My World

From last Thursday’s Vancouver Sun:

Aquarius: This is the prime time to adopt a new hobby - preferably one that requires no schedule, no lessons and no special clothing. For instance, lying on your back and looking aimlessly up at the sky.

Talk about spooky! Cos after work on Thursday I went and grabbed an ice lolly with Charlotte and we sat on the fountain outside the Wall Centre and I did lie on my back and look at the sky! And it was quite nice actually.. until some fuckwit old bloke with a video camera came along and asked us if we could move because he was doing a wedding on Saturday and wanted to get some footage of the venue now. Bzzzzt can’t you do that some other time? Like when I’m not just out of work and wanting to lie here and stare at the sky?!

URL: http://www.xmarkjenkinsx.com/outside.html

Via digg.com, check out the talented Mark Jenkins, who “installs” fake people in cities in the name of art.

One word: Wow!. As in Holy Wow! Awesome! Fantastic! Ok, that’s more like 4 words, but cut me a little slack here mmkay?

Tonight I went to see the Cirque du Soleil show that’s in town: Varekai and it was amazing!

I don’t know what it is about that kinda thing, but it kinda gets me, grabs me, stirs things up a bit. I’ve got no interest in Phantom of the Opera or Les Miserables, but sit me down in front of Rent, or the Lion King, the Blue Man Group, or now Cirque du Soleil, and something just happens.. I get a bit tingly, a bit emotional, a bit hyped and/or over-awed.. I’d hazard a guess that it has something to do with appreciation and admiration for people who are really talented and gifted, having a great time doing what they’re doing, and pretty much seem to know who they are and what they’re doing in life right now.. there’s something you can feel in the air too - it’s like the adoration and respect from the audience, who are all being massively entertained by the people on stage, seeing the stuff that they’ve done a million times before for the first time and loving it - lapping up every last drop of it.

Maybe in a different life I’d have been more involved with theatre and entertainment and that kind of thing - I always fancied doing the sound or lighting, just never really got involved with it.. Either way - if you get a chance to see Cirque du Soleil, go for it! They’re in town for another week or so.. Sure, tickets are like $95 but worth it I reckon - a good dose of old fashioned entertainment!

You ever get one of those times when you kinda want to say something, but not sure exactly what, or even how? That would be me, now, at 12:12, frigging the posting time so this shows up in the right place and really wanting to say something but at the same time kind of at a loss for words..

Weekend roundup? Meh - can’t be arsed. Podcast? Yeah - I missed that tonight.. first time I’ve been here (as opposed to away on holiday) and not done one on a Monday night. Debated doing it a bit buzzed from the booze (we went drinking after work) (kinda needed it today) but opted for a walk’n'talk instead, which turned in to the biggest bundle of.. I don’t even know the word to describe it.. ever.. EVER.. part 7.. or 17..

So.. work.. first day of training on Microsoft .NET (that’s “dot net”) and C# (that’s “C Sharp”). And all I can say is ugh. As in UGH. I feel like the stupidest person in the class. And I’m not stupid (honest!), but I just don’t “get” this stuff.. I’ve never done it before, the course assumes some prior experience, so quite why I’m on it in the first place is anyone’s guess. It’s like you being a chef, knowing how to make the greatest deserts ever, then plopping you in a cosmetics factory and saying “Get to it then!” - on the basis that making cosmetics is just like making deserts, cos you just put a bunch of ingredients in a mixer and press the “on” button, right? No need to worry that you don’t know about oil based pigments or the boiling temperature of carnauba wax, you’ll be fine, jump on in! Uh, yeah, BZZZZZT no, that’s not quite how it works..

I was literally driven to drink after the day’s training. I went to Doolins with Simon and Charlotte, Ben came and joined us later, then Brian and Kirsten joined the fray. “I’ll come for one, just one mind..” of course turned in to “5 drinks later, aren’t we having a jolly old time?!”. Gotta love it! Didn’t feel too buzzed, just nicely chilled after the day’s stresses..

Back to mine, hung out a bit, Kirsten went home, I went for a walk with Brian.. which started off nice, then turned in to one of those walk’n'talks which left me exhausted and him exhausted/angry/upset plus a whole bunch of other things. Some of it’s justified, some less so.. some of it’s a perspective thing.. and some of this is me just being vague and waffling on without airing my dirty laundry in public..

What started out as a blog entry with possibly profound undercurrents ended up being kinda vague on the subject most on my mind, and more detailed about the work woes of the day. BZZZZT. You want profound? How about “We all do things we’re not proud of, we all make mistakes, but life goes on”? How’s that for ya? Or how about “You only hurt the ones you love”? Or how about “Yeah, if I’m honest, 6 months on I still get pangs in my heart, for all sorts of reasons, and sometimes it’s fine but other times it really sucks ass and gets to me, and much as I say it’s all good and life goes on and all that other claptrap shit I say, it really doesn’t detract from the way I feel, which a lot of the time is just plain sad”?

As well as not “getting” Microsoft .NET and C#, a lot of the time I don’t “get” life.. or people.. and despite my age I still ask the questions I asked 10 years ago like “Who am I?” and “Where am I going?” and “What do I want to do with my life?” (I’m fairly sure being a .NET developer is one thing I don’t want to do with my life, but the other mysteries remain!). Before the conversation went pear shaped, I was talking with Brian about people, relating with others, what makes people tick, what makes us tick etc.. There’s something in there about being friends with co-workers, and how friends react/behave etc.. but it escapes me right now, it’s getting late, I’m wanting to go to bed..

Thoughts in closing? Meh.. make of it what you will.. I need to sleep so I can wake up and go to work for another day of training that I don’t want to do, with a million thoughts of “other stuff” running through my head like a pack of rabid wolves chasing the scared witless sheep, possibly heading towards a cliff, like a lemming.. wow - how’s that for graphically descriptive? I should write when it’s late and I’m exhausted more often.. or not..

Some stuff’s better left unsaid. Some stuff should be said but isn’t. Some stuff would be said if you weren’t scared of the possible outcomes. But to quote Radio 1: “One life - live it” This is real life, it’s here, it’s now - it’s not textbook perfect, Hollywood blockbuster, or Mary Poppins. It is what it is, nuff said? (only really, it’s not nuff said, cos that last bit was just tosh - could it BE any more generic and clichéd?) Maybe it’s best summed up in the words of one of my best friends when he said “Things happen, you’ve got to deal”.

One word: WOW!

I was talking to James back home last week and he was telling me how he’d bought a Slingbox. It’s from Sling Media and allows you to stream video across the internet. “Meh, I can do that with my webcam and MSN” I hear you say.. oh ye of little faith - I’m talking television here! You hook it up to your cable or satellite box then install the software on your PC. Ta-da! You’re now set up to watch (and control) your TV at home from anywhere on the planet with a decent internet connection!

It’s cool.. like seriously cool! I installed the software and was able to connect to James’s box (which is in Ireland) and there I was, merrily watching Sky, checking out the interactive program guide, watching MTV Dance, checking out The Simpsons on Sky One, watching Airline, watching football on the BBC.. The quality’s pretty good - the audio’s spot on, the video is mostly good.. bit blocky/blurry if there’s a lot of rapid action on the screen but for the most part totally watchable.. WOW!

I kinda want one.. who wants to pay for me to have a Sky+ box in the UK, with a Slingbox connected to some fast internet connection so I can watch all my TV from back home from my comfy sofa in Vancouver? Anyone? C’mon people! :-)

It’s always funny when people from your past pop up unexpectedly.. It happened twice on Friday, both times with people from back home..

There I am, mid afternoon, pissing around online, minding my own.. and up pops Iain, who I know from Jersey although he’s back living in Scotland now.. and just bought himself a place apparently.. figured he wasn’t getting any younger so it was time to jump on that grown up, adult, property-owning bandwagon! Great idea, I should probably get on that, but meh - you know..

Then in the evening, I’m sat in Sammy J Peppers, having food and a few drinks with Shawn & co.. the phone goes.. US number, I don’t recognise it.. and it’s Clarissa! (aka my stalker from back home) She was in town around this time last year, then went off to work on a private yacht or something.. turns out she’s going to be in town in a couple of weeks, they’re sailing from Seattle up to Vancouver or something.. we’ll probably catch up, have a drink or something..

What are the chances of 2 people from back home getting in touch out of the blue on the same day? Quite high apparently..

This is the picture that Shanelle drew of me tonight.. which was then amended (by her) to include speech bubbles capturing my reaction. Click the thumbnail to make it bigger.

Marks out of 10?

Also, the freckle above my lip is nowhere near as big as she makes it out to be.. apparently more ink came out the pen than she was expecting (yeah, right!)

Last Monday’s frenzy of cleaning and tidying wasn’t just cos I was bored or cos it needed doing (although to be fair, it was long overdue).. No, the prime motivator for making the guest room a proper guest room once more (as opposed to a junk and storage room that happens to have a bed in it) was the return of your friend and mine, Mr Shawn Cashin!

He phoned on Sunday to say he was coming home on Thursday (that’d be today then!) so I figured it was time to get this house in order.. and did I ever! I took 4 (count ‘em FOUR!) bags of garbage out, full of stuff I’ve hoarded over the past few years, stuff I don’t need any more, the works. This afternoon I picked up a rental car and hit the airport to pick him up.

First words out of his mouth: “I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life”

Wow. Statement and a half right there eh? Not my story to tell, but the short version is that the trip back to Vancouver was emotional, and he wants to go back to Australia! We’ll see what unfolds, but for now it’s back to having a roomie for a while - fine by me :-)

I hit the movies with John last night to see The Devil Wears Prada. Good film, not bad at all.. IMDB currently rates it 7.2 out of 10 and I’d probably give it an 8.

Anne Hathaway plays a slightly dweeby girl who somehow (we’re not quite sure how) lands a job that a million girls would kill for - that as a personal assistant to editor of one of the world’s greatest fashion magazines, a role very well played by Meryl Streep.

The audience was a funny mix too.. lots of giggling asian girls (Hello Kitty!) and a fair few man loving men too (I think the gay boys heard “Prada” and got all excited!). A little dose of chick flick, a pinch of cheesy porn, but all in all pretty good entertainment!

You know what I hate more than having a dodgy throat? Having a dodgy throat 2 months after the last time I had one, and having it throw a spanner in my enjoyment of the long holiday weekend.. ARRRGHHHH!

Link: podcast45.mp3 (22:45, 10.4Mb)

In this week’s show:

• Movie Reviews: Nacho Libre and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
• The week + weekend in review
• Total tidy up session (featuring a rant on trash compactor usage) (HOW exciting?!)
• Crashing PC problem: Solved! It’s faulty memory!
• ..and not much else really - that’s pretty much it!

Please, no feedback this week.. I mean it - no feedback! (yeah right!) (didn’t quite succeed with that last week did I..)