shoot first

My drawer sounds like it's falling apart. I'm certain that I wasn't dreaming about the /crack/ I woke up to. When I get back from work, maybe I'll unstuff it of the backlog of games to play. Some papers are falling around the place due to furnace winds (what else do you call wind generated from a windowless room?). This is irking me because I'm a heavy sleeper. I'm a bit worried that I'll sleep through a tornado or earthquake—like an uncle of mine once did back in Zacapa—but only be jumpy enough to wake when my possessions get crushed along with me. Ah, priorities. I need to grow up.

At least it's not rats or ghosts making the noise. I almost thought it was until I remembered that the first one can't penetrate this province's borders.

On the topic of ghosts, I had no idea that the city had a pair (a couple I should say) of paranormal investigators. They're adorable. And a younger paranormal society (their website has flash now. AMAAAAZING). They meet up at the Where Faeries Live shop. I get books and incense from there, so I'm kind kind surprised it took me this long to even figure out societies hung out around them. Still, I wonder if it'd be okay to just drop in on a meeting when I finally have a day off. I don't have anything extraordinary to contribute on my end, but I'd really like to hear about local's experiences, opinions, and whatnot.

Also, I finally got Left 4 Dead 2. It's nice. Nothing particularly noteworthy about it other than new special infected, but it's nice. I mean, the first game's idea was simple enough to grasp. Get from point A to point B, don't die, don't let everyone else die, escape after two tanks, you win hooray. There's not much to really expand on that in my opinion. But it's nice.

I hate playing online though. Admittedly I'm not a good player, but I'm not an incapable one. It's like it's an almost binary group: you're either amazing or awful. The former's intimidating, and the latter is frustrating to work with. Somehow I run into both and they're always very serious to the point of advocating that having fun is a bad thing. I think it's probably about time I actually made friends on Steam. It's lonely.

Me: Is that all for today?

Caller 1 (Calgary): You betcha.

Caller 2 (Edmonton): You betcha!

Caller 10 (Grand Prairie): You betcha!

Caller 25 (Airdrie): Youuuuuuu betttttttchaaaaa!

Caller 53 (Prince George [lol wut]): YA BETCHA :D

I swear, I never thought Albertans could be so annoying by uttering that single phrase. At least they don't say "y'all" very often. It wouldn't be so grating if I didn't have it fed directly to my ear via a headset. If I come across this face-to-face, I will mangle a hamburger to represent my valid irritation.

I finally finished reading Hitching Rides with Buddha after delaying regular reading sessions for months. I wasn't expecting the ending at all, and even though I know that the author is successful and very well off today, I still wanted to crawl into a corner and cry. No, it wasn't a depressing ending, just a melancholic one that almost makes me want to rethink any urge I have to travel on my own. Maybe I'll just make sure that I know as much of the native language of wherever I end up in before I migrate around the world. That seemed to be one of the things I noticed seemed to cause a bit of hiccups in the book: a language barrier.

By the way, what the hell am I doing on TinierMe? There is nothing to do but fish, but I keep coming back for that stupid coin bonus. And the pretty avatar items. Which, by the way, I heard are older and less detailed than the Japanese version... It's not even a good Gaia clone, but why do I keep coming back? D:

I hate Edmonton. Not all the time. Sometimes I remember my obligatory need to fawn over the city I grew up in. Then I also remember the several reasons why I'd love to just ditch Edmonton, and even move to the enemy known as Calgary. Forget the homely nature of this city, the multiple festivals (I wonder if there are any running right now), and even our apparent scenery; I want the convenience of living closer to the border.

Today's special overused reason to leave: The WEATHER.

By March, one could expect the snow to become a wet mash of bugs, dirt, and ice. Not here. I just took the shovel out awhile ago to re-shovel the snow that some awful draft of wind decided to fling back on the sidewalks and driveway. If I stick the shovel into the piles left on the sides, the barely five inches of a four foot shovel are left visible. I could probably kill myself if I fell in my own backyard. Within two days there'll probably be another random snowfall, and I'll have to clean it up. Within an hour the wind will pick up and hurl everything back. And then I'll cry.

If I lived in B.C. I wouldn't have this problem. Sources tell me that the land of Asians, nude beaches, backyard grizzlies, and humidity doesn't even get snow. What they get is one day of slightly-colder rain passed off as Winter.
Actually, if I lived in Calgary, I wouldn't have this problem either.
What I would get is a mountain view, reminding me that beneath the chill and beyond the uncouth, there is a reason to make the effort worth staying.

Also chinook winds. The founders of Edmonton missed the memo on this, and built the city just far enough we get no mountains on the skyline.

Anywho, I have some vegetable seeds I just bought. I wanted to try my hand at crafting life from the ground. One of the packages indicate that I need to germinate it six weeks prior to spring. Isn't that in a couple of weeks, spring? Riiiiight.

My body is still running on poorly-cooked salmon from two nights ago. I'll try to remind myself to bring a bottle of antacid or what-have-you-cure-alls the next time my sister invites us over for dinner. It was one of those sweet gestures for the family to get to know the guy she is living with a bit better. While it's fine to mend family ties, I would like to wake up the next morning without feeling ill. Granted, I'm not that sick. The indigestion passed away Sunday night. Just felt gross in the morning, really.

So, I call in sick for Monday's classes and took advantage of the spare time to play around in photoshop and check up on my communities. It's nearly 3 AM now; still messing around with photoshop and lj.

So, I check my college email to see if I've missed anything important. Nope.
So, I check my blackboard email. Grad photos and mandatory midterm review tomorrow. Aw crap.
It takes an hour to fall asleep. I need to wake up at 5 AM. One hour of sleep. *FAIL*

I was actually meaning to sleep in or skip the entire day too. After all, I managed to show up for less than a week of January's classes and still understand what the hell was going on. Last term's theme was "Common Sense." This one's is "Tact." One of my assignments dealt with taking a personality test. Many personality tests, actually, but there's no actual skill needed to take them. And I can aim for a 'D' in all my classes, and still graduate. Why bother studying since I hate the course material so much? Because I look bad if I don't even try.

The absences weren't actually due to apathy, rather it was due to a sort of depression coming from that line of thought. One part of me just wants to get this over with; another part wants to stop wasting time with it; another part feels degraded to be taking this in the first place; another part wants a good reputation; and then another part just wants to sleep in till 1 PM everyday. If I were to pull another "disappearing act," I don't believe my instructors would tolerate it this time. But hey, it was one of them that gave me the idea of aiming for a minimum of a 'D' in the case of somehow being unable to comprehend anything. I'd have to work hard to to fail. It's like trying to get fired from Wal-mart/Superstore/any-union-based-employment; impossible.

Somehow, after consulting with a couple advisers and said instructors, I resolved to show my face there most of the time. The point is that I have grad photos tomorrow.

...? Fuck it. I lost and missed my own point. It's too late to be wangsting at this hour.

Bits here and there cross posted to necessary places and irl!journal. Lol, organization, lol.

Spoke with my older sister regarding the whole family tree matter; best advice is to contact the relatives.
I did come across a genealogy for the first C***** to come to Zacapa (which is where my father was raised, as well as his father before him). Also found other junk which is likely to lead to a dead end. *le sigh*


Anywho, Patapon 2 is coming out in Japan this week. PON PON PATA UNF :>
Unfortunately, I still have to pay for new textbooks for the next semester. Seriously, WTF? I'm going to be working in a cubicle by the end of next year (I presume). Will textbook-knowledge really be applied when I'm writing a memo to Accounting to send my department more money for stamps? No. God, I hope not.

Nonetheless I can't afford "luxuries." 7-11 is hiring though... And it's only minutes away from my house, really. Starbucks, in City Centre, wants staff too. And I'd really like to get a free bag of coffee every week.

Or maybe I'll try MacDonalds! They're always hiring, and I've always wanted to see if working fast food is the equivalent of going straight to hell.