You know, people will just hate on you for anything these days...
So there's this photography club that I sometimes go on photo-walks with, and a while back a new member started showing up. She was the only chick younger woman around my age (not even that close really), so the old folks other members somehow assumed we would hit it off and create some sort of gossip for them to talk about. Whatever. She was actually married, un-noticeably pregnant and they never knew this and just assumed she was single because she came alone (her husband never came out with her - what up with that?)
It's not like I see these people every other week or something. Other than my one friend who goes on these things with me, although we're really friendly to everyone and I do talk to her, we relatively keep to ourselves because we usually get loaded have dinner before and are pretty full by the time we join up with the others...I mean at places like the Distillery District or Port Credit, why not have dinner? As far as I can tell, people don't really care mind that we're all stuffed and they probably enjoy our company because some dudes can be real photo Nazis. We lighten the mood and it seems a couple of them might enjoy dinner as well (white people love wine FYI).
Anyway, fast-forward to now and the secret's out - she's full blown preggers and ready to pop. As a result "people" decided to throw her a "baby shower" before doing a walk the other day. Nothing like a random group of people gathering on a random street somewhere celebrating something totally random as well...
So they're all like, you know her the best so you should get her the card. What? I mean other than posting some vague comment every now again on some photo (which I do to anyone), these people are all about one-step-down from "general acquaintance" (at best). "Great black and white shot of a flower Lucy..." Fine whatever, I'll be a nice guy and throw down a Hallmark.
Anyway after the signing some genius was all like, "We should put together some sort of collection for her right? But only if you really want to..." Sure, I love giving money to total internet-strangers that I don't even communicate with in real life. No thanks. Hell, I even bought the card right?
Wrong move. After I passed it along, other people started throwing down some cash and I'm not talking coins. At that point I just looked away. I seriously don't even know if these guys are actually friends in real life or they all just go on every single walk together...or they're just super charitable. Hell, I don't know. I'm not made of money. I actually had a bag of pop-corn and a Time Horton's fruit smoothie for lunch today, it was bullshit. They don't even know my last name for what it's worth. Anyway, after that it seems I was immediately ostracized for being too realistic.
I will never go on another photo-walk with them again. Thanks.
PS. I was all up in Premiere Pro for about 5 hours last night - that's about 5 mins of video. I wore headphones all that time and never knew that your ears could actually get sweaty like that...I guess ear-muffs aren't a myth after all...
Thursday, May 5
Tuesday, May 3
You'd be pleased to know that after 5 months I've finally gotten back into the Japan video editing mode, all thanks to this recent Black Ops ban I've been trying to enforce follow. But seriously, after work or the Y, I can't stand watching TV and there's only so much nonsense I can read, so why not enjoy a game or eight two? FYI, made it to 2nd prestige, level 35, 1.1 KDR since last week...heh.
Well, the last parts have been chopped up (it's pretty crazy looking back after this long, but I suppose that's why you take pictures in the first place) and I'm about 4 mins in so far. This edit looks like it could hit the 15 min limit, so I'll probably have to find some more YouTube-non-cock-blocked-songs to throw in at some point.
Anyway, the thing about Kyoto is that at a lot of the historical tourist sights we visited photography was strictly forboden. This is no doubt in order to keep their ninja secrets from slipping into the wrong hands, or less likely to stop noobs from damaging hundred year old original paintings with their camera flashes or turning sacred places into a side-show. So it's kind of understandable if you're into that whole protecting your national treasures thing.
The monks at the Sanjūsangen-dō Hall were hawk-eying everyone pretty intensely, and would judo chop a child in the throat confiscate your cameras in an instant if they suspected that you snapped a photo of the epic 1000 hand carved golden Buddhas/that giant one in the middle of the hall. The ushers at Nijo Castle weren't impressed either with anyone trying to video tape the nightingale floors or artwork. So content got a little thin at times if you catch my drift.
And for whatever reason filming also got pretty sporadic at that point in the trip as well. My sister took most of the footage there and she was pretty crazy with the shaky hands and camera flying all over the place, so I put the blame on her.
I also have like 4 hours of the ultra scenic bullet train ride footage from Tokyo > Kyoto > Tokyo. I just sat the GoPro on the window sill and let it fly, but now I don't know what to do with it quite yet...
I also just finished watching Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 - it was great. Let me tell you something that you might not know about me: I've read the Harry Potter books, liked them and even own a couple. Bet you don't have that one...
Monday, May 2
I saw that movie Fast Five on Friday (and stood in the longest opening night movie line I ever stood in before...) but it was worth it and you should go see it too. F & F + favorite actor = I will buy the Blu-ray box set when it comes out. I mean the dialog was pretty weak (what would you expect?) but there was just so much action, and I swear they destroyed like 584 cars throughout the movie. It's pretty long though so I wouldn't suggest catching a midnight showtime ever again for this one...
Anyway, aside from that I wanted to bring up the fact that sometimes you just need to cut loose. I'm not talking about getting crunk or slizzard, or buying something you totally can't afford, or doing tons of coke and murdering like 2 hookers, but I mean have some serious fun without having to worry about anything and just reward yourself for being a boss. See Terry Hoitz for reference.
Once you leave the fantasy land that is post-secondary education, shit gets too real. Real job, real responsibilities and real relationships - sometimes you need to just take advantage of whatever freedom you might have and just Nike that shit. Plan something out and look forward to it instead of losing control and letting it slip at the wrong time.
I'm a pretty firm believer in the fact that nobody should keep anything pent up for too long because you might probably snap and go on a murderous rampage. More likely, you'll just act the fool and do something you'll regret and publicly humiliate yourself at a totally inappropriate time in a totally inappropriate situation leading to consequences you won't want to deal with.
I mean this isn't the kind of thing you do every week, but on occasion when you actually need it - just don't go too overboard too often because it becomes less of a reward/need to unwind than you just being some kind of addict (or something like that).
Activities like this also usually warrant a good sized meal for Sunday brunch, which ain't so bad either...
Friday, April 29
My old G-Shock ran out of battery is busted so I was in the market for a new sports watch (that can withstand my intense physical training and time my 15 mins - 2 km runs). After having 2 G-Shocks, this time I ended up getting a new Timex off eBay for $34. It's a little smaller than the Casios but at least this means I can actually bend my wrist now.
Best feature: can set alarms to go off on only weekdays.
Worst feature: the alarm goes off twice if you let it ring out.
TGIF
Thursday, April 28
Its history will now live forever on teh intranets.
kait - lets kick it like tae-bo...greatest moment in time says:
...and I did. If you didn't figure it out, our friend Alex wanted to throw a New Years Eve party at his estate and we wanted to class it up. This is actually just the email that I forwarded him and cc'd her on - she she just forwarded it back to me.
Those were the days...
Wednesday, April 27
Dear PSN, you (still) suck.
FDchick, what a boss - into cars, awesome at games, funny and seemingly hot.
Tuesday, April 26
It's always embarrassing interesting to see a new guy come into the gym and fail to use the equipment. Always.
Yesterday this dude came into the cardio area to try and use the ellipticals. He stood next to 4 or 5 of them, started pushing some buttons, couldn't activate any, then left the gym forever in shame never to return.
The best part is that all you have to do is hop on and start using one and it will light up. Of course I didn't say anything but that's because I'm a hater, and it's not like some huge secret or anything. I mean you would think that when the 20 other people saw this struggler they might say something to the guy, but I guess they're just haters too.
Anyway, my aunt has these two dogs, the younger female Pebbles is actually bigger than the older male Max. Go figure. Luckily she's not one of those people who like to kiss their dogs in the mouth because that's just gross. They look pretty delicious cute.
Monday, April 25
I've been sitting at commander for a while now and I guess it's about time for me to do my first prestige. Really what's been keeping me here is that I don't want to give away all my pro perks because that stuff is pretty hard earned. Like seriously.
I learned a lot of shit things getting here, the most important being that I suck at computer games and the second being that $60 can buy you a hell of a lot of entertainment. No joke. Compared to a night out it's practically an investment because you spend a lot less in one day and that thing lasts until the next best thing comes out like forever. Now only if I could find a girlfriend who sees it the same way...
Playing can also be pretty frustrating though but here's what I hate the most:
- Ghost Pro - I hate to generalize but a lot of the time ghost = camper, especially in FFA you might as well call it Algonquin Park Mode. I went for pro right away because I thought I could creep on fools, but while it's nice to not have to worry about being seen by spy planes or cobras it only takes a second to shoot either down. I won't waste my time for it again. Going 7 and 7 while laying down in a bush really helps out your team. Great job dude.
Like I said, carry around a strela - it's like instant ghost because it only takes 2 seconds to let one fly, so why not. I also love making dudes get a super productive 2 kills with gunship/chopper gunner, it's great. You help out you team too Gollum.
- Zombies - Too many haters / host rage quitters. Also takes like 2+ hours for one game and you can't even get up to take a piss (more haters).
- Tubes - These are pure cheese so I use them all the time. I don't think this kind of thing even exists in real life, except maybe within circles of practicing wizards.
Other than feces, I don't know of anything that someone could throw at you which would make you instantly move in super-slow motion for about 2 seconds so you can't even turn around. Tactical Mask Pro FTW.
- Nuketown - Worst map ever. I played this a lot initially to level up quickly, but gaining XP doesn't mean gaining skill so I wasted a lot of time / KDR on it. Using a flame thrower or playing gun game in this level is super fun but there are other better maps.
- Teammates Who Block Other Teammates - Aside from totally cock blocking you and giving someone an easy double, like wtf. Stop crouching or side strafing in doorways directly in front of people. As much as I appreciate you jumping in front of my gun during a gunfight, blocking my view of anything and getting us both killed, they're not very tactical positions (last time I checked).
This is why I run lone wolf.
Now let's check out some of my stats to see how much of a n00b I am. Since I bought it in mid-December: 1 day 5 hours 19 mins and 21 seconds of
I'm
Also, I really don't find that you need stuff like marathon pro and since it takes way longer to ADS while running and if you're up against anyone decent you're dead in that case. I used it initially because I was all like OMG BLACK OPS MUST RUN AROUND MAP DOLPHIN DIVE ON EVERYTHING AND GET KILLS ALL THE TIME, but in the end I found something like hacker or ninja more useful.
At one point I was actually at like 0.6 (which is pretty embarrassing). I try not to sweat it but shit people see that noise...
As you can see, I prefer to shoot people in the dick...
Here's my player card - it gets show to every person you kill / is like slapping them in the face. Get real n00b.
It took me like 45 mins to make this iteration. I've seen one guy with a pretty accurate Homer Simpson head once before, and let me tell you there is no Homer Simpson head shape. Notice the blonde in my background...
Now that this is out of the way I'm enforcing a Black Ops ban until I finish this last Japan video
Friday, April 22
Thursday, April 21
This week has been awful. I had my bike in my trunk all week and never used it, I've had to sleep on the couch and floor because of this damn renovation and my back hurts, my computer has been tucked away in a corner under some towels somewhere, all my clothes are covered in wood dust, people have been riding me at work for no reason and my groin hurts probably from some weird ass exercise I did at some point.
Yesterday I was in a class as we did this one exercise where we had our legs/butt sticking straight up against the wall, back on the mat and then you had to reach up and touch your toes as long as you could. Once your shoulders touch the mat, it's game over and you get up and reposition yourself back in the center of the room for the next thing. So I'm like struggling pretty hard and after who knows how long and I get up to go back...turns out I was the first one. Awesome. I blame it on the beer/wings from the previous night / chicks have stamina I guess.
But you know what? Something tells me that it's going to be all right...
Let me analogize it to something else: I went to do one cardio class on Tuesday and they marked it on the board that it was going to be taught by some dude named Anthony, so I thought it was going to be super gay. But then when I showed up it was this cute chick named Marie and all those haters (aka other dudes who started showing up because I started doing these classes) weren't there either.
I am so happy this week is nearly over. Happy Easter you heathens.
Time to be chilling out, maxing and relaxing all cool...
Tuesday, April 19
I've come to terms with the fact that my weekends are going to suck starting in May. My Saturday/Sunday combo consists of dragon boat at 8:30am and 11:30am respectively, so I can see a lot of DD in my near future or just not showing up to practices. Heavy exercise when you're hung over is the worst because vomit tastes disgusting.
At least practices are at Sunnyside (aka my side of TO) instead of Balmy Beach (aka that disgusting bay where the sewage treatment plant dumps into), so getting water splashed in eyes/mouth/face will feel less like getting AIDS splashed in your eyes/mouth/face.
At this point I've probably thrown away about 60% of what I owned including clothes and other crap I've collected throughout the years. I've whittled most of my belongings down to a bed, 2 dressers, desk and whatever can fit in those...and my closet...and that book shelf in the basement (out of sight out of mind right?). Aside from my sports stuff that's it. The plan is to buy much less from here on out but top better quality, what I like to call balling anti-hoarding.
The room's empty, stripped down to the floor boards and will soon be topped with fine hardwood, after which I will buy a new bed-frame and Feng Shui the shit out of a more pimp layout.
I can't wait until this zeus-forsaken renovation is over...
Monday, April 18
Dragon boat season is ramping up despite the fact that it was snowing eye-ball sized snowflakes yesterday (I measured it...) - Swordfish finished up with their pool practices, Banana Boat got together to kick off the season and both teams hit the water in 2 weeks. Last year it was actually snowing during our first lake practice so I peed my pants to keep warm and played it off as getting splashed by the chick in front of me. The warmth was short lived as it quickly froze over and left me with stiff pants.
I think this is the first time BB has what seems to be an actual surplus of crew members since ever. Count on people to jump on the bandwagon when we started winning races but let it be known that shit don't come easy. Maybe our reputation precedes us...but probably not.
I don't know how the coach/captains will handle the fact that the boat only holds 20 people and we have like 50 members, so I'd imagine they'll have to work out a practice rotation or something before the n00bs QQ all over the place. It'll probably work out due to the drop out factor, sketchy people just not showing up to anything and others who believe that not replying to an email is a valid response. I'm glad I don't even have enough friends to form a tennis doubles team, so I don't have to deal with issues like that ever.
In other news, during the clean I managed to find some comics tucked away in a corner. It's an issue from the arc where Superman actually turns Blue, loses his regular powers and gets electricity based ones. Yeah, that's right it happened.
Mint condition, maybe it'll be worth $20 some day...
Thursday, April 14
So by now I guess I'm pretty accustomed to getting my ass kicked by high-schoolers and fit moms, so yesterday I gave a go at this muscleworks class going on because I figure they're probably accustomed to seeing this red faced, super sweaty fat guy trying doing weird exercises at the gym too.
The YMCA program describes muscleworks as: A workout focusing on muscle conditioning, which may incorporate such equipment as hand weights, weighted bars, resistance tubing and/or stability balls.
I describe it as doing like a million super fast or super slow reps of exercises to loud music while holding weights and balancing on one leg and then you get down on a mat and do 10 mins of leg exercises that injure your groin. It's seems like a pretty full body workout and at one point you're even exercising your shin muscles. You's be surprised how heavy an 8lb weight gets when you're holding it above your head doing stuff for like 5 mins. Shit is serious.
The regular instructor was away so we had the same cutie boxfit instructor from the day before teach this class. I'm not sure how she does it but she's one sexy beast because as soon as she finished with the muscleworks class she went on and taught a boxfit one right after.
I think I found a solid Tuesday/Wednesday combo leading into my Thursday slo-pitch league which will most likely be a fitness regression or sorts due to the beer and wing consumption factor afterwards. And I mean you really just stand or sit there most of the time anyway. Come to think of it, Saturday/Sunday dragon boat workouts might also be cancelled out because of the team lunches which we will no undoubtedly have on patios afterwards throughout the summer. I guess I gotta watch what I eat somewhat if I really want to lose weight. Speaking of which...
Anyway, I ate at that new Mississauga Tako Sushi location yesterday (right next to Bombay Chopsticks) and for $69.99 you can get a more than decent dinner for 4 which includes stuff like lobster, lamb chops, 30 pieces of sushi, mussel miso soup, scallops on the half shell, + other food and veg that for you to box for next day lunch. Price wise it's cheaper than Prince or Wasabi or Imperial but you probably get just as much food and you can take home the remainder if you want.
We also opted to get three of the biggest ever oysters any of us had ever seen. At $2.75/a piece even the passing by owner boasted about how they were somehow really big yesterday. I'm not sure how long ago they opened but they still have opening special deals going on, so it's another feather you can add to your restaurant meal hat.
I've also been reading those Diary of a Wimpy Kid books heh. They're super short and simple (because they're meant for children FYI) but they're also pretty funny. Good toilet read...
"Step on a crack, break your momma's back!
Yeah, right.
Hey, Timmy, your mother slipped on a banana peel, and P.S. she is dead.
Zoo-Wee Mama!"
Wednesday, April 13
So yesterday after hopping off the elliptical (because the woman next to me just smelled too much) I casually strolled into this Boxfit class that was about to begin, because why not?
It's one of those mass classes that go on, and by mass I don't mean that tons of people do it but rather it just takes place in a big gym instead of a studio. Because it's in a big space, it's far less intimidating than sitting directly in front of the cyclefit instructor, but also pretty embarrassing easy for good looking girls people to see you what's going on since the track encircles it from above.
Not many guys ever seem to do these Y classes so I make sure to stay away from them when I do, aka that one tall/old guy that wears a headband and hangs out in the very back of the class in this case. In fact it was him, me and this one teen there amongst maybe 40 girls. I strategically placed myself in the front mid-right sector so they wouldn't assume I was just there to stare at asses, so instead they can stare at mine and I can wink at them when I catch them.
I've never done Tae Bo before but from what I gather this is pretty much the same thing (except that the instructor is a cute young chick instead of a super jacked black guy wearing colorful beaters). It involves throwing a lot of air punches, high kicks, jumping around, squatting on the spot and some mat exercises to fast paced music. It also involves me red faced and profusely sweating (whats new?) so I can only assume it's a good workout. You would guess though that a hip instructor chick my age would pick some cooler music but I guess the Quad City DJs never gets old - haters gonna hate I guess. It also requires a fair bit of timing and coordination so you don't look like a fool and jump kick the person next to you (because I'm smooth like that).
Now check out this little gem that I found while decimating my archives - it's a drawing from the back of a notebook that I did while "studying" in Beijing circa 2007. I threw it into the recycling trash like a boss.
Did you guys hear the Dean Blundell Show/What Happen this morning? WOW, she definitely wins.