little days

my mother suggests i stop keeping track of the details, but i think that's how this whole blogging thing got started. on the one hand, i should just stop. on the other?

the darkness of the unknown.

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sunday night:
fluxx in an english pub seemed like an appropriate way to burn the couple of hours between buses. we picked up the last subway sandwich served for the evening (the guy behind the counter wasn't happy to be working until closing time) and returned to the bus station.

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monday:

the toilets were unavailable, and there was a worryingly long line for the bus. we were most fortunate to board when there were still two adjacent seats available.

i finished the fudge while thinking about not being able to brush my teeth until the morning.

it was a long, restless, uncomfortable bus ride. we returned home under a pink sunrise, and had a proper fight before going to bed; related to the usual miscommunications.

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it was slow going when we eventually woke up; it was refreshing to walk through the snow to go shopping. the morning's fight was over but i was conscious of the lack of words passing between us.

passing torn bills isn't cool - the indian fast food place we ate at before the movie almost got the jump on us.

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i don't know what the hell people who complained about django unchained were expecting! it's what happens when a director has the power to transport us back in time to right a wrong, and it's definitely one of tarantino's crowning achievements. it's clever, it's fun, it's beautifully done; there was a lot of violence, but i do believe it was entirely appropriate.

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in the evening our caretaker returned a key and promised to deliver the rest (uh, huh) while i was on my way to deal with other people's laundry. i really don't like handling my neighbours' undergarments so that i can use the machines and i'm sure they don't like it either.

we ate too much and i wiped out on one piece.

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tuesday:

i had long beautiful dreams. i find that more and more, i'm sure i've slept enough but when i wake up i'm so perfectly comfortable and still tired and i think that another half an hour or hour will make all the difference, but it never does.

i spent the first couple of hours catching up, then found myself playing with "big man" fire. i need to back off while still saying what i've got to say: i might let you know how that works out.

i spent ages deep in system configuration, and eventually pulled myself out of it to watch the hockey. the game took a lot longer than i expected and pg bailed on the wall climbing, so we did tabata during one of the breaks and it totally buggered me up (i must be doing it right).

ice hockey is on the verge of being an extreme sport, and it's great watching a game when supporting the local team is supporting a winner: go habs!

-warm bodies is to zombies what twilight is to vampires: a pathetic twist pandering to the weak-minded who cannot deal with the essential monster. my opinion is based on the trailer, which i found disturbing. it's, like, super-advanced trolling.

pg didn't really dig detective conan, we booked another weekend in sauveur (this time, a room a *short* walk from the mountain), and i passed out.

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today:

it was bloody *warm*. uncomfortably so, and a bit wet. have i mentioned no longer being a fan of positive degrees?

i began my day pondering tact and a future that hinges on it. then i received a fax that made me a bit emotional; the rest of my day was spent babysitting - newk'd on personal issues and cam2 on his distinct lack of focus and professionalism.

...

what the hell is up with montrealers?! it's at least six degrees out, and the metro feels like twice or thrice that, yet they're all keeping their coats on!! shit, i was so hot i couldn't put mine back on even when i got outside!

pg hasn't been feeling well today - i had hoped she'd be up for the wall, but i guess it's another night in.

coasting to sleep

it's hard to listen to terrence mckenna and not be impressed by the man's brilliance. so much more impressive is his writing, at once both academic and invigorating. his blurring of the line between medicinal and psychotropic plants and regular nutrition is subtle, but very clever, and the idea that all of these systems are so deeply interconnected with the animal world is at once obvious and surprising. it's less of a question of "what effect will consuming this have on me" than of "how does this effect play a role in the grand scheme of things".

---tabata this morning was as meh as i was feeling before i began: i'm still a bit too tired to be enthusiastically making an effort. not that i didn't make an effort, mind. the day was fairly unexciting, although there's a definite sense of making progress. in the evening i found my way to a really cool bar called la casa del popolo. the atmosphere was awesome and the local beer was great, and the place was packed with cool people, quite a few of them comic artists and publishers.

now if only i spoke french, it wouldn't have been so awkward. i finished my beer, bought a book (an opportunity to support the artist and maybe learn a bit), and walked to the nearest metro. dinner at my aunt's was really nice.

one weird thing, though. for me, at any rate. it turns out that for canadians, people who hit the slopes with knees pads or wrist protection are total nerds; it's just not done! everything i've read and experienced to the contrary. well, i guess i'll just be the nerd, then.


---first-world problems: i can't figure out if i'm supposed to toss all my recycling into the big bins as is, or if i'm supposed to waste plastic to bag it first :S

insuring tomorrow

monday:

i barely slept during the night, between the hydration unit needing a refill and an sms that arrived from pg's phone that i thought indicated that i needed to be awake enough to speak to someone.

only in the evening i received fifteen / twenty messages and it appears that my service provider has been storing and sending in batches. thanks, fido. between that and the huge difference between fido and bell in 3G coverage, i think i might happily switch to the latter.

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the old couple in the metro
arm in arm,
tall, stately
with well-groomed,
matching mustaches

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i got to the office a bit late, but in plenty of time to settle in before the developers came in. have i mentioned not disabusing them of the notion that i'm in charge? i held a status meeting and laid out a plan of action, drilling them with the urgency of their work this week and following up throughout the day.

i had a chat with the cfo: in addition to discussing possible personal insurance measures, he talks ski resorts with authority and i'm looking forward to taking his advice!

i had to wait until the evening to sort out my medical insurance, because i didn't think to carry my policy number with me. fantastic. i had to hope that my camscans would be good enough...

i left pretty late, bouncing home with grinding tunes and doing some quick shopping before learning a bit more with michel thomas and making a far-too-tasty-to-be-mine lentil salad. i ate too much.

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tuesday:

i managed to get up on time, and decided (now that i have an exercise mat) to try out tabata. based on how i felt afterwards i'd guess that it's pretty much as effective as they say, and fifteen minutes in total really isn't a pain.

i was upset at breakfast over reading that international groups of poets are participating in the "evil israelis invade gaza" bullshit. seriously, poets are supposed to be seekers of truth and the tiniest effort to understand what's going on in the middle east would provide anyone with fantastic food for words. i must conclude that these groups have no poets; at the very least none worth reading.

i have to post about my day but i'm tired enough and it's exhausting just thinking about it. in large part this was due to all the israelis pg and i have to deal with - i'd have to deal with them anyway if i was there, but being over here makes it a little bit harder.

the bank convinced me to sign up to get all my communication electronically instead of in the mail, but they're still sending mail. i can't sign my mother up for the same service without a conference call. the companies handling my pension / insurance are all equally incapable of keeping track of where i live and so i've come to the conclusion that i shouldn't trust any of them with anything. i updated the army with my details before i left the country, and they've just sent me another request to update my details. my tenant managed to break the sleeper couch he was entrusted with. after struggling with a real scanner (camscanner wasn't good enough) with a bad french-only interface i sent through emails to my medical insurance while pg faxed them and i've no clue when they'll get back to me.

one day when i have permanent resident status here in the first world (oh please let that day come!) i'm going to uncouple myself from that godforsaken cultural desert and never look back. i will always support israel and it's right to exist, but i will never support how inconsiderate they are. oddly enough, the army shows more consideration to the palestinians than the government and private organizations do to israelis. that's just sad.

to add to that, i developed a headache from stretching myself too thin. you know that feeling, when you have so much on your plate that nothing seems to get done?

i took some friendly advice to go with some very positive feedback [thats a code for me], which was to dance more diplomatically around those who would sell the bear skin prior to shooting the bear. i know i prevented something bad from happening, i just hope that i didn't step on too many toes to do it.

after a long chat with the ceo in which we both kept losing our trains of thought, i sat down to perform a code review whose primary purpose was to introduce the beginner to code reviews while simultaneously retraining the old hand: i appreciate that bad habits are tough to break, and that he agrees with my ways of doing things, but i'm going to keep grinding until he stops over-complicating everything: laziness rules.

after another late night, i came home and produced an even more delicious salad than before*, then studied some more with michel thomas** before writing this.

* i don't know what makes it so tasty: it's lettuce, tomatoes, stuffed olives, cucumber, canned lentils, microwave broccoli and cauliflower, lemon-flavored fish oil, white vinegar, olive oil and himalayan salt.

** he's really something. he makes french easy (from english) and logical and inspires confidence.

now i'm totally bombed.