Pleasant Interruption

For those that had this site bookmarked

2005-09-18T21:07:00.000-04:00

The blog found on this site (blogger) will no longer be used.

Please go to www.pleasantinterruption.com for more pleasant interruptions.

Unwanted/Unnecessary Opinions

2005-09-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

So I just got in from my Twentieth Century History class, and it was just terrible.

First of all, the class is about the twentieth century world to 1945, so its all the early stuff like WWW I, WWW II, how Germany became a major power, the colonization of Africa. You know easy stuff like that.
The first class was messed up, because the original room we were supposed to be in, there was no teacher, and someone at the faculty or something printed a paper and put it on the door, and it redirected the class to the engineering building, but the course code on the paper was wrong. I ended up going to the building anyways, but the classroom wasn't history at all, it was stats.
So I figured out that the teacher was teaching from a little eating area and we eventually got to go back into the room, there was about 50 or less people so it wasn't really a class.

So tonight we had the class in the original room where it was supposed to be in the first place. So the whole class was there tonight. The professor was talking about the evolution of the city state, to empires, and then nation states. He then continued to talk about how the UN was celebrating its 60th anniversary, and that the countries could not find a proper definition of what terrorism was. Big Mistake.
Suddenly hands started poking up and everyone started throwing in what they thought terrorism was, how and why terrorists are doing what they are doing, why flying airplanes into buildings, and blowing yourself up in order to kill innocent people, could all be considered acts of terrorism.
This senseless debate about modern day terrorism was like torture, because it had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CLASS AT HAND. I was getting really frustrated with people talking about how they think terrorism is this, or terrorism is that, and why terrorists do what they do. Now if it was a terrorism debate class, I would have been all over that, but because it was not, it just made me angry hearing all these useless opinions that really didn't benefit anyone in the class, if anything, it made us all stupider. When someone stuck their hand up and told the class that this was a twentieth century history class, I gave the guy an applause, even though I sadistically enjoyed listening to the useless and painful opinion of my peers, I guess enough was enough, and the guy had to put a stop to it before things got out of hand.

Other Things...

Nana's internet hasn't been working lately so he hasn't had time to post anything, and Hiro...Well Hiro just vanished off the face of the earth. So I guess I'm going to have to keep you distracted for the time being with useless rants (like the one above), or whatever else I deem interesting. (I am now the dictator of P.I...until someone else posts of course.)

It was my birthday on Tuesday the 13th, I'm 20 and for some reason...Everything feels eerily the same. I also have great friends that bought me a birthday cake, thanks Mark, Phil, Tim, and Al, special mention to Arjun, Pat, Nana and Mike.

Nana went with Mark and Kate to Peterborough to see "The Stills" till Sunday, so for now, Its all drugs, sex, and alcohol at the apartment! (I'm joking). Actually its really boring around here, living alone sucks, I don't know how some people can do it without developing some kind of mental illness.

Just a warning to all those planning to commit crimes in the Miami area...The Shaq Attack is Back! Shaq is awesome.

Homecoming & GREEN Fu*$#@ DAY!!!1!!1!!!!!

2005-09-07T03:15:00.000-04:00

Good Riddance....

It was an awesome weekend which in a sense, culminated with the Green Day concert. So lets recap how events came about. It's kinda' long, but what can you do....but read it.

Saturday

I got in Saturday morning, tired, disoriented, and disillusioned, also on top of that I was a little sad that summer was winding down. So anyways, after being repatriated back into the apartment, Nana and I went out on a little excursion to some random places and then to the beer store, the most important stop. This wasn't any ordinary stop to the beer store, because when I showed the guy behind the counter my ID, he said "Belleville! Home of the Belleville Bulls...And the Intelligencer", It was a little unexpected, but it was awesome that he knew where I was from...Made me feel good for about a few seconds or so, until I ordered my beer (A twelver of Red Cap), they were all sold out...Saddest moment ever. It took me a good several minutes to compensate with a twelver of Bohemian (13.50, Cheap Beer is the best beer). The guy was cool though, when he was talking to Nana, he asked if he went to Nicholson, upon saying yes, the guy immediately asked if he knew Mr. Burchat, and that he spoke in his economics and computer classes a while back. It was awesome.
Later that night we ended up going to Arjun and Mark's place which is about a 25-35ish minute walk. It was good seeing the ol' gang again, after a highly uneventful, and isolated summer, and to celebrate, there was some good drinking and poker. Good thing I haven't played Texas hold'em for the longest time, because I ended up losing first, and even with some strong hands, I didn't win ONE pot. Terrible.
After the evening ended, while Nana and I were walking back down Chapel St. to get home, we were about half way, when Nana needed to tie up his shoes, so I sat down on the curb and checked out the night sky, it was awesome because the clouds were low, and the light pollution lit them up, and beyond them was an awesome starry night sky(I was still a little drunk...Give me a break). Suddenly we were both distracted by this car screeching around the corner onto the street, I got up from sitting, because I wasn't ready to get hit by a car and die just yet. Nana was still tying his shoes and I was standing up looking right at the car, when they drove really close to this white escort parked at the side of the street, on the other side from where we were standing, a little bit further up the street. I thought they were drunk driving, when they got really close, and all we heard was a loud "CRASH". They quickly drove off while I was still watching, and when they drove by, the driver causally says: "Hey Bud". Then they sped through a stop sign and out of sight. When we went by the car the back window was smashed out. It was a weird evening.
It was a white car BTW, but I didn't catch the make or plates...It was a little blurry.

Sunday.

It was a momentous occasion, a good friend of from Belleville, Mike (or as Mark called him: Metallica Mike) was coming up to Ottawa for the concert, so I headed to Arjun's around noon to catch the bus to the train station so that we could meet him. On my way to Mark and Arjun's, I went by that car again, and it's window was still smashed. Arjun and I went to get Mike from the train station.
After we got back, we all eventually went out with Mark to Wall-Mart at South Keys, and ate at a very unsanitary McDonald's, the food wasn't as good as it should have been, just because it was just do damned dirty.
Later we all got together and went to Phil's place (AKA the Portuguese Man of War from Canada Day), and had an awesome BBQ. Later Mark, Nana, and Phil eventually went to Kate's to pre-drink and go out to the club (they went to 10 clubs that night). Arjun, Mike and I went back to Arjun's place, and had a Green Day jam secession to prepare for the big day.

Monday

It was the big day we've been waiting for all summer, I had to go into school to pay some fees for the DDR club, ran into Nana, Mark and Phil while I was there, it was kinda random.
Anyways later on I met up with Mike and Arjun at the Mall, and we enjoyed a feast of Burger King. We then went back to Arjun's to drink, and we watched some older live Green Day concerts (Woodstock 94 was one)to get us prepped for the awesome to come.
We were the basically the first ones on the bus to head to the Corel Center, and it was somewhat of a quiet ride for us, with the occasional joke, but we noticed that a lot of people getting on the bus were francophones, and only a few anglophones.
When we got there it was crazy, it didn't take us long to get in, nor did it take long to see some familiar faces. Mike went to buy some beer, and he didn't bring his Drivers license, but he had his health card, so it should have been sufficient enough to get a drink, but the guy at the counter told him off, and said to get some "Real ID" then come back. Mike came back slightly shocked, and we stood for a little bit, all a little puzzled and angry, talking about why he wouldn't take a REAL provincial photo ID. But then the guy let him have it anyways. Let me tell you, beer at the Corel Center is damn expensive, 6 bucks for one bottle.
We got on the floor and made our way to the front, and Jimmy Eat World came on and played a quick, but great set. I'm somewhat of a fan, but the scales tipped towards Green Day.
When they came on stage, it was just beyond amazing. There were the guys that I saw at the MTV Video Awards! We got to get pretty close to the front, close enough to get a good view of the entire band. They started with some songs from their latest album like "American Idiot", and "Jesus of Suburbia", but as they progressed, they pulled out some amazing songs off their older albums, such as "King for a Day", "Chump", but when they played "She", the three of us were euphoric. They even played "Shout" by the Isley Brothers, and in between they played "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, I was really impressed when they played it, cause it showed their versatility, and appreciation for the older hits. For some reason I also knew right off the bat when they played the songs. It made me one happy person. They had amazing rapport with the crowd, and they also kept the crowd amped from start to finish. One memorable part was when they asked three random people from the crowd to come on to the stage and play the instruments, one drummer was kicked off for not having the right beat, but they eventually found a replacement. The kids played a song off their first album (1039/Smoothed out Slappy Hours). The guitarist got to keep the guitar, and I think the bassist did as well, the drummer got some drum sticks, and Billy Joe got him to do a stage dive. It was one of the highlights of the evening. They eventually ended the show with "Time of your Life" which was awesome.
I was sad when the show ended, but I guess it was good that we left, because I was pretty close to being a Deaf-Mute, and my legs were about to fall off.
On the bus ride home, we sat at the back of the bus with the exact same people that were sitting across from us on the ride there, and there was this...I'm sorry to say, dumb blonde chick yapping away, and this guy making random comments, and pulling lines from "The Dave Chappell Show", and "Anchorman".
When we got back to Arjun's place, we continued the festivities by playing some of their songs that they didn't play, we also continued drinking. When Nana, Mark, and Kate came back (They went to the frosh week concert and saw "Metric", "The Stills" and a bunch of other bands.) They had an awesome time at their concert, where they actually hung out with the band, I am secretly jealous, because Metric and The Stills are awesome, and it would have been amazing if we got to actually hang out with Green Day....sigh.

Tuesday

So we ended up staying over at Mark and Arjun's that night, and in the morning we sat around for a bit and talked. At around quarter to noon, we decided to go out for breakfast, but ended up going to Tim Hortons because Mike's train left at 12:25. So when we ordered at Timmy Ho's the lady actually skipped making Mike's BLT, and gave it to him 10 minutes later. We were pretty pissed. Anyways, we rushed to the bus stop, jumped on the bus that took us to the station.
It was pretty intense, and it felt like something out of "The Amazing Race", when we got out of the bus we ran up the stairs and right into the station, the man at the gate opened it up, he rushed through and barely made it on. It was an awesome send off though; its too bad he couldn't stick around though. We ended up eating our food at the station, and then we left for the home.

I wish I had a digital camera, I could have had pictures for you all, but I don't, unless your willing to donate some money for me, you know, so that I can document my activities for your viewing pleasure, because with me its all about the pleasure...you know it.

I am proud that I kept cussing to a nil on this entry...Its quite a feat considering the magnitude of the situation.

The Most Improbable of Probable Outcomes

2005-09-06T14:55:00.000-04:00

So this weekend was pretty awesome for me. On Saturday I went out for a swim at my friend's (Mark and Arjun's) place, and got drunk afterwards with the guys. On Sunday I went out on a massive pub crawl to 10 different bars (the only criteria: no cover charge). And on Monday, I partied backstage with Metric and The Stills at the University of Ottawa frosh week concert.

Yeah, you read that properly. I partied with Metric and The Stills.

The concert was being held at Confederation Park (at Elgin and Laurier, if you live in Ottawa. If you don't, it doesn't really matter) I went with Mark Wilson and his lovely girlfriend, Kate. As usual, I was late, so I met up with them at 3:45 instead of 3:30. We then lined up for the concert which was supposed to begin at 3 pm but actually started at 5. Upon entering the Park, we bought some food to support charity and met up with some friends. With our food in hand, we sat down on the lawn and waited for the other bands to finish their sets so we could see The Stills. There were five bands playing at the concert, but we only came for The Stills and Metric; the other bands were pretty good but nothing I'd listen to normally

After The Stills played their awesome set (their first time playing live in 9 months, which included new and awesome material), Metric came on stage. You could feel the energy in the crowd, with ended with their amazing song "Dead Disco." The Stills of course played "Love and Death", "Lola Stars and Stripes", and "The Still in Love Song", but they also played new songs like the brilliant "The Mountain," and the sad "She's Walking Out." Metric's new material blew me away. They still have the same power and rhythm behind their music, but it's more raw (if that's possible). Emily Haines tapped right into the crowd's energy and gave us an unforgettable show. If you've never seen Metric live, I urge you to. Their show is so awesome that it's hard for me to explain it properly here (and believe me, I tried).

When Metric finished their set, Mark, Kate, and I leaned against this fence near the "backstage" tents. We saw Emily go into Metric's van and called her over to talk. After getting my philosophy book signed (Mark got his shoes signed, and Kate got her ticket signed), Emily said "Why are all the cool people on this side of the fence?" and helped us over. It was such a surreal experience, but we were "in."

We made our way to The Stills' tent, and struck up a conversation with The Stills and Metric. Apparently both bands are close friends and try and see each other whenever they can. I complimented Oliver from The Stills on his amazing bass playing on "The Still in Love Song" and Liam (the new keyboarder for the band) and I discussed several interesting points from Russell's "The Problems of Philosophy."

The headliner for the show were this band called "Les Cowboys Fringants." I've never heard of them, but they're really popular in Quebec. By the time that the Cowboys got to their final song, we all decided to run onto the stage and dance to their last song. This was probably the craziest thing that has happened to me EVER. Mark, Kate, and the other Kate, and I ran up onto the stage while some crazy French-Canadian rock band was playing their hit song to their crowd, and danced with Metric and The Stills.

So much more happened on that night, but I don't feel like writing about it and its still kind of hard to believe that it happened. I'm not really star struck or anything, but things just moved so fast. Even now I'm listening to The Stills' album and thinking "I was talking to Tim (the lead singer) about beer and other random stuff yesterday."

Even though she won't be reading this, I'd like to thank Emily for making all of this possible. She receives this week's award for rawkingest person. I hope to share a beer with her and the rest of Metric again. I'll be seeing The Stills (with Jason Collett) again in Peterborough in about a week.

Metric's new album is coming out at the end of this month, and The Stills' album should be out by February of '06. I urge you to check out both of these bands' music. They're good artists, as well as really good people.

Written While Eating an Apple Early In The Morning

2005-09-03T04:23:00.000-04:00

So the news, eh. It never stops. I've never seen reruns of the news before on the television.

Anyway, the reason I'm talking to you this time is to draw your attention to Wonkette. If you're a web jockey like me then you already know about the American (and mostly Washington oriented) news aggregator that goes by the aforementioned monicker. I won't guarantee that you'll be happy with the site, but there's just so much good coverage of American politics coming from that site that it's worth taking a look at even once.

If only they had one of these for Canadian politics...

A New Home, A New Term

2005-09-02T21:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, just a day after arriving back in Canada, I moved back to Waterloo where I've settled into my new place. This time it's an apartment...not quite as cozy as my old house but my room here is almost twice as big as my last one so I can't complain. I'll miss having the old family(Dave, Mariano, Mike, Tony) though, but I'll be living with them(minus Mariano since he's a don) again in 4 months so I guess I'll look at it as a break so I can better appreciate how fun it is to live with them.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of one of the busiest weeks of my life. I'm going to be a frosh leader for both engineering frosh and village frosh. In other words, I will get 2 hours of sleep every night. Last year it felt insanely busy doing just engineering frosh leading so I can only imagine what it will be like with twice the workload. To top things off I'll be staffing the big football game at the end of frosh week next Saturday. You may think I'm crazy, but this is only the beginning of a busy, busy term. I'm pumped.

I'm hoping that over the next few weeks I'll be able to revisit my tour of Europe so I can share with you some of the stories and also use it as a means for myself to remember what exactly happened over those 2 crazy weeks so stay tuned for that.

I'm also working on reworking Pleasant Interruption. Technically speaking I'm gonna put it on its own server and moving away from the Blogger system.

More Hurricane stuff...

2005-09-02T15:05:00.000-04:00

A very interesting article concerning natural disaster funds in the United States, and is most likely why the hurricane help right now is VERY SLOW.

I recommend anyone who is remotely interested in the hurricane news to read this article. It's kind of a shock, but not really surprising.

Apparently killing people in other countries is more important then saving people at home.

Beyond the end

2005-09-02T01:47:00.000-04:00

Woo, so summers gone eh?! That was fast.

Summer has been quite interesting with work, and some senseless evenings out and about doing random things. Random is awesome. Besides that, it has also been one of the most boring summers...Ever.

I'm done work finally I guess that's a good thing, working at a thrift store isn't as glam as it's all cracked up to be...I have the scars and vintage t-shirts to prove it.

other things...

- Well because Nana does an awesome job with his band recommendations, I'm going recommend music, but on a much smaller scale, like what I am going to do right...Now!
Ok people...You should all try and get some Morrissey, his most recent album "You are the Quarry" is amazing, with some solid hits like "Irish Blood, English Heart", and "First of the Gang to die". So check it out if your interested...If not, completely disregard this section.

- The hurricane coverage has been quite overwhelming, but it is needed to bring attention, and let people see that these people need help, not tomorrow, but now. For some reason they aren't getting enough, there is just too many reckless gangs out and about, looting, and not helping the situation, only making it worse.
I guess the only good thing about this disaster is that it takes everyone's mind off IRAQ! Woah! We're still there?!?! Iraq is a P.R.'s own personal hell, but the storm was a God send, in more ways then one. While on this topic of other news filtering through on top of 24/7 hurricane coverage, the good ol' Al Qaida gang released a video saying exactly why they are attacking the British and US. Not because they want to take their freedoms and moral values away...NO WAY?! Its because of their policy towards many Middle Eastern countries, and their invasion of Iraq! Wow, clearly didn't see that one coming. If you don't believe me then here is the article, I had to look around to find it behind all the hurricane coverage, but it was more prominent at the BBC then with CNN. At CNN. And the BBC. The invasion just added towards the problem, and the Arab population in the Middle East are taking as a direct attack against the people, especially Muslims, are taking action. I don't sympathize with the extremists or anything, so don't get me wrong, nor do I support their actions. But itsn't it common sense to attack those who attack you? You can't just have a war on one front (In this case Iraq), and not expect to have it hit back at home right (IE. 9/11, and 7/7)? Its kind of obvious that war is never one sided, and that eventually, those people will find a way to return the favor. Unfortunately people conveniently forget why these enemies attack in the first place, and the cycle continues.

So anyways, back to the hurricane, It's really sad to see all of this happening and like Nana posted before me, Please help out any way you can, a donation through the Red Cross would most likely be the most beneficial at this moment, till other major charities start opening up.
A few days ago, I was watching CNN, and an American who lived in an area away from the disaster area, began saying why other Americans should not have to pay more taxes to help out with the rebuilding and humanitarian effort for the disaster zone, because its THEIR fault they chose to live in a high risk area. This wasn't the only sent in e-mail faulting the people, and saying that they shouldn't be helped, there were quite a few more. Now I don't know about you, but with a country that stresses all this Americanism/Patriotism...blah, blah, blah. To have people like this in their own country, not willing to help out, because it was their fault for living in High risk areas...Just pathetic, some of these people don't have the means to even go far because a lot of them can not afford to move else where due to lack of jobs or even a proper education, so many people are basically stuck. Even though others are there by choice, It isn't a time to talk about tax dollars, and who's to blame. Why are the same people willing to spend billions of dollars each year to help out Iraqis, yet are so stuck playing the blame game, that they are unwilling to help their own country folk in times of great need? Shit happens, and we all need to band together, no matter which flag or religion you reside under, because in the end, we are all just...Human.

Wake Me Up When September Begins

2005-09-01T15:18:00.000-04:00

It's September, which means that it's time to get back into the school mentality. Readin', 'ritin', and 'rithmetic will abound, I am sure.

This is the first year taht I've been prepared for school before it has started. I think that's a good omen.

I hope everyone has a good year, and if you aren't in school then enjoy whatever else you're doing.

The Secret is Out

2005-08-31T20:31:00.000-04:00

Arjun had his monobrow(he didn't want me to mention the other word) waxed today.

That is all.

All Deafening on the New Orleans Front

2005-08-31T17:27:00.000-04:00

This blog is amazing. It's written by a guy who is stuck on the 10th floor of a building in New Orleans that is surrounded by flood waters from the Hurricane Katrina. The building is a data center that deals with maintaining servers for various websites, including Something Awful.

He has streaming video from the building running nonstop and some commentary about the events that are occuring in New Orleans, including looting and other crimes.

It really drives home how selfish people can be, when all they can think about is profiting from unfortunate circumstances like Hurricane Katrina, even at the risk of their own lives.

UPDATE

It completely slipped my mind to mention that the Red Cross is taking donations for a Relief Fund for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. You can donate online at Red Cross dot Org or by calling 1-888 HELP NOW. Our thoughts and prayers go out to anyone affected by the Hurricane, or by any of the other terrible things happening in the world at this instant.

So You Think Things Move Pretty Fast 'Round Here

2005-08-31T16:25:00.000-04:00

It's finally happened. I've replaced my tried and true discman today. We had a good 5 year run, but it's time to move on.

RIP - NANA'S DISC PLAYING OBJECT - 2000-2005

Kicking at the wainscotting

2005-08-30T02:46:00.000-04:00

I have a huge post coming up for you all. It involves a wedding.

I'm headed back to the O.C. tomorrow night.

Does anyone else think that all this hurricane watching stuff is stupid? News shows devote too much time to stuff like this.

It's getting late, so I'm going to sleep.

Hello from Europe

2005-08-28T17:21:00.000-04:00

So apparently getting internet access while doing a whirlwind tour of Europe isn't as easy as you would think. There have been internet cafés available but rarely the time to sit down and use them.

I'm now in Amsterdam and it's my 3rd last day in Europe. It's been an insane 2 weeks and been having a blast. Tons of fun shit has happened and my video filming is coming along great. I'm up to 10 tapes of footage now so hopefully enough decent footage to make a quality dvd and oh what a movie it will be.

So tonight we walked around Amsterdam's red light district. I swear I was in sin city or something. I couldn't believe that shit. Sex shops/shows everywhere, and every 10 feet there are these glass doors that the hookers stand behind and smile at potential clients as they walk by.

Backtracking back to the beginning of the tour, ít's been incredible seeing so much of Europe in such a short amount of time. We started off in London where the boys (Mike, Dave and Tony my roommates from Waterloo) and I adventured around using The Tube. I swear we saw all of London. Tiring as hell but loads of fun. Later that day we met our Contiki tour group and stayed the night before heading out to France. France was very nice and we did the tourist things like the Eiffel tower (which I would argue had one of the most beautiful views I've see in my life) and the Louvre museum.

From France we went on down to the tiny but lavish country of Monaco where we got to tour around in one of the richest cities of the world. It was just ridiculous. So much money everywhere, it was unbelievable. The view driving along the mountains looking out at the coast was absolutely spectacular.

Then we drove to Italy where we toured Florence, Rome, and Venice. Italy was very nice and we had loads of fun. I loved the views of the mountains as we drove around Italy. 10 out of our 14 days in Europe are "travel days" where we spend a solid 6-8 hours on the bus. As such we go to a lot of service stations. An interesting thing to note is that every service station I can remember in Italy was an Autogrill. What's even more interesting is that every Autogrill is actually owned by the Vatican. Interesting.

Speaking of service stations, here's a weird thing about Europe. You have to pay to piss! They actually have these people sitting outside of just about every washroom and they have a tip jar where you're supposed to tip like 50 cents. The free washrooms are like a diamond in the rough. We go totally wild when we find one haha.

Leaving Italy, we passed through Austria where we made a short stop at the Swarovsky Crystal Museum which was pretty cool...moreso for the girls I guess. After that we dropped into Munich, Germany where we had an awesome time at a German Beer Hall. Man the German's know how to party. They drink from 1 litre glasses(called Steins or Tankards) of beer. When we were at the beer hall, there was another Contiki tour group as well and a number of them had been "skulling" (Aussie term for chugging - more on Aussie slang some other day) or attempting to skull their 1 litre glasses of beer. The ones that finished sure as hell took their sweet time. So yours truly, with the help of some peer pressure, stepped up on behalf of our tour group and skulled it in 18 seconds. Good times.

We spent a night in the Rhine valley yesterday and now we come back to today, when we arrived in Amsterdam in The Netherlands. I already mentioned the red light district but we all know that this place is much more known for its tolerance of smoking weed. We checked out a "coffee shop" tonight and it was so weird. It was like I was in an alternate universe. You go up to like a ticket booth and order your weed. You can get it in a bag or pre-rolled. They even have a variety of different types depending on what your mood is. Then everyone just sits around like a pub and smokes up.

Anyway, I don't have much time to keep typing and I can't think of any great stories off the top of my head so I'll have to go back and recount some of the better stories from the trip.

Tomorrow we spend another day in Amsterdam and enjoy our final night of debauchery and then the day after we head back to London where we spend another night there and finally leave for Canada the next morning.

See you in Canada!

All That TV Watching Pays Off... Sort Of

2005-08-24T21:42:00.000-04:00

Ross Hull, the guy who played Chris Shepherd on Student Bodies, is a weatherman (weather-person?) for the Weather Channel. I really can't take him seriously after his previous work (he was on "Are You Afraid of the Dark" too).

Did anyone else think Mags and Flash were really, REALLY hot back then?

P.S: Uzo tells me that the guy who played "Romeo" is on a pizza commercial too.

I rule several schools and have skills capable of paying any number of bills

2005-08-15T13:30:00.000-04:00

As promised, the low-down on The Avant-Garde Bar.

This bar is located at 135 1/2 (that's not a joke) Besserer Street, in Ottawa. From the first time I saw the bar at the beginning of the previous school year, I knew I had to go in there. It's one of my wannabe philosopher things, I guess. Or maybe it's just a poser thing.

Anyway, when I walked into the bar I immediately noticed the Soviet themed decor. They also have Russian stylized posters on the walls and play music from eastern (and western) Europe. The menu is all Russian food too! I didn't know what to order, so I asked my server to give me whatever she thought was good, and a bottle of Russian beer (the brand was called Baltika).

As I waited around for my food to be prepared, I too another look around the place. There was a wall with a large painting, which had some phrases outlining what the Avant-Garde movement is, on it. There was also some hockey memorabilia, and other souvenirs from Russia. I began to read a book which contained some funny stories by some famous poets and writers, when my food arrived.

I had borscht which is a cold soup made of beets. It also contained some eggs (boiled, and halved), some sour cream, and some chicken. It was really filling, and tasted good. And the waitress was nice too, so that helped liven up the experience.

Since I don't rate bars and such, I won't give The Avant-Garde bar a rating. But I'll be going back there again some time, because they have live bands on Wednesdays.

What do Mustaches, Designs and Europe Have in Common?

2005-08-15T01:58:00.000-04:00

Nothing.

First off I just wanted to share with everyone a picture from a couple weeks ago. To give you a little background information, I've been in a bet with my housemates from Waterloo for over a month now. The bet was to see who could go the longest without shaving off a dirty, dirty mustache. Not only did we have to grow a mustache, we had to keep the rest of the face clean shaven to increase the dirtiness of the mustache. As of this post, only Dave and I remain in the competition. At the end of July, it was the last Bomber (an on-campus bar at U of Waterloo) night of the term and the theme was Wild Wild West. It was perfect timing since our mustaches had been growing for some time. Here is my favourite picture of the night, taken with my friend Meghan. I look intense.

Meghan is hot.
As you may or may not have noticed depending on your observational skills - or lack thereof - I have changed the design of Pleasant Interruption. I was growing a little tired of the fun but cheap looking design and it was also a good excuse to get myself back into blogging mode. I hope you find the change pleasant. If you're wondering where that picture is from, I took it from the airplane somewhere above Chile on my way there last September.

Lastly, I'm leaving for Europe today. I'm going on a Contiki tour with 3 of my housemates from Waterloo - Dave, Mike and Tony. We'll be hitting up England, France, Monaco, Italy, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, and Belgium over 16 days.

At this point you may be wondering about our mustache challenge. We're taking this to Europe. How long will Dave and I last? Who knows.

They're going to regret letting us into their countries.

In addition to a digital camera, I'm also bringing a video camera with 16 tapes. That's right, 1 tape/day. When I get back I'm going to edit the footage and make a dvd movie which I'll share with everyone. That likely won't happen for a few months though.

Anyway, I'm going to try to get internet access as often as I can while I tour around the continent and if I can, I will be blogging about our mischief so you can tour Europe vicariously through my writing.

With that, I am off.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

2005-08-14T14:49:00.000-04:00

I had some objectives to complete for this Sunday. They all have to do with me being in Ottawa.

The first objective was to go to the university bookstore to finish up a story (I won't give anymore details). The university bookstore is closed on Sundays.

The second objective was to get all of my comics from the comic shop, and pay for next months issues. The comic book store is closed on Sundays as well (I didn't know cause I never go on Sundays).

The third objective was to get a new battery for my cordless phone. I was able to do this, but it set me back 30 dollars (I bought the phone for about that much, because it was a display model).

The fourth was to go to the music store to see if they have any used acoustic guitars. The music store is closed on Sundays.

My fifth and last objective was to go to the pawn shop to see how much the gitars there were; if they were cheaper than the ones at the music store, then I would buy ones from the pawn shop. THE PAWN SHOP IS CLOSED FROM AUGUST 3RD UNTIL AUGUST 28TH.

As you can see, this was the worst day for planning ahead in history.

I also broke the mop/sponge thingie that I brought from Belleville, and had to spend another 30 bucks on a new mop/bucket/misc. cleaning supplies. And I still haven't slept yet. [/whine]

But I did go to a restaurant/bar that I've been wanting to go to for awhile. I'll talk about the Avant-Garde Bar tomorrow.

Now That It's Over, I Love You More and More

2005-08-14T10:29:00.000-04:00

I haven't slept yet. I stayed up the whole night. It wasn't on purpose.

What usually happens after one of these nights is that I have a crazy story to tell. I have a funny story to tell. For later though (for real this time, and I'll get to the furry story sometime soon too Liam).

The Happiest Place on Earth

2005-08-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

I ate a brownie batter blizzard today and almost died from the richness of said blizzard.

Nana stole my bit...

2005-08-09T23:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I was going to be the first person to post about the death of a television icon on Pleasant Interruption, but unfortunately (or fortunately) I was thwarted, before I could piece together a decent "tribute" to Peter Jennings.

Even though I rarely watched ABC World News Tonight (Dad watched Dan Rather, so I watched), I couldn't ignore the fact that Jennings was a Canadian born Journalist with an eye for the facts.
He had an incredible career (which I leer at enviously), and a repertoire of experience that many could only dream of having. Even though he dropped out of high school (and later regretting it) he still was able to achieve and maintain a level of professionalism, and journalistic quality that was admired by many of his competitors on the other major networks.
Jennings after some very productive teen years, he went from radio broadcaster to co-anchor of CTV's late night news. But when he was sent to the United States to report on the Democratic National convention, he caught the attention of ABC, and eventually was swept down south to work.
At the age of 26 Jennings became the head anchor of ABC's new which was called "Peter Jennings with the News", competition with the likes of Walter Cronkite (CBS), and David Brinkley (NBC). Unfortunate being inexperienced with American news and culture, presenting them with sort of a Canadian twist, with diction and grammar, He was replaced 3 years later.
After his brief stint as the head anchor he headed overseas, and was the first foreign anchor to open up a news bureau in the Middle East, it was located in Beirut, Lebanon. From there he covered many major news stories, traveled all around the world covering major conflicts and events such as the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, and more recently the September 11th catastrophe. Eventually Jennings would take the reigns of the ABC news in 1983.
I only have admiration for Jennings, being a Canadian, and a major news broadcaster, which I could only dream of becoming. Dan Rather commented a day after his death, on CBC that Jennings upbringing in Canada, allowed him to have a different perspective inside and outside of the US. Tom Brokaw commented after an emotional conversation with Larry King, that it had "too much emotion, and too little fact".

This little bit, really got me thinking about the state of media today, it seems that many news shows today, present the news in more of an "Infotainment" stand. For some reason there are many people out there that call the news boring, because its just a bunch of people talking about what has happened, so they being dumbing it down for these people, having flashy lights, big theme songs, more animated, younger, and attractive news anchors, that put emotions and opinions into their news broadcasts. Its like people turn to the news to be entertained, they want a news show that goes along with their values or opinions. Why does the news have to be interesting? Its supposed to tell you what the hell is happening in the world, and if you don't agree with the news for some strange reason, remind yourself that they are there to tell you what is happening, not what you want to happen. Many of today's news stations either indirectly, or directly shift your opinions, depending on how the news is told. When you have opinion pieces telling you how to understand a situation, you know something is damn well wrong with that show, and for many, it should be a flag, NOT to take all the information at face value. Sadly there are people that just watch for these flashy shows, and highly opinionated pieces and take everything at face value, thinking that they know everything about the world, when they have never even read a book in their life, or lets go a step further, never seen a colored person in their lives. Its all about the almighty dollar, the more viewers, the more money rolls in, why? Its those evil conglomerations, if any of you were lucky enough to watch SNL in 1997-ish, they had this amazing 'School House Rock' parody that was funny, but almost accurate portrayal of how these conglomerates work (If I can find it, I'll try and get it on the site). News stations of these major networks, such as ABC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and CTV (a Canadian one for kicks) all are examples, of conglomerated media outlets. This degradation of the news in order to achieve higher viewers, has really affected opinion's of the people who watch these shows.
Compared with shows such as the BBC, and CBC, all publicly owned, are much better to get information from, rather then from news companies. (Even though they still have some Bias, it is less prominent, then the other major stations. And they don't tell you what stance you should take, they let you make up your own mind.)WOAH! What an amazing concept, except I'm too lazy to actually go out and learn more so I'll just agree with everything that your saying.

Anyways, I think I left out a lot, cause its late, and I work tomorrow (whipping noises here), but I might get back to this later. But please all of you amazing special Pleasant Interruption readers, don't let the media control your thoughts and form your opinions, have an open mind, and look to other sources for information, don't get blinded by the bright lights. (How do you like those apples Nana)

Peter Jennings R.I.P. (This one was for you)

Jennings, the Rawkingest Anchor That Ever Rawked Anchors

2005-08-09T16:08:00.000-04:00

It's time for us to say our farewell to Peter Jennings. He's been a fixture of American news and of Canadians watching American news. There's not much else that I could say that hasn't already been said somewhere else, and I didn't know him personally. But I know that he did have some influence on me, as I did entertain the idea of being a journalist at some point. Also, he was probably the most rock and roll out of all of the big three anchors (maybe he's tied with Brokaw, I don't really know, but he definitely beats Rather).

Rest peacefully, Mr. Jennings

On a Strange Sort of Pointlessness

2005-08-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

People do all kinds of pointless things. I name my electronic gadgets.

My habit of naming things that I own began with my first "two-wheeler" mountain bike. It was my pride and joy; I'd ride it everywhere, going on little adventures with my friends(and not so little ones).

The problem with naming things, as most people know, is that you form an attachment with the named thing. When a child threw rocks at my bike and put a few dents and chips into it's frame I went nuts. I still haven't forgiven him. And I didn't learn my lesson.

Time passed for a while and I didn't really name anything else. I got video game consoles which I could have named Peter or Sally, and used family computers I could have called Bill. (When I built my computer I did name it Rosie, [Rosie is the name of the robot maid from the Jetsons, and is a name that I'm fond of. It's also called Rosie because when I turn my computer on it talks in a female voice. I'm serious.] That's a story for another day.) But all of this would change when I got my first discman.

I didn't really have a name for it, but we formed an immediate connection from the moment that I wrenched it from it's moulded plastic prison that fall day 5 years ago. The discman was with me through thick and thin: through backstabbings from friends, through being turned down comically and repeatedly in school by girl after girl, through my first love in grade 12, and through my first heartbreak months later. I've taken it to two other continents, and to various provinces and states. It's been with me through cold weather and hot, and through exams and vacations. I don't think it would be much of a stretch for me to say that I love the think, but I won't. We throw those sorts of phrases and words around so much that they lose their meaning. But that really is the feeling I get when I put on my headphones and walk to class every day.

But when I came back to Belleville this summer I left it behind. I guess I needed a clean break from it all because our relationship is over. 5 years is long enough, and it's probably time for a change.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To Low

2005-08-06T15:47:00.000-04:00

#5.) Low are not from the UK.

#4.) They pretty much defined a whole genre of music, aptly called "slowcore" for it's slow but powerful force. (from their bio) "The idea, all that time ago, was to play as slowly and quietly as possible[.].."

#3.) Mimi Parker (drummer and singer), Zak Sally (the bassist), and Alan Sparhawk (on guitar and vocals) have been making music steadily for over 10 years and 7 albums.

#2.) The Great Destroyer, Low's newest album (released in January of this year) is one of the best album that I've heard. Ever.

#1.) You can sample some of Low's songs at their website, chair kickers dot com. Or, you can download the first song from The Great Destroyerhere, from download dot com

Work sucks

2005-08-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

There is conflict between co-workers, its getting terrible. Right now, the will to work (out of 100) is next to nil, It's like I am running on fumes. GO WORK!1!!

Ok, I'm going to post random links right now, just to fill space. Now they aren't just completely random, they are ones that I just thought were interesting, or funny, they at least deserve to be looked at. So don't be lazy.

- Al Gore, former Vice-President of the USA, started a new television channel focused on 18-(random age here, I don't remember exactly) and it hosts amateur video which is could catch the interest for people within the age bracket. We all know this already adds to his other great accomplishment...Inventing the Internet. Anyways, there are some cool videos on there so check it out.

- One of the last Absolute Monarchy's lost their King on Monday, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia for anyone out of the loop. Anyways he is credited for supplying the world with the countries deep oil wells, which made him one of the richest men on the face of this planet. His "close" relationship with the United States made many Saudi scholars angry. His decision to let the US into Saudi Arabia pissed off a lot of Conservative Muslims, like Usama Bin-Laden. I'll just let you read the article to understand what I am talking about, and if you don't believe it, then actually go out, pick up any sort of educational or even a history book, then read it, hopefully you'll understand. If you don't, and deny the obvious truths, then do the rest of us a favor, go lay in a shallow grave, and bury yourself, because you are useless.

What?!

2005-07-28T12:12:00.000-04:00

Everyone! I say this with great urgency, Listen to the new Queens of the Stone Age album - Lullabies to Paralyze - it is an amazing album, and deserves to be listend to. I'm listening to it right now, and its just awesome. Almost as awesome as Audioslave's recent release. But anyways, alot of their material is amazing, so CHECK IT OUT!!!1!1!!!110101001110

Other Things.

Hung out with a friend on thurday night, went to Montanas, and she said it was my Birthday, (Apparently I've had two nineteenth birthdays). I also have a picture of myself wearing a moose helmet, it is quite awesome. Some baseball people went to talk to me as well right after the charade, they told me to go watch their baseball game, I for sure will not go to it.

Age of Success

2005-07-26T00:34:00.000-04:00

I finished the sixth Harry Potter novel over the weekend. It was definitely worth the wait, despite having the ending ruined for me. My regular posting schedule will return.

Work Perks!

2005-07-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

Ok, it seems like every week, there is always something interesting that happens to the place I work at, and for some reason, I'm there to witness these crazy things that happen, or just to run into the most interesting people, that you'll ever meet.

Low rise tenement/low income housing, I've been in a lot of these things all across Belleville, and let me tell you, there are A LOT of these buildings here. Its good on one hand, that it helps people that really need it, but bad on the other because, it attracts a lot of bad people who are able bodied, but sit around all day and suck off the system. Anyways, there always seems to be a plethora of interesting people in these buildings, now I'm not talking about interesting as in to talk to, its more of an interesting as in who these people are. So when I go out on the truck to deliver free stuff to people who need them, I usually end up delivering them to these low-rises. First off, there are no elevators in these buildings, so when you have to deliver gigantic couches that are heavy as hell, up 3-4 flights of stairs, down narrow hallways, and into these puny apartments, its enough to make you hate life, because there is a stove to go with that couch.
Anyways, sometimes if your lucky, you actually get to go deep inside these apartments, like with this one lady, she had something like 5 cats (I am allergic to cats by the way) and we had to make a delivery to her place, upon arriving, we (the driver and I) run into a deaf woman, a blind woman, and a bunch of odd rubberneckers peering out from their doors. So I am in this woman's apartment dropping off some boxes of goods, and one of her cats just start hissing madly at the box, and me. I seriously thought it was going to gnaw my finger off. But anyways, after bringing a sofa into her apt, I'm supposed to get her to sign a sheet of paper, and leave, because there are other people that need stuff too, and their stuff is not going to arrive on its own, unfortunately, the lady asks me to screw on the legs to the chair, with the Deaf, the blind lady, and the receiver of the goods, who could have done it her self. Now I am not being mean or anything, its just that first of all, its not my job to put the dishes, and the forks into your cupboards, or put legs on a couch, secondly, there are other people that need their stuff as soon as possible, I can't cater to the needs of every individual there. Unfortunately, there are people that actually ask me to rearrange their furniture. Expecting us to cater to their every need, when they are receiving the stuff for free! There is another thing I don't like when we are delivering this stuff to some "needy" people, and they have several able bodied people (males) that could easily help out to carry this stuff in, but just stand around, and point to where they want their furniture (like we're Leons). Seriously now, they are in perfect shape, they could easily go out, get a job and PAY for this stuff from the store, but they don't. There have been many scammers that do it to us many times, its unfortunate, but it does happen a lot.

This one day when the driver and I loading on peoples vouchers (AKA free stuff), a coworker called the houses to check if the person was home so that when we deliver to their place, they'll be there to get it.
So when the woman receiving the stuff picked up, and said she was at home, she began to talk about how depressed and suicidal she was, then remarked about how she had a razor. The coworker quickly hung up the phone after a prompt warning. But we were to deliver to her place anyways. This woman lived in a loft in one of the downtown buildings, now, it may sound like lofts are amazing, I have to go out and say, these lofts are terrible, many of them are dilapidated dumps, with absentee landlords only there to collect the checks every month. So the best part is, there is only one way in, from the main street, so we had to park this big ass cube truck, half on the curb, and half on the street, in downtown, now if you been downtown, you know how small the street is. Anyways, upon arriving at the woman's apt, we knocked waited, and no one answered the door...hmm I wonder why she isn't there? So when we were leaving the hallway, the driver noticed dried up blood splattered all around the hallway, and stairs. It was an interesting observation, and we promptly left the building.
There are many low rise tenements around town that are really poorly maintained, with the most shiftiest people in them, again, not all shifty some are really awesome people. I think one day someone is going to go beserker and go on a shooting spree when I am delivering stuff to their place.

A few days ago, around lunchtime, I returned from getting my lunch across the street at the 7 Days Burger house which has 2 for 1 Burgers (Clearly a plug), When I entered the store, there was this long line up at the cash, and a woman standing there yelling bad things at the manager, about the store, and the customers. I minded my own business and went upstairs to the eating area because I didn't want to get involved in the petty squabbling among the customers.
When another employee returned from the downstaris, she told me what just unfolded (the yelling is still happening at this point). A woman accused another woman of butting inline, and then the other woman got mad and slapped her in the face(there is more, but I'll get to it). It was kind of funny to hear, so when the situation was contained, and the lady was banned from the store, the boss reviewed the tape with us, and it was quite the scene.
here's what went down. The woman is a usual at our store, so the clerks knew who she was. What happened was that she put her stuff down at the counter so that she could get checked out, but what happens was she put the stuff down, left the line (there were a few people behind her) and decides to check out the stand of stuff behind the counter (not exactly behind, but a bit to the right). Expecting for the rest of the line to wait for her she takes her time, the lady at the cash doesn't know what to do, so she checks out the second lady in line, but right in the middle of the checkout, the woman comes back into the line, expecting the lady to cash her out, the other lady tells her to wait, so when she hears this, she just starts talking trash about her, and the store. It was insane I heard her say that everyone in the store was ignorant, and that people should wait in line...So on an so fourth. With the other lady RIGHT BESIDE her, she began calling her ignorant, stupid, and many other names. Well the other woman got fed up, and gave her a nice slap in the face, then a fight almost broke out, but the other woman's husband split them up. And after calling an employee an alcoholic making a huge scene and basically pissing off everyone in the store, the woman was finally kicked out. A few hours later, the pigs came, and asked a bunch of questions, thankfully I didn't have to deal with them (because I really didn't see anything), and we all know how much I Love the Police.

work is great

Harry #@$!*%& Potter

2005-07-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

The new Harry Potter book is in stores. WE bring you this news first, in classic Pleasant Interruption style!

I am a bibliophile. I love books. I especially love books about space, and/or magic. I can't believe I typed that sentence, reread it, and kept it in the post. Anyway, I like the Harry Potter novels and I couldn't wait for the sixth one to be published.

I decided to reread the fourth and fifth Harry Potter novels in preparation for the sixth one (which was released this weekend). I then decided not to buy the book yet, because I'm waiting until I'm done the fifth one (100 pages left) so I can read it as soon as I get it (it being the sixth book). I finally, I decided to shut myself off from most of the websites I visit, so I don't see any strange spoilers about what happens to Harry and the Hogwart's crew.

I went to a website immediately after I decided this and read a spoiler (by accident). I hate the intarnets.

In the off chance that what I read is false information, I'll thank you all to not post any spoilers about the book on this website. If you do, I will actually hate you forever, regardless of what our prior working relationship was.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To Death From Above 1979

2005-07-17T20:06:00.000-04:00

#5.) Death From Above 1979 are not from the UK. (they're CANADIAN)

#4.) Their name is Death From Above 1979. The name is so long that it screams "importance"... or arrogance, either way.

#3.) Death from Above 1979 are friends with Broken Social Scene, Metric, The Dears, and Stars. Good bands tend to keep good company.

#2.) Their full length EP, You're a Woman, I'm a Machine, is supercharged with hyper-rock energy (times three, or so). Jesse Keeler plays the bass and the synths, and Sebastien Grainger plays the drums and sings. That's right, this band has a singing drummer, and no guitarist!

#1.) You can download their second single, Blood On Our Hands, from the aforementioned album, here.

And since I didn't say already, their official website is deathfromabove1979 dot com. There are a few other free mp3s there as well.

The Transportation Debacle

2005-07-15T06:35:00.000-04:00

I have a sort of "fear" of pushing the "stop" buttons on buses. I think that if I push them too early or too late that someone will notice. What they will do after noticing I can't really tell you, but this is one of my fears: people observing me not acting like a normal person would. I often joke with Hiro that there was some secret class that everyone took called "social skills 101" that I missed during school. At this class they would teach you things like "how to memorize bus routes" and "how to write cheques", or "which direction to step towards when you're passing someone." I always step to the right first by the way.

Last Monday I had to take the train back to Belleville, after spending the weekend in Ottawa for Canada Day. I awoke to the sounds of a jackhammer next door. Construction men were working on the room next to my friend's (Mark [Uzo temporarily, but I won't get into that... the names don't mean anything to alot of you anyway] and Arjun) apartment. I stayed there instead of at my place because I could take the bus just two stops to get to the train station. I had taken this bus route one other time with my other friend Tom.

I went to the bus station at around 5:30 and caught the bus at 5:40 pm or so. My train was scheduled to leave at 6:10. When my stop came up, I didn't push the button. I expected someone else to push it instead, so that I could leave the bus if this was my correct stop, and stay on if it wasn't. This doesn't make sense to any of you reading, and it doesn't make sense to me typing it, but that's what I did. I watched helplessly as the bus passed my stop and picked up speed down the highway.

The bus ended up going for two more stops before I got off (to St. Laurent station if you know the routes in Ottawa). I exited the station and started to skateboard back to the train station. ALong the way I had to content with the terrible wind of oncoming buses passing me, and going down a steep and rocky slope down to a sidewalk. I got back to the train station without a moment to spare: my watch read 6:05pm when I boarded the train to come back to Belleville.

The Return of My Favourite Weekly Post

2005-07-14T14:52:00.000-04:00

This is to let you all know that I'll be doing my "Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Listening To" posts again starting this weekend. The next couple of weeks will be about Canadian artists. If you have a recommendation for a band I should talk about, send me an email at polycarbonite (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Expect some self-deprecating humour tomorrow.

What the "mech"?

2005-07-13T17:46:00.000-04:00

I love my cornball title for this post. Okay, so some guy's company (the easy to remember, spell, and pronounce Neogentronyx) is making mechanical mobile suits (or, as we animé and Battletech fans lovingly refer to as Mechs). Neogentronyx is auctioning off their first prototype here. The price at the time of writing this is US $40,000 with no bids.

My favourite feature of the mech are the "clamp styled hands with optional locks for full on crushing or just gentle clasping", for those days when you feel like gently clasping your enemies to death. What? You thought I'd say the flamethrowers didn't you?

Live 8

2005-07-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

To be honest I don't know how we could have possibly missed out on talking about the concerts. Something felt strange, and I only just noticed that we didn't write about Live 8 a day or two ago.

My opinion of the concerts can be summed up by this 10 point list from fellow blog Productshop NYC. It can be found here (don't worry, it's short so I encourage you to read it).

I realize that the point of the concerts wasn't to raise money but to raise public awareness of African poverty, but I don't believe that it really did this effectively. People went to the concerts and said "poverty sucks man" and then went home and forgot about it again. And the points from Productshop NYC only convince me more that this is what happened. I'm glad I'm not the only person who thinks that Live 8 was a failure.

EDIT: To say that Live 8 was a complete failure is too harsh a judgement, considering the fact that the G8 have decided to increase aid to Africa and to reduce even more debt (I'm not 100% on that second part) to some of the poorer countries. If Live 8 was primarily what influenced this, then the concerts did serve some purpose. But I don't believe that this is the case. This almost suggests that without the added pressure of the Live 8 concerts, the G8 countries wouldn't have done anything about the poverty situation in Africa - which is completely false, because poverty was already part of the agenda of the G8 meeting. Arguing over how effective the concerts were in influencing the amount of aid being sent to Africa is a moot point as well, simply because there is no way of knowing.

Please comment on this, even if you agree with my position.

Terrorist Attacks on London

2005-07-10T03:12:00.000-04:00

In the typical Pleasant Interruption style, we bring you late breaking news (get it? It's a pun). The bombings in London, England on Thursday were the latest terrorist attacks on those countries who chose to help the United States in the war on terror. I know that the thoughts and prayers of Hiro, Tony, and myself are with those affected by the attacks. I hope this doesn't deter actions against terrorists around the world, by the British and by the other countries who wish to stamp out terrorism once and for all.

It's terrible that so many innocents are dying because of some people's twisted beliefs.

Racist Belleville People

2005-07-07T17:45:00.000-04:00

OK, now it seems like Belleville, just wants to be crappy at ALL times, there are no positives in this town, and for some reason, I keep running into the stupidest, and most ignorant people there can ever be.
There will be a lot of swearing in this article, because this incident just happened to me, so the rage and everything will be fresh for your consumption.

It was a long day at work, hot, boring, and dirty, which usually sums up everyday, unless there is something fun to do, like play with toys, or rummage through some vintage clothing. I walk the same way back and fourth to work everyday, and it usually very uneventful. So when I walk home, the only thing on my mind is, home, food, sleep. Unfortunately, today, there were two white guys walking the other way, nothing out of the ordinary. So when they came close to me, they stopped talking, and when they got next to me, one stupid fucker said "Hokkaido...(some other faux Japanese here)", laughed and continued walking. I was shocked, and it didn't even feel like it happened at first, but the first words out of my mouth were "Fucken Rednecks", I said it out loud, but did not yell it. Now let me say this now before any of you get the wrong impression, I am not a racist person, I have friends of many different backgrounds, religions, etc. And that I only said what I said out of pure shock. For some reason, the first words out of my mouth were "Fucken Redneck" I wish I had something better to say, but I didn't. Anyways, I just kept walking, and when they 2 guys where further away, they had the balls to turn around from the safe distance and yell "GO BACK TO JAPAN". I have never had anyone say anything like that to me before, especially in this shithole that is Belleville, I have gotten a lot of other more tame yet somewhat ignorant racial questions, but this was the worst. In complete shock at what just unfolded, all I could do was turn around and yell "YEAH, YOU FUCKING REDNECK". And continued walking. The two wussies were far enough away, that if I were to chase them, that they could easily get away. Classic "tough" Belleville people.

This incident along with many others, are enough of an incentive for me to do my best and never have to come back to Belleville, unless I really have to, this town is a terrible place to live, there is so much crime recently, its been plaguing the city. Even our own mayor was robbed, which says a lot. And the cops go after people like me in shitty cars...hehe. Also there is absolutely nothing to do, except go see movies, or get smashed, or for many drop out of High School and impregnate many women.
It seems like everyday there is another reason for me to really hate this town and leave.

Stuff that has happened.

2005-07-07T01:23:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm never on the computer for long enough to do any blogs, because my brother always goes on, even though he has his own, and it can easily be hooked up, he still decides to annex my computer.
So now, after some verbal harassment and physical abuse at the hands of Nana, I will post some interesting stuff that has happened to me recently.

Canada Day

It was a really hot day, even laying in one place playing "Cabellas' Big Game Hunter" made me sweat. After walking around a lot during the day, we came to the brutal realization that the beer store was closed, it was turning out to be a really crap-tasitc day. Fortunately enough we had some hard alcohol sitting around the house so I made myself a random mix, with grape pop, and quickly drank the volatile yet diluted solution. After Nana left with Uzo and Co. I waited for the OK to go, from Arjun, who was trying to get in contact with Marky Mark from The RoamerS.
Anyways, by the time I left, my slight drinkers high was gone, and I was to meet up with them at the Rideau Mall, which is a quick walk down the street. As I was approaching the entrance facing Rideau St. I walked by a group of rubberneckers at a scene, now I didn't really see how it happened, but all I heard was "He got Shot", as I got further, I hear another person say "Don't move him", and as I look to the ground on my left, I see this young man laying on the ground, with a group of people standing around him. All I did after seeing and hearing everything around me, for some stupid reason all I thought to myself was..."You don't see that everyday", and continued walking. I walked around trying to find Arjun, and Phil after waiting for a long time outside the mall, because the mall was closed, so I thought i would go to their stop, but the bridge was closed, becuse of the celebrations. So as I returned and passed the scene again, I saw a pool of blood, and a bunch of guys kicking around the poor guy's bling bling necklace that broke off during the altercation I think, but like before, I just kept walking.
After waiting for what seemed like forever Arjun, and the Portuguese man of war, Phil Vicente, finally showed up and we headed for the hill.
It was damned busy, and there if there is one thing that pisses me off, its SLOW PEOPLE, they damn well walk the slowest, even though they are young and agile, they take their damned time walking, and because it was difficult to move, it just made things 10X more annoying. Eventually we migrated to the corner of Metcalfe, and Wellington, which is on the other side of the street of Parliament Hill, and in front of the Infocentre, where we were supposed to meet up with Nana with Uzo and Co. By the end of the show, I ended up on top of some newspaper boxes, and witnessed the exodus of Biblical proportions, while looking for Nana with Uzo and Co.
Eventually we decided to abandon hope and we finally got in contact with Mark. Eventually we ended up going to Phil's then driving to Clarly's, then Nana showed up, and the rest is History.

The Prom Crashers

Now I don't think it was really "Crashing" the party, more like showing up and causing a disturbance. Everything that Hiro said basically sums up the evening, but I should add some things to the story.
Ok now I wasn't "Extremely Drunk", I was "pretty drunk", or "fairly wasted", but not enough for me to keel over or anything. And for those who have yet to see me drunk (which is rare), I get rowdy, like I'm bouncing off the walls almost, a good example would be giving a 5 year old kid sugar, and watch the kid wind up and just go. I have the mentality of "Go Hard or Go Home" with drinking, if there is something guaranteed awesome that's happening, then I'll get completely shitterhoused, but if not, then a few drinks to wet the whistle and I'm done, because there is no purpose to really drink.
Anyways back to the story, there was a lot of yelling, laughing, honking whilst in an automobile. By this time, the drunk was almost gone, but the rowdy and semi-perma use of the outdoor voice was still present. When we got to the party, we easily got in, I remember walking around, talking to the Deejay's, because I know them, and also because I am awesome.
I also remember shotgunning beer that Hiro found in the fridge (thanks again Hiro), once I finished shotgunning the beer, I threw the not yet empty can at the fire, but because I was pretty drunk, it just dropped down in front of me, but upon realization that there was some more beer left in the can (7 seconds later-ish), I picked it up off the ground, drank the rest of the beer out of the shotgun hole, and threw it back at the fire...I missed again.
I ran into a lot of familiar faces, some were awesome and actually talked to me, but some were pompous sons of a bitches that were too good to talk to me. I actually said hey to them, some said hey back, but some just kind of looked at you and then walked away, seriously now? Are you too good for your own kind to even come down from your ivory tower to even talk for a bit.
I don't care though, I just wanted to point out that there were some jack asstors in the crowd, who thought they were better then everyone, especially me.
The best part of the night was the yelling, and finding the treasure that was beer, thank goodness for Nana's hawk eyes at night, NO...Wait...Owl eyes at night, yeah that makes more sense. Spotting the cache naively left unattended, and it was our duty as responsible adults to confiscate the illegal paraphenelia, and consume it, just to make sure it was what we thought it was...And it was.
We were in the front drive way, which was shaped in a U shape, where we finished our confiscated goods, and decided to return to the party in the backyard to bid adieu to the folks (the good people, not the asses), when the parent AKA "Supervisor" of the party came out and kicked us out. Oh well, hope she has fun cleaning up broken beer bottles in front of the house.
OH yeah! I almost forgot, while all this happened, I was wearing a foam visor that had the words "Wal-Mart" on it...At least I think it said that...It might have been "Wally World", oh well, it doesn't matter.

The Geek Hierarchy

2005-07-05T02:13:00.000-04:00

This has been passed around the internet like a spliff at an Arts party, but I still think that it's relevant to any conventional conversation about geekyness. If you ever wanted to know where you stand in relation to other geeks, here's your answer.

In case you were wondering, I fall under the second level of comic book fans, between the first level of anime fans, the third and fourth levels of sci-fi book readers, and I'ma video gamer and roleplaying gamer. I'm also a sci-fi/fantasy lit fan, I watch sci-fi tv shows, and I'm a trekkie.

If you don't know what a "furry" is, then leave me a short message and I'll devote a humourous post to them.

The Guy Who Fights People

2005-07-02T12:03:00.000-04:00

When I was walking to my friend Carly's place yesterday to hang out with the chums, I overheard a conversation between a policeman and a woman. I like listening in to conversations between the police and drunk people, for reasons which I think are quite obvious. This one didn't disappoint. Apparently there was some guy on the next street over who was randomly fighting people as they walked past him on the sidewalk. She was telling the officer about this, and he was trying to get her to come quietly into the back of his squad car for some reason. I made sure to go one block out of my way to avoid any confrontations. I didn't feel like killing anyone on Canada Day.

Nana's Canada Day

2005-07-02T11:38:00.000-04:00

I'm going to post in disjointed point-form sentences,and probably switch back to normal well formed sentences near the end. I just thought I'd fill you in.

- Got back to Ottawa on June 30th around 9:45 pm. Hitched a ride from Tony's brother, Patrick. When we got back we discovered two strange things: our only phone (a cordless) couldn't hold a charge, and the internet wasn't working. We were cut off from the world.

- At around 11:30 pm I fixed the internet problem, but the phone still wouldn't work (the battery is still weak even as I type this). I suspect that the battery is dying or something. This is supported by the fact that I bought the display model of my phone instead of a new one.

- The next day Tony and I went out for some McDonald's breakfast. I had Burger King for lunch. I almost had a triple threat, but I didn't go out for Wendy's for supper (or dinner, depending on where you're from). Instead, I went to this Mexican restaurant in The Market (a section of downtown Ottawa) called Ahora. I went there with my friend Uzo, his girlfriend Monica, and Steph. We all went to see the fireworks at Parliament Hill afterwards. It was a spectacular show, with fireworks shaped like hearts and happy faces and stuff.

- I was supposed to meet some friends after the fireworks, but I never got around to it. Instead we walked back to campus to see Monica off at the bus station. On the way I saw some high school friends (Mike Henry, Brad Delaney, etc).

- After dropping Monica off, Steph, Uzo, and I hung out at her place for a bit, talking and eating peanuts. We left to go to this party that didn't exist. After finding that out, I went home and caught a message on my answering machine, which revealed that the guys were all at a different house. I parted ways with Steph and Uzo, and went over to Carly's place.

- WHen I arrived (it was 1:30 in the morning or something) everyone was already done drinking. I chugged down a beer and we went to get soem pizza. After grabbing some slices we walked back to Carly's. her roommates just got back from their night out. I helped one of them by giving her her clothes which were behind some cushions on the couch. They included, but were not limited to: a bikini bottom, and some undergarments. I was trying to be helpful, but I kept picking up her underwear and stuff.

- The night winded down after this. I got a drive home from the one and only Phillip Vicente (amazing driving skills by the way!) and settled in for a good night's sleep.

So there you have it, the raw feed of sensory information as I rememeber it. Happy Canada Day to everyone, and I hope you all had good nights.

The Prom Crashers - My Account

2005-06-27T18:38:00.000-04:00

Fresh and rejuvenated from another 12 hour sleep, I will give you my condensed account of the events of last thursday. Hiro covered everything, so I won't go too far into things.

There were alot of people whose names I forgot. These people had a prom that night, and we crashed their party.

END

The Prom Crashers - What a Great Night (for Belleville)

2005-06-24T02:46:00.000-04:00

Apparently Nana has beaten me to the reporting of tonight's escapades. However he has graciously left out the details as to grant me the honour of telling the story.

It all began earlier this week. I sent out an e-mail to Nana, Tony, and two other hometown friends, Ryan and Jordan. I e-mailed them to let them know that I'd be in town for a couple of days because I had to take my G driver's license test on Friday (today) and I suggested that we should go out for some wings and hang out while I was in town. I shortly thereafter learned that NCC (our old high school) was having their prom on the Thursday night. Tony also knew of this and had suggested we go crash the after-party in order to reinforce the point that we are "bad-ass".

Fast forward to Thursday evening. The 5 of us went to Kelsey's to go enjoy some cheaper wings. I say cheaper because at $0.49 each, they can't exactly qualify as cheap wings, however they are indeed cheaper than their usual wings. Over the course of the 2 hours or so that we spent at Kelsey's, Tony became quite drunk. We then left to go enjoy our night out in Belleville. Now as you may or may not have heard from the rantings that have taken place here at Pleasant Interruption, there isn't much to do in Belleville. Surprisingly, driving around aimlessly with a bunch of good friends while listening to loud music is a lot of fun. Throw in some yelling at random people, an abundance of honking, driving on surfaces that cars shouldn't be driving on, and a little bit of drift-style driving and you've got yourselves a rather high fun factor.

As we drove around all over town, we worked desperately against the clock to find out where the prom was being held. We first tried the placed called "The Banquet Centre" or something stupid, which is where our prom was held a generous 2 years ago. We drove around their parking lot yelling at the kids a couple of times and then drove away, thinking we had found the prom. We later returned to ask them where the after-party would be but then we found out that it was the prom for some other school. Disappointed, we drove all across town to various other locations that we thought may be holding the NCC prom. We finally got a hold of a younger friend who had gone to the prom, and through him we found out where the after-party was being held.

By the time we had arrived at the house, most of the grads were already there and the DJ had arrived at the same time as us. I must say, it was a pretty solid prom after-party. Granted, it was nothing compared to any university kegger but as far as high school goes, I was impressed. They had a huge bonfire going, a couple of porta-potties, a shitload of tents, and DJ'd music! It was kinda weird being at a party with a bunch of kids that were 3 years younger but it was nice to see a lot of familiar faces too because when I was in high school I had talked to all these kids when they first started high school.

What was destined to be a mediocre night took a turn for the better. A friend of mine Andrew graciously (or drunkenly) gave me a beer. Around the same time I saw Tony had somehow acquired a beer as well. Shortly afterward I went into the house and saw one of the girls (also a friend of mine) who lived at the house. I was like "Uhh do you have any beer I can have?" and she's like yeah hang on...goes to the fridge, then returns with a beer. I then asked "Whose is this? And can I have more?" She told me that it was her mom's and that she didn't want it anymore. I'm not sure if she was telling the truth or not, but I really didn't care. 30 seconds later I was walking out of the house with a free 6-pack of beer.

I'm a nice guy so I shared my spoils with Jordan and Tony and we continued to enjoy the night. Not too long afterward, Nana came to me saying "Hiro! Are those full bottles of beer over there?" I glanced over at the side of the house and like an oasis in a desert there laid half a 6-pack of beer. We cautiously walked over to the bounty and confirmed that they were indeed 3 full bottles of beer. After ensuring that nobody was looking we quickly snatched the prize. Silly kids, who leaves their beer lying around out in the open? As we were walking back toward the bonfire, eagle-eyes Nana identified another stash. A box of beer lying in the shadow of a shed. Upon examining, we were greeted with 4 more unopened bottles of beer.

In summary, we ended up leaving the party having consumed over 15 free beers.

Good times.

Good times, indeed.

The Prom Crashers

2005-06-24T01:58:00.000-04:00

Tony, Hiro, and I, along with Jordan and Ryan (some friends from our high school days) crashed the Nicholson Catholic College Prom after-party. We all graduated two years ago, except for Jordan, who graduated three years ago. Stories about this night will be told by the three of us bloggers sometime in the upcoming week (I hope). Until then, keep checking back for your Pleasant Interruption.

The Condensed Update

2005-06-23T23:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, prepare yourself for a very fast-paced post.

The reason is as follows: I have been wanting to get back into the blogging rhythm for a while now. However my problem is that I have a huge backlog of important events in my life that I need to report, yet to talk about them in full would most likely require entire posts dedicated to each topic. As such, I am in this endless cycle of wanting to write about what's happening in my life yet I don't want to talk about it until I'm caught up on things to talk about. And faced with such a huge list of things to talk about, I don't get around to doing it.

Tonight I went out for wings with Nana, Tony and two other friends, Ryan and Jordan. The subject of blogging came up and after a short discussion with Nana, we concluded it is best that I simply state the important events, with some quick description, that occurred in my life so that I can resume regular blogging.

On May 24th I was supposed to get my G license. I went in and filled out a form asking how many times I had driven on the 401 and other highways in the last 3 months. I answered with approximately 3-4 times. As a result the examiner wouldn't let me do the test because she said I was "too inexperienced" and a "safety risk". I believe it was due to the fact that she was a bitch. I was further insulted when the clerk inside told me that I should "go practice" my driving skills by driving aimlessly on highways.
I went to Halifax for the last week of May for my sister's graduation. It was on May 26, the day of my birthday. It was incidentally the most boring birthday of my life. However later that night I tagged along to a grad party thing or whatever at some bar and ate a shitload of food for free. I also went out and got drunk for the 3 following nights so it wasn't a total waste of a week.
On the following Friday I had a joint birthday party for myself and my roommate Dave and it was quite possibly one of the messiest nights of my life. I remember making it to the bar, stepping out of the car while repeating to myself "act sober act sober act sober act sober" and the bouncer actually let me in. About 5 feet past the bouncer I saw my roommate Mike and remember yelling "MIIIIKE I MADE IT IN!!!" The next thing I remember was following my other roommate Tony and his girlfriend Mel out of the bar. This was not because I had gotten kicked out, but because I had spent an hour or so in the bar that I absolutely have no recollection of, and then left. I then woke up the next day with 3 "Pesticide in Use" signs and a giant wooden "Churchill Townhouses" sign beside my bed. I also learned that having a camera is very important in recording events because when I looked through the pictures the next day, approximately 50 out of the 110 pictures showed events that I did not remember and for all intents and purposes never took place, had it not been for the camera.
I am part of a group at school called the UW CREW. Think of what a high school student council does, but on the scale of a university. We planned, organized, marketed and ran a school-wide trip to Wonderland in under 2 weeks. About 4 of us spent about 15 hours/day in the office. My daily routine pretty much consisted of getting to campus at 9 am then going home after 1 am the next day. It was the busiest 2 weeks of my life but it was also the funnest 2 weeks of my life.
Myself and my roommate Mariano are the main stage managers for the Canada Day celebrations in Waterloo. It's like the main festival for all of the Waterloo/Kitchener/Cambridge area and draws like 80,000 people. The headliners are Magneta Lane and Emm Gryner. There will also be an appearance by....Robert Munsch! Yes that's right, the man who wrote The Paper Bag Princess and dozens of other children's books. I'm pumped.
Last Wednesday (June 15th) I officially withdrew from Computer Engineering. Because it's halfway through the term, I can't start any new courses so I'm no longer in school for the rest of the summer. In the fall I'll be switching into a Business and Economics program.

This concludes the condensed update of my summer life. Now hopefully I will continue making regular posts.

The Review...Finally.

2005-06-23T04:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, my unintentional hiatus is now over, and I need to keep up with the blog, but in the time that I have not posted, I have: Found God, Discovered the formula for Cold Fusion, Deciphered Davinci's Code, single handedly and simultaneously brought down all the communist and fascist regimes. Unfortunately none of this has happened, I just wanted to pull your leg, and make my life sound a little more interesting. (joy!)

Anyways, it's time for me to finally give the "Out of Exile" review

Audioslaves sophomore album has gone beyond expectations, this one stands alone from their first CD though, because the songs seem to have a better cohesion, rather then their first one, which was basically Rage Against the Machine, with Soundgarden in the mix. Not to say that their first album was under par, but that this one sees to stand alone, compared with their last one. Their first single from "Out of Exile", "Be Yourself" has topped the rock charts, (The song is based on The Beatles movie "Let It Be"), and has shown the band in a more mature, focused direction, which will most likely bring more great hits in the future.
Their new CD has many quality songs such as "Your Time Has Come", "Man or Animal", and "Heaven's Dead", but listening to just these songs won't do the band, and the CD any justice, so I recommend that you listen to the entire album, because it is great. I was a little disappointed that the CD did not have any hits that could have paralleled "Show Me How To Live", or "I Am the Highway", but like I said before, this one seems to stand apart from their other one.
The lyrics are more deeper with this album, songs such as "The Worm" and "Dandelion" hold special meaning to lead vocalist, Chris Cornell. With "The Worm" it reflects his past, how he was consumed by drugs, and close people around him that have just left him. Also with "Dandelion", it was written as a dedication to his young daughter.
Like any song with Tom Morello, there is always a solo, and in this album, the solos are just incredible, they aren't like the old 15 minute long trippy solos, but solid short, and give the songs an awesome dimension that can only be understood if you listen to it. The other members, Tim Commerfold, and Brad Wilk, also provide amazing base and drums respectively. Commerfold commented that "Out of Exile" has been the best CD he has ever done, and with a career like his, this meant a lot.
So with this quick review, to sum everything that I have said, you need to listen to this CD, because it is amazing.
GO NOW!!

Other Things:

- Ok, Clearly, my experiences in Belleville haven't been good so far, and to make things worse, just add Cops, I now have a very large "Disliking" for the Belleville Police. All because my friend and I were driving around in an older model "boat" car.

My friend, lets call him "Phoenix", now Phoenix and I had been driving around town in his fathers car running some errands, and after we left DQ, cops began to follow us, and after a few streets and turns later, they decide to pull us over. They began harassing Phoenix asking him a bunch of stupid questions, and they began to talk about how the car is a rust bucket, and should be off the road. Now let me tell you this, his father drives that car all the time, and he has never been pulled over by the pigs, EVER. Now I do have respect for the police, they are there to look after us, but for this, I knew we did NOTHING wrong.

We stopped by the beer store earlier and didn't bother to put it in the trunk, because we just thought that we'll just end up back home, so it was on the floor in the back seat, and considering the car, it was hidden pretty well, you had to peek in over the seat to really see it (The beer is "Bohemian" if you wanted to know). So when the cop was talking to Phoenix, he peeked in and saw the beer, and because Phoenix is underage, I thought we were in deep, because on top of this, his fathers car didn't have any registration, or insurance on it, or any that we knew of, because he rarely drove it. So the cops began harassing Phoenix about the beer and why didn't we put it in the trunk, rather then leave it out front.
Here is an idea of how the conversation went:

Cop: Have you been drinking tonight?
Phoenix: No I haven't had anything at all.
Cop: Anything?
Phoenix: Well...Milk, and water.
Cop: I meant alcohol.
Phoenix: Nothing!

They just asked a whole load of stupid questions, and Phoenix, was scared, like he was shaking, not because he's a wussy or anything (maybe he is, I don't know), but its because he can't afford to get another speeding ticket, or else he won't be able to drive in from out of town to go to work. So when they finished harassing him, intimidating him, they just left. WITHOUT seeing any registration, or insurance on the vehicle. Now you can sit there and tell me that they called into the dispatch to get the confirmation that the car checked out, and that the names coincided. But you tell me this, if you were a cop, stopped some kids driving around in a shoddy car, with no registration and insurance, just a license, and beer in the back, wouldn't that be pretty suspicious?
Anyways, it just made me angry that the cops stopped us for really just doing nothing wrong, now if I was drunk, and causing problems, then yes, I probably deserve to be stopped, but here, nothing was done wrong. Just a bunch of small time cops looking for the next big bust, so that they make the headlines (above the fold). Thanks Belleville.

- On certain mornings when I walk to work, at the "four corners" there is this man, usually at the same time each morning, in the phonebooth by the bank, and what he does is put the phone up to his ear, and then start jamming on random numbers really quickly with his index fingers from both hands. Kinda' weird, and thought it was worth noting.

- The show "Rescue Me" is pretty good, it takes place around the lives of a group of firemen from a firehouse in New York, now its not a reality show, or a 9/11 thing, cause that'll be sappy, and be used for massive propaganda purposes. Its a scripted show, starring Denis Leary, and it just follows the lives of some of the firemen in the house, each one facing personal problems of their own. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious. The show is well written, and acted. So if anyone has the time, watch it. If you don't have FX TV (Fox TV division) then its on Showcase on Tuesday's at 10 PM.

- Oh yeah, I almost forgot, The RoamerS show, it was awesome as Nana has already stated. The CD is amazing as well, my personal favorite's are "Give Me Back My Son" and "Crake". I have to also say thanks to Emma (Mark's Mom) and the entire Wilson clan for being so darned nice to us and making the experience a memorable one. Hopefully we can return and visit Tabbington next time The RoamerS have another show, sometime in the near future.

My Tambourine is Still Shaking

2005-06-22T21:14:00.000-04:00

We've had a slew of personal posts recently, and I'm sorry about that. But here's another one.

I'm at my parent's house now, probably for the rest of the summer. I'm away from my music, my adopted city, and most of my friends. Any thoughts of romance have been left in Ottawa as well. Belleville just isn't the kind of place where I'd want to start something up.

To make matters worse, Belleville has always has some sort of hold on me. Whenever I'm here I revert to lazy Nana. I've caught up with Maury (you ARE the father) on daytime tv, but I'm still behind on my soaps and stuff. The women from The View and Regis and Kelly are my universal constants.

I have an inexplicable attraction to Lunette the Clown from the kid's show The Big Comfy Couch (she is not a child herself, I assure you).

I'm listening to Beck's new album non-stop for the rest of the week.

This isn't how I imagined I'd be spending my summer.

Hiro has some news to talk about, but I don't know when he'll get around to it. I need to visit Tony again.

The good news is that I'll be back in Ottawa for Canada day, if things go as planned.

I just saw Tony Little in a Geico commercial.

Possibly My Only Show in June. Here is the Review

2005-06-19T17:10:00.000-04:00

Okay, first of all. I promise to continue with my "Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Listening to (bandnamehere)" column when I get enough money to buy cds and junk.

I'm back in Belleville now, so I'm back into my pattern of laziness. For those of you who don't know what or where Belleville is, I'm going to tell you that it doesn't really matter. It's my adopted hometown, and the hometown of fellow bloggers Tony and Hiro. This town just makes me insufferably lazy, and that's as far as I want to get into the subject.

Last weekend I went to my friend Mark's place (in Kingston, Ontario) to support him and his band, The Roamers. They had a cd release party at a local establishment called the Grad Club, which is located on the Queens University Campus. The other bands who came out to play were an up and coming band called "Elizabeth" from Vancouver, British Columbia, and a band based in Waterloo, Ontario called "Knock Knock Ginger."

Elizabeth played really well, with nice harmonies and vocals that reminded me of At the Drive-In. That's all I have to say about them really.

Knock Knock Ginger are the kind of band who make you want to jump up and move your limbs all over the place. But we didn't do that of course, cause we're all indie hipster kids, who cannot dance for fear of losing cred. I can dance of course, because my name is comprised of a consonant-vowel combo, repeated. That's worth 30 points of cred-akin to a triple word score in Scrabble or something. Anyway, Knock Knock Ginger rule. I especially like the song titles "The Dancy Song", which (unfortunately) isn't on their website. When their cd comes out I'll definitely be picking it up.

The Roamers were the last act up. They were headlining, so it doesn't make sense to be the first band because we could watch the headlining act and leave. That's why the headliner goes last. I'm assuming that you're all mouthbreathing idiots out there because I want to take up more space on the site with my text. That's why I'm explaining everything in an unfunny way.

The Roamers went through their new and fantastic songs, starting with the sexy summer sizzler "Crake" and moving through all the songs on their new album, and a few favourites from their first cd. They called me up on the stage to sing a song (a cover of "You're Just What I Needed" by The Cars), so I got to ham it up in front of the crowd. They closed the show up with a very 70s sounding song called "Tunnel Vision" (which I always call "Television" for some reason) which is quickly becoming one of my favourite Roamers songs.

The night folded up pretty quickly after this, with a quick cake cleanup by Mark's awesome mom Emma (hello, if you're reading) and the selling of some cds and stickers and stuff. It was a strong opening to the official unveiling of the new Roamers songs. These guys can only go up from here, and it'll be interesting to see how things go (and I'm not just saying this cause I know the guys in the band... well, maybe a little bit)

END

P.S: the keyboard player (who is a girl, if there is any confusion here) from Knock Knock Ginger gets 20 cuteness points from yours truly, and 10 awesomeness points for being an awesome dudette: a total of 30 points. She tickles the keys, and tickled my heart.

The Roamers's CD Release Party

2005-06-12T03:08:00.000-04:00

Discuss.

Batman

2005-06-09T10:57:00.000-04:00

So have you ever noticed how whwnever the Justice League has to fight some giant monster, Batman is always swinging around trying to do stuff, but then ends up thinking up strategies to win the battles? There's alot of dust on my desk.

Michael Chabon

2005-06-09T10:55:00.000-04:00

I finished reading a book where the climax was where the main character throws caution to the wind, turns gay, and has crazy sex for the next 100 or so pages. It wasn't very believeable.

Bows + Arrows

2005-06-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

It was my brother's birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday Kwaku, you are now 17 years old.

I refuse to make an MSN My Space because of my unwavering loyalty to Blogger (although I did cheat on you for a bit with Livejournal)

I recommend playing any and all Ted Leo songs on constant loop, while playing Jenga.

I haven't slept in a day.

Season Finale - rama

2005-06-02T19:43:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been pretty lively around here recently, with everyone talking again, so with this dead air in between, I have decided to write a review of season finales of all the shows that I have watched, and enjoyed over the year. These shows consist of 24, Smallville, Lost and The O.C.
** If you haven't seen any one of the shows, then don't read any more, there are some spoilers, proceed with caution.**

24
This was the first season that I really sat down to watch the entire show, and follow the story closely, and to sum things up, it captivated me. The story follows around Jack Bauer a counter terrorist unit officer, that gets the job done, under any circumstance. Bauer played by Keifer Sutherland (good ol' Canadian lad), and he does a damn good job playing the role. This was the 4th season, and the story took place around a group of Middle Eastern radical terrorists, trying to make their voices heard in an America through malicious means. With many action pact events, such as the kidnapping of the Secretary of Defence, the attempted meltdown of major nuclear power plants around the United States, the downing of Air Force One, and finally the theft of a nuclear missile shot at Los Angeles, which was diverted in time. The season finale was great, and brought the show to a very suspenseful ending, leading to the fake death, and Exile of Jack Bauer. When the show comes out on DVD, it is recommended that you watch it, because it was amazing.

Smallville

This was the shows 4th season, and to my opinion, wasn't it's best. It started out really weak, and was a MAJOR change from the previous three seasons. But The show redeemed itself when it was rounding out the season, which is what returned the show to my "Best Show Ever" position. The shows focus didn't seem like it was moving forward since the season before, it was kind of stuck in a sex oriented focus, and this took away from the story and the show a lot, but it began to change back to how it was the previous seasons...Awesome. For all those out of the loop of what Smallville is about, it follows the life of a young Clark Kent (Aka. Superman) as he goes through high school, and with this being the 4th season, it's apparent that the show will soon end, and sadness will ensue. I only began following the show when the third season was finishing off, so I did a 1 weekish blitz of season 1, 2, and what I didn't see of 3, so that I coincided perfectly with the finale of season 3. Ever since then, I've been captivated with the show, and whenever I hear the starting theme, there is a big smile on my face, because its just so awesome. I wasn't much of a fan before, I only knew a bit about it, but there was something about the show that just captivated me, and drew my attention, so I just had to watch it.
The finale was great, it wasn't as suspenseful as the finale of season 3, but still, quite strong, and leaves a lot for next season, so hopefully they will continue with the excellence of the first 3 seasons, and focus on the story, and the finer details of the story. All I can say about the season finale is...Fortress of Solitude.

Lost

Now this was an interesting show, recommended to me by a friend, I didn't start watching the show till it was halfway through the season, then I had to catch up.
This is the first season of the show, and it focuses on a group of people, who are stranded on an island after miraculously surviving a plane crash, little do they know, they aren't alone on the island, and a bunch of supernatural stuff happens...I guess you would have to watch it to really get into it, because the premise of the story is believable, and everything that happens after the crash is messed up...I mean, really messed, but in an awesome way. The finale left a lot of things in the open, it was kind of strectched out, but it should be sufficient for attaching the story to the next season.
If you can see it, then see it, because its awesome.

The O.C.

I thought this season of the O.C. was weak, it started pretty good, and ended pretty good, but in between, there was a lot of nonsense, and Seth became very annoying, unlike his quirky sense of humour in the first season. There were many unrealistic scenarios, and there were a few useless characters that basically barely dented the story arc of the entire season...Seriously now, D.J.?
It was like because the first season was so successful, that they put less of an effort into making this season better then it was last season, like they were content with making it average, because they knew that kids would watch, no matter what...Easy money.
But the whole brother thing with Ryan and Tre, was really good, I kinda wished they gave it more time, but it still turned out pretty good. The season finale was quieter then last season's cliffhanger, which was suddenly resolved all in the first episode, which was kind of a let down (but I guess they didn't want it to drag on, so that they can get started with the new season and fresh stuff). So season 2 of the O.C. wasn't spectacular, but still worth the watch.

Other Things...

Went to see Star Wars last weekend, and it was great, a lot better then the first two, and really stayed true to the classic space opera that we have all come to love.

Audioslave's new album, is amazing, their CD, as of May 29th, is the number 1 selling album in The U.S. and Canada, now that is awesome. A review will come very soon.

OK, I really have to say this...Miss. Canada Universe, is amazing, there are no other words that can describe her better. I sit in melancholy over the absurdness of her amazingness (I don't even think that's a word...But for this occasion it is.)

Canadian Cancer Society, Relay for Life. For the last two years (last year, and this year) these words have meant, no sleep, and no pay, because I miss work, and stay up the entire night playing music. (because I'm a Deejay...Yeah, you know it). I selflessly sacrificed many hours covering 3 Relays last year, which I said jokingly, that I "did enough community service to cure a small third world country of disease for a year". It may sound like I am complaining (maybe a little bit), but its actually pretty fun to do, because its for a good cause, and you meet all sorts of people. But the no sleep factor is a bummer. But hey, it's what has to be done.

I was on this internet site that talks a lot about things concerning America (I'm not going to name it, because its really ridiculous), and the person who runs the site compared burning the American flag, with the descration of the Koran (the Islamic holy book, like the Christian Bible), now what irked me, was that it seemed the man was trying to compare the American flag to the religious object, therefore in a sense saying that the Flag is some kind of religious object (you can compare religious objects with other religious objects, but you can't compare a religious object, with something that has nothing to do with religion). Now I don' t think the old stars and stripes is a religious symbol, because it is anything but a "Blood Flag", but if he is trying to make that comparison, then there is something really wrong.
(Yes, a flag is what represents your country, and who you are technically, so people do get offended if you did bad things to it, but to compare the two, and try to justify that burning the flag is worse then burning a religious book, and if you agree with it, then you don't have your priorities straight. Now it doesn't matter what religious object it is, let it be the Koran or Bible, they should all be treated with respect. A flag represents you and your country, people may have spilt blood for it, therefore maybe making it a sacred object, but if you are a God fearing person, and for some reason, put your country and flag ahead of God (Allah, or Yaweh...it doesn't matter which), again, you have your priorities mixed up...and oh yeah, your going to hell.)

Hiro's Summer Update: Part One

2005-05-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

Well I think I just set myself a new record for the longest time between posts. Granted, I've been the busiest I've ever been in my life but I really do need to find more time for this poor ol' blog. Anyway, enough excuses, and on with the stories!

So a lot has happened in my life since I last made a post back at the beginning of the month. I'm now doing my 2B term and it's a real bitch. If there ever were a time that I absolutely hated being in Computer Engineering, it would be now. They call it the "2B or not to be" term. And they weren't joking. I have 5 engineering courses (so no bird courses!) of which 4 have labs! My schedule's pretty nice, being that my lectures go from 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, monday to friday with a 1 hour tutorial afterward that I usually skip. Ironically, last year in the fall I had 8:30 am classes everyday and I'd sleep in til noon or 1 pm whereas now that I have afternoon classes I get up at 8 or 9 am! Now this life would have been too easy so they decided to give us 8:30-11:30 am labs so I have anywhere from 1-4 of them in a week.

Outside of classes - which already take up way too much of my precious time - I'm playing intramural ice hockey, trying to get involved with the Engineering Society, I'm an exec of an organization called The Crew (we basically put on big events, shows, parties, etc for the students) and I'm also the assistant main stage manager for the Canada Day celebrations here in Waterloo. And I've been trying to go running and workout too but that's been neglected a few too many times.

All in all I've been ridiculously busy, but I'm loving it. Now at this point you're thinking to yourself how lucky you are for having a summer holiday while I'm toiling away at school but I swear that school in the summer is the greatest thing in the world. Life is just so awesome.

As eventful as this month has been, the last week has definitely been packed with the most action.

Sauble Beach: Hell on Earth

My long weekend was one of the most absurd weekends ever. Ramesh, who was one of the guys subletting from us over the last 4 months, rented a cottage up in Sauble Beach. Himself, my roommate Mariano and 2 other friends Meghan and Caustan all drove up to the cottage on Saturday morning. My friend Lisa and I decided we'd go up later that night as we both had things to do back in Waterloo that day. So apparently they found out the hard way that there could only be 5 people staying at the cottage and only 5 people. No friends hanging around, no visitors, nothing! I guess the afternoon consisted of 2 cars of people arriving at the cottage on 2 separate occasions, making tons of noise, getting kicked out by the landlord and also having the cops called in the 2nd time. There were also 7 dollar packages of hamburger buns and a barbeque from hell that spewed fire out the front panel. True story.

Anyway, by the time Lisa and I arrived we couldn't both get into the cottage officially since that would make it 6 people, so Mariano told us to unload all our stuff and to go find a place to stash the car then sneak back into the cottage. We of course could not find anywhere to park the car overnight. Over the course of driving around town, I also witnessed a massive brawl with like 10 guys just beating the shit out of each other. As tempting as it was to hop out of the car and join the fray, I decided it was best I enjoy the shenanigans from afar. Our alternative plan consisted of finding Lisa's friend's cottage and crashing there. However we only had an address with no directions and no map. We first went to the local Subway because we saw 2 police officers and figured they could tell us where to park overnight or help us find the cottage. They definitely didn't give a shit and didn't provide any help. We later returned to the same Subway to get some food but this time I noticed a stash of maps of the local area. Luckily we managed to find the street and we were on our way.

Upon arrival at the friend's cottage, we realized that everyone inside was passed out and there was no way for us to get inside. With our options dwindling and it being 2 am, we went with our last resort and ended up sleeping in the car out on the front lawn of their cottage. It was a cold night and just to make sure it would suck, we had left all our warm clothes and 2 sleeping bags back at the cottage. Lisa ended up sleeping with 1 foot inside of a car-interior-cleaning mitt, the other leg in the sleeve of her sweater and herself wrapped up in a tent (the only thing we didn't unload). Yes, the tent itself. It was pretty funny and I would have taken a picture but oh wait, we left that at the cottage too! I just slept half frozen wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

By 7 am we were ready to get the hell back to the main cottage. We figured we hadn't stayed overnight with more than 5 people, and we would just be visiting with 1 extra person so it would be fine. Now keep in mind that since 1) our cellphones barely worked, 2) there was no phone at the cottage, and 3) that we had only briefly talked when we first arrived at the cottage, Lisa and I were unaware of the events that took place the previous day nor were we aware of the fact that they weren't even allowed visitors at the cottage. Anyway, we made it back to the cottage while everyone was still asleep. Not to disappoint us, the inside of the cottage was colder than the inside of the car. Fortunately though we now had our sleeping bags so we managed to not explore further into the world of hypothermia.

The next day the 6 of us decided we'd make the best of this trip and somehow enjoy the day. Sure enough, while we were discussing our plans, the landlord and his sidekick came over and asked us to show him all our bracelets (the 5 "tenants" were given bracelets to wear). Of course, we now had 6 people and only 5 were wearing bracelets. Without any discussion he told us that we had until noon to move out. And just to make sure, he called the cops on us again.

After leaving the cottage we drove over to the main beach area to try to at least enjoy the rest of the day. We were clearly dreaming the impossible as we stepped foot on the beach and it was bloody chilly. I couldn't believe some people were actually in the water while maintaining consciousness. Needless to say, we were on the road back to Waterloo shortly afterward.

To summarize, we learned one valuable lesson that weekend: Sauble Beach is earth's manifestation of hell.

Happy Birthday Hiro

2005-05-26T19:25:00.000-04:00

Well, you are 21 today, which means you are now legal in the U.S., but that doesn’t matter, because alcohol sells there like opium in Afghanistan, (il)legal, and anyone can get their hands on it. Anyways, you are a year older, and posses more knowledge now then you did a year before.
But let me say one thing…Congratulations! You are one year closer to death! Yes, my pessimism comes in handy. Birthdays should be times of celebration, but for some reason, they mark the unfortunate progression towards old age, and the eventual conclusion/culmination. So enjoy your day of celebrations, even though you are in Halifax, so if you do “partay”, do so in moderation. BOOYAH

Out of Exile

2005-05-24T21:11:00.000-04:00

Prepare yourselves for the second coming! No, no, no...it’s not the apocalypse yet, actually Audioslave’s new CD is out today, it’s their sophomore album called “Out of Exile” if you haven’t already read the title of this post, and right now, I’m shaking in anticipation to listen to the entire LP. Their first single “Be Yourself” came out sometime in April, and to my knowledge, and what I heard once on the radio, that it topped the Billboard Rock charts, which is pretty fucken awesome.

Now if you have been living under a rock, or in a protective bubble, that shields you to all things foreign, and you don’t know who Audioslave are, they are made up with members from two of the Nineties most successful bands: Tom Morello, Brad Wilk, Tim Commerfold from Rage Against the Machine, and Chris Cornell from Soundgarden.

The members came together sometime in the early part of this half decade, and began jamming together, they were introduced to each other by some producer guy that worked with both of them (I don’t remember the chaps name…Rick Rubin I think it was…oh well), and before you know it, their first self titled debut album was released in 2002.

In my opinion, Audioslave is a lot better then Velvet Revolver, when comparing “Franken-Bands”, Velvet Revolver is a good band don’t get me wrong now, it’s just that to me right now, at this present moment, their music just doesn’t appeal to me, maybe it does to those who listen to classic eighties rock, but not me.

Audioslave on the other hand, is just plain amazing, their sound is refreshing compared to the generic radio friendly whiny pop punk (or as I like to call it “Corporate Rock”). They also give a more modern sound, compared to Velvet Revolver, who sounds like it’s still the eighties.

Also I personally believe that Tom Morello, is one of the best guitarists in the world, when you watch and hear him play his solo’s, it’s just insane how he plays, and the sounds he gets is just…mystifying, It’s like going on a heroin trip, without the heroin*. (FYI: Morello attended Harvard University and got a degree in the social sciences. Trent Reznor the lead singer from Nine Inch Nails, also attended the school, I don’t remember if they were friends or not.)

Audioslave recently played a live show in Havana, Cuba, and became one of the first American Rock & Roll bands to play a live open air show in Cuba since….ever! They just wanted to put the politicking away, and actually play music. I loosely quote Tom here, he said that music transcends politics, and people should not let politics get in the way…something along those lines.

This CD is going to be worth buying, because I like their music so damn much, I just have to support the band. Now I advise anyone who likes a band a lot, don’t download their music, go out and buy it, either online or in stores. The more people buy, the more the numbers go up, and it’ll motivate them to make more music, not because we are feeding those fascist bastards at the RIAA, but because the band we are supporting are amazing, and deserve our cash money.

Oh yeah, speaking of generic radio friendly whiny pop punk, I was watching “Much On Demand”, on our nations music station “Much Music”, and they had one of those insanely fluctuating polls, and they had Audioslave up against Avril Lavigne, and some other band or singer…I don’t know. Anyways by the end of the poll, Avril won by a lot, the other band came second, and Audioslave came last. I actually began to curse and I waved my archery fingers angrily at the television, in a failed attempt to get some kind of reciprocation from the incredible embarrassment they had to endure at the hands of pop culture mass marketed music icons, who just play for the money and to force feed their corporate image to us in today’s society. Just because certain bands and singers get marketed so much, it doesn’t mean that they are good, it means that they just want to make money, and with radio friendly singers/bands, it’s easy money, very easy money.

It’s just pathetic how much people idolize these figures that just sit around and talk aimlessly about how their last shopping spree went, how their photo shoot with some random magazine went and how they are “bad asses” by putting up a show in front of cameras. They also epitomize excess, because I associate punk with not being corporate tools, unfortunately with today’s pop punks…yeah, they are corporate whores. (“Look at me! It’s time to start a clothing line!”)

So to sum up this article, Audioslave is one bitchin’ band, and corporate rock, even though they can make “okay” music, they should market themselves under a different image, maybe it’ll make them more palatable for a wider audience, rather then vulnerable teenie-boppers.

* Disclaimer: I do not use heroin, nor do I condone the use of heroin, Listen to Audioslave instead, then you’ll know what I mean.

Other things…

I’ll write a review for the CD later, because as of right now, I’m trying to get a good feel for all the songs, before I start rambling on about garbage.

Good to see that I’m not the only one trying to keep this going strong through the summer (thanks Nana), but if Hiro, and Nana go dormant again, I’ll have to use this internet site for propaganda purposes.

So far, 24 season finale, and Smallville Season finale, actually, destroys government infrastructure…they were just that amazing, Oh yeah, OC as well….I’ll be a pompous son of a bitch, and review the season and finales of shows I’ve been watching…why? Because I have nothing better to do then, talk about nothing (joy!).

I guess that the media is somewhat liberal, because the environment around us is, but when one starts attacking the media, because they did something wrong and isn’t willing to admit it, and begin to blame it one the “Liberal Media” because they(the media) are trying to report what they hear, is compounding the problem. Conglomerated news media…is the devil, and makes people stupid. (Let’s have a 5 minute segment where all we talk about is why this one person is funny, and neglect that people are being killed in a war, in a country where I can’t even point out on a map! Oh yeah, not to mention that it’s ok to talk about why my religion is better then your religion.)

Some Adu-Poku style Ramblings

2005-05-23T22:48:00.000-04:00

So I just got back from my friend Arjun's place, where we watched the season finale of 24 (which was amazing!). I had a good walk home in the rain. The Walkmen were playign in my headphones and the light drizzle set the tone for some serious introspection. I flagged down a taxi by accident when I twirled my umbrella.

Random Wednesday

2005-05-20T19:39:00.000-04:00

Sadly it seems like my P.I. counterparts have neglected this poor ol’ blog, but fortunately, you have me, always dedicated to the cause, even though I have 56 K internet, which as I like to say, brings about the destruction of mankind, and all things awesome (IE. Me), plus it’s really slow.

But anyways to the story, It started with a slow day of work, running left and right trying to find something to do, because donations were slow coming. Besides being bored to the death, I just ran in circles to try and pass the time. When I got home it was 5:30ish, and I was damn tired, so I washed up and expected a quiet night, topped off with an episode of “Lost”. But that day, I lucked out, my friend Chris from Napanee, who went to Holy Cross for all those Kingston folk out there, but now is at Guelph University, was in town for the whole week for work, so he calls me up and asks if I wanted to hit up the grand Quinte Mall, and as fatigued as I was from the day I agreed to this random adventure, considering I really haven’t been out and about for leisure since I got back to Belleville in late April.

So I was thinking we’d drive up to the mall, because it’s quite the way away from where we lived, but surely enough, we ended up walking about 45 minutes to the mall. It was great though, I got to see the quaint town in a more relaxed state…no difference from before sadly. It was a good walk, and I made many observations as I progressed along North Front Street towards the mall. There are a bunch of stock cars, which kids get paint jobs, loud mufflers, and subwoofers, just to make it look awesome, when really it’s still a piece of shit car. They race around town acting like their car is the shit, when really it’s a piece of shit…you know what, they should just say they are redneck yokels, and join NASCAR, because it’s the same stupid thing. Oh yeah, and kids with subwoofers in their next generation Kay Cars the Chrysler Neon, and all you hear when they drive by, is that annoying vibration for their license plate, and inside driving the car is a Belleville gangster (obviously Caucasian) driving around like his car is awesome, and he owns the road. Ok you know what, get your redneck piece of shit car of the damn road, and shut the fuck up, you car is not amazing, no matter how much you try, you are NEVER going to be a gangster, because if you come from Belleville, you need your friends to gang up on someone you don’t like, considering you are a pussy, and can’t fight one on one.

Anyways, it was a fun walk, we went to the mall, and upon seeing a small Audioslave poster advertising its release date, I immediately got excited, not giddy or anything, just stoked. Walking around the mall saw some old high school people, but unfortunately, 2 years passing, they don’t fucken remember who the hell I am, I don’t give a damn though, shit happens, and there’s nothing I can do. Except be an arrogant bitch about it.

So Chris got birthday presents for his younger Sister and Brother, and we walked around the mall a few more times before hitting up Chapters, then out of nowhere, we are in the LCBO, buying beer. I ended up buying Steamwhistle, and let me tell you, it is awesome, an easy drink, smooth, and micro brewed in Toronto, just like how Alexander Keith’s was micro brewed in Halifax (I think), before it became a big company.

Anyways, this was still at the mall when I brought it, so we had to walk all the way back to my pad, which was a 45ish minute walk, so first while I was walking home with a 6 beer case of bottles, it was kind of awkward at first, waking around 2 clicks with beer in my hands, but after I really didn’t care, you always see other people walking around with 2-4’s of beer and they damn well look like rednecks, so I came to the conclusion that I look like and awesome Asian redneck, considering that there are none, then it makes me just awesome (you know it). We ended up hanging out on my porch drinking beer and reminiscing about the latter days, and the greatness of previous adventures.

So the day was salvaged, and the excursion turned out to be pretty fun, and the beer culminated a great day.

Other things…

Unfortunately no crazy people to talk about, there were some strange happenings, but nothing noteworthy, more soon hopefully.

I really "dislike" 56 K internet, I think its time to get high speed.

AUDIOSLAVE’s new CD is out on Tuesday! YEAH!!!!

GREEN DAY CONCERT IN SEPTEMBER....I tremor in anticipation.

"The Hour" with George Strombolupolous
Ok everyone, I’m going to recommend everyone to watch The Hour on CBC, because it is a great show if you want to keep up with things happening in the world today. He even talks about things that the mainstream media tend to gaze over.
Mondays to thursdays on CBC at 8.

Crazy Belleville Folk

2005-05-10T05:15:00.000-04:00

Well this might become a regular piece for me, as some people I meet in Belleville tend not to be the brightest people around.

So this week, my first week back to work and my second day on the job (May 4th), this one middle aged lady and her mid twenties son, they purchased a sofa bed from the store. It was pretty crappy, but they bought it anyways.
It was a heavy son of a bitch, so a co-worker and I carried it out to their car to load it on, unfortunately the car was a mid-nineties Chevy Cavalier, in rough condition. The lady told us to just throw it on the top of the car, so we did, and the top apparently dented inwards, then we asked if she needed any rope or twine or whatever so that she can tie down the bad mother of a couch. The lady declines and says:
"My son is going to hold on to it", now I don't know about you readers out there, but this thought of someone hanging out of a car holding on to a couch, reminds me of some backwoods redneck yokels driving around in an overloaded truck or car.
So my co-worker and I walked back into the store, and the reality of the situation hit me...this isn't the backwoods....this is Belleville...such a sad reality which I must face everyday.

Anyway, the next day another co-worker commented that the store was mentioned on the local radio station. I thought to my self "oh, must be some community thing". I couldn't have been more wrong. It turns out the lady who was driving with the couch on her roof was pulled over by the police because her son was hanging out of the car holding onto the couch and to add insult to injury, the lady was drunk! Seriously now, how terrible was this, the lady was issued a 12 hour suspension while her son wasn't charged with anything. All those images of crazy redneck people hanging off overloaded cars started to flood my imagination all over again. The only satisfaction this brought me, was that I (from a certain point of view) was directly involved in this flagrant violation of the law, and that the drunk woman was punished for her crime. (It was reported in the Belleville Intelligencer on the Friday of the same week).

Hopefully I'll run into more people who can do equal to even more ridiculous things in the upcoming weeks, cause it’s just so much fun to talk about.

Other things...

-I've noticed that some people in Belleville talked in a peculiar dialect, and it reminds me of many American dialects that come from the "Deep South" of the US. Now I'm not being prejudice or anything, it just sounds that way, and it freaks me out sometimes.

-People who blame things on the "Liberal Media" are insecure, and want the world to conform to their ideas.

-Smallville is the best show ever...even better then The O.C. this season...

Week One in the 'Loo

2005-05-08T22:58:00.000-04:00

Whew, it's been a week now since I've moved back to Waterloo (and since I last made a post!) and it's been one BUSY week. I think I've spent like 5 hours on my computer over the entire week. So now it's a nice quiet Sunday afternoon and I finally have time to sit back, take a breath and write a post.

Sunday was a loooong day, having moved out of Ottawa, stopped by in Belleville to drop stuff off, pick up summer things, then continue on to Waterloo. Not to mention being slightly hung over from the night before. Speaking of which, Saturday night was a blast. Got together with my roommates(Kat, Amanda, Justin, as well as Adrian and Steph the honourary roommates) and my friends still in Ottawa(Tony, Nana, Uzo) at headquarters(Brooks res). We made 4 delicious pizzas, and we finally had the bread dipping party that Nana and I had been planning on doing for over a year and a half since the days when we worked at Freeman's Winemaking(which is where we got the bread dipping herbs). It was a solid night of food, wine, beer, and playing guitar and singing. I wish we could have done that every weekend, but alas it was not meant to be but I am happy we got to do it at least once before I left.

We ended up going to Lower Deck in the Market but we didn't leave til pretty late so we didn't stay very long at all. The rest of the night can be described with the following picture.

These are the kinds of interesting pictures I find on my camera the next day after a night of much drinking. I love digital cameras.

Fats forwarding back to Sunday, that night we celebrated the reunion of The House (Myself, Mariano, Mike, Tony and Dave) in Waterloo with a BBQ. What a great way to kick things off.

Moving on to Monday. The only real way to get the ball rolling with the new term would be to have a party resulting in a ridiculously messy night. The house was in full force that night with 5/5 drinking and going out to the bar. We also had about 15 other people come to our house to party and most came to the bar as well. Last year, while totally wasted we made Dave(aka Daveed) dance to Trick Daddy's big hit Let's Go. Since then Dave has been known as Trick Daddy. Trick Daddy is like a hidden alter-ego that is buried deep within Daveed's modest outer shell and can only be coaxed out to the surface after a relentless barrage of alcohol. Trick Daddy is also a dancing machine, a mac daddy and overall the life of the party. As such, I use every opportunity available to me to summon Trick Daddy. I was indeed successful that night.

All in all it was a solid night of drinking ending with a new nickname for Daveed: The Ambassador of Southeast Asia.

Wednesday morning we finally got the internet. It was also the first Bomber night. The Bombshelter pub is 1 of 2 bars on campus and is the place to be on Wednesdays. We didn't end up going until 9 pm and the line was ridiculously long. I know! 9 pm! Ridiculous! We waited an hour and a half and barely moved closer to the entrance. Luckily though, while we were waiting in line we were treated to some magic tricks by my good friend James Goh from my comp eng class. He is sick, you just have to see him perform. Anyway we were a good 40-50 people away from the entrance and it was 1-in-1-out so we decided to leave. My roommates Mike and Daveed decided to go home and I kinda wanted to as well but I got dragged along to Phil's(another popular bar on Wed) with other friends.

All I remember was wanting Pizza so badly. So we ended up dancing there all night long and we finally left at like 2:30 am. We gravitated toward the Pizza Pizza across the street. They were closing soon. They had like 2 pizzas left. The 1 whole pizza was tiny! It was literally a medium being sold slice-by-slice. So we're about to leave and Choo Chon1(another buddy from comp eng) comes to me sayin he managed to get the whole pizza for 5 bucks! So I went back to the cashier and asked how much for the rest of the other slices. 4 bucks for half a pizza and then another massive slice. Deal. Best pizza EVER.

Thursday morning was glorious. A couple of days earlier we had gone to Office Depot and purchased a whiteboard. Not just any whiteboard. The largest whiteboard they had available. 4'x6' of glory. It came to 135 bucks after a student discount. We tried to fit it into Mike's Jeep but it wouldn't fit. We had to end up getting it delivered(for free!). Today it arrived. Tony employed his carpentry skills and mounted it on the wall. It now occupies an entire wall of our living room.

Friday was B.O.T. It stands for Beginning Of Term. It's an engineering thing. There's a Beginning, Middle and End every term of the year. It is just a party at POETS, the engineering bar on campus and chance to meet everyone. However before every O.T. there's an unofficial kegger called a Batch Party at a townhouse(known as Unit 36) nearby. They serve batch(which is ice tea and vodka) and beer. It is always an extremely messy affair and loads of fun. The night consisted of getting totally wasted at Batch then going to a bar.

Saturday morning I had to get up at 8 am so I could catch a 9 am train to Oshawa, where my dad picked me up and we drove to Mississauga to put on a karate seminar. This took up my day and the afternoon. I was back in Waterloo by 8 pm and by 10 pm we were at another kegger.

Finally today(Sunday) I got to just relax all day. The weather was just gorgeous. Had lunch out on the patio of Frontrow, sat outside on a picnic table all day at home, played catch with the roommates, had dinner outside, and finally got to unwind.

This was an insane week but it's only the beginning. Half the things I'll be involved in haven't even started yet. I think I'm off to a decent start though, given that I went to EVERY class this week. We'll see how long I can keep this up.

Til next time...enjoy your summer everyone.

So Long, Ottawa...

2005-05-01T09:35:00.000-04:00

...and Kat, Amanda, Justin, Nana, Tony, Uzo, Tom, Arjun, Steph and Adrian. (and Dan and Jeff although we didn't really get a chance to hang out much), (aaaand everyone at Natural Resources Canada, even though I highly doubt any of you actually read this blog)

Today I'm saying goodbye to my beloved Ottawa and will embark on a looooong journey back to school - first stopping by good ol' Belleville then finally moving back into my house in Waterloo.

Before I continue I would like to bring to everyone's attention the fact that the Pleasant Interruption crew will now be fragmented completely, our physical manifestations strewn across the globe (or rather, within a 6 hour stretch between Waterloo, Belleville and Ottawa). Fortunately for our readers our quasi-superpowers are not affected by physical constraints and thus we can continue to combine forces to deliver to you pleasant interruptions.

I'm currently packing up all my belongings and cleaning out my room to get ready to move out so I don't have much time to write a lengthy and detailed post, so I'll be recounting the events of this weekend sometime later this week when I have time to actually sit down and take a breath.

As I sit here typing this I have a smile on my face as I look back at the last 4 months and finally have a chance to reflect on how great of a time I had here. The prospect of being reunited with all my boys from Belleville alone was an exciting thought but the moment I moved in I was embraced by 3 awesome roommates and I've felt right at home ever since.

Another chapter in my life has ended. A chapter I wish did not have to end, but just like any good novel, you can't just have 1 chapter (in fact, this could be generalized to apply to any novel, good or bad). That would indeed be silly. And so I reluctantly and excitedly turn the last page to embrace the next chapter. One that will be filled with much growing, fun and Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo's (for The House!). [This last bit is an inside joke with my family in Waterloo that will eventually get explained]

Thank you everyone for an awesome 4 months! I promise I won't forget even once I am the ruler of the world. You shall all be handsomely repaid.

So long, everyone...and may our paths cross again.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To Ben Kweller

2005-04-30T13:33:00.000-04:00

#5.) Ben Kweller is not from the UK.

#4.) This guy is cool. Not Elvis (Presley or Costello) cool, not Oceans Eleven cool, but indie cool. And everyone knows that that's the only thing that matters.

#3.) When you are sad (or wasted), "Wasted and Ready" or any of his other upbeat songs will cheer you up and get you going. Ben sings about the craziest things, but it all seems to be relevant.

#2.) He's friends with Ben from Ben Folds Five and Ben Lee. Together, much like Devastator from Transformers or the robots from Voltron, they are The Bens. Honestly, I can't make stuff like this up.

#1.) You can snag some sweet sweet Ben Kweller mp3age here.

Oh, and if I didn't mention it before, his website is at benkweller dot com.

Oh, it's you again....

2005-04-29T15:00:00.000-04:00

Contrary to popular belief, I did not make a time machine to go back to 1967 to start guerilla warfare in Bolivia, nor did I get assassinated by CIA backed Nationalists....Anyways with summer fast approaching, people are going about their lives away from school/University, and unfortunately I have become a victim to the jobless coup-d'etat in Ottawa, thus forcing me to go back to Belleville to an old job that I have both despised and enjoyed working at.

Well what's my job you ask? It's at this quaint little thrift store located in downtown 'Vegas called St. Vincent de Paul, where the price of merchandise actually puts companies like Goodwill, and Value Village out of business...Corporate bastards. Anyways, my job consists of going around town in a semi-dilapidated truck/cube truck picking up donations from random places all around the area, it varies from small things like board games, to the larger items like big ass 200 pound sofa-beds made of 1970's steel. Oh yes, the herniated disks are on the horizon, the job could get boring at times for a person of my intellectual capacity, it also becomes a hell of menial hard labour camp type work. But besides that the job is quite nice, there's always new "treasures" to look through each day, and it gets me out and about, which slows down the boredom process. (This is me trying to convince myself that everything will be Okay). After working there for two summers I thought to myself that next year, things have got to change...well, things are exactly the same as they were before(joy!).
I guess that it'll be nice going home seeing some familiar faces and getting some decent nutrition for a change. I'll keep an update on crazy things that happen though, cause last year, a lot of crazy stuff happened, and I meet a lot of strange people, so that's entertainment as well.

Yes, my summer will be what I just coined up as "Hell in the Bell", yes as I write this post, I have resigned myself to pure defeat, knowing that my attempts to become somewhat self-dependent has failed. If you want to know how I feel, the sensation is like flying your B-52 heavy bomber over Hanoi carpet bombing the hell out of the city, killing thousands upon thousands of those commies, then suddenly having your left engine blown up from Soviet made S.A.M.'s (Surface to Air Missiles), ejecting, evading the enemy for days without food or water, getting caught by enemy forces, then spending the next several years in solitary confinement in a POW camp somewhere deep in the jungles of North Vietnam......Yes, those wounds run deep, and sometimes you just got to make the best out of those repeated beatings.

It's all about the "Hell in the Bell", and no it's not Taco Bell....but I can sure go for some Combo #3 from there right about now.

But hey, it's summer and there are four whole months to squander at my own discretion. Things might turn out awesome. Or terribly shitty, I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Things Which Nana Wishes Were True For the Benefit of the World #1

2005-04-29T13:51:00.000-04:00

I wish that I was or knew a pot dealer, so that every time someone asks me where they can get pot, I could hook them up.

(This might need clarification: the reason I wish this is because I don't do drugs, and I never will. Yet somehow, people who want drugs are drawn to my presence.)

KFC + PBR = A Good Night

2005-04-28T22:58:00.000-04:00

The prerequisites of a good night. Colonel Sanders proudly looks on.

I should have written this last night but I was preoccupied with laundry among other things. Side note: Laundry is awesome. Not so much the act of throwing clothes into a machine with the accompanying detergent but the joys of basking in clean clothes. Especially when they are a subset of the essential domain of socks and underwear.

Picking up from where I left off on my last post a couple of days ago, I proceeded to meet Tony and Nana at the Rideau Centre at the food court. While standing in line at KFC debating on what to order, it dawned on me, or rather, I saw the huge banner being proudly displayed declaring that today was "Toonie Tuesday." Like a hammering gavel resolutely declaring that a decision had been made, we knew what we had to do. 6 Toonie Tuesday meals. For those that are unaware or do not dare approach KFC with a 50 foot pole, a Toonie Tuesday meal is a harmonious union of a drumstick, a non-drumstick piece and succulent french fries. One could argue that 3 whole chickens had to die for our cause. Their deaths were not in vain. Total cost: $13 and some change.

Given that it was like 8:45 pm and all stores(including The Beer Store and LCBO) close at 9 pm, we were pressed for time. While I engaged the ordering of our KFC, Nana went off to the LCBO in the mall but shortly came back to report that they did not have our required Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Fortunately The Beer Store was just down the street so Nana set off to pick up the beer. We met back at headquarters AKA Nana and Tony's apartment. We wanted cans of PBR to maximize the enjoyment factor(not related to flavour) however The Beer Store only stocked bottles. Total cost for a 12-pack of PBR: $13 and some change.

After unloading everything on the table, the ground rules were laid out. 12 beers, 12 piece of chicken total = 4 per person. Consumed chicken and beer counts could not have a difference of greater than 1. We shortly proceeded to getting drunk off the PBR all the while indulging in the gluttonous love of KFC.

During this night I came to an astounding conclusion. Pabst Blue Ribbon is good shit. It's shit but it's good shit. Given that I'm no beer flavour connoisseur, I could find no discernable difference between PBR and another tolerable low-end beer like Canadian. In fact, from now on I think I'll be getting PBR instead of my usual Keiths given the cheap price.

In any case, for under 10 bucks a person it was most definitely a Good Night. Enjoyment factor was on maximum, hunger was satisfied, and good conversations were had.

Mission accomplished.

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

2005-04-28T18:07:00.000-04:00

Two posts ago we had our 50th post. I don't expect anyone out there to care about that, but I like noting our milestones for posterity.

Yesterday night I had a discussion with my roommate, Tony T. Tran the THIRD, about giving out free music (on of all places, the intarnets). My argument was based around the fact that if a band is going to give out a free song, then there should be no restrictions on the useage of the song. By this I mean that the song should not be in a shitty format like *.asf, and it should not be encoded at a shitty bitrate, like 96 kbps. I believe that if a band is going to give out free music, then it should be at the standard bitrate, and the standard file format (so, it should be at at least 128 kbps, and in *.mp3 format.)

To provide a real world example of this, I give you Audioslave. Audioslave are a great band. Audioslave also live up to their name by enslaving their music, restricting the useage of it online. They have released their song in a format which has some sort of timer or something encoded into it. When the timer has expired, the song will no longer play. The only way to "unlock" the good version of the song is if 1 million people download the crappy version. You can take a look at the page here. (note: I know that the song was "unlocked", but its still a dumb idea, so there.)

My reason for thinking that this is a ridiculous idea is because if I want a song, I can go through other avenues to get it. Here's where things get interesting.

Tony disagreed with me, and he gave various reasons why, which I of course deflected easily because I am a lesser-god* of reasoning. But then he ended the conversation with this analogy. "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk." Upon hearing this... CUTE analogy, I began to have uncontrollable fits of laughter. I've never read the book where this is from, so the lesson "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" teaches was entirely lost on me. I think that what Tony means is that Audioslave should stop feeding biscuits to rodents, but I don't know how that will help the filesharing problem.**

*not true

** THIS IS A JOKE, I UNDERSTAND WHAT HE MEANT, LOL K THX, NATF I HAVE A PET EMU THAT RUNS REALLY FAST CALLED HEEMO

The End Draws Near

2005-04-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

Ok I'm still here. Really! Everyday I tell myself "ok you have to write something" and I can usually think of things that kinda come to mind but my perfectionist mind/laziness prevents me from actually writing a post. I promise I'll work on that.

Anyway, for those that aren't down with everything that's happening in this world (it's ok, I forgive you), this is my last week working at Natural Resources Canada and thus my last week in Ottawa.

Speaking of work, today I was sitting at my computer at work doing what I normally do at work everyday when I looked out the window and noticed some thing off in the distance. My spider-sense was tingling. Well not really, but I sometimes pretend that I predicted something was going to happen after the fact. There was a fire. A big fire. I've never actually seen a building on fire before but I definitely got my fill today. It was a biiiiiiig mother of a fire. I was told it was some old warehouse or something.

There really isn't much more to that story, but at least it had some sort build up of excitement. That pretty much sums up office life. A lot of times I will try to spice up things at work. Anything that doesn't happen on a daily basis has potential to become an exciting event and then later a story. For instance, there was a printer that once kept getting jammed over and over. To the ordinary worker it was a piece of machinery that required maintenance. To me, it was an overworked member of a team charged with a critical mission to save humanity. Horrified onlookers watched on as good samaritans tried desperately to save their fallen comrade with no success. Finally after 15 excruciating minutes of unbearable drama, the professionals arrived to work their miracle.

Soooooo anyway....back to the topic at hand. This is my last week in Ottawa. This term has been fairly quiet as far as going out and other rambunctious activities so I decided my last week needed to be optimized to allow for maximum enjoyment before I am gone. I'd love to come back in the fall but who knows where my next job will be. They want me back at my current job but given that I've already worked there for 2 terms I'd like to try a different job and more importantly work in the private sector. Government jobs are great but I can only handle so much of it, and wouldn't mind being paid a bit (read: a lot) more working for private companies. But you can bet I'll be applying to as many jobs in Ottawa as I can.

Thus far, this past weekend consisted of 2 back-to-back all-nighters. The first one wasn't so much an all-nighter, it was more of a little brother of one. As usual, Friday after work I went with a bunch of my coworkers to Malone's, a bar on Dow's Lake which is right across the street from where I work. Some of us ended up going to one of my coworkers' place after work because he had a keg of beer ready for our consumption. Anyway, I ended up leaving around midnight or something but when I was about halfway home, I saw two people walking on the street ahead of me. At this point, I was on my rollerblades and I was still somewhat drunk. My immediate analysis of the two figures I quickly approached was "I see a shifty looking guy walking with some girl with rollerblades in her hands." As I passed I heard "Hey Hiro!" Then I turned to realize that in fact the two figures were Nana and Tony(with rollerblades in his hands). True story.

At this point we decided to go to McDonald's and then I ended up hanging out at their place...until around 7:30 am. So I got home at 8 am and immediately crashed. I then woke up at 11:30.....pm. The sleep clocked in at a beautiful 15 1/2 hours. At this point I was kinda torn as to what I should do. I had to work on Monday so I would have been screwed if my days and nights were flipped. Therefore the only logical solution would be to pull another all-nighters. Nana and Tony ended up visiting me that night and this time they chilled at my place until around 7 or 8 am. On Sunday I managed to stay up for a ridiculous 26 hours straight and finally went to sleep around 1:30 am I think.

Yesterday a bunch of us went out to Minglewood's for wings. Mmmmm wings. You really can't go wrong with cheap wings. Definitely some of the best wings in town there. I'm told Honest Laywer's is really good too but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet.

Tonight Tony, Nana and I were supposed to go to a party at a friend-of-a-cousin's-of-a-friend of our's place but the party didn't end up happening. We had been planning this for later this week but we've decided we'll do it tonight instead: KFC and PBR.

The premise is simple. Buy tons of KFC chicken. Buy sufficient PBR(Pabst Blue Ribbon beer). Consume both at the same time, preferrably in a location that emanates a sense of low-income and/or student housing. Tony and Nana's pad is perfect for this.

I am now off to go meet them to acquire the required ingredients of a Good Night.

Conformity and You

2005-04-26T12:03:00.000-04:00

Today was the day of my second last exam of the year. Last night I went out drinking, thinking that it was at 2:00 pm. However, when I got home I realized that I made a mistake and that I'd have to cram a bit before the exam, which was actually at 9:30 am. This morning I woke up at 7:00 am, and chose to forgo showering for the extra 10-15 minutes I would get in cramming time. I ended up leaving around 9:15 am for my Social Psychology exam, and made it on time.

A little bit on Social Psychology. This was one of my wild-card classes which was mandatory for my program, but was one of many choices. I ended up choosing it because the other choices were full, but it's not something I regret in the least - and not just because the girl:guy ratio is something like 15:1. I learned a lot in this class, and I'm betting that it's mostly because of the professor. He would stress to us the importance of non-conformity and show us the inherent problems with authority based institutions, like universities. For example, we put authority into the hands of authority figures, despite the fact that they're really no different than you or I. Also, grading and testing procedures in universities have no inherent meaning other than working as a sifter of people. An "A" is just a letter; it doesn't actually mean anything. The professor wasn't an anarchist or anything, (although that would have been awesome if he was, since I've never met an anarchist. I imagine they're roguish and avant-garde and stuff... I love that word, avant-garde.) but social psychology is about looking at what makes society tick and picking it apart, peering at it's underbelly, moist with dew like a homeless man who has been sleeping outside overnight. Anyway, I recommend that you all try and take a social psychology class, or just pester me to yell things at you that I've learned over a pint someday.

So back to the exam. There were four questions, each one worth 10% of our grade. The first one was on conformity. "To conform or not to conform. That is the question." Easy, I thought. I then began to write down my brilliant answer. The other questions involved aggression and stress and stuff, and I finished them pretty easily as well. The entire exam took approximately 2 hours for me to finish.

After I was done, I set my paper down and went to talk to the professor, who was actually standing outside the classroom. Another note about him: he believed that if you could cheat and get away with it, then you deserved the grade that you got. He also didn't really believe in supervising us during tests, because he trusted that we wouldn't just copy off of each other. I love this guy.

So I went outside to talk to the professor and thank him for a good semester. I learned a lot in this class, and I'll never forget many of the things that were brought up. I'll also never forget what he said after I thanked him.

"How did you like the exam?"
I replied that it was fair, but that I would have probably been better served in writing a paper (we had a choice between a paper, oral exam, and written exam).
"Ah, I see. I'll let you in on a secret. Do you see this first question?"
(He pointed to the question on conformity)
"'To conform or not to conform. That is the question.'"
My heart sunk as I realized what he was saying.
"You didn't have to write this exam. That is my last lesson for you."

After a whole semester of learning about conformity and other social pressures, I succumbed to my basic social "sheep" programming, and conformed. I didn't think about what was written on the page - I simply did as I was told and wrote the exam. Luckily, this isn't one of those exams where you get a zero for doing that, but this experience really drove home to me the lesson of conformity. It's one thing to learn something in your class, but it's another to understand what you learned and incorporate it into your life. It's one lesson that I'll always remember.

The Resemblance Is Uncanny

2005-04-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

Okay, because of the time we live in I need to put up a disclaimer: I am going to poke fun at a public figure. This is something that has been done many times over the course of history. I am not the first person to do this. Pleasant Interruption is not trying to make any sort of religious or political statement (in this case). I (Nana Adu-Poku) am not trying to make any sort of religious or political statement (in this case). I have no hidden agenda or any sort of weird scheme to dethrone the new Pope (although I could, because I'm awesome). I like Star Wars, and I like comedy. I found this picture, and I thought it was funny. I did not make this picture, and I will not take credit for it. Make of it what you will.

Hot Hot Heat

2005-04-24T12:17:00.000-04:00

I went to a concert on Thursday night. Hot Hot Heat were playing. The opening acts were Louis XIV, and The Futureheads. It was an awesome concert.

Louis XIV: I didn't get to see their set, because I was late for the show. But I "have" their album, and I like their sound. The songs are full of sexual energy and cockyness. They have a music player on their site, so if you're interested take a listen to Louis XIV.

The Futureheads: I heard one of their songs on The OC ("Decent Days and Nights" is the name of the song), but apart from that I had never heard any material. I love these guys now. They have so much energy and stage presence, and the band seems to have a sort of wild chemistry. There are some downloads on their site, so take a look around.

Hot Hot Heat: The headliners of the show. They didn't disappoint. I wanted to dance to their awesome hit "Talk to Me, Dance With Me", so I moved up to the front of the crowd. BIG MISTAKE. As soon as the song started, everyone's arms went up, and the smells came out. I made my way to the back of the crowd again in a drunken stupour (yes, drunk on noxious smells!).

Hot Hot Heat played all of the songs that I loved from their EP and from their previous album (except for "Cairo"... bastards). Their light show was amazing, and really set the mood for the set. My friend Mark rightly commented that they were 70% Hot Hot Heat, 30% light show.

The lead singer, Steve Bays, has this enormous growth on his head that is supposedly his hair. It is larger than life in person, and adds to the notion that he is a diva, along with the band's scarves and ultra tight pants. I make fun, but these guys are cool. Also, their drummer is 11 feet tall and wore a mustard yellow shirt with a black tie. I imagine that he clothes himself with a crane of some sort.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To The Decemberists

2005-04-23T15:40:00.000-04:00

#5.) The Decemberists are from the UK.

#4.) Their new album, Picaresque means:

Of or involving clever rogues or adventurers.
Of or relating to a genre of usually satiric prose fiction originating in Spain and depicting in realistic, often humourous detail the adventures of a roguish hero of low social degree living by his or her wits in a corrupt society.

I fancy myself a rogue.

#3.) Their songs are about trysts and debauchery: taking people in fields to play with their naughty bits. You feel like you're listening to some sort of folk songs from the 1700 or 1800s or something. It's an awesome sound. Plus, with songs called "Eli, the Barrow Boy" and "The Mariner's Revenge Song", you just can't go wrong.

#2.) Their first single "The Engine Driver" is about a guy who drives an engine (it's a bit more complex than that, but whatever).

#1.) You can get free songs (legally) here and here.

(two weeks of doing this, and both of the bands I'm talking about are on Abercrombie and Fitch's website. I'll just say right now that I'm not getting paid for any of this. To prove it, I'll say that Abercrombie are one step removed from the devil... like the devil's neighbour, or gardener or something.)

Pleasantly Interrupted!

2005-04-23T14:59:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to my friend Phil Vicente's place for a BBQ. Mid exam breaks and BBQs in the spring. Awesome. We achieved dominion of fire and mastery over the lesser beings known as cows and pigs (we cooked alot of meat).

I like these sorts of partys because they aren't huge and out of control; you sit around with maybe 10 other people and get to talk to everyone, goof around, and have a good time. They're a great opportunity to catch up with people who you don't see too often.

I had one such experience yesterday night. My friend Carly (I hope I spelled your name properly) was at the BBQ with her boyfriend Dave (from the wonderband The Roamers: the hardest working band in rock and roll). We all talked about random stuff like food, school, music, etc. But here's where things became really awesome (not that the stuff before now wasn't awesome or anything). I actaully forget how it came up, but Carly started talking about Pleasant Interruption! And apparently she's a fan. This only really the second time that someone who I haven't known for more than a year (ie: a NEW friend) has told me that they read the blog. And it gets me every time. We talked about a few posts, like Hiro's iPod shuffle post and my Bloc Party one. I can't really think of a word to describe how I felt when I heard about someone reading the site and enjoying what they saw here.

Sorry to get all mushy on your guys and stuff, but I felt that should write about it. Thanks to everyone out there who reads the blog (especially Carly and Bradley, who I haven't even talked about to you guys before so you have no idea who he is).

To get back to absurdity, here's a picture of me from St. Patrick's Day.

The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Be Listening To Bloc Party

2005-04-16T18:56:00.000-04:00

#5.) Bloc Party are from the UK.

#4.) Upon listening, you gain instant indie cred.

#3.) "Banquet" by the aforementioned, played during last week's episode of The OC.

#2.) They're putting out some insanely danceable indie rock. Yes - DANCEABLE!

#1.) You can get free songs (legally) here and here.

(note: Abercrombie are my enemy... but if they like Bloc Party then I have to give them temporary props.)

Sexy Shuffle

2005-04-14T22:44:00.000-04:00

Oooooh yeah. Sexy. Oh and the Shuffle is pretty sweet too.
(Yes, that's really me)

So a few days ago I caved in and bought an iPod Shuffle.

I've been wanting a nice, small mp3 player for a while now so I can have music while I workout or go for a run or do karate. I have a Sony Minidisc that I carry with me everywhere and it's awesome(mainly because it can go like 30 hours on 1 charge) but I figured it's a bit too big and heavy for running and kinda hard to hold/carry while working out or doing karate. Then when I heard of the Shuffle I knew I had to get one. But being that I'm lazy and that they were(and still are) in crazy demand, I hadn't been able to acquire one for quite some time.

About 3 weeks ago I went for a run and I thought screw it, I need music and took my Minidisc out with me. I had always figured it'd bounce around too much in my pocket or something and be annoying but it kinda sat snugly and I didn't really notice it. So then I figured ok, maybe I don't really need a Shuffle and my Minidisc will suffice. I brought it last week to Halifax for karate nationals and yet again it delivered. Stuffed it in my track suit and was just fine for warming up.

So then a few days ago I went to the mall here with Tom to go eat dinner. Ah, we'll swing by the computer store and see if they have any Shuffles in stock(they've been sold out for as long as I can remember) I thought. Sure enough, they had a bunch. But I don't need one, now that I've realized my Minidisc does the job. Right? Well, that thought never really entered my mind. I was held mesmerized by the humble green box. All previous decision-making conclusions were abandoned. I was drawn in. Look at me. Buy me, it spoke to me. Then another thought entered my brain. Ah yes, hunger. I'll be back.

So we went to go eat, which was originally why we had gone to the mall. Got some Teriyaki Experience. Ooooh yeah, delicious. Loaded it up with hot sauce. I always overestimate my hot sauce tolerability. Definitely paid for it this time. My mouth was on fire. But it was still delicious. Anyway, we headed back toward the computer store. I was no longer contemplating whether or not I would buy a Shuffle. No, that decision had been made long ago. I never really had changed my mind to not buying a Shuffle. I only told myself that. Deep down inside, I was always destined to buy one. So now it was a matter of picking either the 512 MB or the 1 GB version. Given that I probably wouldn't be away from my computer for more than 8-9 hours(which is about how much music 512 MB holds) as far as the Shuffle's use was concerned, I didn't see the need to spend an extra 75 bucks to have all that extra space since I can just switch songs so easily through iTunes. 512 it is.

I've had the Shuffle for a few days now. And it's simply awesome. Granted, there are limitations that some may not like. It of course doesn't have the signature iPod wheel, nor does it have a screen or in fact any features aside from being able to play songs(either in order or in shuffle mode) and changing the volume. However the fact that it's basically the size(and weight) of like 3 sticks of gum makes it uber in my books. You cannot actually fathom how tiny it is until you actually hold one in your hands. It literally feels like I'm carrying a pencil around in my pocket.

In conclusion, the Shuffle is damn sexy. Not in a dirty, animalistic way but in a sleek, stylish and attractive sense.

And it's damn practical. And I love practicality.

Didn't we leave you here in the first place?

2005-04-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

So here it is, a new era in Iraqi democracy, revived after 50 years of "tyrannical" rule, a good part of those 50 years by our dear friend Saddam Hussein.

Every American news internet site you go to (possibly television as well) is showing how Saddam watches as the new Kurdish president is elected to power by the Iraqi government, even though the role is mainly ceremonial, they make it out to seem that this is a slap in the face to Saddam Hussein, because Saddam "hated" the Kurds.
Saddam sees new President's election. (CNN)
The info was basically the same for Fox News, Yahoo news, ABC news, and other sites.

As many people know, during the 1980's Hussein's regime gassed the ethnic minority, killing hundreds upon hundreds of Kurdish civilians. But what seems to be conveniently forgotten, is that before the Iran - Iraq war, the Kurds were actually given limited autonomy by Hussein's regime, and some were even allowed to hold office (I wrote about this before).
Because Iraq was at war with Iran, the United States supported Iraq so that they could continue with the war against their neighbors. The US really didn't like Iran because they overthrew the American installed puppet government, during the Iranian Revolution.
And the Embassy deal in Iran didn't make things better either...Oh well!

(Side Note) During the Cold Wa r the United States installed anti-communist, and ultra-Nationalist regimes all around the world in order to prevent communism from spreading, so instead of creating democracies (like they are now) they installed and aided anti-communist governments to get rid of any communist sympathy (this included genocide). Examples of this would be the situation in Chile under Augusto Pinochet, Pol Pot in Cambodia, and many others including Saddam Hussein.
When communism fell, the United States took it upon themselves to remove the "tyrants" that they put in power in the first place, thus making them the "savior's of the world!" in the post Cold War era.

Anyways, the Kurdish minority during the Iran - Iraq conflict, sided with the Iranians, pissing Saddam off and in turn, he felt a little bit of genocide would make him feel happier, because those Kurds were traitorous bastards in his eyes. Saddam did this WHILE the United Sates was funding the Iraqi campaign, and Saddam even met with high level officials from Washington in Iraq (you know, good folk like Donald Rumsfeld, even though he wasn't a member of the government at the time), to talk about the future relations between a Baghdad and Washington, and about Iraq giving oil and such to the US, while the US openly supported Iraq, even gave Iraq military assistance, along with Intelligence, even though they knew damn well that they had Chemical weapons, and were using them. (An Article by the Washington Post, It's the question by Wheaton, Md, and the answer the analyst gives, is what's important, the others are interesting as well.)

Alright, so Saddam is gone, enough already, its not like we *Don't* know about what he's done, and why he is in this position in the first place.

The root cause of the conflict in the first place, is the short sighted American foreign policy during the cold war, and the attempt to prevent the expansion of communism around the world. It only led to a world with smaller countries causing more problems in the long run.
Unfortunately we have to deal with these mistakes and poor judgments that were made, "in the name of Freedom" way back when. Its like fighting the same war, over and over again, just with a different name.

Same shit, different pile.

Not Your Average Mug Shots

2005-04-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow morning I leave for Halifax to compete at the National Karate Championships. This is what I've been training for over the last month or so along with my teammates Tom and Arjun. It is also my excuse for not having been very active with this blog.

Anyway, a few weeks ago we had to send in some passport sized pictures to be used for our competitor's id tags. So instead of doing the ordinary and getting a picture taken at some photo booth at the mall or cutting out our faces from some pictures, we decided to something a bit more fun. We took some pictures with a digital camera and after I spent a bit of time in Photoshop, voila! I now present to you our id photos:


Tom	Hiro	Arjun

Oh yeah, you wouldn't wanna mess with these guys huh?

Anyway, I'll be gone for a week so you can bet I'll be out of sight during that time but once this is over with I should have a lot more free time to hopefully start putting out some more pleasant interruptions.

Peace.

Terri Schiavo, Dec 3, 1963 - Mar 31, 2005

2005-03-31T23:58:00.000-05:00

Today we present to you a Pleasant Interruption premiere. This is the first of what will henceforth be called a teampost.

Unless you're Amish, you most likely would have heard on the news or the radio about the Terri Schiavo(pronounced Shy-vo, not she-avo) affair. About 15 years ago Terri fell into a coma and suffered severe brain damage due to cardiac arrest and loss of oxygen to her brain among other things, brought on by chemical imbalances due to an eating disorder. Since then she has been in a persistent vegetative state(this being disputed) and has been in hospice care, kept alive artificially by use of a feeding tube.

The heart of the issue is that her husband, Michael Schiavo has been fighting for years to have the feeding tube removed so she can be laid to rest. Michael contends that before her accident she had told him she would never want to be kept alive in such a condition if it were to ever happen to her. Michael was fighting to carry out her wishes. On the other side of the war are the Schindlers - her parents - fighting to have the feeding tube kept in, arguing that they believe she can make a recovery with proper care.

As her legal guardian, Michael has won all court battles for the right to decide whether or not the feeding tube would be removed. The courts also stated that on advice of court-appointed neurologists that she was indeed in a persistent vegetative state with no hope of recovery. The feeding tube was removed years ago but was reinserted. It was again removed 2 weeks ago, sparking the most chaotic right-to-die battle ever fought.

She died today.

For further details please read this Wikipedia article on Terri Schiavo.

HiroThis issue has been bugging me for weeks since it first came into the spotlight. This case has taken up almost every minute of every news show on tv and every inch of every newspaper. Wow, talk about sensationalism. Hundreds of millions of people dying around the world and all they can think about is this one woman. And for what? Politics and religion. This ain't a battle of Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers and it most certainly never was about the well-being of Terri. It's just another battle in the war between the liberal left and the religious right.

Let's get the facts straight. Terri is no longer the person she once was. She is a mindless body, an artifact of her former self. It is absurd that people actually believe she has a conscience by watching some extremely selective home videos showing her "laugh" and "react." Such actions are merely random signals being sent to different muscles in her body. The fact that they have coincidentally ocurred at the same time as some external event means absolutely nothing. I'd like to see the hours of footage of her not reacting to what they did. To convince half a country that she is still a conscious human being is quite impressive. Notice how they try to personify her by saying things like "she's fighting for her life." Give me a break. Even conscious people do not "fight" for their life. Nobody has direct control over their organs, their nervous system, their heart, etc. It is simply a figure of speech. The only thing fighting for her life is the feeding tube.

As far as the debate on who should have say on her fate, I think it's pretty clear cut. The laws strictly state that husband and wife have full guardianship over each other. And the courts agree. It is kind of ironic that the same people fighting against Michael's guardianship are the same people fighting for traditional marriage. What does traditional marriage state? That the husband and wife belong to each other and nobody else.

What truly irks me is how they try to paint Michael Schiavo as some murderous devil while they try to paint themselves as some life-saving crusaders. They also try to give it a "disability" spin. Let's get serious. Terri isn't disabled. She's dis-human. They also love asking the question "If Michael has moved on with his life, why not let Terri live and let her parents keep her alive?" Well hmmm, maybe because the whole reason why he's doing this is because this is what she wanted. Given the amount of flak he's getting, I'd wager he would have said screw it by now and just given up. He has nothing to gain from her dying except knowing that he carried out her wishes.

Terri Schiavo, rest in peace.

NanaA friend of mine commented that it's interesting that those people who wanted Ms. Schiavo to be kept alive are now saying that she is in "a better place now." If "heaven" (cause that is the "place" they are referring to) is better, then why wouldn't they have wanted her to have died 15 years ago, instead of barely fitting the definition of what we call living, and being trapped in a useless body?

Many of these "pro-life" people are the same people who are against scientific advances (because they are unnatural, and they don't fit in with God's plan for life) which prolong life, yet they insisted upon keeping Terri Schiavo alive (using... SCIENCE), lengthening the duration of her natural life by 100%. If that isn't hypocracy, then I don't know what is.

TonyAnother day, another life.

What really astonishes me about this whole situation, is how many outsiders that don't even know the family at all, are so adamant that the government steps in and intervene in this issue that should be a private family affair. Being bombarded everyday with details about the issue, repeated again and again till our ears bleed.
Seriously now, isn't there a war going on that is a hell of a lot more important, and that the government has more important issues to deal with beyond this one case.

Now why should the government get involved in the issues of an individual, speaking in the mindset of many Americans, the government has no place in the lives of individual, unless the person(or people) infringe the rights of others, this is a part of conservative (neo-liberalism) ideology. Michael Schiavo was the legal guardian of Terri, so technically it was his choice to do this. Easy as that. No government intervention needed, but soo many people decide to go out of their way to try and get the government to intervene so that they could keep her alive. The parents' lawyers even went out and said Governor Jeb Bush should defy legislation, like how his brother defied the United Nations to go to war, in order to save Terri's life. Now such reckless abandonment for the law, and such radical ideas could lead way to regular people just breaking the law and base their actions on the example of their president, thus leading to a breakdown in society and its laws.

It was really unfortunate what happened to her, and it was really unfortunate that the media turned her into a circus, for all to see. For some reason Americans prefer to get distracted in these issues, which do no concern them at all, and try to justify government intervention into individuals' lives. Now again, speaking in an American mindset, Conservatives (the main body responsible for the uproar) shouldn't be out there in the first place asking the government to intervene, because according to Conservative ideology, the government has no place in individuals' lives, and like I said before, Michael was her guardian, so he would have represented her when it came to certain legal proceedings concerning her. If they are willing to let the government intervene in other people's lives, then they damn well should be able to intervene in your life, and make you pay taxes for useful things like health care, and social security.

This whole issue has been blown out of proportion, and is bound to be talked about a lot more in the future, regarding the issue of euthanasia, and who's responsibility it is to deal with people with disabilities. The root cause of her to be in this state was because she was Bulimic, and that a potassium imbalance in her system caused her heart to stop, and oxygen didn't get to her brain, causing irreparable damage. So speaking out against bulimia would help.

This entire debacle has only served in distracting American's from real issues that would actually concern them! Things like Social Security, cost of prescription drugs, health care, unemployment, violence, and I almost forgot they are also at war! These issues (and many more) actually concern basically all Americans, but for some reason they decide to go on a march to try and "Do God's work" by making a big issue out of something that should have been dealt with through the family and the government alone. This really shows where their priorities are, and if the majority of Americans don't care about issues that could affect the future of the country, it really tells you that something is wrong.
I don't see groups of people gathered in front of the houses of American soldiers who died in Iraq, nor do I see anyone (besides immediate family) crying over their "unnecessary" deaths as well.

Why? You tell me.

Super Dot Com 2k5 Remix

2005-03-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

Alright, when I said I was back in action, I lied. Since my last post that I made ages ago, I've gotten even busier in life. Next week I go to Halifax for a week for karate nationals so I've basically been trying to get ready for that among other things.

However, I haven't forgotten about Pleasant Interruption and I have taken care of a few things behind the scenes.

First off, Nana pointed out to me last week that if you search for Pleasant Interruption on google, we're now ranked 2nd. Not that everyone searches for those two words on google, but we feel special nonetheless.

Also, I am proud to announce that we've registered www.pleasantinterruption.com so you can all gleefully change your bookmarks and when you try to tell a friend about us you don't need to go through the trouble of reminding them of the blogspot.com part.

Lastly, we've put together some profile pages so you can get to know us a little better. If you look to the sidebar on the right hand side you can now click to view our profiles.

Lastly, to keep you amused, I present to you: Eric Conveys an Emotion

Hours of fun.

Random Bits #1

2005-03-23T16:50:00.000-05:00

As usual, I'm feeling very linky. You need not follow all the links, but it will make me immensely happy if you do.

In Sandy Hill (the area of Ottawa where I reside) there are many old folks homes. This results in an increased amount of ambulance traffic.

Tony told me this funny story, which I will paraphrase for you.

In grade 9 science, there was a kid who beleived that he was intelligent, when in reality he was (and is) quite the opposite. So when the teacher asked for an explanation of what "matter" was, he said: "Humans like us are matter, while things like this desk (knocks on desk for effect) are anti-matter."

St. Patrick's Day is over. It was the only day where it was appropriate to propagate a negative stereotype about a group of people. In fact, they encouraged it!

The Stroke's new album is almost complete.

An easter comic for your enjoyment, courtesy of the webcomic Perry Bible Fellowship.

Tony Tran is trilingual (teriffic!).

People have taken this warmer weather as an opportunity to become more active. Rollerbladers are on the loose! Beware of their uncanny ability to trip and fall when blading on gravel and sand left over from winter!

Ryan and Marissa had better not get back together.

Mark Wilson was Bright Eyes before Bright Eyes even existed.

I now know that it is possible to live on $12 worth of food for a week.

[addendum, 5:42 pm]

It has been brought to my attention that the Amish are the only group of people who can be insulted on the internet without fear of retaliation.

[/addendum]

Freedom of......Speech!

2005-03-18T23:50:00.000-05:00

Alright, even though I'm not American, I'm going to talk about this anyways.

We all know Michael Moore, the popular liberal documentary filmmaker, that continually bashes the Bush administration on it's policies concerning social problems, and foreign policy, which are highlighted in his highly popular "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11".
Now these two documentaries were highly informative, as it critiques the major problems concerning America today, and what needs to be done before *Expletive Deleted* hits the fan. Yes a lot of it is very eye-opening, but I do my best not to eat everything up that he throws at us, because it is obviously biased and should be taken with a grain of salt. Conservatives in America really don't like this guy, and they sit there picking apart every little detail about his documentary's and his image, in order to discredit the information that he is trying to get out to the people. Now I don't know how making fun of Moore's wider waistline has to do anything about his argument, but there are people out there that actually want to charge him for Treason. (This is where you say, WTF?)

Ok, this isn't in support of Michael Moore, actually, I could care less about his documentaries, even though they raise interesting issues that maybe people who are a little more open to ideas "outside of the box" can look at see that something might actually be wrong.
The very idea of trying to charge Michael Moore, many other liberals within America who are American citizens, and speak out against government policy, is absolutely absurd. These people go around trying to convince the average person that his documentaries are destroying America's stance during war time, and that he is aiding "the enemy" by showing the world bad things about the country. Now these people also go around and say that countries like Iran, North Korea, and China (lots of others) are very bad, because they imprison people for speaking out against the government. OK. Yes I have seen people write on it, and if you take one minute to think about it...Yes, there you go, it makes absolutely no *Expletive Deleted* sense why they say things like that? Seriously now, if you want to spread freedom and let people say whatever they want, then why the hell do you want to put Moore in jail? Don't try and come up with excuses like "It's different because we are American's, and can do whatever we want, because we have the moral authority to save the world." or something along those lines, because there is no difference between some guy in Iraq speaking out against Saddam Hussein, and a guy in the United States speaking out against Bush, NONE WHAT SO EVER.
So seriously, sometimes it's really stupid to go to these crazy radical internet sites that want to abolish the UN, and let the United States enforce it's influence upon the world through the use of force. You know it's OK to have people speak out against the policies of your government, even if you support those policies, but don't go around trying to put them in jail for doing it, because if you want, you could go to Iran, or North Korea, and be all patriotic for them, cause their attitude towards those kinds of people fits yours perfectly.

The First Amendment of the United States constitution states:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Now there are many people trying to figure out if the freedom of speech part has limits, like in the case of people trying to get Moore in jail for speaking out against the government. They try and say that Moore saying bad things about The USA will only give more reasons for "the enemy" to attack the country. Well let me get this through, if the USA didn't do bad things in the first place, like going around invading other countries like it "ain't no thang". Then there would be no reason for people to hate them. If you are trying to bring up the Constitution again, oh lets say...Article 3 - section 3 - clause 1, and say that he somehow gives them "aid and comfort", and that's why he should get charged. Then how desperate are you? Do you really not like him that much? If you can show me hard proof that he hangs out with "the enemy" and helps them directly, then I'll support you and say that he should damn well be put away But if all you got is what your little group of friends, or small backwoods community thinks about the world, and the only information you get is from one TV station, or even one internet site, and you never been any further then the next town over. Then you should STFU up, and go back to the box in which you think from.

Whatever, this is enough for now.

Streamlined for 2005, Baby

2005-03-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

This blog post is about MSN messenger lists; more specifically, it is about how long they have become. Rather than get straight to the problem like any normal person, I have designed a scenario that you may relate to, in the hopes that it will bring you closer to my frame of mind. It also allows me to dirty up the pristine visage of Pleasant Interruption. She's been a bad girl, and she needs to be punished with another long and pointless post.

You have just come back from the club, and you have some hot guy/girl's messenger contact. You load up MSN and you can barely contain the excitement. You realize that you aren't that excited, and that you just need to go to the bathroom. Afterwards, you come back to your computer and attempt to add said person to your list. This is where you run into a problem - you have too many people on your list.

I have never had this problem, for two reasons. The first reason is that being a cynic and generally dour person is a full time job. Adding a female to the strange and sad series of seemingly unconnected events I call my life would not be advantageous for me (I couldn't care less about her). The second reason is that I erase people from my list all the time. I realize that some people make friends extremely well and have full lists, but I have never understood the rationale behind this. Unless you actually speak to every one of these people, the MSN Messenger list is just a way for people to look at a large number and think to themselves "Jee Smith (Smith is your name), you sure do have a lot of friends." Also, erasing people is cathartic. Goodbye, I will never see "'So and so - I love you POOPOO' has come online" ever again (hopefully I don't see you in real life either).

DO NOT BE DISMAYED good readers! The experts at Pleasant Interruption Labs, nestled away in a covert laboratory rivaling the Batcave's own lab have concocted some solutions for streamlining your list. Here are a few of the estimated million kernels pulled from the minds of said experts.

Send out a mass message, saying that those who reply with a reason for their undying allegiance to you will be saved, and those of you who do not will be deleted. This works if you are above all the lesser beings who exist only to inhabit your otherwise empty world. I would call you a solipsist, but thems fighting words.
Become a hermit. Cut off all ties with society and shun all forms of technology. Essentially you'd be Amish, but without the hats and the barn raisings. Since you've excommunicated yourself from the rest of the world, you won't have any problems with your MSN list anymore. This method works best for people who have lots of "friends" on their list who never talk to them. People like me (single tear).
Erase everyone, and add them back when they talk to you later on. This is pretty effective if you're the type of person who waits for the conversations to come to them, you cool person you. We're all so impressed with your magnetic personality.
Stop using instant messenger programs. Call people, using the thing that connects to the wall thing with that string... oh yes, the PHONE.
Scour the web, searching porn sites, warez, and other unmentionable-but-probably-will-be-mentioned-later-on things. Eventually your computer will become so infested with viruses that you'll have to get a priest to perform an exorcism before sacrificing it to a lesser demon. Without a computer you wont have list problems.
Send me more of those damn chain letters! Then, I'll tell everyone that you're into bestiality (See? Told you I'd mention an unmentionable) and you worship reptiles or something like that. I like to imagine that frats worship reptiles, but it's probably not true. Anyway, this will cause people to block/delete you from their list. When you realize what has happened because you wanted to make your wish come true (who has 20 friends anyway?) you'll reformat your computer in shame, and cry in some corner somewhere.

At this point you may have two, or possibly three people on your list. You may also no longer have a computer. THIS IS THE DESIRED EFFECT. You're streamlined for 2005, baby!

Although you are in fact streamlined for 2005, baby, other people may not feel as happy about your actions. Somehow they are unable to rejoice with you in your hyper-efficiency. They might be (inexplicably) hurt that you decided to erase them from your list despite the fact that you haven't spoken to them in months, or that they are lesser humans. But aren't other people's feelings rendered meaningless compared to your sleek profile cutting through cyberspace, streamlined for 2005? Baby?

It's a Reunion!

2005-03-14T23:38:00.000-05:00

First off, apologies to all you Pleasant Interruption fans for my week of absence. I bear myself before you and plead for mercy. I hope you can someday find compassion in your heart to forgive me.

I've been a generally busy person this whole work term since January but this month has been extremely busy. The Karate Nationals are coming up in less than a month so Tom (Kirk), Arjun and I have been training pretty much everyday. So between working out and training karate, I don't get home til like 8-10 pm everyday. On top of that, I was pretty busy with something else which I will not mention here at this time so that left me with no time to be writing anything for P.I.

I'd also like to give a bloggin' high-five to Nana for keeping up the fort. See, that's what team blogging is all about. Covering each other's backs.

It also appears that the elusive Tony has resurfaced from his secret underground layer. His whereabouts were unknown to even his fellow bloggers and Nana and I still don't have a clue what he was doing with his time. We have suspicions that his activities may or may not have involved gas-powered staplers, mispeled(lol!) signposts, removable speedbumps and possibly some baby ligers. Make what you will of that information and arrive at your own assumptions - Nana and I adopted the don't ask don't tell policy a week ago.

Anyway, today I worked an extra hour and a half from 9 am til 6:30 pm and then ended up walking home for an hour, and finally celebrated my roommate's birthday(Happy Birthday ~~Kat~~ Amanda!) so no time tonight for a full post.

(Kat is another roommate)

But because I'd hate to leave you so unsatisfied, here's a video to keep you busy:
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/615/
Hilarious. Just hilarious.

Geomancy

2005-03-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

OK, I've vanished for quite some time, but it's all good, now I'm back.

While I was on my "hiatus" I learnt about geomancy, and we got to do our own geomancy charts, which I thought was awesome.
So anyways, it was a fairly simple process, and by the end of it I realized that basically every aspect of the chart was negative, besides some minor positive areas, it basically told me, that everything for me right now, is horrible...actually horrible.
Geomancy is actually supposed to be a game, but it got mixed up in religious dogma over the years, so many people associate it with some kind of witchcraft nowadays.

So yeah, if you know Geomancy from mythology, it means I can shoot fireballs at people....sorry that was a terrible joke.

But for anyone who's interested, I can do a geomancy chart for you, and tell you about your life, and some other crazy things.

Will you go to hell for it if you ask? No of course not, it's only a game, and it's pure entertainment, cause I seriously can't tell the future...at all....unless!....no.

booya!

The Death Knell of the Saturday Morning Cartoon

2005-03-13T17:09:00.000-05:00

The Saturday Morning Cartoon is Dead.

This is nothing like when people say rock and roll is dead. I stand by my original statement: cartoons, especially those shown on Saturday mornings, are dead.

"But Nana!!! I love super powered fighting machines X!!!"
Then you're obviously in the wrong place, because I hate that show and I hate you even more.

The cartoons of today crave mindless violence (to the X-X-XTREME!), with no substance, story, or dialogue to speak of. You get 25 minutes of explosions and flashing lights, coupled with ninjas/pirates/robots, or some amalgamation of the three. Don't get me wrong or anything: I love pirates, robots are the best things in the world, and ninjas have a special place in my heart. But ONLY when used correctly.

The main problem with these shows versus the ones that we grew up loving is excess. New cartoons take the things that should be good and mutates them to the nth power, where n equals some extremely large number that even God's calculator needs to pause to compute. They then take these terribly malformed and stygian ideas and fuse them together in what can only be called some sort of terrible fusing synergy combining machine. I imagine that this machine is powered by the gnashing of people's teeth as they watch the end product.

I long, nay, I PINE, for the days of Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Batman the Animated series, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. the days when you'd want to wake up early to catch these shows, skip bathing, and any activities that you had for the day. When the roller coaster ride ended at noon and you could get on with your life. When you'd switch between YTV, Fox, and NBC looking for the best shows.

Now I need to make a distinction (all you philosophy buffs may take a moment to groan here, I will wait for you to finish). First of all, I am exaggerating a bit. There are some cartoons that I still enjoy. Second, I understand that everything in life needs to grow to avoid stagnation. But when things get this bad I begin to question how good change actually is.

Oops.

2005-03-11T11:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure how this happened. The previous post was NOT supposed to go in Pleasant Interruption. I apologize for proverbially flashing you with my geeky nether regions. It will not happen again. But for continuity's sake, I'm going to leave the post down there. Let this be a lesson to all of you bloggers out there: double check which blog you're posting in before you post.

New Comic Day, 03.09.2005

2005-03-09T23:17:00.000-05:00

I didn't pick up any random titles this month, just the regular stuff.

I grabbed Justice League Elite and Detective Comics from last week, and picked up Green Arrow, JSA, and Superman. I won't bore everyone with reviews, because you can get those anywhere else.

Really excited to see how the DCU is going to lead up to Countdown at the end of the month. I'm thinking of picking up Adam Strange to prepare. Any thoughts?

Writer's Block

2005-03-07T13:10:00.000-05:00

I have writer's block. I've had it for awhile, and it's starting to get to me. So today, dear readers, you get to take a look at my creative process!

By nature, I am a very talkative person. If I can weasel my way into your comfort zone (thereby destroying my OWN comfort zone), I will talk at any lengths about any topic. However, this had not been translating to the blog very well as of late. I have had many false starts over the few days, and I'd like to talk about them to you today.

Basically, when I write a post I try and tax the far reaches of my vocabulary, dredging up words and phrases that will make me out to be pompous and haughty. I try and use this as a foil for the silly things I write about.

An assumption will now be made that most of the people who read this blog are of the legal drinking age. Another assumption will be made that of those of you who are the legal drinking age, most of you have been to a club, disco, dance hall, or whatever you want to call it. Taking these assumptions into account, I can write this post without alienating too many people. It's fun to be coldly considerate!

I am now going to talk to you about the types of people who you can find in the club. 50 Cent will not be one of them. I do not usually have fun going to these things, so I have alot of time to look around and laugh at people, all the while becoming more jaded and callow in my attitude towards life. I am going to jump straight into the meat of this post, so get ready.

I'm not quite sure what I was thinking about here. I guess I thought that it would be funny to do another category post. Thing is, I would need to do field research for this sort of subject-and I'm not a big fan of clubs. As stated in a previous post, I'm a pub kind of guy. I much rather drinking until I fall asleep or pick fights with older gentlemen at eating establishments. I think I'll shelve this idea for awhile, and possibly come back to it later.

Here's an ode to my favourite board game (sorry Risk).

Jenga is like a religion. The Tao of the Jeng tells us that when our tower (that's life, folks!) falls down, we must rebuild it and start over again, building up into the sky.

Aside from sounding like a raving lunatic, this post has some premise for hilarity. Too bad those lines up there were all I could come up with within a 2 hour period.

The text below is a really rough draft of a post that I came up with the day after I came back to Ottawa. I was writing really fast, and I just drafted what I wrote below. I haven't touched it since.

next post is going to be about how people say useless things to people and do not expect an answer fitting whatever they said to the person. an ackward sentence, but let me gtive an example:

hey, what's up? (reply: nothing) good. (you?) nothing.

I will talk about how it doesn't matter what the person says, so long as they respond. I will also make efforts to respond to what people say with actual information, and record the results.

I think I like this idea though. I'll be talking about it sometime in the upcoming weeks, but it's going to take awhile to get something cohesive together.

Well, I guess that's all for my interruption. Have a pleasant day everyone.

Shut Your Mouth, I Just Can't Take It

2005-03-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

IT'S A DOUBLE HEADER AT THE INTERRUPTION TODAY! I bring you two new posts to waste your time this March afternoon. Here is the first.

Every now and then a song comes along that surprises you with the intensity and range of the vocals. The guitars and drums come together to weave a brilliant web of sound that fellates your aural orifice. Whenever you and your friends hear this song, you turn up the volume and rock out. The song reaches it's climax at an emotional bridge that takes your breath away each time you hear it.

I think I've found such a song. And I think you all know which one I'm talking about. Everyone who I have spoken to (except Mark Wilson, you jerk!) agrees with the following statement:

Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson is amazing.

And I can't get this song out of my head.

Obligatory 1000 Hit Celebration

2005-03-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, I realize this is pointless but it just has to be done. The unwritten rulebook on code of conduct strictly requires that we formally acknowledge the fact that this site has been hit on over 1000 times. 4-digits baby, doesn't it just sound so sexy?

Only in this wonderful world of cyber hotness could the three of us ever dream to be hit on so many times by both females and males alike. It is truly flattering.

So for all of our devoted readers, I'm going to give you a virtual high-five for being awesome.

Now suppose there is a scale of awesomeness, ranging from 1-10, on which you can numerically value someone's awesomeness. Mere mortals can only hope to achieve a 5. The fact that you read this blog automatically places you at least at 6. Of course course, Nana, Tony and Yours Truly float between 8 and 10 depending on the day.

However, you too can increase your awesomeness by helping us hit 5 digits. I was hoping that after a month and a bit of bringing you Pleasant Interruptions we would have had at least 100,000 hit by now but I guess you could say I somewhat overestimated. Once we become blogging celebreties we promise not to forget our roots.

So spread the pleasantness and tell a friend.

Please.

Train Training, Part II

2005-03-03T23:03:00.000-05:00

Without further ado, I present to you the breathtaking conclusion to your ultimate train riding guide.

The First 5 Minutes

This section is important whether you are the one boarding the train and taking a seat beside another person, or you're the one already on the train and have just been joined by a newcomer. This title is quite misleading. It does not necessarily specify the first 5 minutes after sitting down. Rather, this deals with the first 5 minutes of open channels. There are many legitimate reasons to delaying the initiation of conversation and they must often be respected. Allow me to give you some examples:

The person is sleeping. Although, if they were sleeping, you should have avoided this situation right? Depending on their personal depth of sleep, you will either a) be talking to an unconscious human being or b) you may soon become unconscious yourself.
They are listening to music, clearly denoted by the fact that they are wearing headphones. Engaging in a conversation while the other party is not listening to you will result in other party believing that you are talking to yourself. Although technically you will have accomplished the mission of engaging a conversation, this renders the entire situation irrelevent as you may engage in such personal conversations at any time and place of your choosing. Yes, even a public washroom stall. Granted, that can lead to interesting situations.
They are talking on a cellphone. Attempting to interject yourself into an ongoing conversation, one that most likely involves people that know each other, is not the greatest plan of attack.
They are reading a book. It is possible that they are so enraptured by their reading material that they have not yet noticed you sitting beside them. This however is quite unlikely, since you will already have asked if you may sit there. That is, if you've been paying attention thus far.

Whoever is engaging in any of the above mentioned activities must stop in order to signal to the other person that they are ready to begin a conversation. Immediately ceasing the activity might make it look like you are on an all out offensive, desperate for conversation, so bide your time.

In any case, the moment the signal is given, that is when the 5 minute window begins. If you miss this window, you will most likely fail the mission.

Now what shall be the first move? Do you inch forward the pawn or bring the knight out? This my friend, is the trickiest part. The "opener" must be individually tailored to each and every situation. As a rule of thumb, any reasonable excuse to talk to the other person will suffice. Here are some suggestions for an opener:

"Excuse me, do you have the time?" Ah yes, the classic. Asking what time it is. This is a question anyone feels comfortable answering. However, in order to prevent yourself from looking as smooth as sandpaper that's been coated in glass shards, you may want to make sure you're not wearing a watch in advance.
"Excuse me, do you know where we are?" This one is excellent and one of my personal favourites. Thus far I have a perfect record so far using this one. Granted, I've only used it once, but 1/1 is nonetheless a perfect record.
"Hey, how's it going?" Say it straight up. Just don't do the "Heyyyy, how yoo doiiiin" thing. I have yet to test this one out myself but I plan on it next chance I get.
"Excuse me, have you ever read the Pleasant Interruption blog?" You will appear to exude pure awesomeness in its rawest form.

If you were wondering, the following examples of openers would be considered unreasonable:

"You have something hanging out of your nose."
"Are you single?"
"Hi, I'm single."
"Did you just fart?"
etc, etc.

Now, regardless of which opener you use, the key here is that you keep the conversation alive. You must now unleash a "linker", to string together a nice combo to kick start the conversation. I would have to say that by far the simplest and most effective linker is to simply say "So where are you off to?" It is not too intrusive, and will give you something to work with. Ideally, they would respond not with just the name of the city but also the reason as to why they are going. You can then follow up with other linkers based on the answer. Even if they aren't that cooperative, they will most likely at least return the same question. This then gives you the chance to state where and why you are going. Feel free to be creative with linkers, as the possibilities are limitless.

If you keep receiving short responses and you seem to be the only one asking questions, you are most likely looking at a lost cause. Straight "yes" and "no" answers, especially if they were in response to questions that cannot be answered by a yes or no, most likely hint to a dead conversation. This is of course, known as the "ender". Retreat immediately and pursue other activities to salvage your remaining train riding experience.

However, unless you are sitting beside some total bitch or jerkwad, your desire to have a friendly chat will most likely be reciprocated and from here onward, it's all smooth sailing.

Names

One important thing I have yet to discuss is names. This is a very simple yet awkward issue to deal with. It is entirely possible to carry on an entire 3 hour conversation without ever knowing the other person's name but it will be gnawing at you the whole time.

I advise against introducing yourself right at the beginning, as it will make them feel like it's an interview or at least make them feel uncomfortable. There is a sense of security in anonymity and to reveal names early on will not help the conversation.

However, it is equally difficult to introduce names an hour into the conversation. Therein lies the dilemna. Throwing in "So what's your name?" out of the blue gets the job done but definitely doesn't sound right. I propose 2 main solutions:

"Ha, I just realized I haven't introduced myself yet! How rude of me! So anyway, I'm Hiro." Keep in mind that you may or may not wish to replace "Hiro" with your own name. Speaking from experience, there has not been a single time when people have not said something along the lines of "Hero? Wow that's a coool name!" However, they will most likely not believe you so I advise against trying to live my life. As an alternative, I highly suggest you tell them your name is any of: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, etc, or more blatantly Superman, Batman, Spiderman, etc. Then after you elicit a little bit of laughter, reassure them that it truly is your name. After a moment of confusion, laugh a bit and tell them the truth. Works like a charm.
"So Juanita, where did you say you go to school again?" Use a name that is obviously not suited to the other person within any sentence of your choosing. They will most likely correct you or just spend a minute confused. Regardless, laugh it off and admit the truth: "Haha I know your name isn't Juanita but I never got your name and the conversation got to the point where it woulda been awkward to ask you your name so I just gave you a name instead. So anyway, I'm Hiro. And you are?" They will understand. This will remove a big weight off their shoulders as well and everyone wins.

Funny Things to do on the Train

Here is a quick summary of things you can do to amuse yourself, but most likely only yourself. Proceed at your own risk.

If approached by someone and asked if you mind them sitting there, simply reply "yes". They will both be confused and insulted. You'll never see them again anyway right?
Sit down beside a person that's sleeping and wake them up. Then follow up by asking them if they were in fact sleeping, what time it is, if they know where you are, or if they could wake you up when you get to your destination.
Sit down beside a person that's sleeping and if they have a book or magazine, go ahead and read it and continue doing so even once the person wakes up.
If the person next to you is listening to music, talk loudly so they can hear you.
If the person next to you is reading a book, read over their shoulder and ask them if they are finished the page or ask them if they can go back to the previous page.
If the person next to you is on a cellphone, ask them if you can talk to their friend.
If the person next to you asks you "Where are we?" reply "on a train".
If you're in a packed car and a seat opens up beside someone else, pack up your stuff and switch seats. Conversely, if you're in a near empty car, go sit right beside someone.

Now that you have prepared yourself by reading this guide, I hope you have many Pleasant Interruptions to come in your future travels.

Bon Voyage.

Train Training, Part I

2005-03-01T23:05:00.000-05:00

Note: I would like to let you know that today's interruption is a bit different. It's rather long. Or so I discovered about halfway through writing it(which is right now). Different you ask? All your bloody posts are long! Well this time, in order to prevent a ludicrously long post and so I also have the luxury of finishing it tomorrow, I'm going to post this in 2 parts. Enjoy.

This past weeekend, I went back home to Belleville(or B dot to the hip Bellevillians or Bellevegas as the Hictonites may affectionately refer to). Now the original reason I went back was because there was a karate tournament on the Sunday in Toronto that I was supposed to go to, but didn't end up going because I felt lazy. I personally find these provincials a bore and a waste of time, but I have to go if I am to be on the provincial team, so I go. This time, I didn't need to go so I definitely took advantage. Anyway, onto the main course of today's interruption.

As usual, I took the [VIA] train home. I really like the train and I personally think it's the best way to travel . Sure, going on a plane is exciting and I still love the rush during takeoff and the thrills of turbulance but the novelty wears off after the first few times. And yes, you can save 8 bucks by taking the bus but in the end, I think trains win in every other category. Trains have the interior of an airplane, but with more leg-room, nicer scenery(well, except for the first and last 15 minutes of a flight, which are usually stunning) and it doesn't have the loud roar of the jet engines.

For those that don't already, I highly recommend that you use the website to buy tickets online. It makes things ridiculously simple, don't have to worry about tickets being sold out(and even when they are, you can quickly snag cancelled tickets simply by continuously checking for tickets!), and saves you time if you're never on time getting to the stations.

One thing I really look forward to for train trips is the fact that I get to read a book. I love reading, but I just can't seem to sit down and read a book nowadays. But on a train, being isolated away from a computer and any other distractions, I can easily escape reality into the pages of a book. This weekend I actually started reading a book a bit outside of my usual preference of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I got "The Wealthy Barber" for Christmas from my sister, Yoko, and I've been meaning to read it but kept putting it off. It is a financial management book but written as a fictional story(you know, with characters talking and doing stuff). I must say, it is an amazing book and I honestly believe you'd(everyone) be a fool not to read it. Anyway, I will talk about the book in detail at a later time as I have a few more chapters to finish.

An equally enjoyable thing I love about train rides, is the mystery of not knowing who your escort will be, accompanying you throughout your journey. Today I would like to share with everyone some observations I've made and some strategy I've developed, in order to maximize the chances of some pleasant interruptions on a train ride.

The Entry

The inital entry is key. As you enter the car, you have but a few steps to quickly analyze the seating situation. If the car is more than 1/3 empty, engage a dual-empty seat near the middle. This is crucial for later because nobody will want to venture to the back of the train to sit beside you unless it is the absolute last seat. Interestingly, the same applies to the front because people will walk beyond the first few rows in search of the elusive dual-empty seats. Yes, even if it is totally packed, people will still count on lucking out beyond the front.

If however, the car is rather on the full side, you're in luck. This is your optimal situation as you are now in control. You have absolute free reign in choosing to sit beside the most attractive and friendly looking person of the opposite gender that you can spot. This is where quick observational skills come in handy. Your seat selection process must, and I repeat must appear to be random. Don't want to seem desperate now do we? Pacing back and forth between two contenders while contemplating the pros and cons most likely will not go over well.

Before I continue, I must stress that I advise against sitting beside someone sleeping unless the car is near capacity and you have no choice. If the person were to wake up and realize there were tons of other seats available and you still sat beside them, this may lead them to believe you were watching them while sleeping sleep or took advantage of their inability to turn you away when you first sat down. This will register quite high on the creep scale.

The randomness can be reinforced by pretending to not even be interested in that particular seat by approaching the desired seat, putting on a face making it look like you are disappointed in not being able to find dual-empty seats, and finally settling for the seat (coincidentally) next to the desired person.

Also, although it is quite obvious to even the most obtuse observer that the seat is empty, you must ask if the seat is either empty or taken. I must be clear that you can only ask one or the other. Asking "Is this seat empty or taken?" will only make you seem a little odd, as the question must be answered by a combination of a yes and no, regardless of the situation. Another variation is to ask if they mind you sitting there. Of course, they're forced to say yes but it is a strict formality that you must adhere to. This indicates your politeness, displays your command of the english language(important, if you're asian[or other ethnic] looking like myself) and plants the seed for future communication.

Once you have mastered these skills you are well on your way to phase two, covered in Part II of this post.

my life = pointless #2

2005-02-27T16:01:00.000-05:00

Audioslave's new CD is coming out July 5th, disregard all days preceding it. I'm pretty stoked.
"Control Room" is a great documentary, recommended for anyone interested with the Iraq war.
reading week is over, not too happy about that
The page is looking good, the update is a nice change
somethings messed with the site today, and I suspect it's all Hiro's fault, but i don't know why (It actually fixed itself when I posted the Blog...facist bastards).

Because I have nothing to talk about most of the time
I'm open to people giving recomendations on what to write about, anything about everything, I'll collect a bunch and write about them once I get enough information.
why you ask? Because I am awesome.

Oh 99, I Heart You

2005-02-25T22:36:00.000-05:00

Funny that Nana mention the 99(It's an OC Transpo bus and mentioned in yesterday's post). Well, not funny in the sense of a knee-slapper or a laugh-and-a-half, but coincidentally funny I guess. That is, my fellow readers, because the dear 99 and I have quite the history. The following is a very personal and touching story that I hold close to my heart and I would like to share it with you. I apologize in advance for the long post, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

[engage crazy blurring effects with some funky sound effects to let us go into the past]

It all started in the summer of '04. Ah, it was indeed a magical summer. My first time living in Ottawa. Well, not really Ottawa since technically I was in Gloucester(pronounced "Glosster" and not "Glouchester" by which I mistakenly called my first time), but it's actually just a shithole on the outskirts of Ottawa so we'll just call it Ottawa. The reason why I ended up in Gloucester is quite peculiar. That summer was my first co-op work term and I got a job in Ottawa at Natural Resources Canada. So naturally, over the months before May(when my job started) I did not bother finding a place to live in Ottawa. That is, until 1 week before I was to start working. So I decided it was high time to set things in motion to assure that I wouldn't have to live in a box for a few weeks. I casually asked around to see if my friends in Ottawa knew of any places for rent. Sure enough, a couple of days later my good friend Jeff from back home messages me saying he's in a townhouse all by himself with a place for me. Not quite close to my workplace, but I'm lazy. Deal. Did I mention it was only $225 a month? Haha sweet deal.

Right, the 99. You're wondering what the heck this has to do with the 99. So anyway, I lived about a 12.672345 minute walk away from the St. Laurent mall which has a large bus station. I first met the 99 on my second day of work. The first day, I had taken a combination of 2 buses(the 14 and the 85) and it took forever. I felt like I was on a tour bus of Ottawa. Needless to say, I looked for another bus. I searched through all the listings, and I found out about the 99. It was love at first sight.

From the mall the 99 would come by and whisk me away on an enchanting 20 minute journey to work. The 99 truly was a glorious bus. Despite being on the totally wrong side of Ottawa, it was a short trip to work as the 99 took a route that avoided most of the busier roads and stations. And I didn't even have to transfer. Bonus.

The 99 took good care of me that summer. It was thanks to the 99 that commuting across town was bearable. However, I did have a certain gripe with the 99. You see, every morning I would sleep in rather late(as far as having a full-time job goes), til around 9 am every morning. The fact that I have flexible hours at work made it that much easier to get every bit of sleep possible. The problem was, the 99 came every 10 minutes or so, early on in the mornings, then about every 15 minutes between 8-9:30 am. But after 9:30, the next 99 wasn't until 10 am.

Almost every morning I'd drag myself out of bed at 9, get ready in 15 minutes and haul ass over to the mall. I've even sprinted the entire 12 minute walk(and then through the entire mall to get to the bus station) in a matter of minutes. Desperate times call for desperate measures. However almost once or twice a week, the 9:30 would be early. I'd miss it by minutes, sometimes seconds. So then I'd have to sit at the damn station for half an hour until the next bus. This, as you may have guessed, did not amuse me. I'd get into work around 10:30 and have to work until 6:30 pm. Let's just say we weren't exactly on speaking terms on the ride home.

Speaking of getting into work late...there were a few times that I didn't get into work until about 11 am. Then I'd take my lunch break an hour later. Heh, good times.

So anyway, the summer went by quickly and I bid my farewell to the 99. It was a great summer but not all things in this world are meant to last. A long distance relationship wouldn't have worked out too well I'd imagine.

This January, I was back on co-op and I returned to my old job. It was a great job and I loved Ottawa (all my good friends from back home going to school in Ottawa didn't hurt either) so I figured why not. However, I decided I'd treat myself this term and live closer to work or at least my friends. Consequently, I am now living in Brooks residence(it's like an apartment) on University of Ottawa campus. Win-win situation. It's awesome.

As fate would have it, the 99 was once again the quickest and easiest way to get to work. On that cold, miserable January 3rd I was greeted by the 99. Having spent 4 months apart, I was a bit nervous to hop aboard. However once I was taken in by the warm, welcoming atmosphere, it felt like it was just yesterday. Can't you see? We were simply meant to be together.

The 99 is still the same though. Old habits die hard I guess. I now usually take the 9:22 am bus(keep in mind I'm a lot closer to work now) to work. But as in the past, the 99 sometimes comes a couple minutes early and I just miss it making me wait until the next one comes at 9:40. Now it's only a 20 minute wait but this sure ain't summer. I get to stand all alone outside in the freezing cold as countless drivers pass by laughing(on the inside) at me for being stood up.

We're kind of on a break right now. This actually happened to me 3 times this week. This morning the 99 tried to patch things up between us but I'm still a little bitter. Maybe I'll have the weekend to find it in my heart to forgive the 99.

An apology wouldn't hurt either.

Just to Let You Know I Am Still Breathing

2005-02-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Like Hiro's post about the new update (which is smashing), this will not be a post in the normal Pleasant Interruption style. I'm just going to talk about myself.

Yesterday, (I came back to Ottawa after visiting my 'rent's place for part of reading week) I decided to save money by taking the bus from the train station instead of a cab. I learned that I probably should not take the 99. Ever. Unless I want to take another hour long walk home.

Apparently, I cannot take a normal picture. I always end up in some fantastical pose which is structurally impossible. I'd link to some examples, but really, if you want to see Escher I'd say go to the source. I'm not sure what I'm doing in the banner picture, so don't ask. My brother refers to it as "the monkey pose", but I like to think that it's the last part of an awesome drum solo.

Okay, I've violated this place enough with my evil personal blogging! I just have two more things to say: Tony, the receipts came in for the apartment, and the Vietnamese telemerketing guys are calling you again.

To Deny its Existence is a Crime to Humanity

2005-02-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

Ahhh, elegance, simplicity and practicality. Beauty.
Today I feel that we need to have a (one-way) discussion regarding faucets. Indeed, it plays an integral part in our lives and yet rarely do people sit back and realize this fact. Without the glorious aid of these marvelous devices, we'd be banished to a world of dirty dishes and dirty hands. And how else would we brush our teeth? How...uncivilized.

I am not going to talk about how they work. Oh no, that is just so boring. Nor will I be talking about their design or the various brands available on the market. There are much more pressing matters to attend to.

I am going to attack the very issue that the majority of you, the people, have had to unfortunately deal with, yet are either still in denial, too shy, or simply too ashamed about it to talk about it in the open.

"What?" you say? "I do not harbour such feelings" you say.

No really, it's ok. Just let it out.

We all hate them.

I hate them too. I hate them passionately.

"Hate what?"

The faucet with 2 knobs.

There, I said it! Now let's talk about them in a calm, objective manner.

Alright, we all know the terribly depressing story.
You want to wash your hands/face/dishes/toothbrush.
You can't use cold water to wash your hands.
You can't use scorching hot water.
You must find the gentle medium.

It is like an epic quest, one that we must endure daily, and multiple times at that. Yet unlike the stories sung of great adventures of the past, there is no "happily ever after" for this tale. It is a quest that ends, only to begin anew.

What usually happens? You turn on 1 tap (for the more daring, both...at the same time) and deduce that it is too hot/cold and proceed in slowly increasing the other tap while monitoring the temperature of the water that is now coming out. This process is usually repeated by switching from one tap to the other, and - for the more experienced - sometimes decreasing the flow from the selected tap. After about 3 minutes, even the most incompetent person can usually attain the desired temperature for the river of life.

Now, to be fair, I must carefully point out a possible exception to this rule. There are some legendary 2-knobbed faucets for which the "hot" tap is actually a "warm" tap. In such rare cases, one can simply use the "hot" tap and disregard the other one with no consequence.
But of course, we all know that that these are simply wive's tales told to gullible folk.

Now, returning to the subject of finding the gentle medium. There are a few heinous consequences to this process.

If you, like myself and many others, feel guilty in letting the tap run while doing something that doesn't require the running of water, which pretty much encompasses all morning tasks such as the brushing of teeth (or dentures or diamond rocks), or shaving (mainly but not exclusive to males), or the insertion of contacts(or other objects? hmm I won't ask, so don't tell), then you try to limit the amount of water being wasted.

However, the fact that it takes some time to get to the stage of actually using the water, a lot of water is wasted in the process and to turn the tap off to conserve water, would most likely be negated by more water being spent to repeat the process. Also, it is quite difficult to achieve this lukewarm water when the water is flowing at a low rate. The water is often gushing out by the time you are satisfied.

Stop! Stop! Yes, I hear the cries of agony. Let out the screams. It is the pain leaving your body.

Now, since you are still with me, I assume you are expecting me to share some sort of sage-like wisdom in hopes of providing a solution to years of torment.

Yes, in these days of innovation, technology, and dreams being realized, (wo)mankind has given birth to a wonderful product that one may boldly state as being "the best thing since sliced bread." It is known as...

The faucet with no knobs.

It is simple, yet elegent. Fashionable, yet practical. A true beauty in all respects.

A single, commanding lever can give the freedom of a wide spectrum of temperatures, yet ingeniously remember the temperature when turned off. It can also allow you the freedom to independently choose flow rate while maintaining a constant temperature.

And, as an added bonus, you can turn these faucets on/off with almost any body part. Yes, even that one.

Your nose, that is.

Why, oh WHY are they not found with every sink?

And Now...Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Interruption

2005-02-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

Weeeeell, that took a considerably longer time to do than I had hoped.

Readers, meet Pleasant Interruption Version 2.

I spent a good chunk of this weekend working on this new design so I hope you don't think it looks like shit. In any case, being that it's my first time delving into the world of web graphic design I don't think it's too terrible. It's still a work in progress but I think it's finally complete enough to be put to use as I didn't feel like delaying this any longer.

Any comments, suggestions or critiques are welcome so please let me know either by commenting on this post or messaging me on MSN. Preferrably MSN if it's to insult my design so as to allow me the opportunity to immediately insult your face. Haha kidding...

I'd insult your life. Oops! Kidding again! haha

No really, please don't be afraid to critique any part of the design as the only way I can make it nicer is if you tell me what's wrong with it! I'm not exactly the most creative person so all the help I can get will be appreciated.

Right-o, now that I have this giant time vacuum out of the way, I can proceed to engage the not-so-giant-but-still-pretty-big time vacuum of writing blog posts.

What, you were expecting an actual post today? Ha!

Please hold...a blogger will be with you in a moment

2005-02-17T23:37:00.000-05:00

Hello, this is just a short message to let you know that we haven't forgotten about the blog nor are we on the run from authorities.

I've been pretty busy this week after work and tonight I spent some time working on a new design as well as brainstorming for a profile section among other things.

So please stay tuned and you will soon find that the drought will have been worth it!

And of course, some big fast posts hopefully on the way as well.

Why?

2005-02-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

ok, enough with the politically charged posts for now

I was just roaming around when i found this site that talks about "squirrel fishing". I was curious so I checked it out, turns out 2 Harvard students had alot of spare time on their hands, (those damned Ivy Leaguers). I feel bad for those squirrels, but for some strange reason, I feel like I should be doing this. (does this make me a bad person?)

Sold My Heart at a Pawn Shoppe, Baby

2005-02-14T11:41:00.000-05:00

First of all, this blog is the best invention since Jenga. And that, dear readers, is a lofty accolade. Things I hate about my Flatmate is a blog where the author lists one thing per day which annoys them about their flatmate (roommate for those of you who aren't following along). The posts range from the trivial to the hilarious, and I recommend checking this blog out. Now, to more pressing matters.

<3
I don't think I need to remind anyone which day today is, as it's significance goes much farther than it being Monday. Yes, today one of the most derided and celebrated of all quasi-holidays, Valentine's Day. I'm sure you've heard all the insults and jibes about this day already, so I won't bore you (much). If you're anything like me, a callow, sunken husk of the man I once was, Valentine's Day can be an annoyance at the least. However, rather than curl up into a ball in the cupboard and wait for the day to be over, I have a few other solutions for people like myself. These are last ditch ideas for those of you who WANT to enjoy Valentine's Day, but don't have anyone to enjoy it with (either by choice, or chance... if it's chance then you suck).

Break up an existing relationship:
This idea is good for a number of reasons. First of all, you can make another person as miserable as you are! Second of all, it's fun (I'm told)! Destroy the foundations of V-day by becoming a home wrecker (NOT WORK SAFE). For added points, break up with the person tomorrow, thus making their life random and meaningless!

Confess to the apple of your eye:
Is there some guy/girl out there who you think is the bee's knees? Be mildly romantic and profess your undying love for them, extolling their virtues to the heavens. Make some sort of analogy about one of their body parts and something only passingly associated with said part (for example, eyes to stars, hair to fields of wheat, or leg to cricket bat).

Drunken rampage with your mates:
Yes, I said mates (arr). I don't really need to explain this one. You just get drunk. With your friends. Make sure it's cheap beer. Try and become blind. Oh, get some fried chicken too. Try and be as dirty as possible, because bringing yourself to an even lower level will make self pity all that much easier (annual event at my place!). Afterwards, run around parks or other public areas looking for HAPPY people, and harass them--choose your own methods, but I suggest water balloons.

So those are my suggestions for surviving Valentine's Day if you don't have a significant other. If you do, have a happy and wonderful day, but watch out for me trying to ruin it.

Imagine a Tupperware® Party.....but WITHOUT THE TUPPERWARE

2005-02-11T19:32:00.000-05:00

Looks can be deceiving

Ok, this one is for all you guys reading this. Well, girls can read on too but well, according to my research, most of you already know what I'm talking about. Well, I guess not the younger ones. At least I hope not.

Let me preface this by saying that I deserve some sort of a medal. A majestic city in my name. The Nobel Prize should be valued as worthless as a Kinder Surprise toy in contrast. I believe that I am now entitled to belong to the highest echelon of society. I should be revered and respected a thousandfold more than all of the world's greatest men in all of its history. My mere presence alone should humble all those who are fortunate enough to have me in their company.

Why am I entitled this honour you ask? Because I am going to single-handedly reveal a mind-shattering truth that is unbeknownst to quite possibly the entire male species. Aeons in the dark, I can now shed some light for the other half of the world.

Today, during one of my usual chats with 2 of my (awesome) roommates - Amanda and Kat - the conversation took an interesting turn that led to quite the shocking revelation.

Never in the perverted parts of the deep recesses of my mind have I ever fathomed such a concept.

So imagine a tupperware party. You know, like they had in the 60's and 70's. All the housewives went to them. They talked about how they'd use the tupperware. They sold tupperware to each other. By Golly, they sure were popular. I mean, tupperware is a godsend and what better way to spend an afternoon with the ladies and socialize while buying tupperware?

So they kinda faded into the pages of history and tupperware parties are no more.

Right?

WRONG.

In fact, they're as popular as ever.

Except now...it's without the tupperware.

Well, see for yourself. I present to you: the Fantasia Home Party.
(WARNING: DO NOT CLICK ON THIS AT WORK)

What do they do at these parties? Well, I don't think I can summon the words to describe such lurid unmentionables. Go to the site and see for yourself. It's a tad...naughty.

So now you're saying, "Wow what a letdown, it's not very shocking that they have parties like that." Oh no, it's more than just that. It's the fact that most (over 70% according to my terribly inaccurate survey) girls have at least heard of them, while a number (anywhere from 10-40%) of them have been to one, or at least been invited to one. They start as early as high school!

And how many guys I asked knew about them? 0.

Ok allow me to paint you a picture here to put things in perspective. So there are all these whacko cults out there like the Church of Scientology, and the Freemasons (you know...the Masonic Temple people). But everyone's heard of them. Sure, they're secretive but we at least know they exist!

But with this, it's as if half of the world belongs to a clandestine, underground cult and the other half doesn't even know of its existence! Isn't that a bit eerie?

This has been a totally life-changing discovery and I must say, it has totally changed my outlook on life and my perspective on television, sports, academics and even cheap wing nights! The fingers of corruption have left nothing standing in its wake, not even sparing my morning oasis of 2-egg/2-toast breakfasts!

Well, no longer shall the men of this earth walk blind, deaf, and oblivious.

Set forth my young disciples, and proclaim the truth.

Cold War II

2005-02-10T13:45:00.000-05:00

i was doing my daily rounds of information seeking, and news absorbing, when i came across this very disturbing article about the how the United States is centralizing power, and taking away the privilages of other government organizations, in order to run the country.
It seems that with this centralization of power is an attempt by the United States governemnt to end their reliance on other Agencies such as the CIA, so that they could go about their business without having to get the other organizations approval, and even the congress's approval, in order to carry out covert operations around the world and even in the USA.
The Pentagon has this special directive that allows them to "employ special, ultra-secret "anti-terrorist" military units on American soil for what the author claims are "extra-legal missions.""
as you read on: "In other words, using U.S. soldiers to kill or arrest Americans, acts that have been illegal since the U.S. Civil War."

You will have to read the article to get a better understanding of what its all about, and some of the material shocked me.
As moving as this article may be, don't take it all at face value.
I still need to comprehend certain finer points, of it, but as it stands, its a pretty strong article. Its up to you to make sense of what this all is truly about.