On the Campaign Trail '06

Today officially began campaigning for the SAA positions for 2006 - including campaigning for Marketing and Promotions Co-ordinator, for which I am running.

After getting signatures from 51 students, a co-ordinator, three faculty members, a Vice-President and a President, I now have a week to campaign against my opponent, who's name has slipped my mind.

So far, I have made four campaign posters, none of which have a picture of me on them (nor do they have anyone with their mouths agape). Instead, I have chosen to go the obvious, pop culture-y, dork route and make a clever play on my last name.

So, I have chosen the following four people/animals to represent me:



Yes. I went there.

So, on January 19th, vote for me for Marketing and Promotions Co-ordinator for the SAA.

*sigh*

I am a collectibles whore.

In about 15 minutes, I spent $60 on hockey cards. I would have spent more if they took Mastercard.

13½-hour days are not the worst things ever

After working for 13½ hours for the second day in a row and thinking that my night could really not get any worse, the following happened, in very short succession:

1. Went to the SAC office, picked up January's copy of the Georgian Eye, and saw my most recent story, in a two-page (well, one-and-a-half-page) spread that includes five pictures
2. Picked up a message from my dad saying that the season premiere of Scrubs was on, and there were in fact two new episodes
3. Got a call from Carley (whom I informed about Scrubs, for which I think she was quite happy), and we were able to catch up and will hopefully get together sometime next week

Also, the following day I got the application package for the Marketing and Promotions Co-Ordinator for the SAA. So, despite having now worked 54 hours in the past four days, this week has actually turned out quite alright.

New Year's Fortune

I've been told I'm not actually charming, but you're damn skippy I'm courteous!

More to follow, happy new year!

Two Posts in One Day? It's a Festivus Miracle!

That's right, I went there. I am officially the 1,487,234^th* person to mention Festivus on his blog. I like to fit in.

Anyway, the reason for actually posting twice in one day after a week away:

Over the past...oh...week and a bit, I have seen four movies of rather high quality, after weeks and months of utter cinematic tripe. They are, in order of watchification:

Syriana (finally)
Must Love Dogs (not actually as terrible as it has been made out to be)
He Died with a Felafel In His Hand (oh, those crazy Australians)
King Kong (yes, King Kong)

I saw the first three with Carley, and the last with a group that including Ben and Nancy, among others.

Strangely, the most skillfully cast of the four movies were Must Love Dogs and Felafel, etc.. The other two were cast well right up to one person in each - Matt Damon and Jack Black. Other than that, they were both cast quite brilliantly (particularly Syriana - George Clooney, Jeffrey Wright, Christopher Plummer, Chris Cooper). In the other two, everyone just seemed to fit perfectly into their roles (even if, in John Cusack and Diane Lane's cases in Must Love Dogs, they've done it over and over and over again).

As for Matt Damon and Jack Black, I actually like both of them very much, and am hard-pressed to find one of their movies that I do not enjoy. But, they just couldn't pull it off in these movies.

Matt Damon was poorly cast because he's not very good at not being Matt Damon. His adolescent inability to grow facial hair or get a decent haircut has damned him to always looking like himself. In a movie where the actors dissolved into their characters (George Clooney was barely recognizable), Matt Damon was just Matt Damon.

In Jack Black's case, Peter Jackson spent far too much film on closeups of old Jacky boy. The problem with that is that Jack seems to know when he's in closeup. And makes this face:



So, as he's trying to convince Naomi Watts to come to "Singapore" with them, . As he presents the audience with Kong, . Yeah, a little distracting.

But I do highly suggest that you see all four movies. But, be warned:

Syriana - Wicked brutal torture scene where George Clooney's fingernails are quite graphically pulled out
Must Love Dogs - Romantic comedy alert
He Died with a Felafel In His Hand - Australians alert
King Kong - DO NOT, under any circumstances, order a large drink if you plan on sitting through the entire movie

* - Unofficial results

The More You Know

I learned something very interesting today, while waiting in line at the bank to withdraw some more of my mostly imaginary money. Two small children were informing their mother that Santa has apparently accumulated the technological wherewithal to shoot kids with two guns at once. I crap you not, two...guns...at once.

This, I believe, answers the eternal question, "What if Mr. T and Mrs. Claus had a baby?"

(For the record, the kids were a little hazy as to whether the children getting shot had been naughty or if they were just out enjoying a nice winter stroll. Also for the record, the mother: completely unphased by this breaking news.)

Я буду гигантским идиотом

It is another story entirely, but I will be moving into a new place in the very near future. It's not like I have a lot of stuff right now, but I'm slowly moving what stuff I do have out of my old place and into storage at my new place.

The first things I moved were my game systems, games, and DVD player. I did not move my DVDs because I ran out of room in my modest cardboard transportation vessel. So, for the past two weeks, I have sat, looking at my DVDs thinking, "Gee, I wish I hadn't moved my DVD player, I really want to watch (insert movie title here)."

For two weeks.

TWO WEEKS.

Are we clear on the time frame?

Now, here's why I am, more or less, the title: I have a DVD-ROM!!

Syriana

It's actually been a while since a movie came out that I honestly, really wanted to see. Jarhead was one, but has been relatively difficult to find in theatres.

Then there's Syriana. And I forgot that it came out! It's been out for two freaking weeks! Why didn't anyone tell me?

(Editor's Note: Actually, I think it was in limited release, and only this week has it been widely released. You're off the hook. For now.)

Beavis & Beelzebub

I have recently changed my opinions about insurance companies.

Where once I considered insurance companies to be, collectively, Satan himself, I have now re-thought that interpretation. The Devil's actually a pretty bright dude. The same cannot be said for insurance companies.

Oh, they're definitely in league with the Prince of Darkness, they're just nowhere near as highly placed as I once thought. Not quite Vice-Presidents, they're more the middle management type, probably holed up in the Petty Annoyances division with Gap ads and Donald Trump.

As my faithful readers know, my poor little car is no longer performing the basic functions of a car; rather it is performing the basic functions of a oversized novelty paperweight.

Today I had the (surprisingly surreal) task of cleaning absolutely everything out of my car and taking the license plates off - which I did myself, by the way, and not with the tool that the woman at the impound lot told me, but rather with the one that we thought to bring ahead of time. So there.

I realise it's just a car, but it was kind of weird to know I'd never be driving it again. I mean, we've gotten rid of two cars before this, but in both of those cases, I was not unhappy to see them go. Now I don't really know what (or if) I'll be driving. Plus, lest we forget, the car was mine. The insurance companies didn't know that, but my bank account sure did.

Now, back to the brazen blockheadedness of insurance companies.

I had the accident two weeks ago this coming Wednesday. The insurance appraiser came last Wednesday (from Ottawa due to the volume of recent crashes). Apparently, since then, the insurance company has been bugging the hell out of the impound lot to release the car (license plates, ownership, and personal effects in tow) so that they could haul it away. As such, that bugging has been passed along the line to my parents, and through there to me - who has not been floating in free time recently*.

Permit me to walk you through my logic as to why they should not be bitching about me not cleaning the car out:

1. It took them a week to get to the car, too
2. My world did not stop revolving when I got into my accident; other things were happening
3. They...have...our...phone...number

Needless to say, my concern over their time is not at an all-time high.

But, my car has been emptied, save for a pen, a metal coat hanger, and an empty case of bottled water. Feel free to drag it away. I'm sorry I have irrevocably altered the courses of your lives.

* - I do, in fact, deserve a good chunk of blame for the delay. Had I known that the gates would be unlocked and cleaning the car out would take all of 15 minutes, I would have gone earlier. But I didn't. Somehow, though, I'm not sorry.

For those that are interested/bored

I covered the women's and men's basketball games on Wednesday night and made ample use of the gym's camera. Unfortunately, it doesn't have much of a zoom on it and the lighting in the gym is a little wonky, so some of the pictures look a little strange (i.e., the fifth picture down, where Baris looks to be suffering from the effects of a liver disease).

I'm still working out the kinks in trying to find a good shutter speed to capture the motion but get good lighting. My 35-mm camera was always great for the light, but the pictures tended to be a little on the fuzzy side.

But anyway, here are the pictures, I'll post more of the ones I like as I take more (assuming they let me continue taking the camera home to play with).





The Centennial Colts - Ugliest...uniforms...ever!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland OR How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Became a Hermit Crab

WARNING: Before reading this, you should be made aware that the latter part contains what could be construed as angsty whining à la Thirteen. This is not my intention, but it could be easily misinterpreted based on the angsty contents of a vast majority of weblogs. You have been warned.

When I began writing this, I had planned to write an extensive recap of how I (probably) wrote off my car. Then I wrote the WARNING thing, and now I don't want to anymore. I mean, really, I've revisited the episode several times, and I'm kinda getting tired of it. Carley gives a fairly good account on her site, so I would suggest you go there.

I will say one thing, though. Fortunately (for me, probably not for her) Carley was with me at the time of the great unpleasantness. Had she not been, I probably would have, once removed from my car, wandered into opposing traffic, causing a rather gooey mess.

And, with that as an angsty prelude, we begin the whining!

I have been told by a couple of people that I'm never going to meet people if I don't put myself "out there". To which, I must say, I agree entirely. The only problem, of course, is that I don't care! Hurrah for apathy!

I have found that, when "out there", one of two things happens to me:

1. I usually get lost, fall down wells, become prey for salivating wolves and witches, and generally get into all sorts of mediaeval escapades.
2. I look like an ass trying to avoid these escapades.

As such, I've decided I won't be venturing "out there" for a while. I don't feel like meeting new people, since I seldom see the people I already care about, due to myriad scheduling conflicts. Why, then, get entangled with others with whom I would probably face the same problems? Sitting at home with nothing to do with 100 people who are busy is about as satisfying as with two people.

On a closing note, let this not be construed as me saying I never want to go out. I do want to go out, very much. That's the problem!! I am just having trouble reconciling with a) being stood up and b) having everyone assume I'm not having a good time.

Just being out is a good time for me - I'm not that captivating, hence, I am easily captivated. Unfortunately, most people seem to assume something will either not be to my liking, or that I wouldn't be comfortable being around people I don't know.

And that rambling mess, I think, fills my angst quota for the year.

Updatification

I'm not normally one for random updates about my life - despite this being, you know, my blog - but I haven't updated this puppy in a few days, so why not?

School is nearly, neeeeeeearly over. There's about three weeks (and three assignments and four tests) left, and then, to Christmas Break! An aborted Christmas Break, I'm sure, because I'll still be working at the gym and I actually, brace yourself, show up for my shifts. As such, I'm sure I'll be working.

In other news:

• I am staying at the gym for my co-op next semester. That's right! I'm living life on the edge!
• Group work sucks
• Working the hardest in practice will not earn you a spot in the starting lineup for a varsity basketball team. That goes to the guy that doesn't show up. Hard work does not pay off. That's a lesson, kids!
• Chuck Norris is badass
• Group work sssssuuuuuccccccckkkkkks

Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

I smell like cookies!

Specifically:



Have I had any maple leaf cookies today? No sir, I have not.

I think I get it now

Carley and I have started watching the first season of Lost over the last couple of weeks. We both half-expected it to be kinda stupid, and while it's lived up to our expectations for the most part, we can't turn away (well, I can't turn away, I don't know if Carley's quite as interested as I am, she does tend to be slightly more rational than I am in her choices of entertainment).

Despite the problems* with the show, I actually want to continue watching it. It hasn't quite gripped me the way previous shows on DVD have (Sports Night, Scrubs, House) wherein I can easily stay up until six o'clock in the morning watching an entire season, but I do find myself rather enthralled.

So, I guess I can understand its popularity.

* - Oh, you don't think there are problems with the show? Allow me to illustrate:

• The engine remained operational an awful long time after it came apart from the plane
• You don't get sucked into a jet engine from 15 feet away
• Many of the survivors are apparently useless, seeing as there's nearly 50 of them, but we only see about a dozen
• Thank God there's a doctor, an electrical engineer, and a hunter among this random selection of people. All they need is a shipwright or a pilot, and they'll be outta there!
• Where, on a flight from Australia, are the Australians?
• Locke can freaking walk
• How are there any trees left if "the monster" bashes them down everywhere he walks?
• And, for that matter, what has he been munching on these last 16 years? So far we've seen a few pigs and a polar bear
• Oh yeah. There's polar bears!
• As of yet, no one has constructed a single thing out of a coconut

And, despite the many faults in the first four episodes (yes, I'm sure some of these will be rectified in the coming episodes), I can not seem to turn away.

If you aren't already doing it...

...help get Tom Cheek into the Baseball Hall of Fame!