not so much resting or relaxing - part iii

[... continued]
on my way to meet wire for drinks i ran into vector, who convinced me that things were happening; i haven't heard from him since :/

wire and i sat for a while over beers, and he gave me the last of the cash i'd loaned him. it was more symbolic than anything, i'm really pleased that he's properly on his feet again! we enjoyed a stout called pretty bastard that's brewed in bromont and is pretty darned good.

i came home to indian takeout. i discovered that gd is definitely *not* into science fiction, so i guess battlestar galactica is just for me...

... we watched a few episodes of the boondocks and then went to bed.

---last sunday:

during a chat with my mother i learned that she's unhappy with her iphone, for very different reasons from those that i'm unhappy with mine for. i decided that when i get there in december i'd buy hers off her - these things are *expensive* for south africans...

after going through our feeds gd asserted that i have a responsibility to make a short video explaining the israel / gaza conflict. i guess i kind of do? but i need to invest a lot of energy into something like that, so the scribbling i've done since doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast :(
in the meanwhile, there's pat condell. his piece on hypocrisy over gaza does a fairly good job of covering the bases and its description contains a ton of links to important sources just in case you're not convinced of the veracity of his sentiments.

i went on a quick mission to popeye's for powder, gd and i visited aubut for some shopping, i wolfed down a leftover lunch and then we waited for bnw and her husband to arrive. we'd packed enough stuff to go camping, they arrived with an empty car.

the two hour drive there through the beautiful countryside with good music and plenty of munchies was nice. after we arrived, had beers and met up with another couple we all went on a pretty hike that included farm animals. we returned, waited for ages in line and eventually entered coaticook gorge.

bnw's attitude when we began irritated gd (and me too, but i ignored it) and she then did something that was childish and offensive that threatened to ruin our evening. i like bnw and her husband, they're good people and we share a lot of common interests, but i harbour no illusions about their maturity or reliability. i was really glad that afterwards everyone behaved well regardless and we enjoyed the walk immensely! the light show is incredible and the gorge is stunning with or without it.

we'd planned to leave at 11pm and i was shocked when i looked at my watch and saw that that's precisely when we left! the ride back was uncomfortable due to my suffering from rls, and gd's neck and butt weren't too comfortable either.

---monday:

i woke from a dream in which i'd been disguised as an ultra-orthodox jewish shipbuilder to escape a naval base but had been caught. it was a rainy monday morning and i was warm and cosy under the blanket, so getting up kinda sucked.

first fail of the day: showing the team lead something and having an alert pop up asking for my password. i clicked on it and typed away, and felt really stupid when he told me he could see my password: i looked up and saw that the keyboard focus had magically switched to a different app :$

an examination under the hood of javascript feels like stepping through the looking glass.

big junior and i received a mandate to redesign the streaming solution we're working on and a briefing on the political context in which we're operating. the design's been fun to produce and suggests exciting possibilities to come!

after a long day i found myself in the same metro car as one of our designers. he's a nice guy but riding with him was awkward and we were together for almost half an hour :/

[continued...]

rained in

oh, man - i just realized i forgot to replace my piercings after training and they're at my apartment :/

today was saint jean-baptiste's day, it's been raining almost non-stop since last night. it's a good thing i remembered what day it was *before* gd left for work! she had the day off and nobody thought to tell her.

---we began the day with drama: gd's brother got a dog, and he's totally incapable of taking care of an animal. his pit bull has just become pregnant because he wasn't responsible enough to have her spayed. gd would've called the spca on him, but he's her brother so she's trying to convince him to have her litter aborted before a bunch of unwanted mixed-breed animals is born into a really shit situation.

you don't have to get a license to become a parent, but you need one to adopt. how come pets don't have at least the same level of protection?

---we spent the morning cleaning, tidying and planning; i've reserved a u-haul for sunday and wire's agreed to help us with the heavy lifting.

we had plans for the afternoon, but instead i accidentally gave gd a piece of my favourite chocolate (torino mousse) without checking the ingredients and it contains hazelnuts, to which she's apparently deathly allergic. now i don't know if the quantities were small enough, or if the benadryl was taken quickly enough, but fifteen minutes later we'd stopped panicking and the epipen lay unused on the bathroom counter.

*PHEW*

so basically both sunday and today saw one or the other of us being unintentionally stoned and spending the afternoon in bed...

... we had a good laugh when she eventually got up, and i learned that she has this thing about preparing tea up to 24 hours before she intends to drink it - something about infusion - and i've been assuming they're unwanted and throwing them out every time i do the dishes. oops!

i made some good comic script progress, then went off to the gym.

...

for the half an hour or so before the kickboxing class started i worked on the punching bags, and i felt tired and sweaty and weak. i began the class anyway, and was doing alright until the end of my sets, when i was too faint to complete the last kicks. i stopped before i fell over, and got a minute or two to recover so that i could at least hold the pads for my partner.

once his sets were done i was feeling much better, and i completed the class comfortably. we did impact at the end, and while i couldn't take it because of my neck i could certainly dish it out. my partner learned what "on target" means, i hit his solar plexus and liver perfectly every time and he was most disappointed to learn that he wouldn't be getting a chance to find mine. while we were discussing the unfairness for both of us i noticed that the guy working with my yoga instructor was having no luck figuring out where to hit her, so i went over to demonstrate.

she now understands what a liver shot is all about, and i managed to knock her down without applying any force!

it amuses me no end how excited she was when realization dawned :)
after class i took her to a punching bag and showed her precisely what i was doing, how she can do it easily and how to protect herself for next time. i then wrote a rather disturbing poem on the topic, and i've published it on the assumption that it's close enough to being finished.

...

baudry is a metro station where one shouldn't attempt to exit if one is intoxicated. the angles are interesting but they make one queasy and they're a lot of work to overcome.

the guy at subway was shocked by the time he was done with my sub and realized that i'd managed to put together a delicious, healthy meal: nine grain bread, falafel, all the salads and salt and pepper. what shocked me was that after ordering in french, he couldn't work out if i was francophone or anglophone when he decided to try telling me a joke. and *i* thought i'd botched things up :P

so vfmp and his boyfriend have taken to calling the starbucks in the village sbg. i joined them there for coffee with another friend of theirs, and we had a good time. vfmp was super-awkward with his jokes about his boyfriend and i getting married. as in, if i'd said the same kinds of things with gd we'd have a serious problem...

---you know how when it's raining or has just been raining, and you drive past a pedestrian without slowing down and spray them with water?

you're a complete asshole. i wish every victim would suddenly and immediately develop superpowers, just so they could catch up to you, pry you out of your tin can and thump you until you never wanted to drive again.

biologically shocking

i can't train with my nose and chest like this. today's far better than the last two days, and that's said with a perpetually running nose and one incident where i was forced to spit a mouthful in public. trust me, swallowing was not an option, and on the crowded streets it was impossible to do it surreptitiously :(

---the primary theme of the last day has been preparing for the slam finals. i met up with rabbit at a nice little coffee shop in saint henri so that we could help each other figure out which pieces we're going to perform. the new piece that i have yet to publish? rabbit, with all her talk about always being able to cut, was forced to agree with me that it's simply a four-minute piece and cannot be less.

i initially felt bad about our reciting poetry possibly disturbing the people around us, but it became clear that those who weren't listening to their headphones weren't unhappy about it at all :)

the two pieces that i'm readying for the second round aren't what i expected at all, as a matter of fact. signs in the dead of night made rabbit tear up, and i can make acupuncture pretty emotional. i'm actually surprised at myself for how comfortable i am acting these as opposed to reciting them. the last couple of months of slam have been good to me, i guess.

...

while there, i received a call from the company i've been interviewing with for a while. i'm finally ready to disclose that it's google, and the reason for said disclosure is that they called to say they're not interested. i may have passed all their technical exams but their hr committee determined that something about my profile "wasn't a fit" for the job i was applying for. i don't know what that means. but i'm extremely pleased that i didn't risk the job i've accepted!

after we were done i walked to h2o's gym to meet up with gd. the lack of signage freaks me out - i'd been given instructions and couldn't find the place, even when i was already in the building on the correct floor. how can that be good for business???

my sinusitis was terrible and i was completely exhausted; i felt utterly spoiled to have gd taking care of me for the evening. i ordered indian from the usual place* and we both ate too much.

* this'll be the last time, i thought i'd confused the numbers before but cari mela is insanely expensive. it's a lot of food for two people, and it's delicious, but $40 is outrageous for dinner in front of the telly**.

** netflix

we watched pirates! band of misfits - i'd actually forgotten i'd seen it - and i think even less of it now than i did before. it's beautifully done, but the story is pathetic.

we chased that with two comedies i'd already seen: my girlfriend's boyfriend was just as great the second time, and thinky pain was even better (than the first time).

i took the night meds and we both went to bed early.

---today:

i woke up after midnight with aching feet. i was suffering serious rls and no amount of stretching (on top of salt water, the usual fix) or massaging was helping. at one point i was feeling too confined and i didn't want to disturb gd, so i snuck out the back (a nifty feature of her apartment) and literally walked up and down the dark street, quite stoned from the night meds, eventually becoming antsy to return even though my feet were still griefing me.

fortunately, they calmed down a bit a short while later, but well over an hour had passed in torment and it's never been that bad before. i returned to bed, and gd woke up and convinced me to use a nasal decongestant spray. i'm usually loathe to use those because "once you pop"... but it did help to make the rest of the night easier. i wasn't feeling well-rested when i got up, but i was definitely feeling better.

...

i finished a game of hero academy with zenstar this morning, and decided that i've outgrown it. it was fun for the longest time, but the ratio of the effort it takes to recall a game versus the pleasure derived from the game has steadily worsened over time. i'll stick with penny arcade: gamers vs evil for social gaming and another case solved, even though i've cleared all the cases, still has some entertaining challenges while i wait for the next round of cases to be delivered.

...

this morning's discussion turned to songs gd and i want played at our funerals. i like the fact that we've both got good ones :)

...

even though i ran errands today, my focus was primarily on memorizing and practicing my performance for sunday. so any time i was walking or on the metro, i was talking to myself in a way that those around me probably weren't too comfortable with.

i hurried down to wire's area with the intention of having coffee with him, but he was in a hurry so he dumped two thirds of the cash on me and we walked and talked until we got to where he was headed. firstly, it's great that he's on his feet, and secondly, it's great that i didn't lose a friend over money.

i was already on the green line, so i headed to an art supply store i'm familiar with to pick up charcoal pencils for gd who's been getting back into drawing since just before we met. i dropped those off at the front desk of her work and sneaked off, which i hoped would be seen as romantic [it was]. from there i headed to the saq to pick up wine for uncle hate's birthday. on the way i passed an asian dude who was so decked out in hipster garb that i had to fight the urge to say "hey dude, you left your identity at home".

there's nothing that destroys a well-made subway foot-long better than an unfinished cut down the middle.

our muay thai instructor and i travelled together from lionel groulx and he imparted a lot of sparring advice. i was intrigued to discover that he's actually about to return to university to work on his master's.

i called up uncle hate to wish him a happy birthday, and was almost sorry to have asked him how he is; turns out he's been having a really uncomfortable week. anyway, once he was done complaining he simply said "goodbye" and hung up, so that was easy enough.

i passed out on the couch, hoping that after a rest i'd be ready for sparring, but that's definitely not happening :(

instead, i've taken the opportunity to catch up with all sorts of things. then i got an email from steam telling me that an item on my wishlist is on sale.

bioshock infinite for $10? or $15 for all three???
*that* is a price i'm willing to pay.

linguistic enthusiasm

i'm working through duolingo with kularis - fruitopia in the background, it's hard to stop bouncing.

but that's not why i'm excited: here i thought "survivant" was going to be my word for the week... "over living". but coming across "somme" for the first time as "sum", and realizing that "we are" is "we sum" in french? ah ha! it's the little things, i'm amazed i didn't think of it / come across it sooner.

i'm feeling super nerdy right now. just sharin'.

---epic dreams this morning, ending in helping the girl flee a tiger; a pussy cat in human form but mindlessly vicious as a beast, alternating between aiding her and hunting her.

...

after four days of mean winds... what a magnificent day! not exactly warm, but it might as well have been ^_^

aside from losing my new flash drive today, i spent a good chunk of it working on my comics with exciting success. it might have been even better had i not been sitting next to two girls who were ostensibly studying while sharing their incredible wit with the rest of us... sadly, they only left after i'd already done what i'd set out to do but i still managed to focus better at the starbucks than i would have at home. as long as i don't have access to a fridge and am sitting in a place with a purpose i'm far better equipped to avoid distractions.

afterwards i had lunch at subway while reading more harry potter, then shopped - suffering awkward checkout lady explaining how my sweater would help prevent my being run over - before returning home to read sherlock holmes, nap and study. aaaaaand now i'm off to the gym.

...

speaking of which, i spoke to wire today and he thinks he'll be back in training soon - i'm hoping that means i'll be getting my money back. i know i should probably write off the debt, but it bothers me because i gave him the money for a very specific purpose and that's not what it was used for :/

fighting, the cold and christmas spirit

i'm absolutely broken! i definitely need a day (or two) off training. i was feeling a bit weak on the weekend, but even if i hadn't been yesterday's experience would've taken it out of me. so utterly worth it though ^_^

---leftovers from thursday:

hah! my last post forgot lesson 5: the jiu-jitsu advantage goes to the man who farts when he's nervous. it's hard enough breathing when you're grappling and pummeling and being choked, to do all of that while actively trying not to because your opponent just let one rip before catching you between his legs? "sorry" just doesn't cut it, bro.

---friday:

on my way to meet wire i went to draw cash, and lurking in front of the atm was loud group of gangsta-wannabes. in front of them was a slow old woman taking forever. one of the guys stepped up when she eventually finished, and then suddenly there was nobody in front of the machine and the guy behind me told me it was my turn. i stepped up and was puzzled because it looked like whoever was using it had abandoned it without taking their card... i asked around, and it turned out that the idiot has simply turned around and rejoined his buddies before finishing what he was doing.

nice.

anyway, i headed down to de l'eglise. what a nice area! apparently pretty cheap, too. i met up with wire who took me to a sweet little coffee shop, we talked for a while and he explained the details of his situation - i don't envy construction workers in this town. when we separated i felt pretty good; my christmas gift was to (metaphorically) teach him to fish, not feed him. hopefully he'll be back on his feet soon.

it was -12 degrees and pleasant to walk in the sun. the metro wasn't too warm, either! i rested up with a little french practice and then went to the gym for sparring. i only had one opportunity to spar, and it went alright; the rest of the sparring was verbal, and i was sorely on the losing end. our boxing instructor's chirps were so good that at one point one of the girls literally did a spit-take while she was drinking water, and i had absolutely nothing to respond with :(

after class i taught two of the girls how to do a muay thai roundhouse. they're both very sweet - it's the girl who "stalked" me once upon a time and the iron-haired woman - and i find it interesting that they were only too happy to stay late on a friday night to work with me, but once they'd basically gotten it i headed off for gaming night. they're just not my type :P

the storm in israel was raging, as were israelis unhappy about their infrastructure and services, and i was amused because while there it was four degrees celsius, here it was the same in fahrenheit. it's funny, but every year i've been there i've complained about the lack of winter infrastructure and this is the first year that my voice isn't there and everyone's angry.

i read my new poem to vfmp and his boyfriend, it got constructive criticism from vfmp and his boyfriend praised it even before realizing it was mine :D

vfmp's experimental vegan spanakopita was excellent, and our game of thunderstone was going well but we began it too late and so i had to drop my hand in order to catch the bus :(
at least my timing for public transport was great. the depths of winter have come early!

---saturday:

waking up to a dream of being in the air force and needing to pee but the unisex latrines were rows of undivided long-drops were all in various states of "ewww" and there was nowhere to stand. the captain in charge of them refused to do anything about it and in real life i'm grateful for it :P
the weirdest bit about the latrines was the sense of deja-vu, i'm sure i've dreamed about them before.

i slept really late, at some point getting up to close the outer window which i hadn't realized was still open. that was a complicated procedure and ended with me shouting a triumphant "fuck YOU!" at it when i finally slammed it down.

yang has this annoying habit of using facebook messaging for messages that a reasonable person would send by sms. so i assumed he'd installed the facebook messenger app as his primary means of communication, which a) inspired me to install it myself and b) led me to use it to ask him if he had a spare ski jacket for me. he responded in the affirmative, with a warning that i should've used sms for something so serious.

huh.

it was a slow day, and really began when i tried out my post-root canal mouth on a salad. the tooth in question finally seems okay, but the tooth above it seems to have a bad filling... sod it. i'll just keep eating on the right side until i can find a good dentist. instead of all the crazy games i have installed, i burned some time playing the fourth installment of on the rain-slick precipice of darkness, then dragged myself to the french meetup.

it was still a little awkward and uncomfortable, but not nearly as bad as the first time! one woman spoke like she was in a speed competition, and by the end i could understand bits of what she was saying! to make things complicated there were two asians who spoke to me with accents so tough that it took at least three tries each sentence...

from there i went to godmother's to pick up yang's unused ski jacket. awesome ski jacket! i stayed for tea and her incredible pea soup, then went to newk'd's birthday party. picking up beers and coke at the dep was complicated, carrying them along with the jacket and my rather thick volume of bone comics was not only heavy and awkward enough to hurt my arms but after the short bus ride i had a lot of walking to do along desolate roads and that was kinda demoralizing. getting there successfully and without frostbite and cracking open the beers was such a relief!

it's pretty rare that disparate groups of friends get along very well, but the apartment was crowded with people who were all interesting and fun. it would have been a great party even if nobody had pulled out cards against humanity; between the cards and the beers i kept getting the giggles, and at one point it was so bad that i couldn't even read out loud :)

newk'd offered me a blue candy pacifier; apparently there were only five and it was only later that i'd understand how "special" the offer was...

---sunday:

i walked to the metro with a loud (possibly drunk / high) girl from b.c. who was enjoying the blizzard as much as i was - what fun! unfortunately for her, her last metro had just passed when we arrived and so she went to find a bus while i took my last one home. i had to be up early to go snowboarding...

... i got home, ate a little, and after that and a couple of hours and brushing my teeth twice my mouth was *still* blue all over. aaahhhhhhh... i see what he did there :P

...

the sleep i enjoyed can only be described as "lovely". i got up at 7.30 to start getting ready but icarus sent me a message to say he was unable to free his car from the snow. when i woke up again later it was still snowing like crazy! i decided that mother nature has brought the deep winter forward just for me so that i can make up for three weeks at the beach :)
so i hurriedly packed (this time without blowing a fuse), which involved cleaning out the thermos i'd brilliantly left in my bag the weekend before (ugh!) and figuring out how to adjust for the difference in the borrowed ski jacket's pocket configuration.

i was out the door before realizing that i'd left my ski mask behind - *that* would have been a disaster!

over two hours on the bus, most of which were spent listening to the girl in front of me's conversation*, staring out the window**, sleeping, continuing with paul park - celestis, and playing with online dating and facebook. those last two taught me a couple of things:

1) this amazing video about a homeless dog being rescued makes me very happy indeed with the donation that supertongue asks everyone to make on her behalf for christmas. now that i've given and seen what it's about, i'm urging you to do the same! you can do that here. or, you know, donate to the red cross or whatever. it's all good :)

2) i can handle dating a girl with a missing eye (that's piratey!), but a girl with a prominent mole? heck, no. i've never understood how, in this day and age, people don't just get those damned things cut out.

* alright, so maybe it's impolite to listen to others' conversations but she was talking loudly and it was only after a while that i could be sure that she was using a hands-free and not invisible bluetooth. i was trying to get a handle on her french, she had a throaty voice and a heavy quebecois accent and after a while i decided that i find the combination very sexy indeed.

** i was staring out the window at all the mostly buried cars (whose owners care enough to put up a fight) and the mounds of snow where i was certain others were properly buried... and suddenly i registered that there were groups (plural!) of cross-country skiers treating the roads and pavements like rollerbladers in summer! wire tells me he saw a few in his area too. montreal, i love you ^_^

last night was all about the moguls - the runs were insane! totally electrifying, but fracking EXHAUSTING. everyone i spoke to agreed with me, and there were plenty of non-verbal agreements too. the funniest expression of that was my final descent; just before the last steep, mogul-covered hill we all sat in a long line, just catching our breaths and stretching for the tough seconds to come :)

i was very, very glad that my assessment of last week's rum / coffee / cacao mix was right, once i added actual sugar it was amazing :)

i couldn't get the following out of my head all evening: "riddle: what's sexier than a woman on a snowboard?"
i got chatting to some guy on the lift, and i asked him just before we got off. he didn't even hesitate, and we parted ways with nods and raised fists. the next time i got on the lift i was alone with a ridiculously cute girl on a snowboard, and started chatting with her. turns out she's from montreal and was going to take a taxi back to saint jerome and then a bus, which is a bit crazy, so i told her about my initiative and explained to her how to find the meetup group. an hour later as i sat in the locker room getting ready to leave, she walked in with some guy and i signed to her.

she looked at me funny, and i too-slowly realized that she couldn't recognize me without my ski mask so i was just being super weird. i clarified by asking her if she didn't want to write down the details, and she came over and took one of my cards.
"that's beautiful!"
"thanks! it's one of my own."
"are you a photographer?"
"nope."
i asked if she and the guy she'd walked in with were together, to which she answered in the affirmative. disappointed, i gave two thumbs up and invited them both to join me next time.

i felt like i walked back to the village in slow motion, though i had time for fries and to figure out how to pour water from the iced tea tap at mcdonald's. i left with a minute to spare and fast-waddled / jogged with my board on my back and ice beneath my feet, only the bus was about twenty minutes late so that was entirely unnecessary. it was a long, cold twenty minutes followed by a long, sleepy bus ride.

regardless, i was very sore and tired and very happy.

i had to finish the giant bag of sour skittles because the bag broke and i couldn't put them back in my pocket. first world problems.

i got home, overcompensated for dehydration, slowly got ready for bed and then treated myself to tiger balm; the base of my spine, my upper back, my elbow and my knee were all on fire as i finally put myself to bed.

---monday:

i woke up battling the infinite snooze, each time to a different dream. my apartment looks like a bomb hit it, i should probably see to that. i went out to drink coffee, work on my comics and shop, on the way passing a classic, almost life-sized snowman that looked like it was plucked out of calvin and hobbes or something. it was so cold and there was so much glare that i couldn't get a decent photo :(

wind chill made today -29 degrees. all i know is that without my ski mask my face kept freezing. the funny looks were just a bonus :P

i made good progress on the comics (character r&d) and carrying the shopping home showed me that i need some rest before returning to the gym. the cashier at the supermarket was awful: she went on this rant about how so many people, co-workers and customers, are mean to her and she just has to smile and take it. i was really uncomfortable for its entirety and i wasn't given much opportunity to extract myself :(

...

in canada, you hurry home so that the groceries don't all freeze on the way.

...

there's nothing like stepping inside with groceries that need to be refrigerated to find that you really need to pee and your bootlaces are knotted.

...

i went to the eye institute for my final checkup and they tell me that my eyes are good, if a little dry. they were as surprised as i was to see that my right eye's doing well; i'm now 100% convinced that doing only the left eye was the right choice.

i found myself desperately hungry after the tests, so desperate in fact that thai express became an option. i was disappointed that the food was exactly as expected. i came home to rest, started posting this and then rushed downtown to join wire and a couple of others from the gym as we'd been invited to the montreal premiere an advanced screening of grudge match.
bottom line: it's SUPER meta, it's a fun film that does an excellent job of picking rocky and raging bull apart and stitching them together with humour ranging from slapstick to highbrow. i totally approve this message :)

[an argument over the phone that i can't actually talk about here. not right now, at least.]

wire sat with me as i made a harvey's veggie burger disappear, and then joined me for a beer while we talked about sports, politics and religion (including the history of al-aqsa, so i was surprised to read this when i got home). he suggested that my lack of appetite after training might be caused by eating badly-timed protein bars, so i'm going to skip those for a few days and see if that makes a difference.

---linkage!

opposing the american studies association's boycott

oklahoma opens the door to the satanists: the lawmakers sidelined the first amendment, and this is what they're going to get for their trouble. this or a hanuman temple. i'm backing the satanists 'cause i think it's more appropriate, and i ask you to back them too!

and speaking of crowd-funding, mars one is looking to fund their research on indiegogo. check it out here!

airport security: now that we know just how much of a waste of time it is, can't we just drop the charades already and go back to playing "spot the dodgy fucker" instead? it's less invasive and more honest.

superhero cartoon execs worry me. but: screw the networks. indie, indie, indie. producers need to get out of industrialized televised entertainment, 'cause slowly but surely we all are.

ego and elbow

after posting yesterday, i ate an entire bag of salt and pepper chips and a fair share of a tub of hummus. this is only interesting because it came to my attention on my way to the gym that i hadn't finished digesting them...
i napped a bit too; as i've repeated many a time, there's no sleep as sweet as that when you need to get up :P

lesson 1: wear a cup for jiu-jitsu. the guy i partnered with weighs about ten pounds more than me and the drill we were doing involved leveraging a knee on the groin.

we rolled afterwards. i felt like was being rolled into a pretzel.

lesson 2: badger was late for our drill session, but the jolly moroccan was only too happy to oblige. we worked hands and feet (badger was a little angry when she arrived and saw that, i'm supposed to be only working hands) and he was so quick to catch my kicks and put me on the floor that i became as hesitant to throw as i was scared of being hit... but eventually the things he was telling me started getting through and it became more of a game; at which point i started relaxing a bit. badger on the side screaming at me to stop backing up was really helpful, apparently i did great when i stopped that shit.

which is hard for me, because a decade of taekwondo has taught me to back the hell up.

each time i ended up on the floor dealt a bit of a blow to my ego, and it happened a lot. badger actually warned him to chill a bit before i get demotivated... fortunately, i was in full learning mode so that only real ego bruising was my not getting things quickly enough.

lesson 3: badger. i wanna get to the end of the damned montage sequence already! everything she's teaching me is so basic and so important, and even though i'm getting them while we drill i need to be getting them when we're not drilling too!

lesson 4: the damage to my left tricep from boxing the night before and the snowboarding bruise on my elbow were exacerbated by the end of our training. i was forced to stop if i was to entertain any notion of sparring this afternoon, which i definitely don't want to miss! our boxing instructor has been goading me non-stop and it's becoming a point of pride thing. i mean, i won't go if i'm too damaged, but every time i skip it's another week of him being justified in making fun of me :P

the hot bath was good. the icepack on my ridiculously large elbow bruise was good. i actually had an appetite for once, though instead of making salad i put together a microwave meal and toast... i watched a few episodes of once upon a time.... okay, the writing's not up to first season standards at all but it's still fun to watch and i've heard that season three gets better, so i'm enjoying it mindlessly.

...

oh gods, i slept so deeply, so well and so late today!

there's about twenty hours left of the gog.com fallout series giveaway, you might want to see to that. i was upset at first because i already owned one and so couldn't "re-purchase" it, but then i realized that i could simply deselect the one i had :)

thank you, facebook: someone told me i should check out faster than light, someone else mentioned that it was a part of a recent humble bundle, and then someone else sent me a redemption code for it. win!

...

i asked wire where he's been 'cause we haven't seen him in a while, and the answer was he's been out of work and unable to gather the cash for a course he needs if he wants to work this season. i've decided to loan him the cash for the course, to see him back on his feet. he's an honest laborer and a good guy, i feel he deserves a chance. so now i'm off to deliver.

---
i remember how shocked i was when i saw bent because the only story of the holocaust i'd ever really thought about was that of the jews... israel has erected a memorial for the gays killed in the holocaust, and i find that quite touching!

...

speaking of memorials, the embarrassing incident with the signer at the mandela memorial? here's an article on it that's as pertinent as it is amusing.

unemployment stasis - part i

it's amazing how having all the time in the world makes not one iota of a difference in the quantity of things i manage to accomplish. well... maybe that's not exactly fair, but i'm resting a lot more than i feel i should be.

---saturday:

i headed out to the starbucks to do some work on the comics, then met up with horseman for some tekken. a producer friend of his met us at the metro and we headed down to saint laurent together. the guy from the gym i was going to watch the fights with (wire) was late so in the meanwhile the three of us found a quiet street to freestyle in. this producer guy liked what he heard but i have reservations regarding his own prowess... i mean, if i'm going to collaborate with someone i would prefer that person to be into really making things happen and i don't have much concrete evidence of that to go on. either way, nice guy and fun to chat with.

the ufc fights were bloody (literally) amazing. really crazy stuff! we were joined by vfmp and his boyfriend - after a stray comment wire had made at the gym i was a little concerned that he was homophobic, but not only was he cool with the guys but he found all of vfmp's boyfriends outrageous fight commentary as funny as we did (let's just say he's not a fan of cauliflower ears). so i chilled.

---sunday:

i got home late knowing that i needed to eat, but instead of pulling out something with nutritional content i grabbed a collection of junk food and watched a full episode of the ultimate fighter. in spite of planning to meet wire early at the gym for a sparring session. after that it was impossible to wake up for 9.30, but i did manage to get there at 10 - wire didn't pitch, so i got in a power hour with the punching bags and chatted with my kickboxing instructor who agreed that i need to focus more on sparring than on classes. i got home to watch more of the ultimate fighter and take a proper nap.

horseman came over again, we played crazy tekken that was actually overload for me - things just got serious :P
we then spent over two hours freestyling in the kitchen; horseman figures i'm already good and i feel like i need a lot of work if i'm going to say things that aren't nonsense. after he left i had fifteen minutes to do a rushed shopping run and then watched most of the rest of the ultimate fighter.

---monday:

i finally completed season 14 of the ultimate fighter: that shit is addictive, and the season finale (both parts) had incredibly exciting fights!

i mixed pre-training coffee with comics, then went to work out. they were working on the octagon so only a couple of the punching bags were available, but i took the opportunity to make some sparring appointments :)

after training i headed off to godmother's for dinner. it was a pleasant evening, with yang being particularly silly. some of his behaviour was annoying and some amusing, by the end of the evening some had even rubbed off on me...

---tuesday:

i got up early to meet up with someone at tristar to practice for the jiu-jitsu exam. we spent about an hour on the mats and i made a lot of progress! i finally felt ready, in particular having nailed an annoying part of the omoplata technique. i then worked on the bags for a bit, and shared an awkward moment with gsp as we tried to occupy the same space at the same time...

... i have to say that tristar might actually make a morning person out of me, what a great way to wake up!

i didn't have a lot of time before my dental appointment but i hurried through to the jean-talon market to pick up clif builder bars anyway. they don't do the big boxes anymore, and i actually had to ask for help to find them at all. why is it that it's harder to find clif products in canada than in the states when they're made here?!

the dentist experience was a pleasure, the examination showed that my teeth are okay except for my grinding them and that fixes to my fillings are optional but advisable. fortunately the cleaning didn't have any ensuing eating restrictions, i didn't realize just how hungry i was until i polished off a giant meal at my favourite chinese place.

i had a pre-exam rest and arrived at the gym feeling totally confident. i breezed through everything until hitting the omoplata... and failed it precisely on the point i'd been so excited about that morning. failing the exam didn't bother me nearly as much as failing it because of that. that upset me.

what followed was kind of a private lesson for a new guy in which i did almost as much teaching as the instructor. after that i sparred with one of the professional kickboxers who taught me a lot of lessons, one harsh tag at a time. at one point i thought he'd hit me hard enough to knock me out but he explained that it's just the surprise factor. the most important lesson, the one that's going to take me longer than i'd like to learn, is how critical it is not to look at your opponent's face or limbs in a fight. focus on the chest. focus on the chest. the following sparring session i had with the guy who'd demoralized me a while ago went pretty well, and reinforced that last point.

we had to stop because something was being filmed live and it's really difficult to train in silence...

...

i saw a shooting star on the way home. it might very well be the first one i've ever seen.

...

i had a great smoothie and then a great dinner, i played around with caloriecount and it really is good. apparently i'm doing well on my diet, minus excessive iron intake. this could be a very bad thing, i guess i'll need to test for it.

the reason i started watching american psycho was because i remembered enjoying it but didn't want to rate it on netflix without being sure. i don't know why i watched until the end, i'd give it a meh+.

halfway through wednesday i would realize that while watching the movie i *should* have been packing ice onto my nose and my arms. i was totally battered and bruised.

---wednesday:

i woke up repeatedly to get the laundry done, and was caught just before the last alarm by a friend from the gym who's got a contact in one of the big aerospace companies to tell me that they'd like to see my resume. nice! after sorting that out, i headed to the french school (a private residence in the heart of the village). beaudry metro has the craziest escalators as they're flat like in an airport only they're moving uphill. this makes the simple act of standing on it feel like exercise and provides a very interesting ambience. it was a chilly tuque and gloves afternoon and i'd arrived early, so i stopped for a quick cup of coffee first, on the way coming across an amazing piece of street art on wolfe relating somehow to amnesia that you're supposed to explore physically.

the school is run from this guy's apartment, and after a brief chat he convinced me that this is a good investment. it's kind of a cross between standard teaching and immersion.

i went to la panthère verte for lunch and was impressed by both the quality of the food and that of the overall experience. i couldn't not laugh: when i asked the girl at the counter how things work she told me, rather matter-of-fact, "first you're going to taste the falafel, and then you're going to order a falafel sandwich because it's the best falafel in the city". i was feeling pretty sceptical between her statement and that piece of falafel, but then that melted away and i did as she prescribed, adding a bowl of delicious leek and potato soup. i thoroughly enjoyed my meal, was pleased to have all the recycling / compost stuff explained to me when i was done and i returned to the metro fascinated by how relaxed mont royal was.

i was so tired i slept on the metro, almost missing my stop. i got home to find that the cleaning lady had locked me out and she obviously couldn't hear me, which made me super grateful for the comfortable couch in our building's lobby. after a short rest i headed to the starbucks for a bit. by the time i returned she'd left, so i had a pre-training nap and then went to my first muay-thai class in ages.

omg - muay thai with tristar's olivier is like a punishment for all the times i've ever slacked off during training since i did judo as a kid.

snowboarders: you know that first run of the season, when your whole body's hurting and there's no way you can go out for drinks afterwards but you do anyway? it's like that...

i misunderstood one of the exercises and took a lot of damage on my forearms, and i was actually gassed out by the tail end of the class which was embarrassing. i could barely raise my arms, let alone my knees :$

[continued...]