Last Call in 2006

I guess this is the final post for me for 2006. There's 90 minutes left (for me) until 2007 begins and I can only hope it's a damn lot better than this year's turned out.

It's kind of sad, in a way, because at the moment, there's about 10+ things I could be writing aboutin regard to the end of this year and the events of the past week, but I'm overwhelmed and out of time it seems --and that's almost fitting as a theme for the end of 2006.

Overwhelmed and out of time.

To sum up a few things:

• Finally got to go shopping for all the gifts I didn't get for Christmas and got most of them at really good deals. The DVD I asked for was less than $10.
• I ran into a friend I haven't seen since early Summer. She's the wife of my "close" friend, a police officer up North. Well, I'd heard a few months ago that he'd quit the force, which was a little surprising (but not completely). He's never called and told us himself and when I saw her, I waved --and she turned and walked the other way. Right now, it looks like I've alienated another group of friends in some new and mysterious way, which is getting really annoying. And depressing.
• Speaking of depressing: We received 12 Christmas cards this year where we normally get 40+. My wife's favorite (paternal?) aunt didn't send anything this year. 4 families we usually get letters from inside the card didn't send a letter, which is also depressing because I finally convinced everyone that we needed to start sending out letters this year. Another sign of alienating people? I'm not sure, although even our church didn't give us a crad this year and I've gotten one from them every year since the mid-1990s.
  
• I'm hoping my wife is PMSing right now because if her mood today is going to be a reflection of 2007, I'll be single before March rolls around. We've been fighting since 10 this morning... I'm the bad one, of course, because I'm not helping out enough even though everytime I ask if she needs help, the answer's 'No.' I'll have to resolve to work on my telepathy more in '07.
• I've been meaning to go back to a theme with the post titles for 2007. I've narrowed it down to a few, but haven't figured out which one works best yet. I'll get there as I won't post anything after this until tomorrow sometime.
  Maybe.
• I must still be recovering from my mystery illness on the 26th. I'm not particularly hungry these days and it's pissing off my wife (see above) because there's nothing I'm really interested in eating. Just not up to eating much... I'm sure it has nothing to do with having a multi-vomit session after 2 major turkey dinners in one day.
• Not that I was expecting to hear much over the holidays, but the job-front is still too quiet. I had a bit of an argument with the job placement guy at my school because he said I need to follow-up on some of the leads they've sent me. See, the thing is: I send my stuff to the guy at the school and he sends it to his contact, so my only response to that guy was: "You want me to cold call and ask to speak to someone who received my demo reel from some other guy?" I never did wear the rose-colored glasses they gave me...
• On another alienation bent, my wife has taken part in a 'Secret Sister' program at the church over the past few years. She got her 'nemesis' as her secret sister this year and she begrudgingly has sent anniversary and birthday cards as well as little holiday gifts/tokens since February. Whomever received my wife's name, though, has done "sweet F all" about it. I'll only excuse 2 people from this, though: the lady who passed away in early spring (although the coordinator should've let my wife know if it was her) ~or~ the lady whose husband died over the summer (but again with the coordinator....). At least those women have been duly distracted for the year. But again: it just feels like more alienation from within our own church, which is just as depressing as not hearing from friends.

Ah well, the year comes to a close and the horoscopes I'm not supposed to believe say it's one of the best things for me to leave 2006 behind and take 2007 and triumph.

Good advice.

And happy New Year,

Vomitization!

It's been a bad week around the house.

After numerous.... 'bad spells' on my part on the 26th, I ended up sleeping for 20 hours' straight before staying conscious for 2 hours and then sleeping another 11 hours. I stayed up for a while after that only to discover my daughter had picked up my bad habit and was now head first into the toilet showing off the apple she'd eaten at Grandma's after dinner. My daughter made a regular (every 30 minutes) trip to the bathroom this morning from 1am until 4am. I was very, very tired by the she finished her wretched retching.

Thank goodness that was the end of the puking in the bathroom.... until my wife started at 8am.

From 8 'til Noon, she followed in my daughter's footsteps into the bathroom, onto the floor, and head in the toilet.

Actually, I tell a lie.

Actually, I'll get back to that.... As I was typing this, my son finally entered the competition. Talk about saving the best for last, my son's all about showmanship. Yep, it's been 8 hours since anyone else heaved whatever filled their stomachs, but my son does it with flair. He's too young to know any better, to be honest, but he also adds a level of spectacular to his throw-ups:
*At least one piece of furniture
*At least one electrical appliance
*Carpeted floor (we have 90% hardwood floors, yet somehow....)
*One deflection (usually off a wall onto another surface, like tiled floor that becomes dangerously slippery).
*At least one innocent bystander (usually me, tonight it was my wife).

OK, back to the lie.... no more throw-ups from my son in about 40 minutes.... *cringes*

Really, am I the only one who *knows* when I'm about to throw up? My stomach hurts, my body temperature begins to rise, I can taste salty bile in my mouth and I know it's time to head for the bathroom. And once I'm in the bathroom, I'm on my knees with my head in the toilet and whatever comes up.... goes down: in the toilet!!!

My daughter, she's 6, and although somewhat sadly experienced in vomiting has started to get the hang of it. Granted, one of the 5 times she threw up last night she hit the top of the toilet, her arm, and the floor, but she's gotten better! My wife, almost 40, still has difficulty, though. I mean, c'mon! Any adult should be able to hit the toilet and leave their lunch properly disposed of... but not my wife. Nope! She gets some on the seat, a little on the floor in front of the toilet and somehow leaves a few chunks on the bath rugs we have on the tiles. You know the ones: the ones every wife gets mad at her husband if he steps onto them with his wet feet? Yeah, those ones. Little chunks of her last meal, perfectly placed for me to step on.

Icky!

I can't wait 'til quarantine is done :(

The Gifts...

Here is the list of gift wishes I'd handed out to people since I'm "so hard to buy for.":

1. Superman II DVD - The Richard Donner Edition (which is much different than the theatrical release... Marlon Brando was actually in Superman II!!)
2. XD Memory Card (1 gigabyte).... XD is like an SD memory card, which most digital cameras and MP3 players take, but my camera takes the XD card, which are harder to find :(
3. Daredevil DVD Director's Cut.... it's got Jennifer Garner in it... that's all that matters.
4. Zoo Tycoon II Collection for the PC... it's a fun game and educational, which means I can play it with the kids when we're stuck at home with nothing to do.
5. Any season of Scrubs on DVD (I like the show).

#1? No.
#2? No.
#3? No.
#4? No.
#5? No.

So, yeah, as usual no one could figure out what to buy for me. I did get some hockey books, which I think it's safe to say I have the largest collection of books on the subject in North America. I got a couple hardcover books by authors I'd mentioned in a conversation once (one is the 3rd book in a series and the other is by the author I mentioned as "not really into his stuff"). I got a hockey sweater from my sister. She used to get me gift cards for music shops all the time, but decided to get me more hockey stuff instead. My parents gave me a book on Canadian comic artists. My in-laws gave me $70 to buy "whatever it was" I wanted. Sheesh.

The best of all, though, came from my daughter. Her school does a little "Christmas store" thing one day a year so that kids can come with $1 and buy gifts for their Moms and Dads. My wife got a dish towel which was nothing compared to my coffee mug:

Riviera Casino presents: "La Cage" with an all-star cast of female impersonators. Including Frank Marino as Joan Rivers.

Awesome. I cried, I really did. It was difficult holding in the laughter.

So, the plan was to take my $70 and go spend it on Boxing Day and pick up everything I'd asked for (or at least some/most of it). Except at 3:30 Boxing Day morning, I was in the bathroom with my head in the toilet reliving every morsel of 2 Christmas dinners....

More on that another time.

Oh, Me of Little Faith....

So, because I'm so problematic to buy gifts for... anyone reading my blog for any length of time knows what I'm talking about, but for a refresher, I'll explain.

Basically, since the day I met my wife, I've suddenly become "difficult" to buy presents for. Did that make sense? Everyone says "I don't know what to get you" despite the fact when they ask, I'll always tell them what I have my eye on. Anyone remember when the Beatles Anthology CDs came out? I really wanted them for Christmas that year and when I went to buy them, I was scolded by my wife because "You asked for it for Christmas!"

I think that CD set came out in 1995.... I'm still waiting for it for Christmas.

And, seriously, for each Christmas and birthday ever since, I've gotten really lame presents that might be close to what I asked for, but not quite. Anyone remember when I asked for the Simpson's DVD set only to get the biography of the voice of Bart Simpson? Yeah, that "close."

This year (don't ask me why), I gave written lists to everyone with specific items for Christmas, including:

1. Superman II DVD - The Richard Donner Edition (which is much different than the theatrical release... Marlon Brando was actually in Superman II!!)
2. XD Memory Card (1 gigabyte).... XD is like an SD memory card, which most digital cameras and MP3 players take, but my camera takes the XD card, which are harder to find :(
3. Daredevil DVD Director's Cut.... it's got Jennifer Garner in it... that's all that matters.
4. Zoo Tycoon II Collection for the PC... it's a fun game and educational, which means I can play it with the kids when we're stuck at home with nothing to do.
5. Any season of Scrubs on DVD (I like the show).

But I figure, as with past years, I'll be picking these things up for myself on December 26th. I have such little faith in my family.

Christmas Movies

'Tis the season for ranting, apparently...

I love Christmas movies! Always have, I think. Every Christmas, I can be found curled up under a blanket, sipping hot chocolate and watching A Christmas Carol (the REAL one, with Alastair Sim), Muppets' Christmas Carol (don't ask, but I've loved this since it first came out), Scrooged, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Elf, The Grinch (either version) and Miracle on 34th Street (again, the original). I'm sure Polar Express will be added to the list now too.

If I'm really bored, I'm might put up with Christmas Vacation and/or Jingle All the Way. But I have to be really bored.

So, looking forward to watching these movies either on video (own most of them) or when they're televised... except I noticed a trend on the stations we get (about 14 are showing various Christmas movies/specials).

1. A Christmas Carol.... on once, late at night (like a Midnight showing) and in color (ew!!).
2. Muppets Christmas... on one Saturday afternoon about 2 weeks ago.
3. Scrooged... haven't seen it on any of the 14 channels that regularly show Christmas movies/specials.
4. It's a Wonderful Life... on twice and scheduled again on Christmas Eve.
5. A Christmas Story... on once, another Midnight showing.
6. Elf... on once.
7. The Grinch... twice for the animated and once for the Jim Carrey version.
8. Miracle on 34th Street... haven't seen it yet, but I saw it's on Christmas Eve.
9. Polar Express... on twice.

9/10 movies and barely on... so what are the stations showing instead?
1. Jingle All the Way... on every channel at least once. One channel showed it 3 times last week.
2. Christmas Vacation... once on every channel and scheduled again Christmas night.
3. Santa Clause & Santa Clause 2... 2 channels have shown both... twice.
4. A Christmas Carol (with Jack Palance!?!?!)... on 3 channels, one of which has shown it 5 times!!
5. Family Man... (that Nicholas Cage one)... on once the first week of December.
6. Die Hard... (takes place at Christmas!) on 3 times on 2 channels.
7. Die Hard 2... (Christmas again!) on 3 times on 2 channels.
8. Chasing Christmas... one at least 4 times on 3 channels.
9. I'll Be Home for Christmas... 3 times on 2 channels.
10. I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus... 2 different channels.
11. Santa Baby... (who let Jenny McCarthy 'star' in a Christmas movie?!?!?) get this: shown 5 times this week on 3 different channels. was on 3 other channels 4 times over the past 2 weeks, and is scheduled again... twice... on Christmas Eve on 2 different channels!!

No wonder I started buying the videos to my favorites... it's the only guarantee they'll be on!

Santa Baby... seriously?

Speaking of being mocked....

I'm leaning more and more to doing something creative for Christmas each year and just giving away drawings/paintings and making my own cards. Anything to keep me away from the effing stores in December.

On Wednesday morning, after dropping my daughter off at school, my son & I headed downtown to one store to pick up a few "last minute" stocking stuffers (a magazine and some Lindt chocolate for my wife). It was early, about 15 minutes before the store actually opened. So, I parked in a virtually empty parking lot. I parked down the far end, away from the obvious row of employee vehicles, and away from the lazy people who parked as close as legally possible to the doors.

At 8:45am, there are close to 200 empty parking spots around me. So where does the next car park?

Right beside me.

And, no, I don't mean they pulled into the spot right next to me... no, no!! I mean, they pulled in so close beside me I couldn't get out of the car. I had to drive to another spot just get my son & I out of the car.

It wasn't the only time it happened that day either. Going to the mall later, I came out and some putz in a Cadillac had parked at such an angle, I couldn't get out of my spot. I had a couple choices....
1) Wait til the putz came back and blast away to get him to move his car.
2) Wait until the driver of the car on the other side of the parking row moved so I could pull forward and out.
3) Do this instead:

Talk to mall security and have them call a tow truck. Merry frickin' Christmas, ya putz!!

Keep Calling

OK, seriously.... where's the hidden cameras?

I'm waiting (in vain, no doubt) for some phone calls about work after all those jobs I applied for. It's been a little... quiet.

But somehow, when I have the phone beside me for 5 hours, the moment I leave for a bathroom break, someone calls. In the past 2 weeks, I've missed 8 calls this way and yesterday's was the most annoying of all!

I'm a little tired/pooped while recovering from the latest headcold (my 357th cold of the year, btw). Not realizing I'd brought the phone with me to the computer, I sat next to it for 5 hours while I did some web design work. I suddenly thought to myself "shoot! I don't have the phone here! Someone's probably called!" So, I head upstairs to grab the phone can't find it. I look around for maybe 5 minutes and head back downstairs to discover the phone sitting on top of the scanner....

with the message display blinking!!

Yep, went upstairs for 5 minutes and someone called. So where are those cameras? I know I'm being watched... and mocked.

Thursday Gripes

Today's definitely a B&M day.... bitch & moan. Lots of little things happening, so in my vain attempt to not sweat the small stuff... here we go:

1. We've had newspaper problems for months. We get 3 local papers (all different) one or two days per week. Let me see if I got this... the Times on Tuesdays and Fridays, the Record on Thursdays and the News on Saturdays. We also get a morning paper, The Province, on Sunday through Friday. Since springtime, we usually get the Times once a week, sometimes not at all. The Record's been fairly good. The News, with its "Good morning!" banner on the front page, usually makes it in time for dinner. We were missing one or two copies of the Province each month. Now, I know the people at the Times on a first name basis these days because I've called so often. I honestly asked if someone had reported us for being bad people because I couldn't understand how we could be missed on a Friday after getting the paper on the Tuesday.... annoying.
   Well, now the Province is "supposed to" arrive by 6am in order for working people to read it over their breakfast. During our nasty winter storm (did I write about that???), we missed an entire week's worth of papers. My in-laws, living 3 blocks away, got 3 of their papers one day and another on its regularly scheduled day. This week, I noticed (see #2 below) we have a new delivery person for the Province in our neighbourhood. On Tuesday(see #2!), we got our paper at 11:30, on Wednesday we got it at 9 (and the paper lady complained and said it was in our mailbox, although we never saw it there before 8:30 when the kids went to school. Today, it's 9:35 and there's still no paper. How many days in a row can we complain??
2. OK, so the paper lady... *shakes head* I noticed when I was having breakfast that there was no paper. I thought it a little odd, but assumed my wife had taken it with her to work earlier that morning. When I went to leave to pick up my son from preschool at 11:30, I couldn't get out of our driveway because someone had parked across my driveway. I walked out to the street and looked up and down to see if there was anyone around and didn't see anyone. A little worried about being late picking up the boy, I went back inside to call my in-laws to see if they could get him. They weren't home. My next call was going to be to the school saying i'd be there ASAP but couldn't get out of my driveway. So, I'm on my cellphone and dialling when this woman walks up to the car. I'm about to go nuts on her (hello? There's 40 feet of clear shoulder on either side of the driveway, lady!!), when she hands me the Province. At 11:30!! So, she gets an earful, which she returns the next day when she says she had the paper in our mailbox by 9am. Yeah, whatever. What's your excuse today? Just more incentive to cancel our subscription and walk down to the store and pick it up every day. Good exercise!
3. I looked into some legal advice for the car accident, since I haven't heard anything in a while. The process, as I understand it, is that since I protested their conclusion, the dispute goes to an internal review committee before anything else is done. If they still find in her favour, then my final remaining option is to sue. But I can't sue the insurance company, I have to sue the other driver. AND, the insurance company will pay for the lawyer --for her. There's supposed to be an insurance adjustor working on my behalf and one working for the other driver. I've never heard of that before. I wonder if it'll ever end...
4. I was total butt-kicker supreme in my hockey pool last week. I went from 13,584th place to 4th. Nice jump! This week, however, I'm back to my traditional role and saw from one game last night that a guy I traded away at the last minute had a 6-point game. The guy I took instead (his teammate) didn't register a point. Doh.
5. The web design stuff is nearly at an end. I agreed to one final major edit. This final edit adds in content for their press/media section and they sent me a ton of scans to add to the site. Most scans are on angle, meaning I have to straighten each one out before I put it on the site. Some are on an angle and upside down. I'm pretty sure they keep a draft email to me running all dya and whenever they think of something they add to it. They send me all the written content for a page in several font styles, sizes... some in bold, some italicized, and some barely discernable as properly-written sentences. Lots of work and apparently, my "check is in the mail." We'll see about that too :(
6. My son's preschool Christmas show was last night. I recall writing about my daughter's preschool show... let me find it... and how I referred to it as "short attention-span theatre." Well, it took a few years but the trait's been passed on from the parents to their children. Holy crap! I sat near the back of the church with video camera in-hand and my daughter standing beside me because everytime I hit the 'record' button, the lady in front of me stood up to take a picture of her grandson. Everyone knew exactly who he was too --the boy continually jumping off the stage for the entire production. I also pointed out, to my parents, the girl who screams loudly whenever I go to the preschool to pick up my son. She's a screamer and is always into something that ends in screams and tears. As I said it, she fell off the stage. She also fell down hard... twice... during the reception later that night. Anyway, back to... the back... of the church where I politely filmed my son's "performance" and quietly cursed the people standing up to take pictures. I noticed (yes, get ready for it) my father sitting down, cursing the people in front of him as they stood up to take a picture everytime he did. He started muttering (loudly) and the lady turned around and asked if it was okay to stand up to take a picture (something she should do before standing in front of someone anyway), my father said yes and then he convinced everyone to move down the row about 2 feet so he could see again. She was standing for a baout 5 minutes at this point. My father finally had the opportunity to get a picture without her with her video camers in front of him. As he snapped the picture, she leaned over right in front of him.
   In a way only my father can do it, he offered to give the film to the lady since he "only got pictures of [her] ass and back." Yes, more confirmation I'm turning into my father....
7. I was doing some gaming research (read: playing video games) and I unintentionally finished a game. I can't remember the actual number, but there's a statistic that says most game players (60%) never finish a game after they've started. So, imagine finishing one without evern trying. It was a good game too, for the most part. One of the things I like about a game with so much in it, after you've finished all the major points of the story, you can continue to play and explore and find new things. And I'm doing one of those right now :)
   

The Sound of Reading....

Here I'd just posted that I'd been waiting an extremely long, long, LONG time for a book to come in at the library and guess what?

They called to let me know my book was in.

So, you know I raced down to get it. I got there, handed my card over and watched the librarian scan it. She went to the backroom and came out with my book.

All 5 CDs.

They requested the frickin' audio book for me!!! ARGH!

I was mad, but I couldn't stop laughing. I waited all that time just to get the audio book, not an actual book to read. I asked the librarian if I could get the book instead and she scanned my card again, typed in the title of the book, and I saw her shoulders shrink.

I'm now 15th on the waiting list for the book.

I may never get to read it.

Before you ask, I tried listening to the CD today while working on the computer... I'm 20 minutes in and I can't tell you what's happening. :(

Getting More out of the Game

Uh Oh! Hockey rant! My female readers just went glassy-eyed and moved onto the next blog!

The NHL Board of Governors (another group that proudly carried the initials BOG) decide this week not to change next season's schedule to allow more inter-conference games. They'll look at it again at their next meetings in early 2007, but the Eastern Conference doesn't want to change the schedule. Why would they? Almost every away game is still in the same time zone for them.

The problem is that the new era of the NHL also has the new generation of superstars: Sidney Crosby, Eric and Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin, and Alexander Ovechkin. Fine, if you want to add a few more, there's also Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza, Rick Nash, and Gilbert Brule (I'm stretching with Brule, I know). Crosby, Malkin & Ovechkin are definitely the ones to watch right now, though, no one can argue that. They're also all on Eastern Conference teams, which means they have a single road trip meeting with the Western Conference teams once every 3 years. So, if we in vancouver see (we did see him too) Alexander Ovechkin in 2006, we won't see him (as long as he still plays with Washington --a gimmie, really) again until 2010. And what happens if he's injured? 2014?

Long way off to see the new up-and-coming superstars. Pittsburgh rolls into town next season. I can't remember the last time Mario Lemieux played in Vancouver, but I'm sure it was closer to the mid-1990s and he's now retired.

Needless to say, the Western Conference really misses out on a lot of things. Superstar players in the East, traditional favorite teams (Toronto and Montreal are huge sellouts in Vancouver), and we end up seeing the same teams over and over again. Great if there's a good rivalry, but when our team gets constantly whupped by them, it becomes a drag after a while. Especially with the anemic offense the Canucks are "producing" this season.

As much as the fans are missing out on these games, so too are some of the players. Right now, I'm thinking of the college basketball games I was at when some of the NCAA teams came to Canada to play some exhibition games. The NCAA teams were permitted extra practice time by playing these exhibition games, so the little defense they went up against with the CIS (Canadian Inter-University Sport) and CCAA (Canadian Colleges Athletic Association) teams, meant they also had numerous practices before their seasons started in the U.S. We had people from all over the U.S. fly into Vancouver to attend these games. It was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some fans to see these players, but it was also an opportunity for some college players to play against upcoming NBA players.

I took a lot of pictures (part of my job at the games) and gave one of the guys a picture where's he's defending against Wayne Simien (now of the Miami Heat). It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event for him!! (he (not Wayne Simien) still emails because he really appreciates me giving him that picture).

So, for the Eastern Conference teams to rarely play against the Western team means that there are rookies and younger players who may never be able to tell their friends and family about the time they played against a hall of fame player. They're missing out too.

Imagine if no one in New York got to see Michael Jordan play? It's time to change the schedule.

One More Thing

3 years.

I've been writing this blog for 3 years now. I started it (thanks Dreama/Sky/whatever) on December 5, 2003 and I'm still here. Still a little depressed too, but that's for another post.

Sorry.

621st post, by the way.

Missing Days

Seriously, I have no excuse for not posting anything wince November 25th. No excuse.

We had a major snowfall hit us at the end of November and it effectively shut down the region for an entire week. My daughter ended up with an 10-day "weekend" because she had a Friday off, then didn't venture back to school (closures everywhere!) until a week the following Monday... December 4th. My wife had 5 of her 6 shifts cancelled as well, but because it's a union job, she still gets paid despite missing the shifts. Phew!

And I was home the entire time. I shoveled the driveway 5 times, which really put a 'damper' on my back. I went into Washington state on the Friday because the weather had cleared up by then.

But that's it. And I still didn't post.

I finished the web design project for the one company. I did do that. It turned out to be tougher than I thought as some of the coding for the menu system wasn't cooperating. I spent a couple days researching how to fix it and in the end, it turned out to be 3 words on 3 different lines. That's it. Very annoying.

I wrote a Christmas letter to go out to friends and family whom we've barely kept in touch with over the past year. My school stuff got in the way of that pretty badly. Some people aren't aware I've even graduated yet. Unfortunately, most of my humorous comments were edited out by my wife before she photocopied the letter at work. Meanie.

I put in a request for 2 books at the library back in October. Our library is part of a regional system, so I can request books from about 16 different cities in the area (about 24 libraries in total). I was #6 on the waitlist for one and #10 on the waitlist for the other. There are over a dozen copies of each book, so I figured it would be a few weeks before I heard anything. I finally got a call late Saturday saying that a book was in. I raced down to get it as I'm desperately waiting to read what I thought was the final book in this one series. The other book is, like, the 25th book in a series, so I don't think that one's ever ending. The third book in the one series isn't the final one either. I'm not disappointed, because the main character is quite likable. I finished the book on Monday, though. I was crazy into it and now it'll most likely be 2 years before the next book's published.

As for the other book, I asked where I was on the waitlist. I'm still #6, which means every copy of the book is over a month overdue. I know I'm not getting it for Christmas. It's a new hardcover just released in September.

I also read the entire Harry Potter series, save the Half-Blood Prince. I'm incredibly impressed with the 'maturing' of the characters and reading level throughout the series so far. It was kind of nice being able to finish one book, place it on the shelf, and pick up the next in the series. Even waiting to read the next book next week isn't too harsh!

There's still no word on the outcome of my appeal with the insurance company. I'm still pretty annoyed by the whole thing. If it was, as they claim, an intersection and I should have yielded for her, what makes them think she was there ahead of me? Did she stop? And if she stopped? Why? Was it because I was coming (and if she had the right of way, why didn't she just go and I would've rear-ended her --which wouldn't've happened as I would've stopped in time)? Or did she think she needed to stop instead of yielding? If she didn't stop and was just driving through, then she hit me in the passenger-side door of my car, meanig that I was already into the "intersection" when she hit me. I had the right-of-way simply because she hadn't arrived that the "intersection" yet. Told you I'm annoyed.

I've been catching up on TV shows over the past 10 or so days too. I'm still about 2-4 weeks behind, depending on the series. Studio 60 is deifnitely my favorite of the new season, with 'Jericho,' 'Heroes,' & 'The Class' immediately behind. I only ever watched one episode of 'West Wing,' so I can't say I'm a fan of Aaron Sorkin (yet). This series is well done, though. When it's out on DVD, I'm going to make sure my wife watches it. She can't stay awake past 10 most nights, so she'd never survive it's regular time slot.

I have one final eBay sacrifice going right now. It's a super-rare Beatles comic and the only known copies are in French and Dutch. There are also only 4 known copies in existence. 2 of the paperback edition and 2 of the hardcover edition. I own one of each. I figured putting a $100 reserve on the book was reasonable, as the artist who worked on it is super popular and his other "rare" book had a print-run of 500 and, coincidentally, sells for $500. I had another one with his art that had a print-run of 2,500 copies for the paperback and 15 for the hardcover. I sold that paperback for $100. I'm keeping the hardcover because my name's in it. So far, the bidding is under $20. I'm sad.

OK, I've really prattled on here and there are a few other things still to say. But they'll await another post.

Thought Parade

My mind's a jumble today, a mental mixer, to be sure. I have a lot on my mind right now and feel the urge to spill.

So, forgive me.

1. Seriously. It's snowing here, but it comes and goes. I'll look outside one moment and there's nothing and then a few minutes later it's snowing like crazy. It's sticking to the roof of the house, but our lawn only has a few spots of snow. The trees blocked most of it, but the little we got melted off earlier in the day.
   The stop-and-start reminds me of a game level I designed where the weather was snowy. Because I was designing it, I could move anywhere in the environment and not limited to the spaces where normal players would be confined. I could go above the visible "snow-line" and see the flakes just sit there, ready to fall when it was their turn. I wonder if the snow outside is falling like that whenever it starts up again?
   
2. Wrote a friend yesterday at the old office from Hell. I mentioned that I'd written emails to a few others and had no response from these so-called friends. She didn't brush off the comment or deny it, but just totally ignored it in her response. I just don't understand why some people ask my wife why they never hear from me then ignore any messages I send.
3. The game design stuff reminded me of a time when I was a kid and dreamt of creating my own worlds and everything on it. Now I can and for whatever reason, I choose not to.
4. My mother gave me a couple of boxes of my "stuff" from when I was growing up. They're filled with file folders for every year of my life. Kind of odd to see my entire life as a system of file folders (complete with tickets from every play, opera, and musical I've ever gone to). It also has my report cards from each grade. I never really tried until the very end. There's test results stating I was reading at a university level by the time I was 12, but my grades the next year in English were only Cs and C+'s. I never put the effort in. The next year was even worse because my teacher accused me of plagiarism. I refused to do any more work (not a stretch since I seemingly never did anyway) until she apologized. I went from a B to a D, followed by two Es to finish off the year. I wrote the final exam an got an A, so they were forced to pass me.
5. My Grade 12 exams, of which only one was "official," had a scoring system similar to the SATs. The document states that if I should accumulate a score of more than 1,000 points grand total in 3 or more final exams, then I'd be receiving a provincial scholarship. (If memory serves, 3 people in my class did receive those scholarships: $30,000 or more if I recall correctly). Because I only wrote the one official one (at the time, we only had to take a regulated science course to Grade 10 and Math to grade 11 --I did Math 11 twice), I wasn't eligible for the scholarship. My score on the one final was 497, which I'm assuming was out of 500 (so, 98.4%?). I know on one unofficial exam, I scored 98%.
   
6. Every report card makes mention of my lack of ability to complete homework and if I just "strive to work a little harder...). I wonder now, what life would be like if I'd ignored my social life (which I realized was a disaster much too late) and focused on school? Damn.
7. I've been reading a new blog about a woman who was in the comics industry and some of the obstacles she faced before she left. It's got me thinking about a bunch of things too.
   
8. I'm working on a story which is just a single chapter of a much, much bigger story (I'm sure I've mentioned it before). This part of the story is about a woman who is dying and reveals to her boyfriend that she was raped year earlier and it, ultimately, led to this very moment. Although the boyfriend reveals he already knew about it, there's a time for some healing and understanding about the rape. I don't write about it any further than to just mention it. There's no details about it other than that it happened. In a lot of ways, I don't feel I could a rape story properly by describing the event itself. I'm not sure right now if I can even justify any type of healing afterward, but I'm going to give it a try. This woman is strong and this is a hint at a moment where she wasn't in control of anything.
9. One of my wife's cousins was raped a few years back and the man who did it is back in the news right now (he'd escaped from prison or something and went on to rape 3 women before he was arrested again). "They" are trying to figure out if he should be considered a "dangerous offender." Why this process should take more than 30 seconds, I don't know. He escaped custody (he'd done it before) and goes out and does it again. Three times.

Mountain of Rage

I have been driving for 17 years. 17 years in which I've received a single ticket. One ticket for speeding. I've never been at fault for an accident and have a major discount with my insurance agency.

17 years.

The insurance company finally got back to me today to inform me that the accident in October, where a van came out of a side lane and t-boned my car, is 100% my fault. I failed to yield the right-of-way.

Um, what?

Even better, the insurance adjustor is inclined to side with me, but still put me at 100% at-fault. The van, coming off a short lane, had the right-of-way to turn in front of me. I should've stopped --on a major thoroughfare-- to let her into traffic. Anyone want to picture what would've happened had I stopped? I would've been rear-ended because nobody expects you to stop there!

Oh boy, is there an appeal coming.

Out In The Dark

A little back-story...

When I sell stuff on eBay and need to send it to US addresses, I make my way into Washington state to mail them using the much superior (seriously!) US postal system. I can send a package from Washington to Florida in a manner of days. To send it from Canada... 2 weeks, sometimes 5 weeks, apparently depending on how well the dogsleds handle the Interstate (grr).

It means I have to walk across the border, though, as the "commercial" side of the border crossing is designed for semi-trucks, not cars. I can park and take a decent 10-minute walk to the post office, chat with the ladies about the latest lunch specials down the road, pick up anything I may have purchased myself. Oh, and always ensure I have my receipts ready for the Canadian border guards who insist everything is valued at $200 or more . I once declared a video game for "three ninety-five," which translated as "$395.00" instead of "four bucks" --"four bucks," incidentally, would be a false declaration... sigh. After that, it's another quick 10-minute walk back to my car.

So, anyway, I had a bunch of stuff to mail off today, including a number of rather bulky boxes of toys to send off to various states. I walked into the US Customs office, submitted my ID and proper form and declared my travel plans (post office and back). Not a problem and usually isn't.

Well, except for one problem. The customs officer never thought to mention that the entire town was without power and had been all day. I discovered this sad fact after I'd walked to the post office and saw signs on storefront stating they'd be open on Friday.

So, here I was with a bunch of bulky boxes --5 to be exact-- and a number of envelopes, another 5, and no actual proof that they were mine save the return address. But what of the value? Well, that was on the form I'd left at the US Customs office. As far as Canadian Customs officers... This could very well be $2000+ worth of toys precariously balanced in my arms!

So, a couple of panicked phone calls to my wife and she assured me she had found a babysitter for the kids, printed off my eBay pages (that's enough 'proof' for Customs) and was on her way. I told her I'd be waiting just outside the post office building.

That was at 3:50pm. I had left home at 2:30.

At 5pm, the rain started again. There is a severe flood warning in the region as the temperature has picked up dramatically and it snowed heavily in the mountains over the weekend. This little town is known for its floods.

At 5:30, I started calling friends and relatives to see if they'd seen or heard from my wife. They hadn't.

At 6pm, quite wet and feeling extremely numb, I began walking towards the border, hoping I could see her in a huge lineup of cars. But I couldn't see her anywhere.

Why? The US guard who stopped her car had decided tonight was a good night for all vehicles to be inspected. Heavily. We're talking child seats removed, spare tire taken out, X-rays, dog sniffing......

And I stood. In the dark. And the rain.

Waiting.

At 6:30, they finally let her go. She picked me up a few minutes later. She actually drove right by me and it was a less than a 10-minute dash back to the post office. She also couldn't find the post office as there were no lights on anywhere once you got past the border. We finally met up and made our way back to the Canadian border where we had a lengthy discussion with the border guards there.

And I still have 5 bulky boxes and 5 envelopes to mail out.

But not tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be worse.

In the Dark

Around Noon yesterday (Wednesday) we had a storm slam into the area. It seriously felt like a slam. I was playing cars with my son in his room when the trees at the front of our yard suddenly shifted closer to the house with the impact of the winds. I've heard the gusts were up to 100km/h and these continued throughout the day.

Just as school ended, the power finally went out. We spent the next 14 hours in the dark with next to nothing to do. We played board games, ate sandwiches (the fast food places with power quickly ran out of stock we were informed), and mostly read books. I started the next Harry Potter book (I'm a little behind but catching up quick) and am now over halfway through the 5th book.

My only concern as the night wore on was the new carton of ice cream we'd just picked up. It was surely going soft, so it was time for an ice cream party.

Any excuse...

So, I had a couple bowlfuls of ice cream and... (sighs...) dairy is never my friend when I have a bad cold.... I paid for it the rest of the night and into the morning. Power was finally restored at 4am.

But last night's power outage was nothing compared to the blackout I was in today....

Too Good to be True? - Part II

I like being wrong.

I figured there has to be a catch. I'm not working, I'm broke, and they're offering $15,000 at prime-plus-2.5%...... What am I missing?

Nothing, apparently.

Everything's set and I can breathe for the month of November.

Keep in mind, this means that we're planning on using about $4000 to pay off credit card balances (at 18-22% interest), our overdraft (24%), and our November mortgage payment. Keep 'em at the current 8.5% and not touch the money again until I'm working (or... if need be an emergency in December :( ).

This will mean extreme vigilance on my part not to be tempted into something stupid....

New Dilemmas, nothing major

So, there's a hockey game on tonight that could be a great game to watch --or a horrible one. Survivor's on at the same time, as is Grey's Anatomy, followed by Six Degrees.

What to watch....

Too Good to be True?

To say we hit a financial roadblock this week is to say it mildly. We discovered our bank (a credit union) doesn't do payment deferrals. So, while our account sits at 'zero,' we're required to have a mortgage payment in place by November 24.

So, as I stated before, my butt's been officially kicked to get going on the eBay stuff. And I am happy to report over $120 raised so far this week! I have an extremely rare book I'm putting on later today... I've only seen 2 other copies of the book, even on the internet, and I own 2 of them. I'm hoping for at least $100 for it and another rare book I'm selling is currently over $80 (and I was hoping for $50). So, things are starting to look a *little* better....

Then yesterday I receive a very odd phone call. The bank where we have a joint account and where I used to have my business account called to say I'd been pre-approved for a line of credit. A $15,000 line of credit. No income check, no credit check. Nothing.

Too good to be true? I find out this afternoon if my suspicions are correct and this is too good...

But imagine surviving for another couple of months??

Dream in Detail

I've been meaning to write about a dream I had last week. I don't normally write about dreams because I have such minimalist dreams that there's usually nothing major occurring. Every once in a while I'll have a vivid dream where it feels a little too real. After leaving my job (From Hell!) I had several nightmares that I kept getting called to go back. I still have one of those every few months. Hmm, issues...

On Thursday night, however, I had a very long, extremely full and detailed dream. My wife & I were accepted as contestants 'Amazing Race' and discovered when we arrived that there was yet another new twist to the game: This time it was a celebrity edition of the show.

What that meant was that my wife & I were split up and paired instead with a celebrity partner. Yeah, that makes the race more difficult because suddenly you're not with someone you've had any type of relationship with, but with someone who, despite any level of fame, is an unknown factor. My wife was paired up with Matthew Perry.... And as strange as that was, my partner turned out to be....

Madonna.

Seriously.

While I don't remember all the details, I know that my wife and her partner were eliminated first. She has to drive instead of navigate and Matthew Perry turned out to be pretty bad at reading maps and had them drive south for 2 hours while everyone else drove north for 5 minutes... I was quite upset that my wife was out of the game already and was almost willing to give up completely on the game. Madonna talked me out of it, though.

As the race progressed, Madonna & I were usually in the lead. She was recognizable anywhere we went in the world, so there was always someone who would quickly jump in to help us. We argued a lot because she refused to do some of the stunts and then she kept claiming the first place prizes for each round ("Madonna, you and Guy can buy your own island in the Caribbean, how 'bout you let my wife & I take this prize??"). In the end, though, we came in second place after a grueling trip.

It was even a little surreal the next morning as I drank my morning coffee.... And watched Madonna on 'Regis & Kelly.' Weird.

I think out of anyone on the planet, Madonna would not be my primary choice to partner with on a race around the world.

Who would you pick?

Nonsensical Subject...

OK, so an interesting subject title to my last post that made absolutely no sense....

Whoops.

The office I went to for the project meeting is in the old downtown area of Vancouver, referred to as 'Gastown.' It's not run-down (much), but filled with older, character buildings, cobblestone streets and even a steam-powered clock that struck 4pm (loudly) just as I walked by talking on my cellphone. Ouch. The office is locted in the middle of Gastown, just around the corner from Blood Alley.

Now, Blood Alley has 2 historical references to lend to its name. It was the location of several butcher shops and at the end of the day, when they cleaned the shops, the street would fill with blood. Also, the square at Blood Alley was used for public executions. I'm pretty sure, though, that there were only ever public hangings in this region.

So, now Blood Alley makes a bit more sense to everyone! :D

Just around the corner from Blood Alley

So, the project meeting went well and I'll be starting on the project this weekend and most likely finished by the following weekend. That's the so-so news. The good news is that they have some clients who will be watching what I do because they're looking for an upgrade and "they have $10,000 in their budget for these things.:

I can handle that. So, next week is "dress to impress" (the website, that is).

It took nearly 3 hours to get home last night and I was freakin' exhausted by the time I pulled into the driveway. We were driving home slowly for no apparent reason. It had stopped raining, the wind had died down, but we just kept going 20km/h under the frigging speed limit. My patience wore thin and I started a slalom passing people as I did 5 km/h under the limit.... Geez! The really good news is this project is all telecommuting, so I'm staying put in the house for as long as possible. Went out for a few minutes today and had 2 close calls. My car must be invisible or something.... no one care see it.

Or no one cares.

Anyhoo, backing to butt-kicking on eBay --for now.

The Universe Conspires...

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Bull$#!%."
--Hairyhoser

October ended poorly... in more ways than one. We are almost officially broke right now thanks to the money I had to pay out for the car accident. No, it's still not finalized and when/if they ever do, they'll mail me the $300 which means it'll take a few weeks to get here... if they finally realize it wasn't my fault.

I firmly believe that the universe is conspiring to make my family suffer this year.
1. My wife's paystub from work this week was missing all but one shift. So, instead of $400+ in the bank, we got $46.
2. Daddy cooking dinner on Monday night was an utter disaster. Some bugs have infested our boxes of Macaroni & Cheese and I didn't notice until they started floating to the top in the boiling water. I tried 2 different boxes (2 different brands) and each had bugs in them. The older box had dead bugs, the newer one had live ones (there was still one crawling around in the box). So, I made hot dogs for dinner and a peanut butter & jam sandwich for my son who refused to eat hot dogs.
3. I've been desperately trying to talk to my parents who suddenly took off for the U.S. in mid-October. They've called 3 times: once from Albuquerque, once from Houston, and once from Minneapolis. My wife received the call from Houston and didn't mention I was trying to talkto them and didn't try and get a number from them. They called last night while I was stoking the fire. They left a message... but no forwarding number. I had the phone on me all day except for the minute I went downstairs to attend the woodstove.
4. We cheapened out for Halloween this year, knowing that we've had less than 5 kids every Halloween we've lived here. We bought a single box of candy and were out of stock within 20 minutes. Coldest frickin' Halloween I recall too. It was just below freezing.
5. My wife's car needed repairs to the fanbelt. Twice. There went another $150 we don't have.
6. I had a phone conversation with a career services guy from school. He's got a plethora of job opportunities for me. Each one pays just above minimum wage and require a 90-minute commute which means my pay would cover the cost of gas to go to work. So, thanks but no thanks. I've semi-reluctantly told them to start looking beyond Vancouver for work because I know the major company in Montreal is looking for people. Yep, it means a major move, but we're making the arrangements for the wife & kids to stay here and either live in this house or sell it and they can move in with her parents. Sucks for sure, but if it gets us back on our feet faster...
7. I am putting things on eBay as quickly as humanly possible. OK, that's not entirely true. I'm trying to, but I"m lacking motivation at the moment. I'm in need of a kick in the keister to get stuff on this weekend. I don't want to get stuck with more eBay stress around Christmas again. I've had 4 years of that and enough's enough!

OK, enough.

I have one semi-positive note to mention: I'm heading into Vancouver today to sort out this new web project for the film industry company. They don't make movies, but they're associated with the film industry. It's a highly temporary job (less than a week's work), but could lead to more work in the near future. We have a few items to sort out before I begin working on it and a big one for me is telecommuting. It's a fairly easy job and easier to do from home than getting acquainted in a new office. Getting into an office will mean a few hours spent just getting used to the space. Doing it from home means starting immediately.

I'll write more tonight.

Onto Other Things....

OK, the B.S. with my car aside, this has been a fairly eventful week.

I do have a job, albeit an extremely temporary one. A company involved in the film industry in Vancouver was looking for a 'web guy' and I suited their criteria. So, it's temporary work, but it could lead to bigger and better things.

MEANWHILE, I've been contacted by the big-time company I talked about last week. I'm having a meeting with the 2 execs I met (at different times, but they've since talked) about my potential future with their company.

Oh yeah, baby! One job is a 'junior' position and is probably a finite one wrapping up in January. The other one is my 1-year goal of a job in production and could be a 2-3 year project!

We're meeting the week of November 5th. I'll post more after that!

Time and Time and Time Again

Well, there's not much to follow-up with the whole car accident thing. I called when they told me to call and they told me to call on October 28th.

So, on October 28th I called and they told me they'd call me.

They're doing a further investigation, which most likely means she's lied about something. How hard is it to have a map of the intersection, see damage on the passenger-side of the car with right-of-way and damage on the driver side of the vehicle failing to yield and not know the outcome?

THis has got to be the most frustrating thing I've dealt with in a long, long time!

Tense... Very Tense

I recall when my car was stolen in 2003 that the insurance company was ready to hold their version of the Spanish Inquisition and put me on the rack to discover what had happened to my car. In the insurance business, it seems the owner of a stolen car is guilty until proven innocent.

Lucky for me the police arrested 3 people in my car, yes? I recall the mound of paperwork the insurance adjustor had with her when I went to the appointed meeting. She did not have the police report yet, but when I told her there'd been 3 people arrested in my car, she put away all but one of the sheets. I filled out the basic information: I was at work, my car had been outside in the parking lot all day, and when I "left work" it was gone.

Guilty until proven innocent.

The car accident on October 9th should be finalized today. My car is back from the body shop with over $2100 in repairs, of which I was forced to pay $300 (which I don't really have). Why? Because the woman who drove into me just filed her claim yesterday and had to take her van in today. She's also claiming she wasn't at fault (she turned right into a lane I was already occupying), so now the insurance company has to "investigate."

What worries me most is that she waited 2 weeks to make her claim and her van had minor scratches on the front rubber area of her bumper. 2 weeks is plenty of time to replace that. What is she claims she never hit me?

Also, the insurance company said one of the witnesses couldn't be reached by phone (whom they finally got around to phoning this week), so what happens if the witnesses are unreliable?

I have no idea what's going to happen, but I know what should happen. I should be cleared of the accident, because she drove into me. Then, the insurance company will reimburse the $300, which most likely will take a couple of weeks to get back.

Whatever happens, I'm frustrated and will know more later on today. If I haven't heard anything by 3pm, then I'll be phoning to find out what's going on.

I really need to get my new cellphone --one with a camera installed. Next time this happens, (I'm betting it'll happen again as I've had 4 close calls in the past 2 weeks aside from the actual collision) I'm taking a memory card-full of pictures. I'm sick of this crap.

Finally Found

It's not a common thing for me to hear a song and cry. I can think of 2 occasions in my life where I've heard a song that's played at just the right time to swing my mood or let me release some emotion.

But nothing like today.

When I was young, I remember hearing a song in a trailer for a movie. It was 1986. The song struck a chord with me back then and I couldn't find any information on the song anywhere. Being an instrumental song, it was even more difficult because I couldn't recite words to the song to anyone to see if they knew it. About a year later, I saw the trailer again only this time on a video. I got the movie, bought it, played it and read through the credits to no avail.

I bought the soundtrack (still have it) and the song was nowhere to be heard on it either.

It's a fairly fast-paced song and has a tone to it that makes me think of how life can continually throw things at you and you have to be prepared --as best you can-- when things come your way and then everything shifts and you find it all coming at you from a different direction. It also makes me think of surviving the chaos of life as long as you have people around you who love you. Imagine a teenage boy who always figured he'd be alone for the rest of his life thinking that.

This morning, in the shower, I was humming the song that I loved the first time I heard it over 20 years ago.

These days, though, finding information can sometimes be easier than it was 20 years ago and sure enough inspiration hit and I began my search and within 15 minutes my 20-year old question was answered.

"Music for a Found Harmonium" by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

I have a copy of the song and am listening to it right now. I've also ordered the CD from Amazon. And, yes, there are tears in my eyes as I listen to it. It's been 20 years and I've finally found it.

No More Quiet

Didn't I just write how quiet everything's been on the job search?

Well, that came to an abrupt end!

I mentioned in 'Biding My Time' that I was going out last night. It was great! Found out about 4 potential job leads (yeah, not just one, but four!) and got invited to a meet-and-greet today at the biggest game company in North America. They have an awesome office building too:
Sweet, eh? And it's right at the end of the commuter train line! Woot!

So, going to that meet and greet simply because the guy who invited me is leaving that job at the end of the month and going to another company (coincidentally, the #2 company on my list of all-time "I wanna work there!" companies) in November. So, get me in to meet the team and have me fresh on their minds when they look for his replacement... :D

Oh, but that's not the end of it. No-no! Right after this meet and greet, and on the other side of Vancouver is yet another meet and greet with people from a few different companies! I've been invited out to it to meet more people, including one guy from Montreal who is currently looking to grab some peeps and get them to move (all expenses paid, of course) across the country as they try to become the biggest game company in North America! My ol' instructor mentioned me when she was talking to him earlier this week... nice.

Last night's thing was pretty sweet and one of the people there I'd met at the grad showcase back in September. He remembered my name (and these are people from companies who get hundreds of applications a day) and let me know they're reviewing my work and seeing if I fit their future plans.

What it all boils down ot is I'll be the first one from my grad class working in the field. There've been others with job offers, but nothing starting for them until January.

Anyone else smelling roses at the moment?

Six Oh Three

Don't remember coming up on this number, but according to Blogger, this is post #603 and I never noticed #600 fly by. Whoopsie!

So, to celebrate, albeit a little late. Here's a Top Ten List of things barely anyone knows about me:

1. When I was a kid, I used to shoplift toys from one store and carry them over to another and place them on the shelf just to confuse people.
2. A few weeks ago, I had a very vivid recollection of a girl I dated just after I graduated high school. I know we went to a community dance together (she lived/lives in Washington state) and she wanted to leave early. We went back to her parents' house and we were on the couch and she was massaging me when her family came home and she quickly got off of me. It hit me like a train when I remembered this because it seems to me we went a lot further than just a massage... Now if only I could remember her name...
3. I've seen LL (check the bottom of the post) twice this week after promising to get together with her at least a dozen times over the past year. No, it's not an affair. I'm helping her out with some business stuff as well as a potential job search. We had a meeting over coffee on Monday and yesterday she came with me to set up a USPS box just across the border (taking advantage of cheap shipping and an on-par dollar). She's still very touchy-feely.
4. I was tempted to rejoin the university link once again after I finished school. I had an email message arrive from one of them and I replied and somehow started a mini-flame war. So, I'm not going back.
5. I applied for a local job as a reporter for a weekend news magazine. Sadly, I was encouraged 10 years ago to look into journalism as a potential career. Good thing I just paid $27,000 for a different career path, eh?
6. One of my best friends in junior high has a daughter who just got her driver's licence. We graduated from high school in 1991, so he had a 1 year old girl back then and I knew nothing about it.
7. I've been the driver of my car in 3 accidents in 17 years of driving, none of the accidents my fault. The first one was a teenage kid running a red light (he did it after the lady beside him also slowed for the light then decided to go through... I was making a left and had been in the intersection when both vehicles accelerated through the red light). The second one was a woman pulling out of the mall parking lot and drove across 2 lanes and puched my car sideways onto the sidewalk. Broke both axels and wrote off my first car. The third one was last week when a lady in a van made a right into the lane I was in. The passenger door needs to be replaced now. My car(s) have been hit another 7 times and every one was a woman in either a truck or a van. Now, I don't want to come off sounding sexist, but... 9 out of 10 accidents?
8. I have a bookshelf that's nothing but Star Wars and Star Trek books. I haven't read one of them.
9. Despite being such an uber-geek, I've only read the Lord of the Rings trilogy once. I finished each book in the week the Peter Jackson movies debuted.
10. I actually listed a number of rules for a friend of mine. He's a pastor and I told him he's not allowed to have the "pastor" hat on when we're together as friends. He's a human being and needs to vent every once in a while and if he doesn't I know there are things he'd keep bottled up inside. And I don't want him thinking I'm judging him if he says something inappropriate.

OK, that's enough for now. This was harder than I thought!!

Biding my Time

Well, the job search activity definitely went up a notch or three over the past week. I've applied for over a dozen jobs now at various companies around the region. There were a few at one company in particular (rhymes with 'subsonic parts') that would probably pay the best. My portfolio instructor phoned today because she's got the inside edge on a number of potential leads.

We're getting together tomorrow night in Vancouver and she's trying to arrange a couple guys to come out and meet me. I love her more and more every day ;)

Of course, I'm also looking forward to getting out of the house for a bit as I'm getting a bad case of cabin fever!!

Expensive Hoodie!

So, last night we finally had our graduation ceremony. Only 1 month after finishing the semester! Actually, it was even worse for the grads who finished in the spring.... their's was last night too!

Only about 1/4 of my classmates showed up for it. Some didn't care, some forgot, and some probably never even knew it was happening. The people who finished in the Spring were at about 50%, so they care a little more --although, to be honest, they weren't as jaded when they finished.

Regardless of the lack of attendance by my classmates, it was a fairly good evening and to top it off I won an award in recognition of my leadership (who knew "bow down" would pay off, eh?). I received a certificate and the coveted hoodie.

Yep, $27,000 in tuition and I have a hoodie!!

Yay me.

Punk and pumpkin

I haven't followed up on the trip to the pumpkin patch. I'm in a bad mood, so this is going to be short and right to the point. Whenever I refer to my son (... my boy... my apple falling from the tree...), imagine a father with clenched fists, teeth and hair prompted to grey at the slightest hesitation.

Sucked big time. My son annoys me and he did a wonderful job of it at the patch.

When we went to leave in the morning (had to be there to meet with others at 9:30), my... boy... threw a rather large hissy fit because he wanted Mommy to take him --not Daddy. Mommy had to work, but that ws unacceptable to him... it took 20 minutes to convince him to get in the car and by that point I didn't want to go. Go we did, and eventually got there. About 20 minutes' late, of course. We paid the $6 for the hayride out to the pumpkin patch and saw there was plenty to choose from. The rules are: This is a ride for the kids, so it's up to the kid to pick a pumpkin and carry it to the tractor. My son picked up a pumpkin looking rather more like an orange than a pumpkin, so I encouraged him to pick out another one.

One we could preferrably stick a knife into without the blade immediately coming out the other side. So, he walked over and picked up a rather manageable one, but when he took a few steps he discovered that pumpkins have a natural flaw...

Please remember we're talking about a very rough boy here.

My son... (remember the gritting teeth) put the pumpkin. It turns out, to him, that pumpkins grow in a field... of dirt... and when they get wet, that dirt tends to stick to the bottom of the pumpkin waiting to rub off onto the unsuspecting palms of whomever picks up the hapless pumpkin. Upon discovering... dirt... on his hands, my son decided this was not the pumpkin for him. So, I told him we'd find another one (hoping he wouldn't pick another small one where any carving would look like some torturous massacre instead of a festive face). Nope, not going to do that. He'd had enough.

"I don't want a pumpkin." He says.

I guess I reacted a little louder than I'd expected becasue a couple parents asked if everything was okay. "Oh, he doesn't want a pumpkin," I replied. To which, most parents also winced at. Yeah, the really broke guy just $6 to take his son on a 5-foot hayride to look at pumpkins.. Why pick one up, eh?

So, eventually we made it home. No pumpkin for the family. And nothing but fond memories... if he remembers.

My daughter has a school field trip to the same patch next week. She'll probably outdo herself making up for our current lack of pumpkins. Such a sweetie.

Shifting Mood

[note: the previous post: 'phoot!' was written earlier today when I was in a fairly good mood... ah, the good ol' days]

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. We get it out of the way early so as to enjoy the nice weather. I'm pretty sure my comprades in Ontario can relate to decent weather right now, but today was a gorgeous day. Plenty to be thankful for.

But if I could have late-this-afternoon back, I'd be plenty more thankful.

After our Thanksgiving meal at the in-laws, my wife was taking our son to get his picture taken. My daughter was going along to help encourage the boy and I... well, I was looking forward to some time away from the children I've been taking care of since I finished school. Not to be, as my wife was quite insistent I come along.

Just for the record, my son has not had a studio picture taken in over 18 months. He likes to cry whenever we try it, so most previous attempts have failed... miserably.

Today was no different. He was a great kid, staying awake the entire trip there and waiting quite patiently to go into the studio. Once we were ready for him to sit on the rug for his portrait, 'Mr. Hyde' arrived and the next 40 minutes was a gruelling attempt to get him to either sit or stand for one bleedin' picture. Nothing doing.

He cried and whined and crawled around to hide. He'd do anything except stay still long enough for the photographer to take his picture.

So, we decided to go... obviously he wanted nothing to do with getting his picture taken, right?

Wrong, apparently. His minor hissy fit in the studio turned into a full blown one as we tried to leave. Like, seriously, I was waiting for someone to call the police because we were attempting to abduct our own child. If not for the little girl next to us rolling her eyes at how annoying her brother was, we'd probably be in jail by now...

It got worse the closer to the car we walked. And, of course, the "closest" parking spot was about 6 from the end of the lot and 40+ spots away from the store. Every step we had to drag him kicking and screaming. Every step. Now picture a screaming child stretching his legs to stop anyone from putting him in a childseat. And he's still screaming, only now he's added "I'm scared! I'm scared!" to the screams. I really don't know how we didn't end up in jail. So, a 20-minute Hellish drive later and I drop the family off at home. I need 3 things: time alone, quiet space, and a tank of gas in my car.

So, was it really bad day? Yes.

And the lady who drove into my car right next to the gas station didn't help matters either.

My head's about to pop.

Phoot!

So, a few years back, I went to the doctor because I kept losing my voice. This was at a time when I needed to talk at work. Constantly. Losing my voice meant not going to work and as appealing as that was, I knew corrective measures in my health were necessary before corrective measures at work were taken instead.

What was discovered was instead of my known allergy to cut grass, I had a flurry of other allergies that really cut into my diet and such. It made sense, because I'd always known there were some foods that made me feel a little "off" even when I'd been feeling fine.

So, on doctor's orders, (and this was just as I was starting my health kick) I had to drop several types of food:

• whole wheat bread
• carrots
• corn
• apples
• peaches
• pears
• almonds
• celery
• anything with gluten

Cut out a lot of healthier things to eat and suddenly the healthier lifestyle takes a bit of a turn. Years of effort by my wife to get me to eat healthier suddenly vanished.

I went to see a nutritionist and if she's like any other nutritionist, I'll never bother again. For the record: My cholesterol is fine. LDL, HDL, triglycerides: all good. Everything is good. So, when I see the nutritionist, I'm armed with my cholesterol numbers and voice my concern about having to cut fruits and vegetables from my diet. I want suggestions for alternatives, not a suggestion on how to cut down on my... cholesterol. So, yep, she spent hours suggesting foods that will help me cut down my cholesterol.

I guess the only way to talk to a nutritionist is to have bad cholesterol.

A somewhat recent problem I've been having is with a little something no one really likes to discuss.... well, okay, no one except for boys and most men. Gas.

I've been getting bloaty more and more over the past few months and I'm almost always belching or... erupting down below. So, it's time to looke into it, yes?

Well, the advice is: cut down on carbohydrates. Not cutting them out completely, but enough to "ease" the pain. So, it's time to stop eating:

• dairy
• broccoli
• peas
• beans
• radishes
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• apples (done, allergic!)
• raisins
• prunes
• bananas.
• no fatty meats
• no fried foods
• no soda pop
• decrease fibre.

So, what does that leave?

Coffee. Black. And keep it coming!

Run

I joined my daughter at her school on Friday for the Terry Fox Run. I got there late thanks to my inability to lock my in-laws' front door. I had to run to the school just to take part in... the run.

But with 1,000+ kids running, I had no idea where to find my little girl. "She's the one in pink!" I kept telling myself (only to discover 30 minutes later she was wearing peach and blue --oops). She wasn't running with the majority of the kids, with whom I did 2 laps before discovering the "young'uns" run around the school's track. So, in I went and found here there eventually. By that point, I was huffing and puffing and my daughter asked me if I was ready to start.

Ready to collapse was more like it. It's been months since I've done any strenuous exercise!!

I did a few more laps with my little girl and was just happy to be there for her when I haven't had enough time for my kids over the past 18 months. The guilt's a good feeling, though, because I'm making up for it in some ways.

This week, my son & I are off the the pumpkin patch.

All Quiet on the Western Front

So, employment prospects are pretty bleak at the moment.... sucky time to graduate apparently. 2007 is supposed to be better... I put 2008 originally, then realized I'd missed a year.

I think something's wrong with my brain.

I'm updating my 'professional' website on a fairly regular basis, but realized today that I haven't bothered to LIST what's been updated if people were to check back on a regular basis. I'm an idiot too, apparently.

Oh well, not losing hope on future employment... not yet :)

Fait Accompli

It's done. Over. Finished.

I've officially graduated with a 3.40 GPA and am now resting at home trying to recover from some intense final weeks. I think I've earned my rest, but others may disagree.

So, what's next? After resting?

The job hunt begins, because there's never a guarantee that a "sure thing" will actually come to anything. I have people helping me (yay!) but there's still work to be done.

I'm setting up some tasks to hel me improve my own work so that hopefully I can start submitting newer and more interesting items to different companies in the very near future.

But now, rest. I really need the rest.

NEVER AGAIN

I've been printing things out for my "grad showcase" tomorrow and it's been one Hell of a frustrating night. I have business card templates, DVD cover templates & CD label templates from Avery, Fellowes/Neato.... everywhere.

They're all crap. So's my printer.

Never again am I going to try and print off my own stuff. I cannot believe how much paper I've wasted because the print is off by inches when it's transporting from Word to my HP printer.

Or PhotoShop to my printer...

Or the Neato Media software to my printer...

$30 for an ink cartridge and apparently the black and the tri-color cartridges I bought on Wednesday are both running low now.

And to think I've also paid nearly $200 for professional printing...

Never again.

Tired

You'd think, after reading my post title, that this is about sleep. It's not. Although I am physically beat, this is actually a post about...

Tires.

After getting my flat on Friday afternoon, the writing on the wall was officially flaming and crackling as opposed to just being an annoyance. The car dealership where I get servicing had threatened months ago to hold my car if I came in with bald tires again. So, yeah, I've been avoiding them because I had too many other concerns to worry about my tires.

But one 'pop' on Friday afternoon changed all that.

Honestly, I'd planned on getting down to the tire change later this week. I'm officially, officially done school 8pm Monday night, so Tuesday is like my "Day of Freedom" or something. So, yeah, time to spend money that I don't have!! Whoo-hoo!?

Anyway, the tire thing obviously needed to be pushed up to a closer date and today was the best day for it.

I worked late again last night, because there's still "stuff to do" in order to get ready for tomorrow's finale grad showcase. I"m almost ready but the Friday flat meant I missed the closing of the print shop for my DVD labels and other printed materials, so now I have to drive for an hour-plus on Monday morning to pick everything up, then finalize it all before heading into school for an 8-hour "celebration" (their words, trust me).

So, fortunately, dropping my car off today for Noon was no big deal, only I got held up at the last minute and was about 10 minutes late in arriving. I had to then wait for a couple deciding on servicing for their pick-up truck and they were asking stupid questions (and obviously had been for a while because the annoyed teenage clerk was quite abrupt with their next question: what's the difference between this service and that one? "Five dollars" he quipped.) I actually knew the couple. Years ago I wrote a piece on "convenient friends" (can't find it, otherwise I'd link to it), people who only call you for things like Tupperware and Avaon parties immediately after speaking to you in public for the first time in years. Needless to say, I avoided speaking to the couple and let them go on their merry way once they'd paid for their brand new tires.

I took care of everything I needed to and joined the family for lunch waaayyyy on the other side of the strip mall. It was abut a 10-minute walk, but the exercise is good. I was told it would be about an hour until my car was ready. So, lunch is just over an hour and I head back. I see my car is still up on the hoist, so I decided to look around in the various shops and head back in 15 minutes or so.

Why I didn't go in and see how much longer it would be, I don't know.

It turns out, when I did finally return, that the couple ahead of me bought 2 tires that were supposed to be set aside for me. So, one of their service people had to drive 30 minutes away to their next shop and pick up some... spares. So, instead of 1 hours, it was actually almost 3 hours.

I wasn't mad, though. I'm too tired right now to actually get mad about something like that. I think, in some ways, it's leading me to 2 paths:

1. I'm so frigging used to things going wrong instead of right, that the news didn't even faze me.
2. I'm a complete and total pushover now.

Whatever the case, the service manager was so happy when I didn't yell and stomp (which I guess happens a lot?) that he bought me a drink and a snack while I waited and then gave me a gift certificate for a free oil & lube the next time I come in.

Still tired, though.

Commuter Hell

So, yesterday class finished at 12:30, but there was a company coming out to meet with people and 'recruit' for their expanding offices right afterward. I got in to see them and discussed a few things (but don't expect me to announce a move to Montreal anytime soon!) with the HR guy.

I then bolted from the scene at 1pm, knowing I had to pick up my daughter at school at 2:30. I basically gave myself just enough time to get to her school to pick her up. At 2pm, I had to call the school and tell them either I'd be very late picking her up ~or~ one of her grandparents would be by to get her before 3pm. Since I'd been on the road for an hour and hadn't made it to the halfway point yet, I wasn't expecting to make it the rest of the way in 30 minutes.

Yep, 1pm on Thursday afternoon and traffic stopped, then crawled. It was raining for the first time in weeks, so the roads were slick, but as I found out later in the evening, it was a single car in the ditch at the 3/4 mark of my commute that had backed traffic up for a long, long way.

My parents, fortunately, were available to pick up my daughter, even though they had to drive a fair bit to get her. They were also on hand to pick up my son at 3 when I finally hit that 3/4 mark (although by that point I'd switched to a side road and was making better progress).

3 hours to get home. When I finally did get home there was an email message waiting for me. My 2 final papers were due at 5pm today instead of the original time given of 1pm Friday. My instructor emailed me 5 minutes after I'd logged out at school.

I should've stayed to write the papers.

But wait! There's more!

That was Thursday's nightmare and today's Friday! If traffic was that bad on a Thursday...

Around the same spot where I'd stopped and began the 'crawler commute' on Thursday, we heard a bang by the car. Not sure what it was, we joked about how sucky it would be to get a flat tire during the Friday commute. As we crawled along for another hour, I noticed the car was feeling like it was drifting to the left a bit. As we eventually made it to my side road offramp, we squaeled around the ramp at a very low speed. So, off I pulled into the gas station.

I have a big *^#$ing screw sticking out of my tire.

So, tomorrow I'm now buying the new tires I'd planned on purchasing on Tuesday.

Oh, and with the lameass spare on, we had to drive slower on the way home.

2 days and 6 hours of commuting. Enough already!!

12,953

Twelve thousand nine hundred and fifty-three points. That's how many points I have in the new promotional campaign on my favorite radio station. I'm 47 points away from 13,000 points and when I hit that number there's a special 'bargain bin' item I'm planning on purchasing --for 13,000 points.

As the website states:

Cardio-Core Bootcamp!

Get your butt in gear!

Cardio-Core Boot Camp will get you in shape. You'll get a gift certificate worth $265! That's good for a 4-week, 5 sessions per week program!!

Seriously, I figure I've put on around 30 pounds since I started this program 18 months ago. I haven't been eating healthy and over half my liquid consumption has been Coca Cola and Energy Drinks (and I don't need that much sugar! Ever!). So, a quick talk with my wife and she's excited to see that I can participate in something (an almost $300 something!) and not have to pay for it!

Essentially you receive points for listening to the radio and hearing special codes that you then enter on the site. Codes can be worth anywhere from 1 point to 1000 points... and with a special Dessert of the Day code, I just leaped over the 13,000 point mark!

Boot Camp here I come!!

Post-Fight

Yes, I had to fight a little. 3 of 4 people were satisfied with where I was (recognizing the workload for our production, which apparently counts for squat for graduation) and one, the one who made the ultimate decision, who wasn't. I did threaten to cancel our presentation for Friday (yep, tomorrow) if the decision was I hadn't done enough. Bull. I'd done more than my share.

Anyway, long-ish story short: I'm done with a presentation for our production tomorrow and the grad showcase on Monday.

Then I don't have to come back. Ever.

It's a mixed emotion time for me. There's a little regret in taking this program (although now that I've experienced it, I know what to expect in the future if I ever opt to do something like this again). There's a good dose of frustration with how negative some aspects of the program were handled. There's also a mixture of anger and sadness as I know of 3 classmates who ultimately failed. 2 of them were just plain lazy and although I'm sad that they've been with us for 18 months and now have to spend another 3 months here. The 3rd person, well she got into a situation with our production which killed her portfolio schedule. I asked her to take on more responsibility, which she did, and now I feel bad because she's failed her portfolio. She's super-talented and super-smart, but she didn't get it done in the end. She's made her decision not to come back and finish her diploma (yowch!) as she's had enough of this place. She'll probably get ajob faster than most of the rest of us.

So, that's where I am right now.

Fight!

Today, technically, I should have all my work done for the semester --and the program.

I don't. Our big production commences until this Friday and it ate into my time late last week and over the weekend as well. Sick of it.

I am gearing up for a big fight today because my other work's slipped with the production getting in the way. I had two new tasks thrown at me last week for the production, which hampered even more "progress" on my graduation project. So, my concern today is I'm going to be informed I'm not graduating on Monday because I'm behind in my work.

I'm behind because they keep piling more work on me for extra projects: make up your mind which project you want me on! And, at this rate, if they decide I"m not graduating, then I walk away --today-- from everything. No more production: nothing. I'd be willing to give it up in a heartbeat.

During our production class last week, 5 of us were forced to continue working on the production while everyone else was permitted to work on their additional projects.

For 3 hours.

3 bloody hours that people essentially finished off any last-minute work they needed to do for today or tomorrow (depending on when they meet with the graduation advisor).

The 5 of us who had to work on the production? We're all behind the 8-ball on our graduation requirements. Life is so fair.

So, I'm ready for a fight. I have 45 minutes until I meet with the advisor.

Llama

I'm carpooling with a classmate right now. He lost his licence (long story) and he lives a few blocks off my regular commute. Besides, the $20 a week he chips in for gas (and my renewed ability to use the HOV lane) makes it worthwhile.

Driving to his place this morning, it was quite foggy. Every once in a while there was a break in the fog andin one of those instances, I was quite surprised to see a llama all alone in the middle of a field. Llamas are common on famrs in the area --our weather suits them, but I never noticed one there before and it's been on my regular commute for 18 months.

I wonder if he was lost.

Counting on Fingers

It's September 8th... Almost the 9th.

My official last day of school is September 18. That means I can count the days on my fingers now. 10 days... Almost 9.

I'm incredibly sick of the place and can't wait. This is my final marathon weekend and hopefully I'll have everything completed before my final Monday morning class on the 11th. Yes, I'm behind and I've let everyone know it too.

Next Friday is the "do or die" presentation and up until a few weeks ago, I truly had all my hopes hinging on it. I'm almost completely over the anxiety of speaking in front of so many potential employers and am leaning more and more towards the "screw it, just get it over with" attitude.

A part of me really wanted to push myself and make this a huge deal, but as I saw others slack off around me and more work piled onto a few of us while they got to move onto other pressing items (those of us still working on the big production have let everything else slip horribly), I knew I could think of this as me stepping back and letting failure take over. I just have a different attitude now. If this goes well, it was meant to go well. If it bombs, it bombs.

Life goes on. And I have the fingers to prove it.

Crikey!

[This is my 3rd attempt at writing this and all my attempts not to sound "wrong" just haven't worked, so bear with me...]

I was relieved when I heard how The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, died. [Told you it would sound wrong.]

Someone like Irwin, constantly surrounded by deadly animals. Crocodiles usually kill with one snap of their jaws. Usually. What does happen is their prey is dragged below water where if it isn't dead already, it will eventually drown even as it bleeds out from some of the most horrible wounds imaginable.

To hear Steve Irwin is dead, the image that immediately popped into my mind is one of the crocs finally caught up to him and all I could think was that his death was grisly. So, needless to say I was relieved to hear his death was quick with his heart pierced by a stingray.

Steve Irwin had a passion for animals, deadly animals sure, but a passion for their conservation and he had an uncanny ability to teach people how to be safe around such creatures. I watched him in documentaries where he saved crocs from environments that were harmful to their health and as concerned as he was for his crew, he was equally concerned with the welfare of the animals. This man had a passion and he lived that passion daily. We should all be so lucky.

Steve Irwin died the way he lived. He was in his element and faced with danger when he left this world. He saw his passion through right to the end of his 44 years. 44 years where he lived his dream. I'm sure he's done more in 44 years than most people could dream of. He's left a legacy for his family and his country and has made the world aware of the importance of every creature, no matter how deadly, in our planet's ecosystem.

I can only hope I can live --and die-- with the same passion he had.

Whore!

You'd never know it, reading some of my blog entries, but I do have an eye for details and can usually catch spelling mistakes and typoes in other people's work. Kind of like that killer paper I had to read and re-read over 2 dozen times last semester and I ripped it apart everytime.

Hottie was showing me some of her work for graduation (yep, she gets to go too!) and I noticed she had a typo in her email address. No more hotmail, but 'hormail.' It was a good laugh. She'd get hired right away, I'm sure ;)

4 Day Weekend suddenly becomes a 3 Day Weekend

I have to say, if anyone's really good at killing a day off, I have to hand it to my school. Tuesday's are my day off and have been all semester. It's great. It's the best day for me to sit down and work throughout the day in order to finish my work. It help cut down on extremely late nights (which, as I did 2 weeks ago, can be a hindrance to my health) and it means that anything that needs doing around the homefront has a day dedicated to it too.

Like, say, my daughter's first day of school.

But no, no! I have my school to think of as well and once again they've decided to hold a 1-hour meeting on Tuesday. Friggin' Tuesday!!

Nope, can't meet on Wednesday when we're all there... Nope, can't meet on Thursday when we're all there... Nope, can't meet on Friday when... well, you can figure it out.

Let's meet on Tuesday when half of us don't have classes. Some of us have to spend $10+ on gas to go in for a frickin' 1-hour (one single hour!!) meeting.

Why? To get the various departments to sign off on us in order to graduate. Yep, the registration office signs off stating we're good to go. Accounting signs off saying we're paid in full. The Library signs off because we're not holding onto any books (although ironically we can then go back to the library and sign one out).

Yeah, 2 weeks to go and I hate the place more and more each day.

Second Time Around

So, Friday afternoon I finally got my "do-over" for the presentation that bombed and nearly killed me the week before.

Yes, I was tired.
Yes, I lost about 10 pounds between presentations.
Yes, I needed lots of water to continue speaking.

And, fortunately, yes, the presentation went much, much better.

Now that this presentation is out of the way.... I have to rehearse for the final presentation on September 15th. My instructor's making me do it over and over again until I get it right (or he likes it anyway).

So, even moreso, I'm not looking forward to my final 2 weeks of school.

The presentation will be in front of 200+ people and I'm supposed to be enthusiastic, clear (duh), and really blow em all away. I can guarantee I'll be tired, clear (duh!) and if anyone annoys me... I'll probably be tempted to blow em away ;)