Mantis Style!

Oh lordy, but I've done it again! Well, actually this is the FIRST time that I've clogged a toilet, but I can't say as it counts against my perpetuently negative lucky streak. So yeah, it's 3 in the freekin' morning, and I'm asking Jeeves how to unclog this toilet. Appearantly, the fucking around that I did with a plunger SHOULD have doe the trick, but no, this time it had to be difficult. All the mess is cleaned up, so nobody else will have to wake up to shitwater on the bathroom tile, unless the thing is refilling itself at an undetectable rate, and will overflow as I sleep. But it's out of my hands now, I leave it to the gods.

Today was pretty cool. The whole gang went to Church Street, which essentially equates to the gaybourhood. There was a bunch of things going on, funnest of which was this wet underwear contest that was going on at the same place where we had girly drinks on the patio the other night. It was hosted by these 2 drag queens, who had to be the funniest things alive, in ways that only drag queens can be. The contest itself was pretty good, with lots of hot guys :). In the end, it was our waiter who won, which was funny, because he would come by in a towel to refresh our drinks in between each round of elemination. We gave him a hearty tip, because he obviously works hard. And because he's got a god-like body.

But i digress. The big parade is tomorrow, so i should probably get a good nights rest. It will be my last day back in the city, so i want to make it count.

posted by Tay @ 1:11 AM

Well, that's it. For Super Monkey Ball 2, that is. We beat it. We seen it all. Every single level, from the easy mode to the Master Mode. We've bought everything that can be bought, we've balled everything that can be balled. So now it's 4 in the morning, and this is what we've amassed. I can't wait for Super Monkey Ball 3. Also today we saw Charlie's Angels 2:Son of Charlie's Angels Revenge. It was pretty cool, and the wire fighting done is super surreal. There was the oppurtunity to sneak into the Hulk movie for free after, but we decided not to, as it was late.

I think that I finally have some sort of an idea how the transit system works in this city. it's not simple by any means, that's for sure. They have 4 lines for the subways, all of which intersect this way or that at some point. But now I think that if absolutly necesarry, I could find my way home.

Women can be so cruel. My good friend Mel and her boyfriend John are staying the night here, so if we wanted, we could overthrow those who actually LIVE here. Mel and John get the fold out couch, while I get the floor. So they've both passed out from exhaustion, and Mel sees fit to take up at least 3/4 of the bed, and ALL of the blankets, leaving john just a huddled mass, left to fend for himself. I wouldn't trust this kid to brush his own teeth, so I gave him my blanket once he fell asleep. You can't say that I never did anything nice for anybody. I don't expect that I will sleep much tonite anyway.

If any of my friends back home read this, STOP CALLING ME! It will cost you long distance charges if I accidentally pick up, and no, I probably won't be up for hangin' out later in the day, as I am more than a few time zones away at the time. The only reason I even have my cell on me is for emergency purposes.

posted by Tay @ 2:06 AM

Played Monkey Ball today. That's about it. Really. We started playing at about 12, and didn't stop until about 9ish. Then we got ready to go to this pride dance thing, but as we went passed it, we noticed that there was no music coming out of the building, and the whole thing reaked of an old-people hang-out. So we didn't go. We thought we should do something that is really gay instead in place of this dance thing. Instead, we went to this patio resteraunt called Zelda's, and drank daquieries and such. I know for a fact that I didn't spell that right, but it's late, and I dodn't really care. But seriously, can you imagine anything more gay? Two guys sitting on a patio, drinking something called "The Jackie Ooooooh", and chattin' about how Texas finally drooped their sodamy laws? If so, give a shout. I can't wait to see what you've come up with.

After a few drinks, we went back home, and played more Monkey Ball. It's a lot harder when you're kinda tired, and you've got a few drinks in you. It's still the funnest game since fun was invented though. Hands down. Tomorrow we are going to go see Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and I can't wait. It looks so awesome. I'm sure that we will be able to do other stuff too. Mel and John are coming from Hamilton for the day, after the movie. We'd invite to come with us, but we assume that they have no money. That gets to be a problem. I just got paid today, so I have LOTS of money! I'm pretty happy about that actually.

posted by Tay @ 12:43 AM

we went out on the town today, me and matt. we saw china town, and kensington shopping district, and lots of cool places. i didn't buy anything, save for snacks in the Dragon City mall. We also pre-ordered a burned copy of Cool Cool Tune, this Japanese Dreamcast game of sorts. Anyway, that wasn't the coolest part fo my day. We were walking around town, and as we were crossing the street, I saw a segway. You've heard of them, the cool gyroscopic scooters of sorts that cost thousands of dollars. What was cool about it is that there was a homeless guy riding it. Seriously. He was wearing torn up clothes, and had veins on his arm like a heroin addict. So yeah, I was all like, "wow, that guy has a segway!" Then, after I looked up and saw who was riding it, I changed it to, "wow, that guy stole a segway!". It was pretty awesome to say the least. After all that we went to go see the premiere of 'Sinbad'. It was a short little cartoon that didn't really amount to much, and had way too many pirates in it for my taste. It was waaaay too predictable too, and I didn't enjoy it that much on the whole. Now, Me, Matt and Patrick are sitting at home, cooking in our own sweat, drinking drinks, and playing monkey ball.

Concerning my upcoming birthday, I just chatted with Mike, and he has shown a disparaging level of interest in the whole thing. He cites it to us making his birthday less than perfect, although I can't seem to remember how. I know that I didn't get him a gift until many months after the date had past, but besides that, I can't seem to think of anything else. I'm sure he will bore us to tears later with how awful the whole ordeal was. Oh well, so long as I have all of my friends there, I'm sure that it will rock hard. Bye for now.

posted by Tay @ 9:40 PM

Well everybody, I'm in Toronto! It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm really tired now, and I have to spend the last of my waking energy consuming pizza and jello, and playing "Evil Dead: A Fist Full of Boomstick". That's it for now, I will be sure to have much better stuff in the next couple days.

posted by Tay @ 9:06 PM

ok everybody, i must apologize for the update drought. It's criminal, i know. Well, I got my wish, I am off to Toronto tomorrow. I could not be happier. I will finally get to leave this red-neck town, if only for a week. Sweet sweet release. I've been spending the entire day getting ready, packing and doing laundry and such. it really will be wuite an exciting trip. Also, I will get to go to the airport, probably the happiest place on earth. And nothing makes a trip to the airport better than actually getting on a plane! It's gonna be awesome, I've got my camera packed, and i will be taking loads of pictures of my many assured adventures. My work on the comic will have to wait, but I don't see it as too much of a problem, as Fat Mike is proving himself to be a bottleneck of sorts in the coloring department.

So anyway, I will be gone for a week, and I will spend many days afterwards telling you all about it! See ya later!

posted by Tay @ 6:03 PM

Well, I was only able to meet some of the physics gang, as I had to leave early and go to work. Work was really great though. I got a new all-time high score in Pac-Man!

I should explain. I like Pac-Man, to an almost unhealthy level. I have a GBA:SP, and Pac-Man has never left it for about 3 months now. I even have his image tattooed on my ankle. To date, I was never able to beat my high score of 89,000 points. I would try for hours at a time, to try an get a higher score. I know that there are those of you out there who would say that I should just look up the patterns online that would allow me to play for indefinite periods of time. But where's the fun in that?

So last night, I'm playing again, and I try to change my playing style. Normally I will try and take advantage of the point multipliers that happen when you eat more than one ghost on a power pellet. This gets risky, as you never know just when the power pellet will wear off. This time, I tried leaving the ghosts be, ignoring them if you will, and focusing on the 5,000 key grabs that happen later in the game. Truly, this is the way to go. My new high score is now 96,520, and I could not be happier. My new goal is to beat 100,000 points, and I see no reason why this shouldn't be possible.

posted by Tay @ 3:24 AM

Oh man, but does my job kick ass. While at work, I've been able to get a ton of preliminary artwork done for the comic. Character profiles, general site design, it's all mapped out. I've also been able to pound out a few comics too. Yessir, this is all startin' to come together. I'm gonna go rest up, it's Phil's birthday party today, and I wanna look nice for him and all his physics friends that are gonna be their. Not that I'm out to impress anybody, but I like to make a memorable first impression.

posted by Tay @ 6:31 AM

Well, if there are any loyal readers of this blog, I feel that I must apologize for the recent lack of updates. While I'm at it, I should probably apologize for the poor spelling and grammar as well. Regardless, work has been pretty time consuming here, although I can't say that the work itself is anything less than weird.

This week I am charged with the duty of guarding a tent, located in the parking lot of a fish distributing co. The purpose of this tent is for the annual lobster festival that this company holds. Inside this tent are tables chairs, and a gigantic lobster costume. Not much to provide security for, to say the least. If it wasn't for the homeless drop-in center across the street, I doubt the fish guys would even bother with security.

This is where it gets really funny though. I've always had a problem with our cities homeless population. Compared to other cities I have seen, they just don't match up. They aren't destitute enough, not dirty enough, not smelly enough. Sometimes you'll even run into a bum with a clean shirt! Also, they aren't beligerent enough. Instead of scheming plans to break into the fish tent, they are content to play a broken guitar and sing french-canadian folk songs.

Now, I don't speak french, so I GUESS that they could be saying something like "you go jump the back gate la-la-la, while I go create a diversion ya-ya-ya". That would be enccouraging. It would at least give me something to do for the 8 hours that I sit in my car. Right now all I've been doing is working on the comic that I want to host on the internet.

This project has been going extremely well. My friend Mike is doing a fantastic job coloring the comics, and my job affords me all the time I need to draw them. I think that if I can build a comic base that would last me 3 months worth of updates, then I will be ready to rock and roll. Just thinking about this is getting me excited.

But not nearly as excited as the notion of going to Toronto this month! Oh man, but I had so much fun at last year's Pride Festivities, and I was living out of a shanty at the time. This time, Matt has offered to put me up in his downtown apartment for the week, so I can only imagine that this will be even better. Only a couple more weeks left until I go.

posted by Tay @ 4:03 PM

I will say this right now, Kiefer Sutherland has nothin' on me when it comes to goin 24 hours. However, he can take comfort knowing that he still looks sexier than me when he's being tortured with a soldering gun. Ouch. My first couple of working days have been great. I was posted at this gigantic Lafarge plant, where they dig rocks and make concrete. It was really great, because security there is met with NO EXPECTATIONS WHATSOEVER. These guys just pretty much run wild. We're given a company truck, and set loose on several acres of dirt. Needless to say, there is much fun to be had. However, that isn't even the best part of the job. On both of my 12 hour shifts there, I was met with absolutely NO human contact. I relieved the one guy from his post, waited 12 hours, and then he came back to relieve me. How cool is that? The worst part of any previous job that I had was the human component, and I will say right now that I am not fond of it. I love my job.

So, with time to kill, I started sketching some more, and the results weren't half bad. I was able to pound out a couple comics that I wouldn't mind scanning and coloring. My main focus is now on compiling characters. I am having trouble creating characters that can be distinguished by more than their hair style. Also, I can't draw girls. It's weird, but I can't. Something to work on I guess. I got 6 more shift comin' up starting Tuesday, working in some downtown building, so if I have half as much free time as I did at the plant, then I should be able to get a lot of good practice in.

posted by Tay @ 4:34 PM

We're in the money! We're in the money! Well, I am anyway. I called the control centre and told them the situation, and they gave me 8 shifts between now and next sunday! After those are done, I get to call in again and they'll set me up for the next week! The only bad part about all of this is that only two of these shifts will make it to the pay period in which i will be in Toronto, I think. I'm not sure. In any case, I can say goodbye to credit debt!

This means that I need to warp my sleep schedule, further than it already is. My eating schedule too, I guess. Man, if I'm gonna be workin 12 hour shifts here, I am gonna have to become proficient at packing lunches. Luckily, I have the greatest idea ever. A couple of great ideas actually.

My first idea is to make grill cheese sandwiches using a laundry iron and tinfoil. Seems easy enough to me. My second idea is for a beverage that mixes the harsh caffine of Cola wth the smooth, more mellow caffine taste of tea. It would be a chilled concoction sure to sell millions, I'm sure. Of course, I've had problems with my great ideas in the past.

A few years ago, I invented Lemon Pepsi. It happened innocently enough, by drinking a lemonade by a Pepsi machine and just saying "hey" to myself. About 2 months later, Pepsi Twist was on the market, and was really really crappy. My Lemon Pepsi wasn't crappy, and would have fared better, I like to think.

Obviously, by posting all of my great ideas on this blog, they are ripe for the stealing, but I really don't mind. I'm kinda busy as of late, and wouldn't be able to focus properly on these ideas, not enough to do them jusitice at least. So go ahead! Create a taste sensation unlike any this world's ever known!

So yeah, with all this work I'll be doing, I prolly won't update until sunday or monday. Until then, kick ass and do your homework!

posted by Tay @ 12:01 PM

Man, but can physical labour really take it's toll! I was moving gravel into the backyard all yesterday, and now my entire back/shoulders is sore from the work. It's gonna be intersesting at the dojo tonite, that's for sure. Lately, Sensei has been having random people do little kumite fights. For those not in the know, that's a sparring of some sort. Last class, all the green belts got up and had to fend themselves from all the blackbelts. It got pretty crazy at times. I hope that I get a chance to ddo something like that eventually. It looks pretty scary, but I think that I could handle the pressure.

My Japanese course is all done with now. I just finished the final exam today, and I am quite confident that I scored high. I got the impression going in that she didn't want to fail anybody. No need here, that's for sure. So that means that besides work (which is sparse to say the least) I am a free man. I intend to start learning HTML right away. Hopefully, work will pick up soon, and I will actually be able to afford those tickets I bought. If not, I will be most sore, as then I would have to spend $20 to postpone the vacation to a time that would be much less cooler than T.O's Pride Week. I'm excited that I'm going, and Matt seems to be excited that I'm coming, so we're all a little excited. Until the next time I blog it up, I will see you later. Right now I have some serious muscle stretching to do.

posted by Tay @ 6:48 PM

Well, I am pretty much commited now. Against what would probably prove to be my better judgement, I went and reserved those plane tickets. I'll be gone for a week of absolute fun and terror, fun being seeing my great friend Shuuand taking in the wonders that is Toronto's Pride Week festivities, terror wondering exactly how my creditors will try and castrate me. The tickets, although quite cheap relatively, are kinda beyond what I am able to pay right now, barring an assload of shifts from work. That would be great. I'll be gone from June 23-30, which means that I miss the Reel Big Fish concert. For those who don't know, Reel Big Fish is probably the greatest band on earth, and I am their greatest fans. I've seen them once at the Vans Warped Tour last year, and they kicked ass. This concert is to be just them, so we could expect a slightly longer show. If I had tears in my head, I think this is just the thing that might entice them to make an appearance. Still, I can send my ambassadors Ryan, Colm, and Mike to go in my place, and have them take many pictures for me. That would be a pretty cool birthday present.

Did I mention that it's almost my birthday? Granted, it's about a month away, but I can't really let these things slide. Regardless of what anyone tells you, birthdays and their respective parties are a lifeforce, and as such are very powerful. I remember this one time where Isreal didn't invite Palestine to it's birthday party. Wow. That was an ackward week. I still don't think those two talk to each other. My only problem (besides being that I have more than TWO problems) is that I have very crappy memory, both short and long-term. This prevents me from remembering times such as peoples birthdays, which gets weird when I ask my friends "so when is your birthday?", and they are all like "last week" and I'm all like "oh shit". You'd think that I'd write things like that down, and I would if I didn't forget to.

posted by Tay @ 1:14 AM

Well, my toe is not broken, only bruised. It's still quite sore, so I will have to be careful with it tonite at the dojo. That's not too much of a problem as it stands, as I am still at a relatively low rank, and we don't work too hard as a rule. I just have to avoid Karl, as he is a pretty rough guy. Funny as hell, but a monster in training.

Talking with my buddy Ryan the other day, the topic of conversation landed upon jungle creatures. I have no idea how this happened, but Ryan (being the master of wacky trivia) made it a point to say that the hippopotamus is the jungle's most dangerous creature, more so than crocodiles or elephants. His claim is based on their ferocity, and the fact that they really don't care what they're eating. Omniverous, or something.

But this got me to thinking: what in hell is a hippo? Besides being hungry-hungry of course. I mean, are they some kind of jungle-horse, or a water-elephant? They really don't seem to belong to any particular species that come to me mind. I don't intend to lose any sleep over this, but it is a brain tickler, that's for sure.

posted by Tay @ 3:55 PM

OOOOW!!! CRAP! I think that I just broke a toe, or at least sprained it. This totally sucks. I'll have more on it later. Right now I need some ice.

posted by Tay @ 10:31 PM

Now, don't kill me because I missed a day, I was very busy. I still have this one up only 3 hours late, technically, I guess. What was I so busy with that I couldn't be bothered to update? Well, let me tell you.

My folks talked me into volenteering at a casino to help out the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which I don't REALLY mind, because my little brother is afflicted with the disease. I don't do this volunteer work out of sympathy or empathy, just out of family duty, I guess. It's not as if it's back-breaking work either; most of the time I just sat around and watched the crappy TV that they have set up for us. There's a free meal in it too, steak and lobster at that! Let those hippies at the university deal with that! So yeah, all we do there is menial tasks that any schmoe already working there could do, we just need to do ourselves to satisfy some gambling commision law or something. When not doing that, I was readin old TIME magazines and watching one of Mel Gibson's biggest failures, "What Women Want". Unfortunatly, that's the ONLY film that the VCR was equipped with. It makes me wonder about the kind of people who usually volunteer.

I have a large problem with these "chick flicks". Most of these problems stem from the fact that I am a computer chip away from being an emotionless robot, my only faults being rage and curiosity, if either of those are actual emotions. So yeah, these films are nothing but garbage really. I'm never really sure what to do in types of situations like these, where there is a group of people trying to connect on an emotional level over a movie. So I just crack jokes. It's pretty easy this time, as the movie is WROUGHT with plot holes. I won't spoil anything for you, in case you haven't seen it, except that Darth Vader was Mel Gibson's father all along, Bruce Willis was dead the entire time, and Keifer Sutherland was the sniper. It's not big stuff compared to the REAL twist ending, where it turns out that Mel can withstand the force of no less than 3 lightning strikes within the span of a film. It's crap like this that makes me feel lucky that I will never have to deal with a girlfriend, devious symboitic creatures that use their powers of evil to force their prey to attend such films. Apperantly, that's their target demographic. Curious, but not curious enough for me.

posted by Tay @ 3:21 AM