I'm quite getting into this show "Curb Your Enthusiam" lately. It's friggin' milaria. Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld (I think the George character was based on him) stars as himself and is always getting himself into trouble. It's mostly over the top, although I'm sure a portion of it has to be drawn from real life situations that can and have happened. It's an HBO show, so anything goes too...which I like. I recommend you check it out...it's on Showcase here in Canada...late night usually.

I just went to Saxe Point Park. I can't believe I've never been there. Since birth I have lived in the Greater Victoria area (ok, less 3 and a half years) and I didn't even know it existed until a couple months ago...and only now have I finally been there. It's nice...good views, a network of trails, lots of benches and areas to relax. I didn't take any pictures, but next time I go I will.

Q and I went to the casino on friday night. It is apparent that I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to Black Jack. So I didn't know you were supposed to factor in the dealer's card when deciding what to do with your own cards. So I lost $20. So I may have split 4's with the dealer showing an ace...big deal. I now know, and I have some online Black Jack tutors to help.

Does it count that I broke even before I started BlackJack? I blew away $5 (high roller = me) on the slots, but then I gained it back at the horse races (Sega style).

It has also become apparent that I am cheap and indecisive when it comes to home improvements. I visited 4 hardware/lumber stores yesterday looking for some good shelving materials and still came away with nothing. It's not that I didn't find worthy items, but I was always wondering if I was getting the best deal or if there was something else available somewhere else. I need some organisational tools like shelves in my place here...and then it will be tidy and spiffy. I will buy them, I will build them, I will be done with it...soon I hope.

Fucking railroad tracks! I had my first decent "riding to work bail" today going over some wet tracks. They aren't perpendicular to the road and my tire just slid and got locked in the groove between the pavement and track. My momentum, of course, was all forward, so as my tire slid off to the side, my body went straight ahead...and down I went. My new jacket managed to survive, but my shorts took some damage, as did my leg. Ah well...shit happens. At least I didn't get run over.

There's a spider in my suite every day. I catch it and put it outside everyday, and then the next day I see another spider. Sometimes it's on the floor, sometimes it's on the wall, sometimes it's in the sink. I don't know if it's the same one and he keeps getting in after I put it out, but they're all about the same size (big). So there he is on the wall again...I'm gonna go catch him and put him outside. I should tag him to see if it's the same one...wonder how I'd do that...

It's a cool feeling when you're participating in a sport and you suddenly realize that you are in a position to make significant advances or score. The feeling is especially strong in those of use that don't play sports a whole lot, or weren't brought up in a heavily sport oriented home. I've been in this situation a few times in my life...like soccer tonight, where I got the ball and I was in front of the net, and there weren't a lot of other players around me. I had time to line it up and kick it well and I got the goal! It's a good feeling.

One of the better ones I remember, was years ago playing paintball with friends out at Victoria Paintball Adventures. Me and a couple others had made our way close to the enemy base in a capture the flag match. We held our ground at an outpost close to the base and it came upon me that there weren't many people guarding the flag in the base. I figured I could make a go for it as I didn't think anyone in the base knew we were there, plus even if they shot, they'd have to hit me and I had a chance cause I had the element of surprise. Without consulting with my teammates I just ran out and grabbed the flag. It's a great sensation you feel when you realize you've made a good move (because usually those moves are just left up to other people). I huffed it back to our base, with the help of covering fire from my comrades (one of whom was hit), and I made it...tired as I'd ever been, but proud and admired for my own few moments.

It's a good feeling...I think it's that feeling that keeps a lot of people involved in sports.

I've been watching a lot of "In Living Color" lately. I used to love that show, and I still do enjoy it. It launched quite a few big careers when you think about it. Start with the Wayans clan...the show basically revolved around many of them as Keenan Ivory was executive producer. There's Damon, Shawn (who was the DJ SW1 for the first season or two), Kim, and Keenan Ivory who does a bit of everything. There's many other Wayans' too I believe, including Marlon, who I don't think was involved with In Living Color, but is quite possibly the most talented of the family, being able to act well in both crazy comedies and dramas. Then of course you've got Jim Carey. Jamie Foxx is getting some big roles these days, both comedic and dramatic. Oh, and you can't forget everyone's favourite...Jennifer Lopez. She got her start as a Fly Girl on the show. Now I realize shows like Saturday Night Live, which are of the same style, have launched a ton of careers as well, but I'm just saying In Living Color did pretty well to launch those careers from only having a weekly half hour time slot on Fox...and it was only on the air for what? like 4 seasons? Pretty good.

Have I mentioned how annoying tourists are? I'm glad I don't work in the tourist industry, but I do live in a tourist town. The tourists, they love Victoria, but they fail to realize that it is a real, live, working city. I know they bring in a lot of economy money, but I just wish they'd use their brains a little more. They love to just walk out onto the street without looking for traffic. They love to jaywalk. I dunno what it is...they see a store on the other side of the street that they just have to check out, and they just header straight for it. I don't have to say how dangerous this is, both for them, and for traffic. Argh!

That's my only rant for today..it's been building up through the week. Not much else going on. I need to wash my car. I need to wash my dishes. I need to finish tidying and organising my place.

I so glad I came home from New Zealand when I did. It's really been good to be back. I'm also glad I decided to stay in Victoria and not take off to some other part of the country. I've been able to get re-acquainted with all my good friends that live here that I've known for so long. Family too...it's good to be close to them. I've been able to help out with and take part in two of my best friends' weddings this summer. I'm very happy for them. I just think the timing worked well for my return and I'm really enjoying being here. Of course I have friends in other places that I love and miss...but these guys here...these are my core..."the group"...we'll just always be friends and that's just the way it works.

Q's stag last night...I joined the crew after work and tried to catch up on the drinkin'. It seemed like they had a good time...I did once I joined 'em. Choy, Q & I walked home after...took a little longer than I thought it would.

There's been a few stories on CityPulse News lately about black bears in areas of Vancouver (North Van I think) interfering with humans. Firstly, it's the human's that are interfering with the bears...when you encroach on territory that bears live in, expect to see some bears. Secondly, there's talk of having to destroy the bears if they don't learn to stay away from the people's property. Why the fuck do humans feel like they rule the world? What gives us the power to say what lives and what dies? Why don't people change their lifestyle instead of taking the life of an animal? And if it's ok to destroy a bear for a simple reason like, "it's shitting in my yard", then why is abortion such a big issue?

Sometimes I hate being a human...we think we're so smart and so great. Bullshit!

I like being able to ride my bike to work. It feels good knowing that I am getting some exercise, am not polluting, and don't have to worry about parking (and birds). It's a nice ride from where I live to work. There isn't a bike lane, which is a bit of a pain, but the road is generally wide enough that it doesn't matter too much. It was a little tight today and I had to stop a few times for traffic to clear a bit. Generally it's good. I'll need to get some fenders and proper rain clothing for the fall and winter...it's been nice with this dry weather in the summer, but I'm not sure about how winter will be yet. Other people at work do it, so I'm determined too.

I need to get my head shaved again...Q & S's wedding is on Saturday and I can't have my hair in this mid-growth stage for it...I'm in the wedding party! I'm not sure if I can do it myself...I think I'm gonna try to rope my mom to do it. Could be tough...she's not too keen on my shaven head look.

Yellow cars may look cool and sporty, but they're not all that practical. Maybe practical isn't the right word here...cause mine is quite useful...I've hauled quite a bit of stuff in it since I got it: a dresser, lamp, several boxes when I moved. I'm talkin' practical as in it doesn't stay yellow for too terribly long after you wash it. Dirt shows pretty good on it...but that's a minor nuisance compared to the big one. Birds. Birds fucking love my car. They love to drop big turds right down on it. They get me good on a daily basis pretty much, but they got me especially good a couple days ago. I had my car parked downtown while I was at work, and I was parked right under a utility pole (my bad...I was rushing to get to work and just parked in the first space I saw). Upon returning to the car at 1am, I discovered 5 or 6 of the biggest bird turds I'd ever seen...all on my hood! I couldn't believe how bad it was...I don't think I'd ever seen a car hit that bad in one parking spot (save for the BMW lot in Fight Club). I wiped it off with my bird shit towel when I got home...I don't know if the towel is going to make it...it's on life support right now and it's not looking good. They did wipe off fairly easily as it was cool and wet and they hadn't had a chance to dry and harden. I looked at the hood the next day and it looked terrible...I'd gotten the big chunks of crap off, but there was still more...on the windshield, under the wipers, in the grill, on the side panels, etc. So yesterday night when I got home, the car was all moist with condensation and of course it was nice and cool out...so I decided to wash the hood properly. Night is the best time to wash your car...at least in the summer it is. It looks much better today, although there are still traces of the stuff..and I noticed one actually got down the gap at the edge of the hood and is sitting there under the hood stinkin' up the joint.

Fuckin' birds.

Don't ya just hate when the bar of soap gets too small to be useful, yet it's too bug still to really think about replacing it with a new bar? I was at that stage the last few days, the little bar was breaking and getting lost (you know where) and being a general nuisance...yet I didn't replace it with a new one until today because I'm determined to get my money's worth out of it. And I did...almost. There's some of it left..I'll incorporate it into the new bar of soap one day soon.

I've been building and setting up this new computer of mine for the past couple weeks and it's consuming a lot of my time. I've gotten close now to the state at which I want it. I'll tell you about it in depth in a future post...it's pretty cool. Basically, I'd get it all working nicely, but I'd want some different functionality so I'd fuck with it and break it somehow...so then I'd have to wrack my brain and the internet to find a solution other than re-installing everything. I'll be an expert on the whole thing when I'm done though. It's a good experience.

My place is shaping up nicely. Thanks to Gord for the table and for helping me with the futon (thanks to Auntie Margo for that!). I spent half a day with Gord on tuesday and it was good. Helped him add another layer of chicken wire around his chicken coop as it was discovered earlier that day that the chickens can indeed fly over the 5 foot high stuff. He loaded me up with some goodies too...as he seems to buy a lot more stuff (or come across it anyways) than he has use for. So thanks to him for that, and it was fun to hang out with him outside of the time we spend together when we're in the company of our parents.

Ok, so I'm guilty of something that I bitch about other people doing. I'm a hypocrite. Probably in more ways than one...actually not probably, I'm pretty sure I know for sure that it's in more ways than one. Still, it's tough when you discover that yourself does something that you despise. Maybe not tough, but disappointing. But you also realize why other people do it. Because I can justify doing it, it must be a similar reason they justify doing it. Although there are different circumstances, I realize.

I'm referring to me running the red light on my bike coming home tonight. I got to the intersection, it was dead (it's like 1am) and I felt kinda lame just standing there waiting for the light to change (and it's one of those unintelligent lights too...that always lets one direction of traffic go before the other...despite there being no one waiting in that particular direction...it's 2004 people!), so I rode through. Now I'd probably not have done that had I been driving...it's just not right and plus you don't quite feel as foolish when you're in your vehicle. I'd definitely have done it had I been walking..I jay walk all the time. Biking is right in between walking and driving...it depends on the traffic situation. I don't ride through red lights in the middle of the day downtown...but I have been known to do it at 1am. Basically as long as I'm not disrupting traffic, it shouldn't matter. Know what I mean?

I take on this philosophy a lot in driving. No U-Turns...hey, if it's not disrupting traffic, why not? (not that I U-Turn a lot anyway). No left turn...hey, if there's no median (or a small one) and the regular flow of traffic isn't being held up by my decision to turn left, then why the hell not?

It does bother me when people don't take other traffic into consideration...even sometimes if it's a perfectly legal move. It's just common courtesy sometimes to take one for the team rather than hold up five cars behind you as you wait and wait and wait for an opening. Or if it's an illegal move (as in a sign saying "no left turn") and you're holding up traffic to make the turn. Some guy (full up with passengers) was trying to turn left onto Yates from Douglas last week. You can't do that...there's a sign saying no turns. At least he was turning the right way onto Yates (it's a one way). The guy behind him (who was being held up) was honking, but to no avail...this guy was determined to turn left onto Yates, and he did eventually. Tourists most likely.

I'm guilty of being a tourist driver too though. I remember I turned the wrong way onto a one way street in Auckland once...didn't last too long...I quickly realized and turned the other way. It was marked very well I don't think. That's how I justify that one. Ah, good times, good times.

I really need to clean up my place...it's quite the mess since I moved in. My attention has been focused on my new computer lately. I built a PC that will be my entire media/entertainment centre. Using a wicked program called MythTV and components I purchased from various places across the country, I put the thing together in a couple days and have spent the last week configuring and tweaking the settings...there's still a lot to do. I'm learning as I go as well...because it uses Linux as it's operating system. It's gonna be a prety slick setup once I get it all tweaked. Very cool.

But yeah, my living space is quite the junk heap...so I think I need to take some time from the PC and focus on some tidying and organizing. It can't be that hard.

I'm off for 3 days thanks to an offset long weekend.

I hope my brother is feeling ok...he wasn't the last time I talked to him. I should spend more time with him...we get along fine these days and there's no excuse for us not hanging out more (aside from the fact that he lives a little ways outta the way).