THIS IS GOING TO FEEL A LITTLE WEIRD

This post is going to be all over the place.

First, I’d like to publicly apologize to Arash for forgetting to pick up his dinner tonight. One of the most sacred bonds between two SJC residents is the “dinner pick-up”. I broke that bond tonight. I hope that Country Style sandwich is tasty buddy!

Second, I am now the owner of a Kodak EasyShare CX4230 digital camera. I bought one from Ebay today. Final price? $140… Canadian. And get this, it’s just not a used camera, it’s a factory refurbished model, so it’s up to original specs and there’s a one year warranty from Kodak. If you’re curious as to how much this camera retails new, I found this store in Delta that sells cameras on-line. Their price? $314.95 Canadian and that’s before taxes. Even if you factor in shipping and possibly duties (which I hope there will be none), I think I’ll have saved myself $200, which is more than the price of the camera itself.

I’m hoping to get the camera sometime next week. You can bet I’ll be having fun trying it out.

The third item of this post is that I did accupuncture for the first time tonight. Someone at the College here had her friend come over for dinner. I heard them talking over dinner about her training in the ancient art. I was really interested in what she had to say about accupuncture treatments. Well, before dinner ended, she mentioned how she had all her stuff here and that if I wanted, she could give me a simple treatment. I happily agreed.

So, after dinner the accupuncturist had me sit on a bed with my legs over the side and my hands on a pillow on my lap. Next, she brought out two needles sheathed in thin, plastic tubes. She placed the tube over my hand, in a spot where my thumb and index finger meet. Then she took off the top part of the tube and asked me if I was ready. I said yes. Then she took a finger and tapped the needle firmly but gently into my hand. It barely registered. Off slid the tube and there was this super thin needle poking up from my hand. She took the needle and then gently worked it deeper into my hand. I felt this more, but it was nowhere near painful. She remarked I was doing really well.

She repeated this again for my right hand. Only this time, I immediately felt a warmth along my right arm when the needle went in. With two needles sticking out of me, she asked me if I was sore or stiff anywhere before we started. I said my neck was a bit tight. She said she’d leave the needles in for 20 minutes.

For the duration of the 20 minutes, I didn’t really feel all that weird. I didn’t even feel them anymore. It was then time to take out the needles. Out they came and I checked my neck. It was definitely less tight than it was before. Not as good as a real massage, but there was improvement. She then warned me that where she put the needles in would probably feel sore or achy. She was right. About five minutes after the needles came out, it felt really sore where they were put in, like I had touched my index fingers to my thumb a million times in a row.

I was also warned I might feel a bit tired or light-headed, but that two needles most likely would not be enough to cause that.

After tonight, I have to say I’m a fan of accupuncture. It is a most interesting method of treatment.

TUESDAY’S TALES

I was very tired throughout the day at work. When it finally ended, I had to go my last softball game of the season. We lost. It left a bitter taste behind.

Then I went out to dinner with the four friends I still hang out with from high school. One of them, Roney is heading off to Manhattan for five months. This was our goodbye for him.

I came home, had a nice conversation with Rhonda and then played Max Payne for a little while. Geez, I’m tempted to play it again now. Nah, I gotta get to bed.

VIDEO GAMES… TOO BUSY

I’d really like to write a super long post right now, but I got Max Payne in the mail today. Bullet time! Woooommmm!!!

WHO IS THIS GUY?

A few weeks ago, I made the realization that I know a lot more people at St. John’s now than I ever did in first term. By “know” I mean I feel comfortable talking to these people, I can ask them relevant questions about their lives, and go beyond random smalltalk.

What really surprised me is how few people I really knew in first term. From September to December, I basically hung around five people. Out of a residence of nearly 200 people, I really only knew five. I remember one Friday night around October or so, I was going to the Village with Lindsay for dinner. On the way, I got her to tell me about some of the people in the College.

“So, do you know who so and so is?”

“Sorta.”

“Do you know what she looks like, where she’s from, what’s she studying, and where in the College she lives?”

“No.”

“How about so and so?”

“Well, I think I’ve heard his name before, but I don’t any know anything about him.”

She continued with a list of names, but I gave her similar answers. At dinner, she went on to describe some of the people in the College. It wasn’t even gossip just basic stuff like what they looked like and what they were studying.

It was crazy how few people I knew then compared to now. Rhonda is a really good friend of mine here at the College. We talk everyday, but I can’t remember if we had a single conversation in first term. The first time I really remember talking to her was in late December when we both attended a going-away brunch for someone. On the way home, I sat next to her on the bus, and I was thinking, “So, this is Rhonda, at least I think that’s her name…” So we just started talking.

I have similar stories about how I met other people here. The funniest thing is finding out what people thought of me in first term! I’ve been asking people lately and some of their answers are interesting.

“You were a bit of a mystery to people, no one knew what you were about”

“Someone mentioned you casually, and from that, I thought you were really mean guy”

“Someone once asked me about you and all I could say was, he has a message board on his door”

“All I knew was that you had a picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi on your door and that made you dangerous… you had skills”

“I thought you were gay… still do”

Well, in second term I had way more work than in first term, but I managed to be much more social. This resulted in me getting to know a lot more people. It certainly helped by playing on the ball hockey team. Even though we lost eight straight games, the losing led to some bonding.

I knew I had reached a milestone one day when I was going for dinner. Early on in the year, I always went to dinner with my friends Nic and Marcia. If they weren’t there, I wouldn’t feel as comfortable sitting with others. On that particular day though, I realized it didn’t matter who I was going to sit with, I would feel comfortable with anyone at my table.

I am glad that I feel more connected with the community here at the College now. It would have been a shame to miss out on all the great people that live here.

AND STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

It’s about 3:30am and most of the people here at the College are asleep. It’s quiet. The air is cool. It’s peaceful.

Thanks to a can of Coke consumed around midnight, I am wide awake, yet not hyperactive. Given the circumstances, I am somewhat relaxed.

Earlier in the evening, a large group of us from the College went down to Wreck to see the sun set. We brought wood for a fire, some tiki torches, and marshmallows to roast. The sunset was beautiful. The lingering clouds allowed the sun to paint the sky with pastel pinks. A few people started playing cards, but I didn’t want to join, I know like two card games, maybe three and they weren’t playing those.

Instead I sat with the others and roasted marshmallows with a coat hanger. It took me a dry run to get it right, but I got the hang of it. I will tell you one thing though, melted marshmallows, sticky hands, and sand don’t really mix. As I did the roasting, I got to sit next to Miriam. We had a short but really good conversation. We were in the same reflective, quiet mood. We discussed our troubles, we looked at the flickering flames of the fire, and I think we both knew what type of week we had just finished. We didn’t say much after that, there was no need.

As the light of the day yielded to the night, the fire turned a mezmorizing orange. I had an interesting conversation around the fire with Arash, Bruno, and Carly. We talked about everything from The Price Is Right to how fun it is to watch marshmallows burn and expand.

We came back up around midnight. After I got back, I played Arash a game of MSN Messenger checkers. We were about even down to 5 pieces each, but then I did a dumb move and it was all over. Strangely enough, I played Tic-Tac-Toe with him after and got two games on him. Isn’t it like impossible to lose in Tic-Tac-Toe?

Some TV and more video games and here we are at 4am. I think I’ll download some music, do some more web stuff, and see where I’ll be. I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

THE ARAMARK CORPORATION REVISITED

In November, in a series of posts, I chronicled my dealings with the vending machine company Aramark. Their response to my complaint was quite speedy and acceptable. Today, I had reason again to contact them.

Around 3pm I was feeling a bit peckish, having had only a light lunch. Not wanting to go far, I decided to visit the vending machine just down the hall. As I got there, I decided I wanted a bag of Miss Vickie’s Sweet Chili and Sour Cream chips. I put in my twoonie for the $1.10 bag of chips and pressed A6.

Beep!

I looked at LCD display on the machine. It said, “Make another selection”. Weird. I pressed A6 again.

Beep!

I looked at the completely filled row of chips. It sure as hell wasn’t empty. A friend of mine always says the third time’s the charm.

Beep!

Nope. Begrudgingly, I take the bag of plain chips next to my intended target and collect my change. I note the number on the machine and I go back to my office. I call them up and explain the situation to them.

A nice woman takes down all the details and tells me she’ll definitely dispatch someone to the machine on Monday. Next, she wants to know where she can mail me the $1.10 to re-imburse me for the chips I didn’t want in the first place. I tell her it’s alright and it wasn’t worth her trouble. She insists. I acquiesce.

She tells me to expect the money in the mail soon. That’s pretty cool of them. It’s not like I didn’t get anything at all, but they wanted to re-imburse me anyways. Too bad you can’t buy cars from a vending machine.

READY TO ROLL

I guess if you’re reading this, it’s obvious the server move went well and my mail is working again. Everything seems like it was before except there’s a bit more hard drive space all around.

SUPER SIX-FOUR IS GOING DOWN

My mail and web server are both moving today at approximately 6pm PST. At that time, both this site and my e-mail will become unavailable.

The move should be complete by 7:30pm and all services should be back up and running at that time.

That is all.

GOOD TO GO

I had an hour plus nap after work today. It’s 1:40am right now. I’m good to go… I’ve got no where to go, but I’m good to go. I wish I could go now.

THE BULLSHIT OF LIFE

Last night, I had a long conversation on the phone with a friend that I hadn’t talked to in a long time. We conversed about many subjects, movies, sports, politics, and he came to a new relevation which he phrased as the “bullshit of life”. I asked what he meant by that exactly.

“Erwin, the bullshit of life are all the little or not so little random, unexpected, undeserved events that happen to you. It could be anything, some guy dings your car while you’re gone, the bank screws up your account, the wait at the store is long, people you know just get mad at you for no reason, your cake doesn’t rise… all of that, and some of it is gonna seem totally fucking unfair,” explained my friend.

“Yeah, BS like that can be hard to take, you don’t think you deserve any of that, yet here it is, dropped right in front of you. Like any shit that’s in front of you though, you gotta step around it, and don’t let it bother you. Keep going on. If you stepped in every piece of BS that life offered you, you’d spend your entire existence metaphorically wiping off your shoes, bitching about it, and letting life go on by without you,” he continued.

“Some BS is gonna be harder to deal with than others. There’ll be times when life plops down a huge pile of shit, and you’ll be wondering how the fuck am I gonna get past this? I don’t deserve this! Well, you just have to stay focussed and be positive and get help from friends.”

As I listened intently to my friend for several minutes, I was struck by two things. First, my friend usually doesn’t come up with these type of relevalations. Second, I wanted to know how and why he came up with this, so I asked him.

“Erwin, one night I just realized you can live your life stepping from one piece of shit to another, bitching and bemoaning life, yelling at the sky at all the injustices you’ve been dealt with. Which is no way to live of course. Or, you can be resilient, stay positive, move forward (look ahead! sorry… – Ed. ), and don’t let it drag you down. That’s how I’m gonna be from now on.”

While some of what he told wasn’t new to me, I was still very proud of the new outlook he had on life. It certainly refreshed me on what is important in life.

When he was finished his treatise, I asked him if he was willing to put our conversation here. He said yes, and that’s what you see above. I hope some of you found it interesting.