Category: Friends

Quelle Journee

I really DID NOT want to go to church today, but I decided, since I had booked the car, that I might as well run the errands and go to church as planned (actually, I didn’t even want to leave the apartment – but I’ve realized that this way lies madness).

SO.

First I get the trip logs out of the two cars at SFU. Then I go to church and cough up my pledge (and a mighty big hairball it was, too, and I still owe for last year). Then I go to Long & McQuade out by the Port Mann, and it’s closed. Then I go to the liquor store on Lougheed that’s open on Sundays and learn (yeep yeep yeep) that Winter Ale is BACK. I will leave it in the fridge for my return from Santo Domingo. Then I realize there is a Tom Lee (OPEN) on Barnet and poke my head in and leave poorer but with lots more mando stuff and a thingy that will allow me to put a strap on my guitar… and I bought a strap, too.

Then off to West Broadway to pick up travel stuff for the trip (inflatable cushions for the long damned trip, packs to hide passports in, Spanish phrase book, Lonely Planet Dominican Republic), then I dropped the trip logs off at CAN at Granville and Hastings, then I went home along Hastings and realize that I still haven’t ordered daughter Katie’s other other other birthday present, which is the complete Strangers in Paradise. They had 2, so I picked it up, and order the other trades 1 through 6. Came home to find some asshat had parked in my spot and had to put the Prius underground. Grr. Anyway, twas a busy day of much expenditure.

Fireworks

Katie K had a bag of fireworks, so I dropped by her place last night, and in the pile of dirt conveniently left behind her place by the construction of the ‘group of Seven themed condos next door which has displaced one of the largest crow rookeries in BC”, we set them off.  Then when I got up this morning there was a facebook question asking my first memory… which was fireworks.  About some things, anyway, I am consistent.

Watched the first episode of Heroes last night.  I am looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Weekend wrap up.

I can’t believe Pukka Orchestra didn’t make this list.

– this list will be food for arguments for the next dozens of years.

The church supper went great – as we are a caravan of faith at the moment, with no settled home (besides the Gathering Place), I now have dishes from the banquet to do. Fortunately I have a dishwasher ;). I also performed The Tapioca Song. The Beacon Home Companion was even better than last year, and that’s saying something. Don Hauka is a genius… There, I said it! And everybody else was wonderful too… Derek’s antics as “The Chalice” (the Unitarian Superhero) were wonderful as always.

Sometime today I will be getting the Quicktime version of the Tapioca Song video, and THEN I’ll post it to Youtube. Stay tuned, as they say. Katie K saw it yesterday and pronounced herself entertained.

Katie has moved back in with Paul and Keith and now is a resident of Planet Bachelor. She has her own bathroom too, the lucky stiff. I suspect she will greatly appreciate her new digs.  Her boyfriend… for such he is, still, alas, has a couple of three inch souvenirs from the cop dogs who took him down last week.  He has sworn to mend his ways.  And I’m going to lose forty pounds by Christmas.  I have seen Katie’s new tattoo, or at least the start of it.  It is a foot long snake wrapped around a heart.  (Fanboys note… it’s modelled after Katchoo’s tat from Strangers in Paradise)
On a happier note…. last night the four of us (me Paul Keith & Kate) did something we hadn’t done in the best part of a year. We watched a movie together! Cats crawled all over us purring happily! It was Les Misérables with Liam Neeson. I had to extend my booking on the car and then *&$^ forgot that I had to put gas in it, and then *&$*&! forgot to get a receipt so had to dash back for it. Didn’t get home until almost two. My weekend has thus far been enlivened by the existence of the progressive lenses perched on my nose. Driving was, as they say, interesting. I suppose I could have extended the booking and driven out to Richmond to participate in filking at VCon but not even the prospect of vixy and Tony performing her stellar “Mal’s Song” could make me want to drive out there. I’ll get a report in the fullness of time from Tom and Peggy.  Vcon of course has been rendered more interesting, at least in terms of GETTING there, by that 82 year old dude flying his plane into a building three blocks from the Con hotel….
My apartment is a disaster but unfortunately, as I was trying to wind down from my yesterday in the wee sma’s this morning, I picked up Gene Wolfe’s Shadow of the Torturer and, well, like that. I’m not sure how much housework I’ll be doing today. Especially since my laundry’s done. At first the book annoyed the snot out of me, and now I can’t put it down. There’s one of the most succinct arguments for atheism I’ve ever seen in it. Hey, this is fair use, isn’t it?

From Chapter VIII of the Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe, 1980. Thecla, a courtesan, speaks:

“One can’t found a novel theology on Nothing, and nothing is so secure a foundation as a contradiction. Look at the great successes of the past – they say their deities are the masters of all the universes, and yet that they require grandmothers to defend them, as if they were children frightened by poultry. Or that the authority that punishes no one while there exists a chance for reformation will punish everyone when there is no possibility anyone will become the better for it.”

As soon as I hear from the videographer, I’m going to head off to RCH to visit somebody from work who’s in hospital, unless she’s home already, in which case I’ll try to call her.

Running around

My bifocals are ready.  I go pick them up tomorrow.  My video is ready.  I’m too tired to figure out how to upload it to Youtube.  The cheque from the house proceeds came through – but there is a snag and a catch, as always, which I am not at liberty to talk about, except that everything is fine but for the delay.  Had dinner with Katie K (the moussaka was unbelievably good, I never had better) and did a brief shop afterwards as I have to cook something for the church supper tomorrow.

Like I said, a lot of running around.

This morning I woke up from a dream….

with the following words ringing in my ears, “Get away from that data set, you cosmic freak!”  I was yelling it at somebody, but I have no idea who.
In other news, I am well rested.  Date went fine; we’ll probably be getting together again sometime in the next couple of weeks to go kayaking, or somesuch.  The weather will have to get better.  In October?  We can hope.

Sleepless in Burnaby

I went to bed at a decent hour, but at 2:37 I woke up.

After contemplating the play of filtered light in my bedroom and the silence of my apartment, punctuated only by the hum of the refrigerator, I decided to get up. Folks, it’s real peaceful up here at night. No sirens, no buses, no nuffink.

After discussions I think I will be wanting to set up Geek House either somewhere along Hastings in Burnaby or in the east end of the Strathcona area. We’ll see what Jeff says.

My video is ready but I can’t go get it until Friday.

I’ve been waiting and waiting for the phone to ring and last night the phone exploded! I got about ten calls in about a two hour period. Amazing. Entertaining… life enhancing! As good as a hug, too.

Why would somebody ask for ‘more ranting’?

Tonight I would like to rant about the lack of menstruation rituals in our culture. Tonight I’m going to take the man’s view, as the woman’s view about it isn’t nearly transgressive enough for me ce soir la. Jeez, where’s an accent grave when I need one…
If I was a man, I would want rituals and predictive patterns in young women’s lives that preserved their fertility for their true purpose, namely, making babies with me and not with other men. Having some kind of ceremony where it was drilled into the girl’s head that she had one shot at the childbearing game and if she slept with the wrong guy it was game the fuck over would be useful if my strategy for access to childbearing women meant I was employed and civil. Mind you, if my strategy is to just rape the shit out of her and hope for a lucky plug, it’s still better than if she was really trying to save it for the right guy. Her body may betray her and pop an egg for me. I’d be the ‘wrong guy’ – but I’d still be first. Now, the sperm competition theory of fucking, which holds that guys enjoy sharing girls because if you’re second (or later) you come way harder (your sperm will ‘wash away’ that of your, uh, competitor/buddy), so if you let your buddy go first, because you don’t really care if you get her pregnant, and you’d prefer to come harder because of your wiring, you’ve more or less dropped out of the discussion about breeding. You’ve actually given some consideration to the notion, which is why you’re wearing a condom while all of these shenanigans are going on. I mean, it’s still rape, but there’s a different angle. You get it now? All different styles of thinking about ‘the breeding thing’ lead to different results in terms of how it affects the woman’s life. Oh, sorry, I’ve gone back into the women’s way of thinking about this, ‘scuse me all to hell.

So mOm, did I make you laugh really hard on the phone tonight, or what?

Back to the subject at hand. Women should have menstruation rites so that they actually have two whole chunks of time to think about fertility without having to do any work. That is, in part, what rituals are all about. It’s about the whole “stop working and start thinking” thing that has made humanity what it is. Having enough excess capacity in your life to be able to stop and think is what makes for civil life. Having the spare time to develop morality makes morality. Leisure, in short, makes ethical life possible. But don’t worry, in the end it’s all about sex. Yeehaw. Hurry hurry love.
Did I ever say why it was I refer to my mother as mOm? It’s because when I spell her title that way, it is the “Kilroy was here” or “Clem” sign. See his hands, on either side of his head? Te he. But I also do it because of where I got the idea of it, pOp – which is a clown face with a big nose in the middle. Squint and you’ll see.

CAN car messenjah, Penny partay, enough sleep.

So I agreed to take the billing info from the two cars up here on the hill into the folks at CAN each month, and I’ve been so busy dating I hadn’t done it until last night.  I gave Katie K a call and she met up with me and we did the wanderaround together, which is way more fun than wandering around alone, and I got beer at the Granville station and she mentioned that there is a get together of a bunch of her relations and friends at the Penny on Hastings, so we hit that just as the mob was leaving and ate really superlative greasy spoon Chinese food.  Then we came back here and crashed like a British paratrooper (extremely poor taste reference) since between her recent dental surgery and my white nights we were just this side of exhausted.  I actually got enough sleep last night which is amazing – I’ve been experiencing a lot of sleep deprivation.

Last night I dreamed that I was a man wearing a robe and I had to scold a girl about 6 years old for abandoning her post. (She was playing with another little girl instead of listening to a monitoring device.) I was so angry I turned away from her so I wouldn’t immediately start yelling, and she obligingly got up and stood in front of me so I could start my tirade. Then I woke up.

Katie K says she dreamed that she kept trying to introduce me to myself and I kept saying that I wasn’t interested.

Those two dreams taken side by side are pretty funny, especially in Jungian terms.  I must go away and think about them.

Ow-iest moments in sports

For most of these shots, I was ducking into my chair and wincing.  Ow ow ow.

Don’t assume the best shots are all at the beginning,  there are corkers all the way through.

I FORGOT TO PUT THE KEY BACK in the car last night.  I guess I am still needing to work on my manners.  When I ran downstairs to let the next guy have the car I saw the most gorgeous man I’ve seen in years.  Like, every guy I’ve ever had a crush on, and Tom Baker too.  Swoon.  And of course I had to apologize to him.  Hope I see that one again, when he loomed up out of the fog I thought my heart would stop.

Tom and Peggy fed me and the hordes Sunday dinner. Roast pork, salad and taters and corn, and I helped with salad.

I forgot to mention I ran into the gals who run Laff Riot Girls when I was brunching with Katie C on Saturday.  And then a pedicure – Katie’s new job involves a lot of standing and I felt like babying her.
Off to work soon…..

Nurd Gurl goes POSTAL MEDIA

So all together, film fans!!!  If you ever see me use this expression – “Masterpiece of Narrative Subversion“ please know that I mean this movie makes no $#%$ing sense.  I mean, I enjoyed Aqua Teen Hunger Force because it contains one of the most hilarious appeals to the audience I’ve ever viewed (warning, screener), but otherwise the movie’s a cataclysm of pointlessness.  On the other hand, part of refining one’s taste is being exposed to oddball stuff once in a while, which this definitely was.  Any movie which was quite popular and yet has no plot synopsis on imdb…. Warning Will Robinson, indeed, kids.  I enjoyed it, but more along the cultural artifact lines,  There were some very snappy one liners.
Much more enjoyable – the three episodes of Venture Brothers, which is a hipper than thou Jonny Quest.  The Scooby Doo parody was pure evil.  I heart Brock Samson, voiced by clean green actor Patrick Warburton.
Add pizza and beer to a date which included the foregoing and I had a very pleasant evening.  After my ride home (and thank god, it was POURING bloody rain), I dreamed that somebody I’ve wanted to have sex with for about ten years jumped on me, and I said, “Jeez, I’d love to, but we can’t because of ” here insert extremely rational, sane, non-dreamlike reason.  Then we put our clothes back on.  I’m consoling myself that at least I got to see him naked.  GRRRRRR.  This thing inside my skull that wants me to be a better person is now in my dreams as well!!!! I demand a neuronal recount.

Much thanks to Cousin Gerald, who found this piclink for me.  I entitle it “Luckier than the Average Bear”.

All this and alcohol too.

And now for something completely different….

Annie Liebowitz is a genius.