Some High School Reunions Don't Suck

A couple of months ago I bumped into someone I went to high school with during one of my shifts at Old Navy. We played phone tag for a while but finally got together tonight. We ended up at Winnie's to chat about whats been going on in the past 9 years! I found out she used to me married, she found out my mom still makes my lunch. In the end she even treated me for dinner! In return she told me I have to bring to her to an improv workshop because it sounded so cool to her.

Win win situation.

Great News

After a waiting period of 5 weeks, my mom finally got the results from her surgery. Everything came out negative. There were no traces of cancer anywhere else. She has to have radiation done to ensure all the bad cells are gone but no chemo.

A relief for everyone.

Is this blog getting boring?

Unfortunatley, nothing super exciting has been going on lately to really rant about. I feel like more and more I find myself looking for things to write about to keep this blog going. When I first started this blog, it was entertaining because it was new and I kept adding fun links to click on but it got hard to keep it up. Then I switched to ranting on all my girl problems which I no longer have (now my girl situations are just non-existant ratehr than problematic). The blog definitely hit a strong point with my Australia trip since I had tons to talk about. Since I've been back I guess I started with what my plans were and then a bit of things I was doing in school here and there but I found it difficult to post all of my art work. Fortunately I think I recently found a solution to that problem so keep posted soon to see ALL the stuff I've been doing since I started school.

I"m not sure what direction this blog should go into next. I guess I can always make it a porno site... naw that wouldn't work... ANy suggestions? In my photoshop class i"m learning a new technique everyweek, so I"m thinking maybe I"ll add a new technique on here just to show you all the kind of stuff i"m learning. Sound like fun? Also my dream is to one day have a web comic going but thats far away from happening since i need: ideas, create a look for the comic, and time, which I don't have much of.

So dear readers please don't stray far away. I'll think of something!

Just don't want to grow up

Although it has been 2 years since I've graduated from McGill University, yesturday I was at Activities Night. For those of you who have not attended McGill, Activities Night is a clubs night where all the clubs set up a table and explain what they are all about in exchange for new members. Still being a member of McGill Improv, I thought it was my duty to come and help out. I also set up a small booth for Montreal Manhunt. 36 people signed up for Manhunt and were super enthusiastic, while we got 6 pages of e-mail for improv! Tomorrow is our first official workshop and I'm hoping a lot of people will show up. There seemed to a be a lot of people who actually knew what improv was and had performed in the past, so maybe out of the 100 or so people who signed up, some will actualy be interested in keeping McGill Improv strong since there aren't that many members anymore.

Suprisingly (to me at least), while I was there, I happened to bump into a bunch of people I had known. Then I headed down to Gerts with Adrienne and we had a beer together. Guess some things will never change.

September 13th

Is 13 really that bad a number? I woke up this morning thinking th eworse thing about today was that it marks the 1 year anniversary of my return home from Australia (now I can't say I 'just' got back anymore). Upon taking the bus with my mom this morning, I later found out today was more than that, that today also marked the 2 year ammiversary of my uncle's death when he had a freak heart attack and passed away so suddenly. By mid afternoon I later discovered the day was hardly over. I was in class just returning from lunch at 1:15. We were waiting for 2 more students to return from lunch but the teacher decided to continue teaching. At about 1:30pm, they came in telling us that there has been peope shot at Dawson College just down the street. While the teacher was continuing with the class, I was reading on line the latest news on the situation. At the time there was rumors of 1 to 4 suspects involved and about 4 people shot. By 2pm my class got cancelled. Knowing that the metro would be out of whack and that for sure Atwater would be closed, my two friend Yusin and Amelie and myself walked down towards Boneventure Metro. I split up with them and headed to Pulp and Paper at McGill to pick something up and get some tea. While I was there, my friends who still work there were also reading about it and the rumors were spreading all over the net. I headed home by train to avoid the metro rush and when I walked into my house i turned on the TV. I was super suprised to find the news on CNN. It was truley starting to feel like the Columbine shooting. In fact on CTV but they even started to interview a former victimk of the Columbine incident. After watching the news for about 2 hours it is known that there was in fact online 1 shooter. There was a cop in civilian clothes that confused a lot of witnesses. The shooter was killed and it is thought the police are responsible but it is still possible he commited suicide. No one knows who he is, if he was a student or not. A bunch of people locked themselves in rooms to avoid the gun fire. Shots were fired all over the place and the final total was 20 injured. 11 people in the Montreal General hospital were being treated for gun shot wounds to the chest, abdomin or limbs. Last I saw on the news that 1 of the victims did die.

It's just crazy. I know it's a bit extremem to say it since I wasn't actually there but it is kind of freaky knowing this all happened about a block away. Normally my friends and I gfo to eat at Alexis Neon where the food court faces the back of Dawson, btu today I had a lunch and my friends walked to a cafe towards Guy rather than Atwater. Knowing tha tmost of us were freaked, I cant even imagine how the people who were right there when it happened are feeling right now.

Someitmes the world really is messed up...

Labour Day Wekend Blues

Tomorrow marks my return to school. I'm excited since I've been working ful time at Old Navy for 3 weeks and can use a cange of pace already. Don't fet me wrong, I love working there, it's just everything has changed and a lot fo my friends that I have made since working there have quit or been transfered. Three of the managers are different from when I started there last October. Which reminds me, it's almost a year since I've worked there! I'll get my "1 year of service" sticker soon!

I realize I never finished my Boston story so here's Part 2 of Boston:

We got up early and hit the city for some site seeing. We decided to go and check out the Boston Tea Party Ship until I finally asked someone at a hotel for directions to which we foudn out the chip got caught on fire a few years back and was in Maine being restored. After that we decided to just wander the streets and saw all the historical sites and fun attractions - Boston Common, The Beacon, Royal Gardens, Cheers, etc. We ate lunch in Chinatown and it was delicious. We walked around some more and then hit up Paul Revere's house, then headed back to the motel.

After a nice rest and watching of First Blood, we headed back downtown with the car. We actually went to the outskirts of the city and ate the the Cornwall, a really nice pub. Glen wouldn't stop commenting on this excellent sandwich he ordered.
After dinner we cabbed to bar scene at Quincy Markets and met up with Karen and her friend Jen and a married couple that was friends with them. While Glen was off doing his thing with Karen (just talking!) I was keeping Jen and the couple company and they must have had a few too many to drink because apperently I look exactly like Larry David. I can understand since I"m short, fat and bald. Then they decided I looked more like George Castanza.

Anyways, after a fun night of drinking we decided to head back home and coudln't hail a cab. All of a sudden this trolley bus decked out with lights, loud music and a smke machine shows up and tells us that for 5$ we can get a ride anywhere so we jumped on. It was pretty hapening on the bus with lots of people and the music and all. Thirty minutes pass an still no one exited the bus. I'm sure the guy was lost. We were driving around forever. Eventually every one got tired and started to sit. The music started to get annoying but luckily after about an hour on the bus, the generator blew and all the music and stuff stopped. Eventually we ended up at the car but by then I had fallen asleep and was woken up when we got there.

Sunday morning was an early breakfast and a nice drive back to Montreal with a quick stop in Lebanon for lunch at this really good sub place. ONce in Montreal, we were invited to stay at Glen's place for dinner. The highlight of the night was Glen's mom calling me Budman the whole time. Steve and Jay drove me home and that concluded a great trip!

Being my last day off before school starts, I'm hoping to finish some things on my computer so it's all ready for when I start school tomorrow. I'm almost done making web files of my graphic design work so I can post them up later.

Otherwise today feels like a pretty long and boring day...

On a sad note, I found out today Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter died today by getting stung by a stingray while filming his show. R.I.P. Steve Irwin!

The LOST post

OK I came on to update my blog just now and noticed that my last post, which I had wrote as an excuse to keep people entertained knowing I wouldn't be up to posting for a while, was never actually posted but saved as a draft. So here is that LOST post:

My internet has been down for the past couple of days so I have not been able to update and continue my story on Boston. I promise to continue it very soon. In the meantime enjoy these little snippets:

-my mom is feeling fine and her stitches come out tomorrow
-my buddy Glen is leaving tomorrow for BC. Good luck to you buddy and sorry! I forgot to chip in for the beer!
-I played manhunt on saturday and it ROCKED! I didnt' get caught in the second round and I ROCKED!
-All of a sudden all these people want me to do graphic design jobs for them, yay!
-I'm working all this week including tomorrow morning at 6:30am
-I start school next week
-I'm now off to bed

A Day To Be Remembered

Today is a day several things:
1) I havn't told that many people but now seems like the right time. A few weeks ago my mom got the results from her mamogram and the discovered a small tumor in her right breast. It was the size of a cherry pit. Today it was removed. My mom is doing fine and she's already itching to do all the crazy things she normally does. Our fingers are crossed that this is the end of it but the test results to see if there are anymore growths int eh neighbourhood will be available in about 2 weeks. So now we play the waiting game.

2) On another note, today just also happens to be my brother Mark's 40th birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK!

3) On the same note, today just also happens to be my buddy Owen's 22nd birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OWEN!

Budman in Boston

This past weekend I went down south to Boston with my buddy Glen and his two buddies from high school, Jay and Steve. I will have to say that it turned out to be an amazing trip with no worries and everything just fell into place. The whole time we had very loose plans and just went with the flow.

Friday morning I got picked up by Steve and Jay around 8am. We headed to Glen's place in the south shore where we swapped cars. We had chipped in a got a rental for the weekend. I can't remember what model it was but it was a full sized car and it drove very well and had lots of leg room.

We made excellent time, only stopping once for lunch at some place called Pour Boys in Manchester. I was suprised when we past Lebanon, MA, because I thought the others were pulling my chain until I saw a sign.

We made it to our motel room around 5pm. We were actually staying in Beverly which was about a 40 minute drive from the city. We had rented a kind of an apartment type of room. It was fuly furnished, had 2 rooms, 3 beds and a pullout couch which I suprisingly had excellent sleep on. Breakfast was included as well and the owners were pleasent and very helpful with directions.

Not even there for more than 20 minutes, Jay, Glen and I went wondering over to the local supermarket and bumped into a girl named Gina who was on her way to the restaurant she works at. She recommended we go there for dinner and that she'd help us out with some tips on whats good to see/do, etc.

Once we settled in and got washed up, we headed out to Not Your Average Joe's where Gina was working. The food was quite good and Jay had fallen in love with this blueberry beer he tried called Sea Dog. It was quite good. We thanked Gina for her kindness and good service and she even admitted that she lived in the area and gave us her number if we wanted to get together or something. Actually our relationship with Gina over the 3 days was quite funny since by the last day she mentioned on the phone that she was the "Icon" of out trip which is actually hilarious since we played phone tag and never actually got together...

After dinner we decided it would be our best interest to actually drive down to the city rather then train there and cab back. Steve was kind enough to volunteer to not drink and we were off. We got kind of lost but ended up parking on this street called Newbury. We walked around and hit a few bars including The Other Side Cafe and Bukowski's. At Bukowski's I bought a pint of this beer called He'Brew. The tap handle was a little rabbi figure. I thought it was funny until I actually tried the beer which was absolutely HORRIBLE. It was REALLY strong and I couldn't finish it. By then I had a pretty horrible headache and thought I wasn't going to make it the rest of the night.

Fortunately, a friend of Glen's, Evy, and her two friend, Amy and Liz, came to meet up with us and the bar we went to was pretty happening that I hit a second whim and actually enjoyed myself the rest of the night.

The bars close at 2am in Boston so when we got kicked out, with a lot of direction asking, we finally made it out of the city and back home.

I decided to split up the trip story a bit as not to make each post too long. Expect to read more about it later.

Also, check out photos HERE!

Life Imitating Art

This afternoon, I leaving school to meet with my mom and was running late. I was at school copying files to my USB key. While doing this, I was listening to Mobile on my MP3 player. They are a band from Montreal and their album Tomorrow Comes Today is quite good. Anyways, they have a song called Montreal Calling and the video for it just has this guy (I think he's a thief and stole something) that's just running his hardest down the street. When I was ready to leave and start heading towards my mom, I decided I was so late I needed to run. Just as I started to bolt up the stairs and leave the building, Montreal Calling comes on my player and lasted almost the exact time it took me to get to where my mom was.

I'm so cool.

DONE!

After 3 months of hard work (the end was getting killer), I handed in my last file today at 11am. I may have seemed stressed as of late because of the work load but doing the actual work was a lot of fun. There are somethings I designed that are ok and others that I quite like and i dont hate any of it. In fact, for most of it, when I started workign on it I didn't think anything special but as I neared finishing the work it got better and better. I promise to post the things I made during my 3 weeks of vacation. It may take some time though because I really have to sort through everything, convert the files to web files and back it all up on cd. I'll probably space it out and post by course or something. Thanks to everyone who helped me through the semster!

As for my time off, I have 3 weeks to relax. Although, I had uped my availability at the Navy and they may recruit me for more hours. On the bright side, I like working and can use the money. Before I get all into work mode, I found out yesturday they goofed and didn't change my availability for next week so I'm only working 2 days unless they change it since I reminded them i'm available anytime (that goes out to all the ladies too) so I may get a chance to really relax for a bit.

Almost done

It's always comforting coming to school and the security guard at the sign in booth says "Welcome home"...

One week left! I can taste it!

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.

Small Break

I've been SO busy lately with school. It's just been project after project. Actually, the way it works, I should be able to multi task but it hasn't been happening. I've been working countless hours to finish somehting just in time and right after handing it in, I'd have to START the next project which in the last case, was the next day. This week, I've also got the house ot myself since my parents are in Toronto watching my nephew, Charles, while my brother and his wife are in Vegas for his 40th birthday trip (even though it's in August?!) so it's been quiet in the house and with staying up late all alone working on stuff, I started to go a little crazy... I hadn't something in today half assed btu got an extension and on top of that instead of actualy having ot redo my stuff due to the mistakes, all I have to do is write a note stating I understand what I did wrong and what I would do to fix them. My teacher rocks!

Thankfully, I'm at the end of the hump for a short while since all my next projects aren't due for a few weeks. I was totally dying earlier in class and was totaly about to fall off my chair. Things are going to get crazy again but in the meantime I'm taking a break starting tonight. I'm gong to go see Nacho Libre with my bro. Tomorrow night is a sushi party at my place which should rock. Friday I'm off to Ottawa to hang out with Owen and celebrate Canada day. Nothing beats his e-mail I recieved the other day:
Dude before you come i need to know a few things: 1. Is there antyhing you can't eat besides pork? 2. What time are you do in? 3. Are you afraid of titties? We'll be seeing plenty on Canada Day 4. When is your train back to Montreal?
Oh Owen, how much we'll have together.

I better get back to work since i"m still in class but a quick blurb: We use a program called Quark that basically is a text editing program (for layout in magazines, books, panflets, etc.) and a feature in it is called Jabber Text. It basically fills the area with random text. I had apractice example to do in class and this is what came up in the jabber paragraph:

The Klingnons fight Quark. one Jabberwokcy marries two.