The Way I See It #122

I start school tomorrow. I honestly have no idea what the hell I'm getting myself into.

It's weird, I've had a 2-year summer, and the idea of going back to school is, amazingly, an exciting prospect. No dread, no looming grey cloud, nothing. I can't think of a good reason as to why though, because if you've ever met me, you'd know that I'm not the biggest fan of the educational establishment. I suppose you could chalk it up to my competitiveness ("Elaine's going, why the hell can't I?"), my desire not to resign myself to a lifetime of retail, or maybe the fact that it gives me an excuse to get a MacBook is enticing enough.

I realized (this evening, quite conveniently since everything is closed) that I'll likely need more than a currently non-existant laptop and fancy empty laptop backpack in order to go to school. Hopefully I can find some, you know, lined paper. The first week will be, in short, awful. If you've seen my handwriting, good Christ. No one will be able to borrow my notes, at least.

I'd like to touch upon an item I mentioned a few posts ago:

"If I don't get in, I expect one solid week of binge drinking and sandwich eating, and you should too. You know what? Even if I do make it in, I will do it anyhow."

Well, as promised, even if I made it in, my binge-week begins...now. Shit. Yes.

Drinks of choice this week are many (many - thanks Sean) Molson Canadian Cold Shots, which taste like water but don't function the same. And the cans, they're so small! Quite effective, these.

Awesome.

From anywhere to anyone

Hello.

I currently wait for my lady to arrive home from work, and since it is now technically her birthday, I wait to bestow gifts. What a goddamn sweetheart I am.

So, I bide my time.

If anyone still reads this, you've either talked to me today or live with me, and you also know that my computer, well, is garbage. I had trouble with it a few months ago, as I had chronicled; after a "repair", it's even worse off. Perhaps putting a brand new 300gb drive on a five year old motherboard may have pissed it off. Maybe it overheard my nefarious scheme to have my music collection ripped at the highest possible rate so I can hook it up to my home theatre and enjoy it. Also we must consider the fact that one cannot polish a turd. In the coming months, I hope to go from brown box to white box, as shown below:

Yes, I realize the unintentional creepy blackface freaks you out. It freaks me out too. We're in this together, don't worry.

Either way, I'm hopefully getting a MacBook. Sure, I don't need one, but I'm bored of the whole PC fiasco. Sick of updates, sick of viruses, sick of crashing hard drives and blue screens of death. On top of that, I actually have valid reasons: I want a laptop for travel, such as to Europe or class; I want to become more familiar with other platforms; I want to have blogging/editing/music programs that all jive together. I'm pumped about the damn thing and it's not because of the neat-o "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials. They're not pandering to me.

"Wait, hold the phone," you say, "did that hip cat say 'class'?" Yes, I did, and thank you for the compliment. I will (tentatively) be going to school in September...again. This time at a different institution, different program, shit, different city. Continuing my trend of "going to school in cities in which I have never been", I'll be taking the Journalism course at Niagara College. Why I said "tentatively" before is because I'm currently on a waiting list for the program, which makes sense considering I applied less than a week ago. I apparently have a 99.9% chance of getting in, so I'll just say I'm going to school. If I don't get in, I expect one solid week of binge drinking and sandwich eating, and you should too. You know what? Even if I do make it in, I will do it anyhow. That, friend, is my gift to you.

Some quick things to note:

• Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 plays like the longest demo ever. It is fun until you realize you don't care about the people you're supposed to save (and they slow you down anyhow), and you also find out that commanding them into a crowd of zombies is very helpful. I will say this for the title though: the weapons are some of the most satisfying in any game I've ever played (you haven't lived until you've scalded a zombie's face with a hot frying pan, or knocked off a leg with a bowling ball). 6.5/10.
• Read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. Quality book, really cheap at Wal-Mart too.
  
• Listen to Sounding a Mosaic by Bedouin Soundclash. I know lots of you may already have, but if not...well, hey.
  
• The cat ate part of my fucking sandwich when I was in the bathroom. I was gone for like a minute, and the fat loaf decides to go to town on my ham. Cat, if you are intelligent enough to know that the worst possible thing you could do is involve yourself with my sandwich, then you're intelligent enough to read and peruse the tubes of the internet. So I say this once with clenched teeth: you're lucky Elaine likes you and that it is her birthday. You are on thin fucking ice with me. Enjoy your kibble. God damned cat.

I should probably go, and, you know, wrap Elaine's present.

Good night, oxygen thieves.

Moment of Zen: Dinosaur parties and the legend of the gay biscotti.

Media!

Try this on for size, children:



Old school. Literally.

Edit: video is of my housemates from first year, not just random yahoos.

Mr. Peanut's fantastic night out

Just got finished cleaning up the blog. I've been meaning to adjust some crap for a while now, and I finally managed to sit down tonight and get it done. I've fixed a screw-up in the code for my Digg list, it actually updates now. The colours have been tweaked around a bit, I think for the better. Less bright on my eyes, at least. There are a bunch of quotes up top under the title image, and new pictures in the top right, both of which randomize when you refresh the page. Also, the archives have finally been made to work as they should, which pleases me. If any of you catch something here that's broken or missing, or you just don't like junk, leave a comment. Also, if anyone knows of any free iTunes-supporting Now Playing plugins for the blog, let me know. Thanks.

If you use MSN, check this out. I figured it out yesterday (pretty sure I'm not the first, but it's a revelation for me.) It gets rid of the lame-o tabs on the side of MSN without having to resort to any extra programs...Billy just hides this stuff pretty well.

So, some people have been asking what I'm doing with school. If I said I enjoy it, I'd be lying to you. I don't enjoy the tedium of having to make it there every other day, for very little reward. Right now, my focus is on work, and moving up in my store. With that in mind, my plan is to drop my courses at Brock and cut my losses, getting back what money I can from them. I'm planning on still taking classes, just through Athabasca University (recommended to me by my assistant manager and Chris.) My plan is to work my way up to assistant manager over the next year or so, and take classes via mail/internet on my own time.

This whole idea of major change doesn't bother me in the least. If anything, it's refreshing. I've realized that I'm happier now than I've ever been, living on my own, working, being with Elaine...all of it reminds me of a scene from Garden State.

You know that point in your life when you realize that the house that you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit that idea of home is gone. You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. And you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't exist. I mean it's like this rite of passage, you know. You'll never have the feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it. Maybe that's all a family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place.

I'm in a place right now where I just put my shit, but even where my parents are doesn't seem like home. I'm not really sure why I've been thinking about that, but I think I'm on my way to creating a new idea for myself.

Moment of Zen: This one, potentially, could create a tiny spark.