jalapeños - good one! i was paying for six inches when he suggested that it would be a shame not to get the whole foot for another dollar, so while i ate he made the other half for me. nice!

i decided to post this while waiting for the guys to arrive - i think that was a good idea because this weekend should be pretty crazy :D