Why haven't I updated for over a week? Good question...sorry I don't have a good answer for it. Basically not much to update. Let's see...work was good, I ran on Monday and Wednesday, not much else to report. Coming up though...oh, gonna be a good week. Going down to SoCal to visit Sara and go to Disneyland! Plus gonna go see Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday...so watch for me & Sara in the audience. Should be a fun week.

I just got all domestic and made rice krispie squares...except they're not squares, I shaped them like little footballs in honour of the Grey Cup...which I will be watching upstairs in a few short hours. Go Lions! Last week's game was a gooder...I only saw the last quarter, but that was the best part and it sparked a bit more interest in football than I usually have. The Grey Cup seems to have a lot more fuel this year...most likely because there's no NHL, but probably also because BC is in it so I'm hearing more hype cause I'm in BC.

Been busy for the last month or so working on databasising MetalMike's MidnightMetal website. It's coming together nicely...sorry, can't show you any progress just yet.

Happy Birthday to Gord last week! We had a nice dinner out at Sauce...good food, nice servers, bit pricey though, but Mom and Dad picked up the bill and for that I thank them.

Been seeing this girl Mel for the last while. It's going well...we pretty much only get to see each other on weekends, but we both seem ok with that. She made me dinner last night, it was good. Then we watched Stepford Wives...ok movie.

I should clean or pack or something.

I'm not a huge fan of November and December. I went to buy something today, traffic and parking were a mess. The whole holiday season is a buncha bullshit...it just gets on my nerves. I feel no joy...or very little. Why has the whole "buying presents"thing gotten out of hand? I want to tell my family that I don't want to partake in the presents aspect of this season anymore, but I think they'd disown me. I think I've left it too late in the season for me to bring up the topic as they may have gotten me presents already, and then I'd feel like a bastard because I'd be asking to not partake when they have already partaken with me in mind. It's not that I don't want to get them presents...I just think that finding them something meaningful and useful at this specific time of year (when the marketers are bombarding our senses with tonnes of useless products) is lame. I'd rather pick up a present for someone I care about when I find the right thing...whatever time of year it happens to be. And also, to have to buy everyone in my family a present is taxing on the ole bank account...and I know I don't have to buy them a present, but if they go and buy me a present then I'll feel like a shit if I didn't get them something in return. What we did in the Sookies group last year was ideal...we pulled one name of each person in the group to get a present for. It worked well...you can focus on that one present and make it something worthwhile. It would be good if my family could do something like that. But I never know how to bring it up as it strays from the way we've done it for the last...well, since I've been around at least.

I think my love affair with NYPD Blue is purely based on the production. The acting isn't really that great when I watch it closely...although what do I know about acting? Everything just seems too easy in that show...the faulty acting could well be a result of bad writing, and I'm sure it is. The stories, while they do draw me in, are seemingly unrealistic when I really start to analyze it. Again, I don't know much about detective work (or the lives surrounding detectives), but everything just seems to work out too easily for the detectives in the 15th squad. They almost always get the perp within a day...I just don't think they really work that fast in the real world. And why do the murders almost always happen at the beginning of the day? Just seems to convenient. But these unrealisms aside, I am in love with the production and that is why I watch it. The music, the way it starts with no vis, then the vis comes up and we get an idea where we are, then the story begins or continues. The camera work...I like how the camera moves, almost like it's an entity sitting in the middle of the situation. And despite my previous comments about the acting and writing, there are some good one liners that surface every now and then. Hey, who said TV was supposed to be real? It's fun to escape reality for a while and watch these detectives get their perps and live their lives. And, while Charlotte Ross is a major factor for my enjoyment of these last few seasons, I must admit that, although I am not gay, Mark-Paul Gosselaar is a good looking guy. He's got good attitude, chiseled looks, and a good on-screen presence.

Isn't it amazing how far a piece of food bounces away from you when you drop it on the carpet? You always expect to just reach down in the general vicinity of where it dropped and pick it up...the 5 second rule applies and it's all good. But no, it always bounces somewhere...under the coffe table, under the couch, wherever, and you spend 5 minutes...a tad more than 5 seconds...looking for it. Sometimes you never do find it.

I dropped a piece of a cracker.

Had a fun night last...saw The Incredibles. Good flick...on par with all the other Pixar/Disney collaborations. Then went to the casino. Managed to come out $0.25 up...it was good cause I managed to play (slots, blackjack, and royal ascot) for over 2 hours. Usually I lose my money within half an hour and that's it. Very fun, and the company was good too.

Went climbing today...I'm gettin back into it and am pretty much still at the skill level I was at back in August. I'm good for 2 or 3 climbs, and then my arms and hands start to get sore and weak. I volunteered on Thursday, so I got a couple days passes out of that. If I can volunteer a couple times a month, then I should be set for free climbing. It was good volunteering, there was a grade 9 class from Spencer school...they were good kids with lots of energy.

I've heard Blast by Pure a couple times on The Zone in the past week. Nothing wrong with that, it's just weird...Pure never really hit it big, and Blast is going all the way back to 1992. I'm glad they're playing 'em though...I love the Pure! I need to get Jordy Birch's solo album...it came out before I left for NZ. I don't know what has become of any of the members now.

Went to the corn maze on Blenkinsop Rd the other day. Pretty disappointing. It's not much of a maze...there's a big path right through the middle of it that leads to the payoff in the centre (this scale replica of the Sphynx and a pyramid). It didn't help that all the corn was dead and you could see through it all to where the paths were, but even if the corn were tall and thick I can't see it being a challenge. The "maze" has several exits, so it's hardly like you can get lost or stuck. It's basically something to wander through with no goal. It think it must have started as a good idea, but somewhere along the way they lost track of what they were doing. Not worth the $10 in my opinion. The sushi after the maze was quite excellent though.

So I'm signed up for NaNoWriMo...haven't started writing yet. Probably get started on the weekend. I need to write at least 50,000 words. I don't even think I have a good concept of how many that is, but when I think about it, that's like 10% of the amount of people that were at SarsStock with me. Strange comparing amounts of people with words.

Denis Leary, George Carlin, these guys are frickin' hilarious. But it's not just about the comedy, it's almost a philosophy. Philosophical comedians...they are the most brilliant. They make you laugh, and they make you think. I love it!

This Lazyboy guy with that "song" Underwear goes inside the pants. He sounds a little like Denis Leary, and here I am listening to Lock 'N Load and he has a bit about the kid at the 7-11 with his underwear outside his pants. Yet I looked up Lazyboy and it ain't Leary...it's some guy named Greg Giraldo...and he's just the vocal puppet, cause the brains of the entity that is Lazyboy are a couple of producers (Johnny Douglas and Soren Rasted). Weird.

I like that "song" by Lazyboy. It's intriguing. There's a lot of truths in it. I am not a pot smoker, and I'm generally oppposed to it, but I'm leaning towards the "legalise it" side of the argument surrounding it because, as Lazyboy says, it's a "natural plant that grows in the dirt". If people want to use it, it's their choice. And it's here to stay, so we may as well not fight it.

One more about Denis Leary...his new show, Rescue Me, it's quite good. I'm enjoying it.