on the offensive - part ii

[... continued]

the woman working the metro counter was visibly in need of a verbal pat on the shoulder, the elderly woman ahead of me was driving her crazy. she's either demented or has never been in a metro station before... after i got through, she waddled back towards me from someone who couldn't help her.

"do you know how to get to the casino?" she asked, in french.
"not a clue," i responded. and proceeded to ponder casino ethics. only stupid people gamble, in my opinion. it's just not a past-time that makes any sense to me.

...

the plan had been to see godzilla, but neither gd nor i were up for it. we went to p.m. instead, where i found my stomache to be bigger than my eyes. it's kinda scary how much i ate, especially considering the belly ache after having eaten too much that afternoon.
we finished dinner at yeh! again; the insane crowds and impatience on grand prix saturday night were unsettling. shit, i hadn't even realized it was time for that yet!

i was so absolutely exhausted that i had difficulty maintaining balance, and we went to gd's where i shuffled into bed as soon as i could.

---sunday:

i woke up feeling marginally more human, and would incrementally feel better as my sudden sinusitis slowly went away. i spent the morning trying to repair gd's ubuntu installation and update mine while she gave private haircuts. she doesn't have a sound system in her cutting room so the telly was turned on eardrum-burstingly loud, i didn't even realize how bad it was until it hurt and i grabbed my netbook and ran to the bedroom. it wasn't even a case of turning the sound down: psychologically it was such a brutal experience that it would take a while before i was ready to go back in there :(

i couldn't fix her system - chrome displays in funny colours and flash doesn't work, so i eventually left flash uninstalled and told her to use firefox instead - but i at least sorted out mine. my netbook thought it was in israel and was unsuccessfully trying to update from middle eastern servers.

not that that should have been a problem :/

i did some work on my comic script, gd's brother arrived and we all went shopping. we had a good, cold-salad lunch and relaxed on her balcony for a while, and while she cut his hair i missioned to the pharmacy to pick something up for her. that way we wouldn't be stressed when we went to meet some friends of mine.

or so i thought.

---we were in good spirits as we arrived at berri-uqam, and were on our way out (approaching some police officers) arm in arm when some guy walking in the opposite direction closed in and shouldered gd as he passed. we stopped, shocked, and a few other people behind us stopped and stared as well; i thought he'd misjudged and simply not apologized, which in retrospect would be super weird for a canadian.
gd started saying something angrily, and i told her to let it go... which she did, and *then* told me that he'd actually hurt her.

*then* i was pissed, but by that time he'd disappeared around a corner. i spent the next while beating myself up over the incident and have been brooding on and off since. as we walked out i said to her, without really being convinced myself, that it might have been for the best. as the days have gone by, i've thought longer about the correct response and i can't decide between my first instinct - to run after him, hamstring him and drag him back by his ear to the police - and taking a "wonderfully nice guy" approach and trying to talk to the man.

either way, that shit's never gonna fly with me again.

---we met with my friends and did a serious ice cream and alcohol mission, twice each. at first i wasn't sure that we were all vibing, but an afternoon walking, drinking and sitting on a terrace quickly sorted that out.

weird note: mcauslan's griffon is not a proper griffon. i find that quite jarring.

gd and i came back to my place so i could shower and change, and we ended up having a long talk about the paranormal challenge. you see, she's apparently got a bit of a gift that i haven't mentioned because she's an obvious not-a-loony and she doesn't really talk about it. i'm not dismissive, but i am skeptical; i also believe that regardless of whether she's got second sight or not she's not irresponsible or harming anyone; i'm staying perched on the fence. what i have borne witness to is incredible sensitivity and intuition.
what we were discussing is how to go about setting up a scientifically valid test, if we get anywhere i'll be sure to share it here.
[otherwise, i'm not looking to argue with anyone about it. this is my journal, and i'm not interested in debating gd's powers or lack thereof. i am, however, happy to discuss possible, reasonable scientific methods to test for paranormal abilities and what would be considered a satisfactory demonstration.]

i had her in hysterics when i told her the story of my experience reporting a broken window while high in a charge office, i really need to remember to repeat that here sometime! it's been fifteen years, i guess i don't need to keep those days in the dark any more :P

we went back to her place, she put on hannibal and i sent lengthy criticism to supertongue on a draft of a slam poem of hers.

---monday:

it was a long night of weird dreams. i've heard from ric, who returned to south africa with his tail between his legs, and i'm extremely pleased to report that he's finally found a way to merge his i-was-pushed-into-law-by-my-parents profession with his desire to be a musician: he's created a record label and opened up a law firm specializing in music and the arts. i cannot begin to describe how proud i am of his progress! and how proud i am to have been a part of it.

[continued...]

scribbles iii

damn. i don't want to write posts anymore because i don't feel like i have the time. but i can't not, with my info ocd.

---friday:

1. cold, rainy snoozing. each day of crap weather has been harder to get up for.

2. gog's newsletter is dangerous. very bad for the wallet. currently there's a sale on that includes both cannon fodder games (which i've really wanted to check out for years but each abandonware copy is unusable) and the entire leisure suit larry collection. i had to.

3. work: i finally caught hold of the cto and he gave me a tutorial on working with a central part of our systems i've never had access to before. it was actually quite exciting! even more exciting was that the opportunity was being taken in order for me to be able to build what i need to integrate everything properly, instead of having him build something we can't use without sidelining everything that's already functional.

4. half the company bailed on the happy hour, so those of us who were left decided to head downtown and mix the happy hour with the crescent street craziness. crescent street itself was rather disappointing, but the first bar was nice and then we returned to peel pub, which got a bit silly after the long island iced teas and more beer. after that a few of us returned to the office and played great pool before calling it a week.

i'd definitely had too much to drink. i spoke to yin for a while, then put myself to bed.

scribbles i

damn. i don't want to write posts anymore because i don't feel like i have the time. but i can't not, with my info ocd.

---wednesday:

1. birds singing, wrapped in sheets and re-dreaming [dreaming dreams i've dreamed before]

2. sleeping on the metro to tool - reflection

3. botswana demo crisis: again. how is it this man doesn't learn not to come to us with a malfunction just as everyone's leaving the day before a morning demo? this one averted by agreeing with megaman that we don't respond.

4. walking into jock's cubicle just in time to catch him saying "i hate you" to his phone and put it down. i couldn't get my hate poem out of my head for the next two days.

5. what on earth reminded me of spot the braincell? [this link is to a version slightly different to the one in my head, but that's because i memorized my brother's audio collection]

6. ringworm paranoia after the previous day's training: ever since my mma partner told me about it, i've been itching all over. i'm pretty sure it's psychosomatic, as i don't see any signs of anything. i've been looking to purchase rash guards, but i can't figure out what the right style is for me.

7. i spent the day knocking off items from my to-do list that have been accumulating over the past couple of months. it was incredibly cathartic!

8. mason made contact, apparently he'd lost his phone. later he sent me a draft for the cover, and it's good.

9. tracking my intake with fitday has helped me get into a routine; i'm now consuming a lot more calories and my protein intake's averaging double!

10. it's grand prix week, and a few of us agreed to meet up at crescent street to partake in the celebrations. i rushed laundry, shopped and snacked before heading out. i was falling asleep waiting for horseman to show up, but a good cup of coffee took care of that. before meeting up with the others the two of us walked around talking music and rapping: he's setting his digs up as a studio this summer and wants to get busy producing. i'm all in!

crescent street was still being set up, although it was filled with beautiful locals. we went to peel instead. my dinner, once again, was beer and fries (it's becoming a thing, and i like it). we all had a great time, and i was amused when jock's friend asked who i am and he didn't know how to respond.
"he's my... boss? he can't be my boss."
i am, but i'm glad that i don't set off the traditional "boss" flags. one's team should feel comfortable sharing everything, in my opinion, while still respecting one's authority.

two of us almost missed the last trains, but fortunately we ran quickly enough. i was quite tipsy; i spent the entire ride working on memorizing preacher.

rewrite

i experienced a soul-crushing moment today, when i realized that after a long time working on his mandate to upgrade a system i constructed - most of my time on the original spent creating libraries to make development quicker, easier and more secure - imperieux had been rewriting the system from scratch instead. this is exactly like cam2, except that this system actually works and does what it's supposed to do, but it's now incompatible with the previous system and that's going to cost us in integration :'(

well, that's what happens when you're overloaded and you delegate. this sucks.

...

on a related note, but in the other direction: one of our developers has been bitching about work that one of the previous interns did badly, and he called me over to show me something he was struggling to read and translate. i looked at it, then looked again, and realized it was something of mine :$

---i left work much later than i'd have liked (working around robocopy, which doesn't work as advertised), and was long out of time to eat before training so i made do with a protein bar. i didn't feel too good by the time i arrived in the gym, the short jog had worn me out and my abysmal failures with the jump rope had me a little dizzy; i was hesitant to continue, and considered just saying "i can't" and leaving.

but i didn't. it wasn't an easy training, but once i'd warmed up i started doing the right things, and even though i was partnered with the slow guy (he doesn't seem to understand any of the exercises) i left feeling very positive.

...

you know you're shadowboxing well when:
"dude! are you alright?!"
"i'm fine, you should see the other guy..."

...

the final part of the training was very exciting - we were working on the heavy bags that up until today have dealt more damage to my legs than vice-versa, and this time i came out on top! it's the little victories...

---check out this brilliant summary on exoplanet detection!

piraro being serious is quick and fun to read.

is $120 to drive a lamborghini galland through two laps (less than five minutes) on a race course worth it? because that's how much they're charging. i compared the per hour rental cost of a ford fiesta to its purchase price ($2.5/hr : $20k) and this deal to the lambo's ($1440/hr : $210k). although i suppose using the track might be expensive... that expensive?

krispie kreams and earplugs

i woke up to coffee and good doughnuts this morning. wp and i got organized, and our aunt dropped us off at the metro.

the metro in montreal is pretty simple, and we arrived at our destination quite efficiently. we then strolled along to our grandstand - just after the hairpin turn - and were just in time for the end of the ferrari 360 race: HOT DAMN. simply beautiful!

we took a break, and then the grand prix began. we had a huge screen in front of us, so we could see all the action, and our view of the race IRL was excellent! good thing we'd brought earplugs... even with them, the sound of the engines is deafening. but SUCH a thrill ^_^

so yeah, it was an exciting race. and actually being in the crowd was AWESOME. i can still smell that gasoline / burnt rubber smell, and it's goooood.

the crowds trying to get into the metro afterwards were simply ridiculous. we eventually broke through, and made our way back to notre-dame-de-grâce. we slowly strolled past the shops on the way home, eventually getting our aunt a thank-you of an hour's massage at some place just down the road.

we came back home in time for supper, which was nice... said goodbye to wp, so i'll see him in sa in december. i've just taken my mom to where she's staying, and am about to shower (i'm super-smelly) and go to bed. tomorrow we're off to ottawa, then toronto for a couple of days. hopefully by the weekend i'll have had a response from that waitress from friday night, but considering the lack of a response during the last few hours, i don't think that's going to happen.

i can still hope, can't i? on a different note, my aunt has informed me that if i do decide to come here after the army, then she'd be only too happy to help me get on my feet: joy!

mostly woozy

wine in the morning, beer in the afternoon, wine at night. it's been one of those days...

we had a good breakfast, and then wp and i headed out. we stopped to play frisbee at the park, and were in time for a fun taekwondo demonstration - some of it not bad at all.

we then took a bus through to crescent street. we went through the museum of fine art for about half an hour - they have some incredible things there... i was a bit thrown by the digital prints, they really weren't on the list of things i'd expect to see.

we went through the crowds, sometimes stuck on some absolutely mind-blowing vehicles. pure art on four wheels, inside and out!

we went into a pub to watch argentina vs. mexico - it was a pretty good second-half / extra time, and the second goal was superb. even *i* enjoyed watching :P

we then walked around a bit, finding a not-bad comic book store, and then took the bus back.

got back, showered, and then zoomed off to the other side of montreal, to a nice greek restaurant for a great dinner. i've been back for a bit (watching ghost, how sad), and i'm not actually sure if we're going out or just chilling. i'm not concerned though - it's grand prix in the morning!!

magic!

before leaving for supper, wp and i did a quick shopping run - i discovered an army surplus store that sells all manner of amusing (and illegal) possible additions to my uniform. i'm going to have to get the under-shirts that say "govt issue" and "army", and the "us army" tags to replace my "idf" ones :P

we were taken last night to "millionaire's lane", the largest and most beautiful houses in the city. not quite as over-the-top as top road in cape town, but pretty damn close. and safer :P

dinner was extremely lavish, with all the trimmings, and a magician who performed to keep the kids happy... and later on the adults, too.

the food was incredible, and it was really nice to slide from conversation to conversation with all the different people and family members. i felt quite schmoozy ;)

one of my aunt's friends celebrated her birthday yesterday, so the magician performed a trick that impressed me even more than david blaine's street magic. it involved a lime, $100 bill, a deck of cards, and a pad of paper. i'm still in awe, as is everyone else who witnessed it!

afterwards, we went home, changed, and got a ride back to crescent street.

the cars, both those being driven around, and those on display, were AMAZING. unbelievable. stunning.

we decided to stay there this time, and ended up sitting at a bar, paying $12 for beer that last night cost 3. it's definitely grand prix time! after a few tries, wp managed to score us a seat on the balcony, with a good view of all the craziness, and a good view of the really foxy waitresses. our one was gorgeous - an hour or so later, i traded numbers with her... she's agreed to be my "tour guide". i'm hoping i'll be touring somewhere a little more personal than montreal ;)

we walked around a bit, chatted some more, then decided that it was time to call it a night, and taxied home. we snuck into the house around 2.45, and i just got woken up about an hour ago to go and walk about town. no complaints there!

fantastique!

we all went to a really nice restaurant last night - the food was absolutely heavenly. i had coconutted duck that was all melty ^_^
the streets were filled with all the grand prix followers and tourists and so on, stunning vehicles and plenty of promo girls :)

lots of talking (and good coffee and sa chocolate) before bed, and then i woke up at 5am to go for a walk through some really, really pretty streets. i went back to sleep, and now it's tourist time!