mostly calm

 i'm tired, i'm probably going to bed soon.

yesterday: 

it took most of yesterday morning to build up the willpower to do two of the things on my to-do list, but essentially it was a lazy morning. mr smear apparently had a very good day, he enjoyed both his "computers" class (they're making levels with kodu game lab, and he asked me to install it this morning so he could play around with it some more) and his frisbee class. so that's cool.

we completed his math test prep in the afternoon, and the rest of the day was spent playing games alongside each other. i spent quite a lot of time in shadowrun: dragonfall, and i can't help wondering how far i got last time because it's all very familiar :P

today:

i've been on-call today, and i managed to miss two incidents which my boss picked up on, so that's a bit embarrassing. now i'm dealing with a third, and i'm not sure it's correcting... [i just checked, it looks like it is]

i woke up at my usual hour, weighing a couple of kilos more than i have for most of this past week :/

it was a relaxing morning - i napped a fair amount - and in the afternoon, after i spent some time working on the graphic novel, we watched independence day. mr smear thoroughly enjoyed it, and we did too, but i can't see will smith and hear him swaggering through his "cool dude" lines without hearing the irony in his delivery...

mr smear and i took a walk (and lots of talking) through the park, down dizengoff, and the headed back home, stopping for sandwiches on the way. we may be at war, and with a looming threat of escalation, but i love living in such a vibrant, safe city. we got home just in time for showering, brushing teeth and bedtime, and while i was disappointed that he didn't want to read anything that i'd picked up for him, i was very pleased when i had the idea of reading treasure island and he agreed, and he seems to be enjoying it so far ^_^

the mixed bag

 this morning was a bit shit, really. i scrambled out of bed to grab clothing and a coffee and walk mr smear to school. he didn't want to be photographed.

we arrived just in time, found his new classroom, met his new teacher, and i left feeling like it was going to be okay.

then i rejoined gd and the two of us hopped on a bus to find fluorescent lighting. that part of the mission turned out to be surprisingly quick and painless. but then we tried to find something else, and ended up in a situation - it was with unhappy feelings that we finally found a bus to take us to dizengoff center.

which turned out not to be the place we needed to be.

the easy app is hands-down the worst app / search / navigation experience i've ever encountered.

we eventually gave up on finding a barber shop near the center, and bussed to where gd took mr smear a short while ago. as we were about to walk in someone else was coming out, so we stopped to give them space. at which point a very rude couple snuck around us and took the next (and only) available chair.

i was quite annoyed, on top of the general irritation of the morning, but i waited for the next opportunity, only someone else arrived and i knew immediately that that next chair was going to be hers. at that point i lost my cool and definitely didn't want to be there any more.

so we came back home - with my hair still looking very shaggy - i tossed back a coffee with ice-cream in it to calm down and then we left almost immediately to pick up mr smear. we were both a bit nervous, and also a little surprised when we picked him up to learn that he'd had a really good day! and that both he and his teacher thought so!

it's a good start, hopefully it'll continue in this vein.

we did half the grocery shopping, then returned home to find the other half outside our door, this time with no "gifts". i rested for a bit, then got up to put the old mattress outside (gd wrapped it nicely and put a sign on it), then attempted to replace the fluorescent lighting.

i think it's safe to say i failed. the first one works nicely, but still only fires up about half a minute after pushing the button. the second doesn't fire up, just hums annoyingly.

i suspect the fixtures are fucked. and my fiddling probably didn't improve matters.

and touching anything up there was gross.

...

mr smear and i watched two episodes of the live action reboot of one piece. it's... it's brilliant. just brilliant. mr smear has decided that he no longer cares for becoming a scientist, or a chef - now he wants to bring back old-school piracy.

that's my boy!

...

additionally, i played enough of the crying suns demo to decide that it was worth dropping $8 on the full game. it's FTL, but better.

we watched half of elemental this evening, so far there're a couple of annoying contrivances but the overall concept is good and it is enjoyable.

i've been making far too much effort to manipulate midjourney into producing something that i think is pretty straightforward, but apparently isn't...

...

i hope i'm able to sleep tonight.

unprofessional expert removals

we met kgb at my apartment, but when he realized how little we'd intended to move today and that we needed a few minutes to pack things up he rushed out to a friend of his who could organize a u-haul van for us at a moment's notice and with far better terms than the booking i'd made. by the time he returned everything was ready to go and we wasted no time getting everything loaded, then hurried here to unload and take gd's couch back.

that damned couch. and our damned sliding doors*. everything else was quick and easy, but the amount of effort and frustration that went into removing the doors, fitting the couch through them and then replacing them was insane. it's a good thing we're both in good shape, and with our combination of russian removal skills**, solid physical condition and a bit of blind luck we managed to get all the major stuff out of the way and the u-haul back to the lot with five minutes to spare.

* gd didn't tell me who it was, but she knows who installed the sliding doors and threaded every damned screw. we had to use force but without breaking anything.

** kgb asked me early on if i'm sure i'm not russian when i did something a bit ridiculous but totally practical, which i found flattering. i told him that the first person i ever saw carry an entire fridge by himself was a russian.

i was SO relieved^† and grateful to have sorted all the heavy lifting out this evening! that means that tomorrow we can focus on all the little details and take it easy, especially considering that we've now got all the drawers we need to make space for shit.

^† except for the fact that i can't find my playstation. it *should* be at my apartment, but i'm troubled that it might have been with all the other stuff and was somehow stolen :(

kgb and i took our coffees outside and talked for a while, he's hatching an interesting (business) scheme and i'm hoping that i'll be able to get involved somehow.

i was tired and lazy, but i had to eat something solid. this steaming veggies thing is beginning to get comfortable, and what i produced was - according to both gd and my tastebuds - the best i've produced so far! shit's gooooood.

---tom papa: live in new york city: we just finished watching it, and when he talks about vegans he shows that he's just plain uneducated and is happy spreading stupid sentiments for laughs. the other offensive bit was making a pirate reference as if the life of a pirate is a bad thing - entirely against my religion. otherwise, he was good. not the best, not a full five stars, but certainly worth watching.

reading over writing

thursday:

i spent the remainder of the night going through course material (mcgill's chem181), and went to bed wondering if strange markings on my right bicep were the beginnings of a rash. [apparently not, but they were pretty bizarre. and almost cool.]

i dreamed a very strange dreams that ended with a car not slowing down and careening through a red light, almost slamming into a crowd that had to jump out of its way; i woke up able to recall the license plate that i couldn't find anyone to report to.

...

i woke up thinking that regardless of second chances i had to explain myself, so i did. i spent most of the rest of the day doing duolingo lessons and reading harry potter. now that i have the dictionary, i'm almost reading at my regular pace and i'm absorbing new words at what feels like a pretty good rate! i hope it's not too late, my exam is in six days...
(O_o)

match.com gave me quite a scare! i signed up months ago to give it a try and quickly discovered, to my chagrin, that it's a sucky service and not at all worth throwing money at. not only was there a sunk cost for the initial membership, but they *automatically* renewed my membership with no warnings, options or permission! $100 to maintain an account i don't want? no thank you!
i was seriously stressing until i got through to an online assistant, who speedily organized a refund and apologized for the crappy experience. i deactivated my account immediately and i hope never to hear from them again.

in the late afternoon i went to get exam photos taken at the photo labs adjacent to walmart. i got out at the namur metro station and realized that i had forgotten my wallet, so that was annoying. when i got back home and picked up my wallet i saw that i'd left a half a glass of water in a cup and realized that i was thirsty, so i tried to quickly down it and ended up choking so badly that i threw up. that didn't improve my mood much :(

what did improve my mood was coming across a beggar with blue-streaked hair holding up the following sign as i left the station:
"jack sparrow stole my pirate ship - need gold doubloons"
the big smile on my face was totally worth a loonie - the golden single dollar coin ;)

the photo labs' picture taking service? it's a PORTRAIT taking service. like, for families wanting to do kitsch. they don't do standard sizes other than passport photos, which didn't help me. i couldn't stop the girl in time from writing their contact details on a flyer for me, i didn't want the damned flyer and i will not be guilted into taking one. why the hell aren't the contact details already printed on them? why do people have to waste so much frikkin' paper?!

i had less than an hour to get to the gym to meet kgb, so so much for getting the task done. fortunately, spending an hour working with kgb put me back in a good mood. kickboxing was really tough, so much so that one of the new guys almost passed out and had to be bought a powerade and have a friend called to pick him up. bummer...

most of guys in the class were francophone, so i hung around to listen to the chatter before going home for dinner and tekken.

---yesterday:

i was in an odd mood before bed, and managed to burn more than an hour going through poetry that i'd like to use for slam and timing it.

...

the day was ugly: warm and rainy and icy. that meant slipping a lot and either getting soaked or having to carry an umbrella, which was most inconvenient :(

my morning consisted of heading downtown to get my exam photos done - this was handled in french from the moment they understood what the photos were for. i bought more of my breakfast shake powder and had a decent lunch reading, then paid a visit to the hairdresser. who was watching hockey, i suspect the meh-ness of my haircut might be related to my disturbing his experience.

i dropped everything at home and went to starbucks for coffee and more reading, printed out my "convocation" for the french exam (whatever the hell that is), did the shopping (thinking a lot about the discomfort of carrying said shopping with an umbrella in hand) and was disappointed to discover that my ski jacket wasn't ready to be picked up from the cleaners (i spilled the last drops of an energy drink in an inner pocket :( ).

i filled out a survey that could theoretically win me $5000 - any port in a storm, says the unemployed man.

i enjoyed a glorious, too-short nap and woke up to some pre-class harry potter with a cup of tea. it's totally sucked me in again! and this time i'm paying attention to the hectic foreshadowing...

boxing: my jump rope experience is usually partial, for various reasons, but yesterday i got the full one. i was impressed that i still had use of my arms by the end of it :P
the first round of pads was hardcore, the guy holding for me is a beginner and has no sense of pacing. this turned out to be perfect because while the round wiped me out, once it was done the coach pulled me out to work with the new (very cute) girl and teach her the basics. while i was distracted the whole class burst into hysterics because he said something funny about me, and later i'd find out that the laughter was mostly shock that he'd actually paid me a large compliment.

it was her first impact training, obviously, and so (after explaining what it's all about and how to manage the strikes) i began with punches so soft that i was sure she'd know i was exaggerating - nope! she improved noticeably, though, and by the end was handling most of my punches. then it was her turn, and when a couple of the other girls saw this they decided to step in and take turns demonstrating what impact's all about. one hit me decently, one flailed about pathetically... that was army brat. she's very "gangsta" when she punches - she makes a lot of effort and does very little because her technique sucks, just like when a "gangsta" holds a gun sideways and shoots all his bullets off the mark.

anyway, i couldn't figure out if the cute girl was apologizing afterwards for not hitting me or for actually getting the hang of it towards the end :P

the guys invited me to dine with them at canda, so i rushed home to shower and change and joined them soon afterwards. overall the evening was fun, although army brat got more boring and annoying as the night wore on, as did the shitty service and the fact that there weren't many vegan options, what they did have was iffy and nothing i had justified the insane $35 buffet cost. at least everyone else had brought decent wine and the company was mostly entertaining, though my enthusiasm for sitting on the french side of the table lessened as the time passed.

---today:

i got home around midnight and spent the next two hours reading and eating skittles. then i went to bed and dreamed. in the second-to-last dream uncle puberty suffered a third heart attack [out of zero, weird] while driving just ahead of the post-party bus where my nice and only nice clothes for work the next morning had been hanging but disappeared. the last dream was an overly-detailed dream about dreaming. very inception.

...

i stayed down for a long while enjoying that glorious feeling when you're so comfortable lying in that the last thing you want to do is get out of bed... and you don't *have* to ^_^

...

i got up after a phone call from horseman and an email from pulse. the former was an invitation to meet and practice french, the latter was to let me know that a friend of hers in a well-known company has seen my resume and will happily put in a word for me. very cool!

i spent some time catching up on my rss feed - i've been neglecting it for the longest time - accumulating some crazy linkage (but i have to go now, you're spared for the moment), then met horseman on the plateau. the day would have been stunning if not for the wind, so checking out parc lafontaine was a mistake. we went underground for the next couple of hours, then came back to my place for tekken before i kicked him out so that i could post, do laundry and eat before going to the village to watch ufc 170.

it's time!

ending 2013 - part ii

[... continued]

sunday:

after a long while talking to sq i put myself to bed, enjoying deepest slumber. and crazy dreams of high adventure and war. i don't know if "enjoying" is the right word for the latter.

i woke up to a discussion with my mom that saw me entering rant mode; she questioned something in a way that irritated me and after getting defensive i looked it up and found that she was right. so that was an entirely unnecessary negative start to the day - fortunately it didn't continue in similar vein.

yang and i had some gift shopping we needed to do, so i picked him up from town and we headed to what used to be the sunday flea market. it's now the saddest little collection of uninteresting junk, we walked through utterly disappointed. fortunately, yang made a call and we learned about the gardens flea market so we headed there. still not amazing, but certainly closer to what we were looking for. i did see a few things i liked, and i found some cool t-shirts for myself, but i'm going to check out greenmarket square before making any final decisions.

we returned to godmother's best friend's house to relax by the pool with yin and yang and our cousins from london, and soon i received a call from airplane so i drove over to his place to spend a couple of hours with him and his girlfriend and a couple of ciders. it was really cool chilling with them, enjoying the view and the summer evening breeze on their balcony :)

i returned home wondering at how comfortable i am driving in cape town. i made a quick stop at home to get ready, then protoplasm rocked up to pick me up just as my mother returned home. we chatted for a short while, my mother telling us about some wedding drama*, and then went to town for visit.

* the groom was causing shit with the wedding because he wanted to put up a divider on the dance floor in order to pander to my niece's biological father's wishes. her biological father has never been there for her nor added much value and most of us don't like him; we were all horrified and angered by his interference.

---monday:

protoplasm and i went to fiction. fiction... is fiction! little has changed, though the music on sunday night only got really good towards the end. we spent most of the night drinking and enjoying the company of strangers, we had lots of laughs and a jolly good time. a notable moment was buying a round of rum; six rum shots and a beer for R120, which was a pleasure, but not as much of a pleasure as describing the importance of pirates in hamlet and having one of the girls joining me in the punchline: "everything... is better with pirates!"

after a good last dance protoplasm and i walked to the old shell select - it's tradition - where i picked up simba salt and vinegar to complete the nostalgia trip before returning home. i then chatted with sq for a couple of hours of sunrise and finally went to bed.

i dreamed crazy dreams until about 1pm and was woken up to go for a massage my mother had booked for me. usually i pass out at some point, but this time i was totally engaged in conversation the whole time. it intrigues me that over the years we've developed a rapport in spite of the fact that i only see the guy every few years.

afterwards, my mother and i did some quick shopping for the festival and i went to cape quarter to meet with sagirl. we ended up at cafe manhattan for a few drinks, the weather was perfect and after montreal's meeting being overtaken by shared nostalgia and introductions to her friend it was nice to discuss more current affairs! amusingly, we're sharing strikingly similar dating stories, though she's not able to physically meet the guy...

sq and i chatted one last time prior to new year's and then i took my mother out to postacino for dinner. my mother has a great relationship with the owner and it's always nice to arrive at the restaurant and be greeted so warmly :)
it's the first time i've eaten there as a vegan, and they don't have too many menu options available but were only too happy to do any of their pizzas without cheese. their "postacino" pizza without cheese was ridiculously delicious! so much so that in spite of my certainty that i'd need to box half of it there were barely any crumbs left.

i watched ronda rousey vs miesha tate, which is one of the most intense fights i've ever seen! not only in the attitudes of the combatants, but it actually freaked me out every time tate tried to take rousey down. like, holy shit!

i spent some time blogging and fighting mosquitoes before going to bed.

---tuesday:

i didn't get nearly enough sleep. my mother was the one who overslept, though. on the morning of the wedding which made for an interesting morning.

the strangest thing? the dreams that i woke up from, long dreams, were boring. i've never experienced that sensation in a dream before.

delayed post: screen day

i woke up fairly early, transcribed some pieces of poetry so that i could toss the original papers, joined pg in a lovely morning's walking the dog, then settled down to work.

i worked a lot. it's past 3am and i still haven't actually finished :((

i did take a couple of breaks, though. watching sir ken robinson was inspiring.

i'm amused - i discovered today that since taking the anti-biotics, the size of the scar on my back (the second last surgery) has gone down almost completely; i guess it'd been infected.

the real steel trailer made me shiver again - it looks amazing. so does the next transformers movie. and immortality.

pirates of the caribbean 4: it took us a while to see it, but my word - i don't think there was a single minute that i didn't thoroughly enjoy of it. absolutely gorgeous! waiting through eight minutes of credits wasn't *really* worth the ending, though. it was just cute, whereas the others were great.

reflections upon aging prematurely - part iii

[... continued]

thursday:

an early wake up, and a post office blunder: when i receive a slip from the post office telling me that there's a package waiting, i expect it to have been delivered AFTER they're ready for me to take it. this is not the first time that's happened to me, either... i cannot fathom how they're sending me an invitation to pick up something that they don't yet know they have. i don't see why they can't send the slips on the day that the items become available. i'm not a professional postal worker, but i can't see it being particularly complicated to do right. someone has informed me that the postman usually has the package in hand when he is putting the slip in the post-box; when he finishes his round, he puts it in the district post office to be delivered to the local one.

why not leave it at the local one?

on the bus to class i was listening to music, and even through the trance blasting through my headphones i could hear the sounds from the guy next to me. that can't be good for his ears.

i was distracted for most of the first class, and we got back our grades from the midterm... i got a sucky grade. i'm now in pretty much the same situation that i was in in the first semester :S

second class was our shakespeare midterm - now, i don't know if i'm going to get a good grade or not but i *enjoyed* writing the paper. as expected, our masterful lecturer did *not* demand any memorization. he asked interesting questions that made us think. my second answer could easily have been expanded into a seminar paper that i would have been proud to write :)

one of our poetry society members followed me to lunch - i like him, but he's a really slow communicator and i was still unfocused. we discussed linux and seminars, and then i abandoned him to go get some work done. the hour in the labs went by quickly, and i'm finally relaxed about what i have to do. then i went to the vardi prize awards ceremony.

the lecturer came from prague. his slides were unreadable and his speech hard to follow - he was reading a paper he'd written and that never works. we were listless and confused - most of us, anyways - but every now and again* he'd say something that was so remarkably interesting that i'd realize that i actually like what he has to say. just not how he has to say it :P

* for a grand total of about ten minutes out of his hour and a half

our hat-wearing italian annoyed him with a question on "ontological fragmentation": it's always nice to have a smart man slam that sort of bullshit.

anime night - not too many people showed up. we had a new girl arrive, whose good looks totally captivated botchman, and neither her nor the only other regular who'd showed up had seen hunter x hunter* so we watched a couple of episodes until botchman and another regular showed up. then we watched some more guyver, and finally began galaxy express 999.

* wow. i only just realized that it's pronounced "hunter hunter"

a pity that botchman had to leave so soon, because galaxy express 999 is freakin' AWESOME. two words: space pirates. another two words: space steampunk. kick - ass. the music's great too. the only problem is that it's really, really, really long, and we didn't check the running-time beforehand. so we watched about three quarters of it and will have to continue some other time.

i wanted to go to the doof-on-the-roof party but pg and i had a misunderstanding when i got home that put me in such a foul mood that i didn't want to any more. by the time things had cooled down and senses of humour had been regained we were both exhausted... so we watched some more one piece and then went to bed.

proper sleep. *happy sigh*

---friday:

when i said to the man who hooted next to me* this morning "thank you! i'm right here!" he responded that it wasn't meant for me.
oh! that makes it okay then.

that was followed by some idiot screaming and hooting at an old guy whose parking was interfering with his getting to the red light. i was almost at the post-office when everyone on the sidewalk jumped at a long, evil hoot followed by some jerk screaming "WHAT'S THIS?! WHAT'S THIS?!" at an old guy parking on the side of the road... then stopping immediately at the traffic light. it really does my nut in. what i really wanted to do was walk up to his window and repeat his cries, but i suspect he may have been armed.

it amazes me that everyone who laughs at me for being upset tells me that i should just accept the situation - but why can't those drivers just accept the situation that they're not the only drivers on the road? i sense hypocrisy. and unnecessary aggressive behaviour.

* when i say "next to me", his window was open and his head was right next to mine. the guy he was hooting at was driving slowly, but was already turning out of his way rendering the hooting completely useless. when i spoke to him, it was in a normal speaking voice because i didn't need to raise it.

the a truck passed me by with a loud grunt and a door-slap by the driver. that was surprising and weird.

the doctor's visit was simple and uninteresting. i like those.

on my way back from the clinic, i found myself staring disapprovingly at someone who had intended to walk away from his dog's... ummm... relief. i cannot understand a grown man that needs a look or a word to remind him to clean up after his dog.

of all the places to run into an israeli poet on the side of the road... we've just received a suggestion of city council cooperation in organizing something and i'm beginning to send out invitations and ideas... after picking up my package, urchin called and is rallying other troops as well ^_^

i met with one of my fellow completion course members over breakfast at coffeeholic, and we discussed travelling in south africa and polygraph examinations. then i went home to unpack pg's birthday gifts and verify that they're as awesome as promised :))

i spent an hour or two playing with google gadgets before joining pg, her mother and her sister in a slow friday blade. it was a beginner's group, and it was fun!
dinner was great, although my arm's getting progressively more painful. pg and i watched one piece afterwards, i put into practice my cunning plan on transcribing a few pages of my travel diary every day before bedtime.

---today:

i can't believe i've finally gotten through this! now to nap again, then work and study. 'cause one must ;)

---inspired by increased knowledge of dairy products: little miss muffet

english vs american: there're the differences, and then there are really alternative spellings

netless - part iii

[... continued]

second class, on shakespeare, and we discussed (amongst other things) the pirata ex machina in hamlet. on the back of my more serious argument that it demonstrates a side of hamlet that we've heard tell of but not seen (he's mentioned as having an excellent reputation as a man not to be messed with), rode my quoting the gamers :D

a good, philosophical lunch, including a fruitful argument with co-conspirator concerning her perspective.

i left for work a little concerned that i haven't heard from anyone; my boss did actually throw me a bone, though. and i did get started. kinda. it's something.

it's late. i'm off.

---noticing that your keyboard's REALLY dirty, so much so that quick wiping is totally ineffective, is disturbing.

sleepless and in pain?

i did get some work done - i spent hours in frustration, each time learning a little more about the fragility of opengl programming and at one point having it made abundantly clear to me that coding in qt is *not* the way to go.

i will be progressing with sdl, because the little experience that i have was smooth and impressive.

i went to bed because i couldn't focus anymore, and woke up very early to continue. the first news of the day - the couple that came to see the apartment aren't interested :/

---
i spent a good five hours at work, digging deeper into flex and learning to dislike the debugger intensely. the debugger is mean. and mostly useless.

it lies. it makes outrageous statements like "no such value" and "@#$%^%^%" when i put a watch on a variable that works perfectly. or almost perfectly. and it's only forgiving with errors when those errors WILL screw everything up. no reports, no nothing.

just a lot of headscratching until the "OOH!!!! i seee! bastard." moments.

my personal favourite? for dealing with XML, we have a function called length(). length(), when used in an XML context, will always return a value of "1". fantastically useful :/

---
i spoke to the guy i'm supposed to be doing the graphics stuff for, and he wants an organized quote. the problem is that i have no way of knowing how many hours to expect, and no clue if the amount i'm charging is enough or too much :(

i never liked giving project estimations.

---
i'm impressed with how quickly people responded to my advertising that my apartment's for rent on facebook. in the meanwhile, even if nobody takes it i think i've found someone to rent it to while i'm overseas :)

after an amusing chat with a stranger while i strapped on my blades, i sped home and got here just as the first guest was arriving. we walked in to find chc with a strange look on her face - the two of us went outside for a quick chat. i explained that as long as she doesn't break any of the rules (especially rule no 1) and isn't in my way, i don't mind her being around to sort out her stuff.

it took us a while to get started with the game - mostly because we needed to go shopping, and that involved picking up a desk that a neighbour had thrown out. if i move, i'll need it and if i don't, scrapper will. what timing!

the game was a bit on and off - i got into character and my character was bored and agitated. the scene came to a close before we found any action because one of the guys had to go, and the two of us who remained convinced scrapper to give us some free play with two random non-characters in the city.

that turned out brilliantly! it gave us an amazing perspective on the shit-storm we'd left behind on the first night we played, and introduced us to some interesting characters :)

---
something happened in the middle of the game - something that seemed like what i imagine my niece to have felt: a sudden, growing and eventually disabling pain from just below my sternum (what appears to be my liver). i'm informed by trustworthy sources that i should probably go tomorrow to see if i have medical cover. maybe medical insurance is a good idea?

i was really close to asking to be taken to a clinic. i was certain i'd faint from the pain. it was altogether unpleasant.

and to make matters worse, while i was lying down and feeling sorry for myself scrapper came to check up on me, and discovered that there's a ninja hiding in the pattern on my pillow. the nerve! i be ever-so-slightly-redbeard the pirate, and i will not take it lying down!

AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!!! [this link comes with a serious warning: it's extremely sexually explicit and the story involving pirates is a bit of the way down.]

---
i thought i'd nap before work, but posting took almost an hour (i did get a bit stuck going through facebook photos, to be fair) and now i gotta go. i hope i manage to get a quote together by the end of the shift, because i wanna go hear omka playing at the mafteach...

---
on chemical parties

quote no. 7: as we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let us down, probably will. you'll have your heart broken and you'll break others' hearts. you'll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you'll cry because time is flying by. so take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt. life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. you just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. don't be afraid to take chances or fall in love and most of all, live in the moment because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back.

does anyone know how to get hold of that old video where the guy runs, jumps and headbutts the doorframe? it's pre-youtube, and i had no luck searching for it :(