Monday, April 27, 2009
Start the week April 27, 2009
So I was up at 620am with barely a couple hours of sleep got washed, dried off, powdered, and dressed after a quick breakfast (standard toast, crumpet chocolate milk & o.j.) only to find my schedule had shifted a few hours. So wide awake what do I do? I caught up on the papers, fetched fresh weekly's, and a couple of church bulletins for mum before she had to go to the gyno. Anyways after she made her journey and another for new shoes (Walking On A Cloud at Cloverdale Mall) I got her home just in time to get my brother Mark to work. Well I was there at least. Mark tends to dilly dally to say the least and was about 10 to 15 minutes late for work. Oddly it's his first full day in the garden centre and i told hime to take his jacket for the winds and possible storms for this evening. Three times. The first time he went for his long trenchcoat, the second time he went for his normal Spring jacket which was suitable in one way but not today, the third time he got the idea and picked up his new garden centre jacket with the word STAFF on the back. Oddly he is worried the family could get the Mexican swine flu because of all the people who went to Spring break in Cancun and such last month when he stayed home in Canada. He's worried for the people that Pop cut keys for that lost them in Acupulco or Costa Rica and such infecting Pop. So while it would normally take someone sneezing in your face or rubbing up and down on you for a few hours with their sweaty body to start the chance of infection inspite of annual flu shots there is an anxiety in the air about the illness. A rationally unfounded anxiety but it's still there. I even spotted people getting off the airport bus this morning wearing surgical masks. What a way to start the week.
screw ups on documents #291
It's now Monday morning on the 27th of April 2009 the 28th anniversary of Xerox releasing the computer mouse to the public. Two days ago it was the feast day of Saint Mark the Patron Saint of Venice and gossips and wholesalers or merchants or black marketeers and bacon.
So I spent Saturday trying to get through a large part of my facebook account notably Super Poke Pets, myFarm, and Metropolis. I hit upon my 250th facebook friend which is nice but 144 of them are Super Poke Pets Pals and 105 are Metropolis Minders and there is some overlap but not much.
This leaves me with about 25 to 45 school, college, or work friends. It seems like a lot but I don't think I have seen more than a dozen of them in person in the past five years. This makes it really just one big game of tag the chain mail which I am kind of starting to have my doubts about.
It reminds me of a quote which i got from Warren Ellis but was re acredited to Morgan Murphy which is “I feel like I’m from the future. I’m writing this at a cafe at 4am… if you’re reading it, you’ve likely just woken up, you’re pouring yourself a cup of coffee, and trying to figure out if a dismembered whore will fit in your puma duffle bag. (the answer is no)”
Sunday was a day spent getting another couple of e-mails and designing another flyer for my father. My father who gave me a draft of ten lines that included the dates and address of this Spring Camp and nothing else has learned once again to regret it. You see too much freedom and I fill in the blanks like Trip did in the film "Meatballs". This time under activities I placed a breaking bad themed line about learning to roll joints and the difference between Jamaican Mountain grown and Okinagan Valley grown. Which is why I was awoken at 2:30 in the morning and told to correct it. He doesn't say "or else." Dad doesn't have to say "or else." You just do it.
Oddly this time around he hasn't taken to shredding the fake or prank copy right away. I give a couple of days till it catches up to him to do it.
When people ask me How I am doing I say "fine" or "not bad" or "okay" but the reality is if I was really doing well I would say so and go into it not leave it as bad small talk. So when I say to someone tell me more or give me details I usually mean it otherwise I would not have asked for more which is why I said so in the first place. So if someone says to me how are you and I say fine it really means "I am getting by adequately in life while keeping my nose above water and very little else and see no edge of the pool to crawl out from yet but I am still looking but I don't want to get into what the pool of anxieties is made up of or any other factors of life as they seems too pathetic to mention at this point of my failures." How are your a) job, b) finances, c) Home, d) parents/wife/husband/kids/siblings, e) travels, f) accumulations of how great you are? These are things we brand people with like Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs and to me the closer I feel to George Costanza with my balding spot on the top of my head the easier it is to feel life is waiting for a big shock to come my way. It's only a matter of time tbefore I hear the Mother-in-law and new car going over a cliff line. I prefer to be on the optimistic side of things. But don't we all?
So I spent Saturday trying to get through a large part of my facebook account notably Super Poke Pets, myFarm, and Metropolis. I hit upon my 250th facebook friend which is nice but 144 of them are Super Poke Pets Pals and 105 are Metropolis Minders and there is some overlap but not much.
This leaves me with about 25 to 45 school, college, or work friends. It seems like a lot but I don't think I have seen more than a dozen of them in person in the past five years. This makes it really just one big game of tag the chain mail which I am kind of starting to have my doubts about.
It reminds me of a quote which i got from Warren Ellis but was re acredited to Morgan Murphy which is “I feel like I’m from the future. I’m writing this at a cafe at 4am… if you’re reading it, you’ve likely just woken up, you’re pouring yourself a cup of coffee, and trying to figure out if a dismembered whore will fit in your puma duffle bag. (the answer is no)”
Sunday was a day spent getting another couple of e-mails and designing another flyer for my father. My father who gave me a draft of ten lines that included the dates and address of this Spring Camp and nothing else has learned once again to regret it. You see too much freedom and I fill in the blanks like Trip did in the film "Meatballs". This time under activities I placed a breaking bad themed line about learning to roll joints and the difference between Jamaican Mountain grown and Okinagan Valley grown. Which is why I was awoken at 2:30 in the morning and told to correct it. He doesn't say "or else." Dad doesn't have to say "or else." You just do it.
Oddly this time around he hasn't taken to shredding the fake or prank copy right away. I give a couple of days till it catches up to him to do it.
When people ask me How I am doing I say "fine" or "not bad" or "okay" but the reality is if I was really doing well I would say so and go into it not leave it as bad small talk. So when I say to someone tell me more or give me details I usually mean it otherwise I would not have asked for more which is why I said so in the first place. So if someone says to me how are you and I say fine it really means "I am getting by adequately in life while keeping my nose above water and very little else and see no edge of the pool to crawl out from yet but I am still looking but I don't want to get into what the pool of anxieties is made up of or any other factors of life as they seems too pathetic to mention at this point of my failures." How are your a) job, b) finances, c) Home, d) parents/wife/husband/kids/siblings, e) travels, f) accumulations of how great you are? These are things we brand people with like Maslow's Heirarchy of Needs and to me the closer I feel to George Costanza with my balding spot on the top of my head the easier it is to feel life is waiting for a big shock to come my way. It's only a matter of time tbefore I hear the Mother-in-law and new car going over a cliff line. I prefer to be on the optimistic side of things. But don't we all?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
telling God your plans
Okay it's Thursday 23rd of April 2009 and it's the feast day of Saint George. To those who think of Saint George as just the guy who slayed a dragon for England, you should know he was a Palestinian soldier whose stories were adopted from the Middle East after his martyrdom during the crusades. Now because a lot of knights during and after the crusades settled all over Europe and the Middle East he is also the patron saint of Portugal, Boy Scouts, cavalry, farmers, and horses. Now because it is the typical good over evil story and the knights were a randy bunch Saint George is also invoked against herpes, leprosy, and syphilis. Not bad for a black marketeer in bacon. Thanks to my father and his father and his father and his father's father (and you get the idea) one of my middle names is George. Yayye me!
So on with the blog, a few items really. Let's start with last Friday I was out for my late night stroll and found my self around Etobicoke Civic Center (formerly Etobicoke City Hall). Now if you need to have a nice serene place to go to hang out and clear your thoughts before bed I find most civic centers tend to be vastly empty late and night and are filled with little artsy wonders to hand and ponder with. Nathan Philips Square used to have a track, upper deck, and playground until they sealed it off. But I digress. So back at the Etobicoke Civic Center (formerly Etobicoke City Hall) I walk around the back where they have the clock tower that ignores Toronto and Mississauga (the clock has faces only North and South) and sit on the bench to have a drink of water & rest. When out of the corner of my eye I spot some movement in the littl parkette to the South. Now the little parkettes are susposed to look natural however if you really look at it you see some wonderful high quality gardening with a variety of thirty plus types of flowers and plants. It's also an easy place to hide from the police for a few hours or to get drunk in public since the security guard never seems to leave the inside area. So when you see movement you want to scare off any vandals especially with so much taggers going on lately.
So I walk along this garden path towards the Tax assessment wing and Etobicoke Hydro and credit union to see what caught the corner of my eye at midnight. As I round the bend I spot a little brown bunny with a white tail Having no idea where it got to I continued on my way.
Now knowing hares and rabbits and bunnies don't normally travel alone they are busy creatures they usually run the same routines over and over. My guess would be this was someones easter present set free and never caught at the Etobicoke Civic Center (formerly Etobicoke City Hall). Another bit came across my meandering eye. There was no sign of vegetation being eaten. There was rabbit droppings. This would mean the rabbit was just passing through or was being fed on the side. So I let my mind wander as I let the idea of catching the critter go and found myself by the hidden rock waterfall fountain. Now for the unordained out there there is a cobblestone laden six and a half foot tall waterfall fountain right outside the Etobicoke Credit Unions office. This used to run about nine months a year however with the worries of West Nile breeding, drowning of little kids, cost of operation s and the noise that a waterfall makes it was shut down, drained dry and left to gather dust. Which is a pity because the top was designed like Stonehenge to soften the flow of the waters. If you really look at the wall on the Southeast side of it you can see where the step were designed to give it a gentle cascade and allow the cleaners and pest control get to the top. Now it just gives the feel of bad 1960's design when it could keep the place ariated for cool breezes in Summer and less dry Springs and Autumns.
So now you see that whil I may not be chasing dragons, there are white (tailed) rabbits that can lead down to areas that can be a little depressing in the nostalgia. That was last Friday.
The next day I had a small set of non-chalant plans that went in different direction. If you have seen me in the past few decades I usually have a bag of some sort because thanks to a father in scouting I was told to be prepared and as such pack everything I can into a jacket or handbag or pouch of some sort and take it just about everywhere. I use it untill it's warn out or can't be washed or just can't do the job. My current bag is almost ten years old is made originally by Samsonite and follows a messenger traveller style. It started to develop a hole just over a year ago on the outside towards the outside face. The hole has started to grow which means the bags days are numbered. As well the strap is starting to not twist and the brace on the snap has started to break. On top of that I have been looking for a bicycle cheap.
A digression of sorts. I looked at my statistics of body temperature, weight, diet, and execice and found my weight was most stable when I was bicycling to school everyday. Give me a direction to go and place to see and the means to get there and I would peddle to the distance. The peddling pushed my legs and thighs towards my stomach working abs and burning excess fat. Now walking is okay for a low risk regimen but I still need to change the mindset to have a place to be to do. (Thank you very much Mr. Shakespeare!) So the trick is to set my self up on errands. Okay I can do that. Ride around the airport, check the churchs, and temples of the area, see the hidden spots of the parks. That's a gameplan. I even have rather loose and constructive timetable for it. One small hitch. My original bicycle is 29 years old and when I sit on it sinks that the fenders crush the tires. So I need a new bicycle. It doesn't have to be brand new just new to me. Something to keep me from looking like one of those Guiness World Record twins on their mini bikes. So I have a small fluctuating budget of about $100.00 to purchase something with coaster brakes, forked hydraulic shocks in front, spring shocks in back, knobby moto-cross tires, fenders big enough to stop a back splash, seat big enough to keep everyone from trying to take it without making fun of who's sitting on it. Oh yes and lights, reflector, horn, and helmet. Yes I am asking a heck of a lot. It has to do a lot to survive alot. so you can see I have dilema there shooting for the moon. To remedy the bicycle situation I started looking for a bike last fall almost to the day they found the largest bicycle thief in Toronto (28K I believe). I saw som on display on the TV news and though wow that fits the bill I can pick it up at the Toronto Police Auction. Wrong. Seems the police sold the unpicked up bikes in lots to used dealers or sent to countries overseas. So I was left SOL on that deal. Next was check out the used bike stores around Toronto. Well some of them moved some kept winter hours. It became harder to get to a place when they were open. But I have a list and I am working through it.
End of digression.
So on Saturday I was going to look for a new bag and a new bike. Well I found two bags close to my current one made by a company called Swiss one for $30 the other for $40. Problem is where? One spot was Square One shopping mall that I only get out to once in a blue moon. Another was a luggage spot on Queen St West that was having a sale. Queen Street West had two places that sold used bicycles. Kill two birds with one stone. Yayy!
What was the old saying of how do you make God laugh you tell him your plans. My father as mentioned in previous posts is not the most technologically savy so he finds his new tool for car remotes and other things that he can get on a payment plan. Trick is they demoed it to him on a computer so it need a portable computer to tell it what to do. The old lap top won't shut off and is stuck perpetually on the blue screen of death. Told you it was old. So My father gets it in his head he wants and needs a Dell Mini Computer. He sees the commercial on TV, has me check out the website, and faster thant the printer can scroll a 75 pt Shazam he has me print off a selection. But he doesn't want to order on the web and wants to go to an actual store. No store locator on the website Dell.ca but there is a phone number. I call them and I get Charles in the U.S. who tells me the two closest locations are in Nepean Ontario (480 kilometers away) and #1 Bass Pro Road in Vaughn (35 kilometers away). So while my brothers are at work I get volunteered to go to this Dell kiosk and see what they have. yayy me. This is the totally opposite direction I was going and it isn't anywhere I wanted to be. My father was skipping Earth Day ceremonies with the Cub Scouts to look (rather than have me help with the Earth Day too I still help my father in a different way) for this Dell mini-computer. So away I go with my handy MapQuest directions to the mythical Vaugh Mills Town Centre. Oh BTW Charles at Dell who kept me on hold for 14 minutes while he found this info of where to go had said both #1 and #100 Bass Pro Road really wasn't sure which. So Vaughn Mills Town Centre is #1 Bass Pro Road and #100 to #180 are a bunch of industrial outlets. So after circling both I parked by door number 6 at Vaughn Mills Town Centre and my father who has knee problems sent me in. Walking around the entire mall I find a mall information desk who informs me the Dell kiosk closed six months ago in November. Closing before the Christmas holiday rush is not a good sign. So I contiued looking around to see if something compatible but no even the Best Buy is just mobile phones. I did see the lovely aquarium and waterfall with stuffed bears, dear, moose, and beavers along with a bunch of professional turkey callers at the Bass Pro Fishing store. But no Dells or any other mini-computers for sale. So telling my father the diasappointing news we drive past Canada's Wonderland and he has me take hime to one secluded suburban planned community after another to see if someone is home. They weren't. We see this industrial center called Power Cruise that has an artificial pond or lake and a dozen platform dolar arrays right across the highway from Canada's Wonderland. It was neat seeing the artifical pond and up high solar pannels but I couldn't wonder why there was only two Canadian Geese for the area.
Onwards we have my father direct me to another industrial mall. This time I find out too late that Dad wants to gloat about the new key machine to the guy he suspects stole it. We narrowly drive by the place and rush home from there. Well it's no late afternoon and no sooner than we arrive than we go out and pick-up my brother Mark from work. It's been that long a day and my father decides he wants us all to go see a movie Monsters Versus Aliens. Oddly I saw it two days before it opened thanks to an advanced pass from the local comic shop. My brother Mark slipped out of College early and saw a matinee. Father hadn't seen it and was up to seeing the 645 performance at the Woodbine cinemas. So we all saw Monsters Versus Aliens . It's an okay film but Dreamworks has really made these characters more cardboard cut-outs than ever before. So twelve hours after I started my day I get home in time to finish the laundry, skip the vacuuming, and relax to Ving Rhames in Dawn Of The Dead.
Oh and since I had the time now I got my dishevelled bag prepped for the comic convention that I had a free pass for on the Sunday.
What was it U2 said about Sunday Bloody Sunday? Whatever on the Sunday after double checked my bag, did my facebook stuff and made sure everything else was in order I embarked for the convention and downtown. The convention held at the South end of the MTCC (Metro Toronto Convention Centre) was at the same time as the Toronto Blue Jays game beat Oakland one nothing so traffic both auto and foot was quite heavy. Pushing through the bargains were galore on the show with U.S. prices, 50% off to $1 to $2 deals everywhere. The artists were booked solid and three seperate people came dressed as Rorshack two as the Joker. I got myself a sketch of Batman by a young muslim girl named Dabyeed Syed in my sketch book. It's what she felt best about. Turns out she had spent most of the day working on small personal sketches of the Hulk and requests for Wolverine. Dave Ross I found out was working on the Angel comic while I was surprised Bill Sienkiewicz had lost the mullet, the weight and cleaned up real good.
The longest lines were for Sienkiewicz, Steve Nauck, and Steve Epting. Francis Manupal was busy showing off the cover he just did for Red Robin series. Oops let the cat out of the bag on that one. Oh and toys that were discounted at Toys R Us last Boxing day were in bins on sale here for those who wanted Pirates Of The Carribean or Indiana Jones or G.I.Joe or poker stuff.
Other than that it was Trade Paperbacks galore. So after two hours, stffing my bag and moving on I headed out and up to Queen Street West.
I get to the Skywalk just as the jays game lets out and "Oh Snap!"
Literally Snap the strap specifiaclly the hook snapped off and flew out the window. Now the strap allows me to adjust the weight in my already overstuffed bag and spread it over my back along my shouder. Without the strap I am constantly yanking my arm out of my shoulders. Yet I pushed on. Past the CN Tower, over the Skybridge, up John Street past the CBC over Wellington Street past the Metro Hall along King Street up Widmer up and over to Peter Street to fianlly Queen Street. First stop Silver Snail for missing issues not found at the convention. Next stop the nine block walk to the Community Bike Network. I got there at 5pm just in time to find three things. One, they are closed on Sundays. Two, they close at 5pm. Three, according to a girl just locking up they have a few bikes suitable for me that I might get one with a letter and a $100. Yayy me. By this point my arm and shoulder were killing me and I caved in walked to Bathurst Street and started to walk south to catch a streetcar. Long ride home not as long as it could or should be I am just tired that I didn't accomplish what I originally set out to do on the weekend. Which is why when I have someone say to me on Wednesday How was your weekend I broke out cackling with laughter just shaking my head. You have to smile no matter how tired you are; no matter how much the arm and shoulder kill you; No matter how fruitless the personal trip is; you just have to smile because if you don't you scream and cry and say why Lord, why me? But such is how he would instruct me.
Now yesterday was uneventful except for how it ended. You see I started to run my brother up to the college get some birdseed (on sale at Bulkarama 8 kilograms for $6), get the weekly comics run (Buck Rogers #0 sucks, Ignition City #2 didn't ship, Guardians Of The Galaxy #13 needs a consistent artist but almost great story, Daredevil feels like it's being made for TPBs), and get ready for the weekly clix game. I was packed and ready with three armys (Frankenstein, Rip Hunter, Karate Kid would have rocked) and almost on my way out the door when Mum stops me and says Dad wants me to send a couple of e-mails and help with a document before he goes to group committee. Being the faithful dutiful som that I am I comply making sense of Pop's horrible spelling and lack of writing sense. The new tool may not be the right tool and may be less than a full tool for what it is suposed to do versus what it needs to do.
So we sort that out and a list cars and a confirmation for a meet and greet with a new high area commisioner and finally a permission form that needs approval for that night to go out for production the next day so it can be handed out next week. This form was where everything slowed to a crawl. It needed certain exact specifications and needed to fit on one page. I finished off to perfection at 7:24pm complete with impromptu Scouting graphics. Unfortunately the game was susposed to start at 6:30pm and was an hour away by TTC. No way was I going to make it there at all let alone on time. To put this in perspective I was packed initially at 8am with a single Iron Man army and ready to go with all three at 3pm so I could check out CBN before they closed. Did I mention telling God your plans to make him chuckle earlier in the day?
I feel like more of a punchline each and everyday.
With that I reach today to tell you about the week that was only to find it has taken so long to type all this the progarm won't save it properly. So how was your weekend?
So on with the blog, a few items really. Let's start with last Friday I was out for my late night stroll and found my self around Etobicoke Civic Center (formerly Etobicoke City Hall). Now if you need to have a nice serene place to go to hang out and clear your thoughts before bed I find most civic centers tend to be vastly empty late and night and are filled with little artsy wonders to hand and ponder with. Nathan Philips Square used to have a track, upper deck, and playground until they sealed it off. But I digress. So back at the Etobicoke Civic Center (formerly Etobicoke City Hall) I walk around the back where they have the clock tower that ignores Toronto and Mississauga (the clock has faces only North and South) and sit on the bench to have a drink of water & rest. When out of the corner of my eye I spot some movement in the littl parkette to the South. Now the little parkettes are susposed to look natural however if you really look at it you see some wonderful high quality gardening with a variety of thirty plus types of flowers and plants. It's also an easy place to hide from the police for a few hours or to get drunk in public since the security guard never seems to leave the inside area. So when you see movement you want to scare off any vandals especially with so much taggers going on lately.
So I walk along this garden path towards the Tax assessment wing and Etobicoke Hydro and credit union to see what caught the corner of my eye at midnight. As I round the bend I spot a little brown bunny with a white tail Having no idea where it got to I continued on my way.
Now knowing hares and rabbits and bunnies don't normally travel alone they are busy creatures they usually run the same routines over and over. My guess would be this was someones easter present set free and never caught at the Etobicoke Civic Center (formerly Etobicoke City Hall). Another bit came across my meandering eye. There was no sign of vegetation being eaten. There was rabbit droppings. This would mean the rabbit was just passing through or was being fed on the side. So I let my mind wander as I let the idea of catching the critter go and found myself by the hidden rock waterfall fountain. Now for the unordained out there there is a cobblestone laden six and a half foot tall waterfall fountain right outside the Etobicoke Credit Unions office. This used to run about nine months a year however with the worries of West Nile breeding, drowning of little kids, cost of operation s and the noise that a waterfall makes it was shut down, drained dry and left to gather dust. Which is a pity because the top was designed like Stonehenge to soften the flow of the waters. If you really look at the wall on the Southeast side of it you can see where the step were designed to give it a gentle cascade and allow the cleaners and pest control get to the top. Now it just gives the feel of bad 1960's design when it could keep the place ariated for cool breezes in Summer and less dry Springs and Autumns.
So now you see that whil I may not be chasing dragons, there are white (tailed) rabbits that can lead down to areas that can be a little depressing in the nostalgia. That was last Friday.
The next day I had a small set of non-chalant plans that went in different direction. If you have seen me in the past few decades I usually have a bag of some sort because thanks to a father in scouting I was told to be prepared and as such pack everything I can into a jacket or handbag or pouch of some sort and take it just about everywhere. I use it untill it's warn out or can't be washed or just can't do the job. My current bag is almost ten years old is made originally by Samsonite and follows a messenger traveller style. It started to develop a hole just over a year ago on the outside towards the outside face. The hole has started to grow which means the bags days are numbered. As well the strap is starting to not twist and the brace on the snap has started to break. On top of that I have been looking for a bicycle cheap.
A digression of sorts. I looked at my statistics of body temperature, weight, diet, and execice and found my weight was most stable when I was bicycling to school everyday. Give me a direction to go and place to see and the means to get there and I would peddle to the distance. The peddling pushed my legs and thighs towards my stomach working abs and burning excess fat. Now walking is okay for a low risk regimen but I still need to change the mindset to have a place to be to do. (Thank you very much Mr. Shakespeare!) So the trick is to set my self up on errands. Okay I can do that. Ride around the airport, check the churchs, and temples of the area, see the hidden spots of the parks. That's a gameplan. I even have rather loose and constructive timetable for it. One small hitch. My original bicycle is 29 years old and when I sit on it sinks that the fenders crush the tires. So I need a new bicycle. It doesn't have to be brand new just new to me. Something to keep me from looking like one of those Guiness World Record twins on their mini bikes. So I have a small fluctuating budget of about $100.00 to purchase something with coaster brakes, forked hydraulic shocks in front, spring shocks in back, knobby moto-cross tires, fenders big enough to stop a back splash, seat big enough to keep everyone from trying to take it without making fun of who's sitting on it. Oh yes and lights, reflector, horn, and helmet. Yes I am asking a heck of a lot. It has to do a lot to survive alot. so you can see I have dilema there shooting for the moon. To remedy the bicycle situation I started looking for a bike last fall almost to the day they found the largest bicycle thief in Toronto (28K I believe). I saw som on display on the TV news and though wow that fits the bill I can pick it up at the Toronto Police Auction. Wrong. Seems the police sold the unpicked up bikes in lots to used dealers or sent to countries overseas. So I was left SOL on that deal. Next was check out the used bike stores around Toronto. Well some of them moved some kept winter hours. It became harder to get to a place when they were open. But I have a list and I am working through it.
End of digression.
So on Saturday I was going to look for a new bag and a new bike. Well I found two bags close to my current one made by a company called Swiss one for $30 the other for $40. Problem is where? One spot was Square One shopping mall that I only get out to once in a blue moon. Another was a luggage spot on Queen St West that was having a sale. Queen Street West had two places that sold used bicycles. Kill two birds with one stone. Yayy!
What was the old saying of how do you make God laugh you tell him your plans. My father as mentioned in previous posts is not the most technologically savy so he finds his new tool for car remotes and other things that he can get on a payment plan. Trick is they demoed it to him on a computer so it need a portable computer to tell it what to do. The old lap top won't shut off and is stuck perpetually on the blue screen of death. Told you it was old. So My father gets it in his head he wants and needs a Dell Mini Computer. He sees the commercial on TV, has me check out the website, and faster thant the printer can scroll a 75 pt Shazam he has me print off a selection. But he doesn't want to order on the web and wants to go to an actual store. No store locator on the website Dell.ca but there is a phone number. I call them and I get Charles in the U.S. who tells me the two closest locations are in Nepean Ontario (480 kilometers away) and #1 Bass Pro Road in Vaughn (35 kilometers away). So while my brothers are at work I get volunteered to go to this Dell kiosk and see what they have. yayy me. This is the totally opposite direction I was going and it isn't anywhere I wanted to be. My father was skipping Earth Day ceremonies with the Cub Scouts to look (rather than have me help with the Earth Day too I still help my father in a different way) for this Dell mini-computer. So away I go with my handy MapQuest directions to the mythical Vaugh Mills Town Centre. Oh BTW Charles at Dell who kept me on hold for 14 minutes while he found this info of where to go had said both #1 and #100 Bass Pro Road really wasn't sure which. So Vaughn Mills Town Centre is #1 Bass Pro Road and #100 to #180 are a bunch of industrial outlets. So after circling both I parked by door number 6 at Vaughn Mills Town Centre and my father who has knee problems sent me in. Walking around the entire mall I find a mall information desk who informs me the Dell kiosk closed six months ago in November. Closing before the Christmas holiday rush is not a good sign. So I contiued looking around to see if something compatible but no even the Best Buy is just mobile phones. I did see the lovely aquarium and waterfall with stuffed bears, dear, moose, and beavers along with a bunch of professional turkey callers at the Bass Pro Fishing store. But no Dells or any other mini-computers for sale. So telling my father the diasappointing news we drive past Canada's Wonderland and he has me take hime to one secluded suburban planned community after another to see if someone is home. They weren't. We see this industrial center called Power Cruise that has an artificial pond or lake and a dozen platform dolar arrays right across the highway from Canada's Wonderland. It was neat seeing the artifical pond and up high solar pannels but I couldn't wonder why there was only two Canadian Geese for the area.
Onwards we have my father direct me to another industrial mall. This time I find out too late that Dad wants to gloat about the new key machine to the guy he suspects stole it. We narrowly drive by the place and rush home from there. Well it's no late afternoon and no sooner than we arrive than we go out and pick-up my brother Mark from work. It's been that long a day and my father decides he wants us all to go see a movie Monsters Versus Aliens. Oddly I saw it two days before it opened thanks to an advanced pass from the local comic shop. My brother Mark slipped out of College early and saw a matinee. Father hadn't seen it and was up to seeing the 645 performance at the Woodbine cinemas. So we all saw Monsters Versus Aliens . It's an okay film but Dreamworks has really made these characters more cardboard cut-outs than ever before. So twelve hours after I started my day I get home in time to finish the laundry, skip the vacuuming, and relax to Ving Rhames in Dawn Of The Dead.
Oh and since I had the time now I got my dishevelled bag prepped for the comic convention that I had a free pass for on the Sunday.
What was it U2 said about Sunday Bloody Sunday? Whatever on the Sunday after double checked my bag, did my facebook stuff and made sure everything else was in order I embarked for the convention and downtown. The convention held at the South end of the MTCC (Metro Toronto Convention Centre) was at the same time as the Toronto Blue Jays game beat Oakland one nothing so traffic both auto and foot was quite heavy. Pushing through the bargains were galore on the show with U.S. prices, 50% off to $1 to $2 deals everywhere. The artists were booked solid and three seperate people came dressed as Rorshack two as the Joker. I got myself a sketch of Batman by a young muslim girl named Dabyeed Syed in my sketch book. It's what she felt best about. Turns out she had spent most of the day working on small personal sketches of the Hulk and requests for Wolverine. Dave Ross I found out was working on the Angel comic while I was surprised Bill Sienkiewicz had lost the mullet, the weight and cleaned up real good.
The longest lines were for Sienkiewicz, Steve Nauck, and Steve Epting. Francis Manupal was busy showing off the cover he just did for Red Robin series. Oops let the cat out of the bag on that one. Oh and toys that were discounted at Toys R Us last Boxing day were in bins on sale here for those who wanted Pirates Of The Carribean or Indiana Jones or G.I.Joe or poker stuff.
Other than that it was Trade Paperbacks galore. So after two hours, stffing my bag and moving on I headed out and up to Queen Street West.
I get to the Skywalk just as the jays game lets out and "Oh Snap!"
Literally Snap the strap specifiaclly the hook snapped off and flew out the window. Now the strap allows me to adjust the weight in my already overstuffed bag and spread it over my back along my shouder. Without the strap I am constantly yanking my arm out of my shoulders. Yet I pushed on. Past the CN Tower, over the Skybridge, up John Street past the CBC over Wellington Street past the Metro Hall along King Street up Widmer up and over to Peter Street to fianlly Queen Street. First stop Silver Snail for missing issues not found at the convention. Next stop the nine block walk to the Community Bike Network. I got there at 5pm just in time to find three things. One, they are closed on Sundays. Two, they close at 5pm. Three, according to a girl just locking up they have a few bikes suitable for me that I might get one with a letter and a $100. Yayy me. By this point my arm and shoulder were killing me and I caved in walked to Bathurst Street and started to walk south to catch a streetcar. Long ride home not as long as it could or should be I am just tired that I didn't accomplish what I originally set out to do on the weekend. Which is why when I have someone say to me on Wednesday How was your weekend I broke out cackling with laughter just shaking my head. You have to smile no matter how tired you are; no matter how much the arm and shoulder kill you; No matter how fruitless the personal trip is; you just have to smile because if you don't you scream and cry and say why Lord, why me? But such is how he would instruct me.
Now yesterday was uneventful except for how it ended. You see I started to run my brother up to the college get some birdseed (on sale at Bulkarama 8 kilograms for $6), get the weekly comics run (Buck Rogers #0 sucks, Ignition City #2 didn't ship, Guardians Of The Galaxy #13 needs a consistent artist but almost great story, Daredevil feels like it's being made for TPBs), and get ready for the weekly clix game. I was packed and ready with three armys (Frankenstein, Rip Hunter, Karate Kid would have rocked) and almost on my way out the door when Mum stops me and says Dad wants me to send a couple of e-mails and help with a document before he goes to group committee. Being the faithful dutiful som that I am I comply making sense of Pop's horrible spelling and lack of writing sense. The new tool may not be the right tool and may be less than a full tool for what it is suposed to do versus what it needs to do.
So we sort that out and a list cars and a confirmation for a meet and greet with a new high area commisioner and finally a permission form that needs approval for that night to go out for production the next day so it can be handed out next week. This form was where everything slowed to a crawl. It needed certain exact specifications and needed to fit on one page. I finished off to perfection at 7:24pm complete with impromptu Scouting graphics. Unfortunately the game was susposed to start at 6:30pm and was an hour away by TTC. No way was I going to make it there at all let alone on time. To put this in perspective I was packed initially at 8am with a single Iron Man army and ready to go with all three at 3pm so I could check out CBN before they closed. Did I mention telling God your plans to make him chuckle earlier in the day?
I feel like more of a punchline each and everyday.
With that I reach today to tell you about the week that was only to find it has taken so long to type all this the progarm won't save it properly. So how was your weekend?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
street cleaning trucks teddy bear trap
It's Wednesday 15 April 2009 2am and the street cleaning trucks just pulled away. I don't mind street cleaning trucks after all that's tax dollars at work. I don't mind the middle of the night either as that keeps traffic congestion down. No what bothers me is my neighbour three doors down has little kids and one of them threw their teddy bear into the street a few days ago. The mother said leave it there if she wants it she will get it herself. So it lay there in it's big blue glory.
Untill one of the pack of street sweepers came along a little after 11pm and swept it up and clogged it's machines just outside my front door (well down ten feet but it was followed by two other trucks.) So it sat there holding up the rest of the trucks in the street cleaning crew for a couple of hours while waiting for someone to fix the problem. In the beginning I expected a Darwin Award when I saw the driver get out reach under to retrieve the firmly wedged Teddy Bear with the engine still running. Unfortunately the other truck driver stopped him and told him to sit in the driver's seat and wait. Okay I can see one little truck waiting but five trucks waiting and the diesel engines on all the time during the wait? The noise and vibration is one thing but what about the fumes and wasted gas? The flashing lights? They could have abandoned the one cleaner to wait and proceed to clean the rest of the area but they all waited. For hours.
That's why I am up at now 2:30am slowly falling asleep because untill the past while the noise and light was enough to keep me up. That and the impatience to wasted money on gas, man hours, and the enviroment. Is it any wonder our city has financial problems from time to time?
Untill one of the pack of street sweepers came along a little after 11pm and swept it up and clogged it's machines just outside my front door (well down ten feet but it was followed by two other trucks.) So it sat there holding up the rest of the trucks in the street cleaning crew for a couple of hours while waiting for someone to fix the problem. In the beginning I expected a Darwin Award when I saw the driver get out reach under to retrieve the firmly wedged Teddy Bear with the engine still running. Unfortunately the other truck driver stopped him and told him to sit in the driver's seat and wait. Okay I can see one little truck waiting but five trucks waiting and the diesel engines on all the time during the wait? The noise and vibration is one thing but what about the fumes and wasted gas? The flashing lights? They could have abandoned the one cleaner to wait and proceed to clean the rest of the area but they all waited. For hours.
That's why I am up at now 2:30am slowly falling asleep because untill the past while the noise and light was enough to keep me up. That and the impatience to wasted money on gas, man hours, and the enviroment. Is it any wonder our city has financial problems from time to time?
Monday, April 13, 2009
Old time frustration
Well it's now Tuesday 14 April 2009 and a month since the incident with my brother Mark and his cell phone. I don't think I want to rehash it here except after a family gathering I took him out for a private fun and along the journey of the night he misplaced his cell and blamed me for it's lost.
It was eventually found and returned but not before he locked me out of my computer connections for a few days. Actually he let me on and when I was paying the Pizza delivery guy he went and changed them again. Hardy har har! He's my brother so I got to love him since he is family.
Which brings me to my latest bout of old time frustration. My father doesn't understand or work the internet. Whe he wants to send an e-mail he writes what he wants to send via e-mail and I interpret what he says to be sent out. I usually have to type up two to three drafts (sometimes more, once to eighteen drafts before we got the right idea out). Sometimes to get to the heart of the matter I result to inputting swearing but the result gets to a clearer message in editing.
Tonight the draft I received for a message (edited to protect the product) went like this:
"They do not work I had to refund them.
They say they have friends who have the newest model which they say is
working very very good.
As you know I have been out of money and time.
What can be done so we can get back on track."
The profanity laced version that got him to sit down and figure exactly what he wanted to say was this:
"Yo Bitch these fucking machines don't fucking work. What can you do to make them fucking work? Can we exchange them for machines that fucking do work?"
I had cut and paste that into his e-mail ready to send to this company that did good business a while back. Suffice it to say the end result passes all grammatical and spelling but will just frustrate when he gets his reply. His lack of communication skills cause him problems that get passed on to me if I don't communicate what he wants how he wants.
It gets worse when he has to reply and clarify. You see he doesn't read his e-mail at the terminal he has me print it out for him. All of it. I only recently got him to let me stop printing out the adverts. He even let me put one of his fellow scouters on ignore list because I was printing out all the e-mails and this one scout leader would send chain letters and lists of jokes that would go for pages. I would tell my father it was not my job to read his e-mail for content just to access it and print it out for him to read. If he didn't want to read about passing some picture of an angel would save a girl or grant a miracle it wasn't my problem. One day this scouter sent a one line reply to an email that my father had sent about camp choices and dates except he ahd quoted everyone who had replied to it in the previous week. I didn't check it before printing it.
Twenty-seven pages later I wish I had. So I can see some of his frustration when Dad gets his e-mail. The thing is there is no easy solution since he doesn't type and refuses. so he will continue to get frustrated trying to communicate via the internet and in return I will get frustrated with him trying to understand what he wants to say.
Mind you I have had my fun with this from time to time.
For example recently I wrote out this big document for him on what was need to prepare for camp and how to get there for the parents, leaders, and cubs. The catch was I played on subliminals and told him I had snuck in the words smurf sex into the text. He panicked and couldn't find it and was afraid he would get in trouble with scouting for putting such words in the document. The catch is if you look hard enough you can find almost anything in any document. Like ingrediants on a Pizza Pizza menu red onions, texas barbecque sauce, allows to spell sex.
Get it in a paragraph with goat cheese and tell someon there is goat sex on that page of the takeout menu and they will puzzle finding it but point it out and they will always find it.
So the trick is to make it perverted and diabolical when all it is is just letters on the page.
Still didn't stop me from having to shred 30 pages of maps with directions.
Just more old time frustration.
It was eventually found and returned but not before he locked me out of my computer connections for a few days. Actually he let me on and when I was paying the Pizza delivery guy he went and changed them again. Hardy har har! He's my brother so I got to love him since he is family.
Which brings me to my latest bout of old time frustration. My father doesn't understand or work the internet. Whe he wants to send an e-mail he writes what he wants to send via e-mail and I interpret what he says to be sent out. I usually have to type up two to three drafts (sometimes more, once to eighteen drafts before we got the right idea out). Sometimes to get to the heart of the matter I result to inputting swearing but the result gets to a clearer message in editing.
Tonight the draft I received for a message (edited to protect the product) went like this:
"They do not work I had to refund them.
They say they have friends who have the newest model which they say is
working very very good.
As you know I have been out of money and time.
What can be done so we can get back on track."
The profanity laced version that got him to sit down and figure exactly what he wanted to say was this:
"Yo Bitch these fucking machines don't fucking work. What can you do to make them fucking work? Can we exchange them for machines that fucking do work?"
I had cut and paste that into his e-mail ready to send to this company that did good business a while back. Suffice it to say the end result passes all grammatical and spelling but will just frustrate when he gets his reply. His lack of communication skills cause him problems that get passed on to me if I don't communicate what he wants how he wants.
It gets worse when he has to reply and clarify. You see he doesn't read his e-mail at the terminal he has me print it out for him. All of it. I only recently got him to let me stop printing out the adverts. He even let me put one of his fellow scouters on ignore list because I was printing out all the e-mails and this one scout leader would send chain letters and lists of jokes that would go for pages. I would tell my father it was not my job to read his e-mail for content just to access it and print it out for him to read. If he didn't want to read about passing some picture of an angel would save a girl or grant a miracle it wasn't my problem. One day this scouter sent a one line reply to an email that my father had sent about camp choices and dates except he ahd quoted everyone who had replied to it in the previous week. I didn't check it before printing it.
Twenty-seven pages later I wish I had. So I can see some of his frustration when Dad gets his e-mail. The thing is there is no easy solution since he doesn't type and refuses. so he will continue to get frustrated trying to communicate via the internet and in return I will get frustrated with him trying to understand what he wants to say.
Mind you I have had my fun with this from time to time.
For example recently I wrote out this big document for him on what was need to prepare for camp and how to get there for the parents, leaders, and cubs. The catch was I played on subliminals and told him I had snuck in the words smurf sex into the text. He panicked and couldn't find it and was afraid he would get in trouble with scouting for putting such words in the document. The catch is if you look hard enough you can find almost anything in any document. Like ingrediants on a Pizza Pizza menu red onions, texas barbecque sauce, allows to spell sex.
Get it in a paragraph with goat cheese and tell someon there is goat sex on that page of the takeout menu and they will puzzle finding it but point it out and they will always find it.
So the trick is to make it perverted and diabolical when all it is is just letters on the page.
Still didn't stop me from having to shred 30 pages of maps with directions.
Just more old time frustration.
survived another weekend #2105
Well today is Easter Monday 13 April 2009 and I have survived another weekend.
Yesterday we had my brother Paul and his wife Mary-Anne over for the Easter dinner and they broke the Darkman rule again constantly astounding me. For those not versed in it in the film Darkman the skin could survive no more than 99 minutes of exposure to light before it bubbled up and disintegrated. When Paul and in-law would visit during the first five years you could count the time to 90 or so minutes and then they had to go. The Darkman Rule. Lately in the last year or so it has become 2 hours or more they stay like last night it was 2 hours and 22 minutes.
Yes I take note of these things. I blame the time control experiments from Mr Taylor's physics class in HighSchool and the Time efficiency homework in Mr. Pitt's MOPS class in college.
Little things like that are what make me see Rom-coms or Action films and start little countdowns to things happening because you know the studio insisted on a formula that they used a hundred times before so it must still work. It does work but it doesn't as people see it more often they sub-consciously see it and ruins the surprise for them. Like True Lies you can count tonine after Jamie Lee Curtis licks her finger for Arnold Schwartzeneggar to drop the tape machine. The problem is the scene is repeated in other rom-coms with smaller twists and if you have seen it before the surprise is lessened when you see it again by someone else. Like watching my other brother's REM when he was watching a simular scene in The Girl Next Door.
You want a better pay-off.
Maybe that's why Paul and Mary-Anne stay longer. They want a better pay-off in family visits.
...
Of course there are other factors as well.
...
I don't eat what they eat so the food could be a deterent. Yesterday it was Sweet Potatoes mashed up, boiled to steam Asparagas, and a whole bone-in shank of Ham roasted, with summer harvest pie for desert. We invited them for 6pm and they arrived at 6:51pm and dinner was served at 7:34pm since the veggies weren't turned on to cook untill they arrived.
I had sweet potatoe fries and sweet red onion rings at 5:50pm so I was way done before they even arrived. In fact I was walking to Blockbuster Video when they drove past me.
Anyways when conversation turns to books or TV things start to lag and we have a silent countdown till Paul gets the nudge and time to go home. You can almost count the seconds (well minutes) till they leave.
Oddly last night was the first time no one took any pictures. That could also be a factor.
We also had Paul downplay talk of Star Trek. That too could also be a factor.
Outside of that there were no euchre games or Trivial Pursuit or special DVD movie. Though Paul did borrow copies of Hellboy II, V The Series, Quantum Of Solace, and Incredible Hulk so it could be a prolonged experience at a later date. For those who didn't know V the Series has nothing to do with V For Vendetta.
Now I am not complaining abouth the weekend or my brothers or in-laws I am just stating a fact. I have survived another weekend.
Yesterday we had my brother Paul and his wife Mary-Anne over for the Easter dinner and they broke the Darkman rule again constantly astounding me. For those not versed in it in the film Darkman the skin could survive no more than 99 minutes of exposure to light before it bubbled up and disintegrated. When Paul and in-law would visit during the first five years you could count the time to 90 or so minutes and then they had to go. The Darkman Rule. Lately in the last year or so it has become 2 hours or more they stay like last night it was 2 hours and 22 minutes.
Yes I take note of these things. I blame the time control experiments from Mr Taylor's physics class in HighSchool and the Time efficiency homework in Mr. Pitt's MOPS class in college.
Little things like that are what make me see Rom-coms or Action films and start little countdowns to things happening because you know the studio insisted on a formula that they used a hundred times before so it must still work. It does work but it doesn't as people see it more often they sub-consciously see it and ruins the surprise for them. Like True Lies you can count tonine after Jamie Lee Curtis licks her finger for Arnold Schwartzeneggar to drop the tape machine. The problem is the scene is repeated in other rom-coms with smaller twists and if you have seen it before the surprise is lessened when you see it again by someone else. Like watching my other brother's REM when he was watching a simular scene in The Girl Next Door.
You want a better pay-off.
Maybe that's why Paul and Mary-Anne stay longer. They want a better pay-off in family visits.
...
Of course there are other factors as well.
...
I don't eat what they eat so the food could be a deterent. Yesterday it was Sweet Potatoes mashed up, boiled to steam Asparagas, and a whole bone-in shank of Ham roasted, with summer harvest pie for desert. We invited them for 6pm and they arrived at 6:51pm and dinner was served at 7:34pm since the veggies weren't turned on to cook untill they arrived.
I had sweet potatoe fries and sweet red onion rings at 5:50pm so I was way done before they even arrived. In fact I was walking to Blockbuster Video when they drove past me.
Anyways when conversation turns to books or TV things start to lag and we have a silent countdown till Paul gets the nudge and time to go home. You can almost count the seconds (well minutes) till they leave.
Oddly last night was the first time no one took any pictures. That could also be a factor.
We also had Paul downplay talk of Star Trek. That too could also be a factor.
Outside of that there were no euchre games or Trivial Pursuit or special DVD movie. Though Paul did borrow copies of Hellboy II, V The Series, Quantum Of Solace, and Incredible Hulk so it could be a prolonged experience at a later date. For those who didn't know V the Series has nothing to do with V For Vendetta.
Now I am not complaining abouth the weekend or my brothers or in-laws I am just stating a fact. I have survived another weekend.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Welcome to the first entry of The DRAX Project! My name is David Riches and it's Good Friday 10th April 2009. This Blog is just a way for me to vent who I am see and see if or how I evolve over time. DRAX was an acronym I created for myself when I was five years old and learning to write (or print as the case was). It's also the villain from the James Bond film Moonraker, the golem hero from Marvel Comics current Guardians Of The Galaxy, a town with a nuclear power plant in England, and an ancestral hall in the Carribean. None of them are related.
My background is as a a college graduate, who has worked various roles over his lifetime so far.
I consider myself a bit of a geek being a comicbook collector, a pulp collector, an annoying novice photographer, a television addict, and a fanboy.
I live at home with my parents and one of my brothers, don't socialize much, don't exercise much and in spite of being a vegetarian I am morbidly obese. Despite that I do like to get out an about when I can if I can. What more could I answer for anyone at this time?
We shall all find out soon enough.
My background is as a a college graduate, who has worked various roles over his lifetime so far.
I consider myself a bit of a geek being a comicbook collector, a pulp collector, an annoying novice photographer, a television addict, and a fanboy.
I live at home with my parents and one of my brothers, don't socialize much, don't exercise much and in spite of being a vegetarian I am morbidly obese. Despite that I do like to get out an about when I can if I can. What more could I answer for anyone at this time?
We shall all find out soon enough.
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