Oops... I mean... SUPRISE!

So the otherday I was writing how I ALMOST spoiled my friends suprise birthday party by accidently mentioning some hints to her. Well it turns out that Yusin DOES read my blog and the party is cancelled. On the otherhand, instead of being disappointed with me she is quite excited and cheerful since it turns out every year someone she knows throws her a surprise party and let me tell you, this screw up was not expected at all.

Now, instead of meeting at her place for a suprise dinner, several classmates and I are gathering for dinner tomorrow night at Angelina and Guidos right accross the street from my school which gives me a chance to work hard tomorrow and then make a stroll over to the restaurant.

Speaking of school, I'm really feeling the fists of the homework really tightening around my neck and the more I try to rush through things the more i feel that I'm falling behind, so I"m quite happy to be celebrating mine and the other's birthdays to keep my sanity, haha.

Only two weeks left!!

Smooth...

My classmate, Yusin, is turning 25 on thursday. Amelie, another classmate, contacted me through MSN several times telling me about a get together at Yusin's for her birthday. In her messages she mention Yusin's dad a few times. In my head I kept thinking "why is Amelie inviting me and not Yusin, to her own party" and "what does her dad have to do with anything?" until today when I saw Yusin in class and said "So I heard about our little get together" and she says "what get together". At this point little spark plugs starting going off and everything made sense - it's a suprise party! Oooooops...... Quick thinking, I turned extrememly red and started making absolutely no sense until Yusin made me explain myself to which I replied that sometimes I mix up people and told her I was talking about my friend Nadine's party. I also explained to her how once I was invited to a party and saw the host at school and went to confirm the place and time until I realized the person was actually not who I thought she was but a complete stranger...(that really happened so it wasn't hard to make it sound believable). Well hopefully I didn't ruin anything and lets REALLY hope Yusin doens't read my blog... haha....

In other news, I saw Lady in the Water. I liked it but it got really mixed reviews and is not in anyway a scary/horror movie. It's more of a fantasy movie. Think The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe with less plot and a shock here and there rather than the Sixth Sense or Signs.

In the music front, I picked up a few albums as of late.
Thom Yorke - The Eraser. I like it but it;s kind of tough to get into. It's sooting at parts and very like some of the stuff from Kid A - more electronic and less band heavy.
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations. I'm having ahard time getting into it but it's not a bad album. The only song I can say I really like is the last one called Knights of Cydonia
Angels and Airwaves - We Don't Need To Wisper. I heard bad things about this one but decided to get it anyways. I havn't even listened to it yet except a second from each song to make sure they worked and from what I heard everything sounds the same.

Ok... so I didn't really gert that great music after al, now that I think about it...
well I need new music for my MP3 player. Anyone have anything they recommend?

Panic! At the Budman

Been hard to post more than once a week altely due to 1. being to busy with school work and 2. due to point 1, have not done anything that exciting to post about. That's not completely true though since sunday I went to go see a show with Norm.

I had bought tickets about a month ago to go see Panic! At the Disco. I was excited to take a break from school work and go out and enjoy myself at a show. Plus, I hadn't had a chance to really catch up with Norm in a long itme so it was fun talking about movies and comics and crazy things we rewmember from our childhood like Eerie Indiana (if you know what that is, you're cool!).

The show was at the Metropolis and the opening bands were supposed to be The Hush Sound and the Dresden Dolls. Which reminds me...

Another exciting thing that did happen is that my dad was over kind and bought me an mp3 player for my soon to be birthday (1 week today!). I picked out the Creative Zen Vision M. It's pretty awesome and definitely the most expensive thing I own at the moment. It plays music, videos, show photos, has a radio, voice recorder and can be used as a hard drive. Number of gigs: 30. Number of songs capable of holding: several thousand. Number of hours it can play video before dying: 4. Number of times I've almost dropped it already: 1...

Getting back to the topic at hand, I had downloaded both of the openers current albums but did not have a chance to listen to them. The show was suposed to start at 7:30 but instead started at 8:30 because the Hush Sound didn't make it through the US border. It suscks to because since then, I have been listening to their album and it's quite good. It's called Like Vines and it's very happy pop rock music. I highly recommend it if you just want to be put in a nice chill happy mood. The Dresden Dolls, on the other hand DID play and i didn't like them very much. THeir basically a girl on a piano and a guy thrashing on his drums. The music is... interesting.

Finally, Panic at the Disco came on at 9:30 and they rocked. The stage had a lot of props. There was a backdrop of a windmill with a this giant fan with lights all over it. They had in huge letters Panic! At The Disco with each letter that flashed in bright lights and let's not forget the moon with a mustache, the fake trees and the drummers drum kit that lit up to the beats.

During the set, they had 2 chicks and a guy dress up in cabaret 20 style clothing and run around doing crazy things. They played most of their songs in the exact same order as the album which was a bit of a drag but they totally suprised Norm and I when they covered Karma Police by Radiohead and Tonight Tonight by Smashing Pumpkins. Teh worst thing of it all was that we were probably one of the handful of peopel who actually KNEW those songs since almost EVERYONE was 16 or younger and mostly female(yes Norm and I DID feel a bit out of place). Even before the encore, they had a little interlude where the cabaret people were getting the crowd all exciting by talking about each band members likes and dislikes and how they are all single and looking for love.

The encore was great and they ended the show with the last song on the album which is one of my favorite song from them. Then during the last rendition of the chorus, the singer just jump out into the crowd! (I hope he jumped into some bounders because I doubt a few 14 year olds would br able to hold him up).

After the show, Norm and I walked through the Just For Laughs area and showed up just in time to get lost in this crazy fantasy thing where loud music was being pumped out of speakers and there were people manipulating giant hot air ballon sea creatures. It was literally out of this world.

And now something COMPLETELY different: I just recieved an e-mail from Eugene. I havnt' hread from that guyin a couple of years and apperently he stopped writing e=mails a couple of years ago but decided to start up again. His e-mails are LONG! I mean REALLY LONG! Take ther length of this blog entry and multiply it by 5, that's be about 1/3 the length of the e-mail I just recieved from him. I won't go into specifics about the content (actuallY i'm not even have done it yet and it's been about 20 miunutes...) but he was just writing how he's still in chem and he was taking a safety courseon radiation so he can learn how to work an x-ray machine to do tests on chemicals in his lab. The funniest thing I read from him was this:

The tech guy made them watch a movie and was talking about radiation and stuff afterwords:

Tech Guy: We all get gamma rays from background terrestrial based radiation
anyways, how much is living beside a power plant going to do to you

Eugene: Well, if it blows up, you might be in trouble. For instance, I
lived really close to one that blew up when I was a kid.

Tech Guy: Which one was that?

Eugene: Chernobyl

(He's dead serious, he was born in Russia)

Waiting Time

I'm currently at school. I've spent all afternoon working on this assignment for my photoshop II class. Basically, it's taking a scanned picture of woman from a magazine and then tracingit in photoshop using the dodge (shadows) and burn (hgihlights) tools. The result looks more like something that was done using a spray gun. I just finished doing the eyes and although not perfect (...yet?) it looks pretty wicked. However, due to the file being 425MB i ahev to wait 10 minutes until it's on my USB key. So here I am killing time.

Nothing new lately in my life except I recently got a raise at work. The yearly evaluations happen in the summer and mine was highly positive and I just have to continue dong what I'm doing. The want me to work there more btu with school, I'm going to have ot keep my 2 shifts per week limit.

Other than that, I got see see Adrienne, Mariana and Dustin who were both in town for Nikki's wedding (Mazol Tov Nikki and Rob!) and there was a party at Andrew's friday night so it was most of the improv gang back together again. It was a chill arty adn Bryan organized a kick ass version of the Family Feud on a whima nd it was quite funny.

The rest of this week I'm devoting to homework and will have to miss manhunt again :( Fortunately, I'm going ot be seeing Panic! At The disco on Sunday and that seems like a promising night for fun times.

Well the USB transfer is done. I'm out of here to shop for an MP3 player.

I Pod You Pod, We All Pod for iPod

My birthday is coming up at the end of the month (gah!) and my parents have insisted on buying me a portable mp3 player as a gift. So much so that my dad has the money all ready to be spent this second. Unfortunately I've been so busy with school I haven't had a chance to research what's good/bad, new, or actually what's even out there. I've never owned an mp3 player and am unfamiliar with even the common features. I have been told that although an iPod is the most popular it's not necessarily the best. I do know there are two main times - smaller ones that are flash memory and larger ones that are like hard drives. Right nowI can say that I'm not too crazy about being able to watch movies on my music player but the advantage of getting a big hard drive one would be being able to store some of my homework on it.

Anyone recommend a certain brand or model? Or even a good website to check out for reviews? Any suggestions can help point me in teh right way.

I Like Rocks A.K.A My Trip to Ottawa

Many months ago I had met Owen Hewitt through the McGill Improv Summit. Carlton University had come all the way from Ottawa to compete. I had again met Owen a month later during Vaganza 6. Since then he'd been inviting my out to Ottawa. I finally took up his offer and went out there this past weekend to celebrate Canada Day.

Friday evening at 5:05pm I was on a VIA Rail train headed to Ottawa. The whole ride was under 2 hours! I read a magazine half of the time and fell asleep for the second part. Once I reached Ottawa, Owen was there waiting for me. The two coolest guys in Ottawa were ready to party.

We reached Owen's lovely home where I met his parents and had a nice chat with his mom. She was very pleasant and had left us an amazing turkey dinner to eat. The highlight of the evening was when during our conversation, Owen's mom commented that I had to most elegant hands, to which embarrassed Owen. Also, him and his parents talked a lot about politics and history and religion - all subjects I"m not too knowledgeable on - which spawned our inside joke of "I like rocks..." Which one is to say when you are completely lost on the topic of a conversation.

After dinner, we had our first beer of the weekend. Well, Owen had more than one, but I'm a slow drinker and I had almost one. He showed his book collection and when I commented on how I always wanted to read The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, he gave me his copy! He even wrote a note. That means when he becomes a famous poet I may have in my hands a one of a kind item. I can't wait to read it.

The evening was spent at his long time friend's Tina's house. She was turning 22 and to celebrate her birthday had a few friends over. I met a few cool people and we all chatted in the kitchen which was the tiniest room in the house (see Andrew, it's not just at your place that this happens...). Tina was having a fun time drinking and I got to watch her play this checkers game where each piece is a shot glass and when you lose your piece you drink it. It was fun to watch because she started to drink all the pieces, the ones she lost and the ones she moved and just anyone she felt like drinking. Her boyfriend Steph showed up and he was a cool guy. Owen and I got him cracking up so hard. The highlight of the night had to have been when Tina fell on the ground and withered like a fish behind her couch.

Around midnight I think, we called it a night for we had a big day ahead of us.

I got woken up at 9am and headed down to the kitchen for soem of Owen's world famous pancake mix pancakes. By 10:30 we were out of the house and on a bus to the downtown area. Already I was starting to sdee red and white everywhere.

Once we reached downtown, there were already tons of people outand about. Owen was dying to go see one of his favorite performers, Buck 65, who was to perform twice that day, so we headed immediately to his stage. Unfortunately we showed up near the end but I got to witness one of the coolest things. A bunch of performers - Buck 65, Kinnie Starr, some guy who played amazing accoustic guitar and this group called K'Naan, were all sitting on the tiniest stage just listening to each othet while a bunch of spectators like myself and Owen were able to just relax and listen. It was the chillest thing ever. I really admired how the other artists bobbed their heads to the one that was performing. We had only come in on the last song but I was told that each artist played 4 songs and they each took turns. We had missed Buck 65 but shortly after the show got a chance to talk to him while he was selling/signing cds. Owen got him to sign his lucky hat and had a nice chat with him.

Right next to the cd table was a both with this special guitar called the Six String Nations Guitar which was handmade from a bunch of historical pieces aof wood and what not including a piece of Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle and gold from Maurice Rocket Richards' gold ring. I even got a picture taken with it and will have it sent to me by e-mail. There was even a suggestions ballad for a name for the quitar to which I could only come up with "The Canada". I know, original...

It being the hottest time of the day, we headed to the Highlander, a Scottish pub that Owen traditionally goes to every Canada Day. There we listened to soem duo play classic rock tunes while we eat great pub food and had some beer.

After lunch Owen was kind enough to give me a tour fo the city and talk about all the historical sites and buildings. He really knows his stuff especially since h's studying history and wants to be a librarian. Once our tour ended, we hit the grass and I dozed off enjoying the cool breeze. When I had awaken, the sky had begun to get grey but thankfully no rain. We walked off our haziness (I think the sun/beer mix had hit me) and we had a quick dinner just after finding out that France had kick Brazil out of the World Cup.

By 7pm, we were back at Major Hill's Park to catch K'naan, Kinnie Starr and Buck 65 perform ful 30 minute sets. When Buck 65 came on, everyone rushed the stage and really got into it. He put on a great set and Owen was rocking out.

After the show, we had bumped into thsi girl that Owen had been playing phone tag with and had a bit of a liking to. I only later found out he had met her only once before but we were going to try and hang out with her and her 2 friends for a bit. As we followed them, I noticed then and all day rather, that someone had been writing on the ground with chalk stuff about "Bring Peace and Justice" etc. I think i even made a coment to Owen. Then suddenly his friend stops and starts to take out chalk and write the same thing to which I immidiately thought "oh...".

Nothing much was going on so we ditched that group and were about to head home until I rememebered about the fireworks and convinced Owen to let me stay and watch them. He knew the perfect spot to view them and they were AMAZING! Some were SO big and loud that you could feel the ground vibrate and it looked like they were going to fall on you. It was spectacular.

On the way to the bus, I could tell that all the families had left, leaving behind tons of drunken people read to fill up the bars since it was only 10:30pm.

Once we got to his stop, we debarked and somehow ended up walking right in the middle of a group of 14-15 year olds since teh sidewalk was narrow. Figuring we;d split directions at any moment, Owen and I made no attempt to pass the first half of the group. Unfortunately this went on for what felt like TEN blocks.

The night ended winding down in Owen's basement watching a hilarious episode of South Park to which the gang goes to Canada and it is all done in the style of the Wizard Of Oz. My favorite part being on "French Canada being the Best part of Canada".

Sunday morning I managed to sleep in until 11am. Really needed that. Thsi time I had Owen's world famous pancrepes because they came out kind of thin but tasty none the less. To kill time, we went and caught Superman Returns. My brother didn't like it that much but I thought it was pretty good. The effects were crazy but the bad guy plot could have been a bit better.

We returned back to Owen's and had a delicious BBQ with his parents and his brother Andrew who had come from Edmonton to stay with them for a week or so.

5pm came and it was time for me to say my goodbyes and head to the train station. Owen left me off and I got inside just in time to board the train. Almost an hour and a half later I had returned home to Montreal.

All in all I had a great time and a much need break from school.

Sushi Party!

After a couple of weeks of craziness, I decided to drop all homework related stuff and focus on having fun. And fun I had.

Thursday morning I drove down to schol with the ol' van. I knew parking would be a bitch so I had planned to park in teh underground parking at in the building of my school. Unforunately I had a hrd time finding it and accidently drove down this incorrect very narrow, very curvy and VERY steep driveway to which I had to reverse out of (how I didn't crash the car I don't know...). Afterwards I found the parking lot and found a spot close to the elevator (with trouble getting into the spot. How I didn't crash the car I don't know...). I spent all afternoon fixing my menu project and I think it looks great. Sometime soon I will post the final edition of the menu of the made up restaurant I created called Bracha's (after my mom's hebrew name).

At 5pm I headed over to the rendez-vous point at Amin's (while almost breaking my dad's side mirror while exiting the car lot. How I didn't crash the car I don't know...). There, Amin, Norm, Lauren, Kevin, Mariana and Ian were there ready to hit the West Island. We took 2 cars and eventually met at my place. We decided on supplies and went shopping for food. Back at my house we spent the bulk of the evening making sushi using chopped cucumber, peppers, carrots and cooked smoked salmon.

Yes everyone got in on the fun:








Here's how most of sushi turned out:



and here's how my sushi turned out:



Once done, we did what you should always do after eating sushi - go play at a park! Yes, we relived our youth for a short while until we returned to my house to watch the Daily Show and the Stephen Colbert Report.

Then we literally crashed. Everyone basicaly mass slept on the pullout couch or occupied one of my spae sleeping areas. I wisely took my bed because in the morning the only complaint I got was about the house cuckoo clock which happens to go off EVERY 15 minutes.

Lauren had work at 9am so everyone save Ian and Kevin left at around 7am. I went back to bed however and only really got up at 10-10:30am. After cleaning up and eating, I brought the guys downtown.

Ian had wanted to be dropped off somewhere so he could watch the world cup. Fortunately a wicked spot opened up in time fo rme to grab it right in front of Carlos And Pepe's on Peel. Then when I went to pay for parking, Ian noticed a giant sign saying the place we were standing in front of was showing the game. We walk upstairs only to find a really fancy lounge with several T.V.s, couches and people wearing suits and dressy clothes, while I was wearing my cowboy hat and Ian was wearing a hoodie. Although we seemed out of place, no one cared and we stayed to watch the Argentina play Germany during overtime. Germany lost, but I thoguht it was a cheap win because they only won due to penalty shots. It was fun though, since Ian told me a lot about the World Cup that I had not known.

I then went home got soem errands done and got ready for my trip to Ottawa.