That's Our Monkey!

"The whole fucking world's against us, dude, I swear to God." - Jay in Dogma

Okay, so I don't have a Silent Bob to justify the "us" part of the quote, but fuck me if I didn't think the whole world was caving in on me. It was a very good news/bad news kind of day for me yesterday.

Good news: it wasn't overly busy, so there wasn't much for stress...
Bad news: I was bored out of my freakin' mind, 'cuz I didn't bring my laptop with me.

Good news: I managed to take an hour or more for lunch...
Bad news: It was because my debit card didn't work and needed to rectify the problem for lunch. When I reported my credit card gone, I ordered a new debit card. I was told that my old one would work until I activated the new one... guess what. They cancelled my old one when they issued my new one and slipped it in the mail. It's embarrassing to be paying for my new SIM card and not having the debit payment going through.
Good news: since I only had $20 in cash, that's all I had to pay for my new SIM card... what a nice fella I was dealing with. It would have cost me $26.

Good news: I got out of work an hour early yesterday...
Bad news: I used the time to catch up on all my bills that I had to pay around town.
Good news: I did sort out my drivers license as well after work.

Good news: I did get in contact via text messages with Barbara yesterday... I did send her one saying that my phone was gone over the holiday and wasn't sure if she was trying to contact me or not...
Bad news: when I asked her if when she's getting any time off... she replied that she'll be working full for the next couple weeks and then she's back to school.

Well, I think that just about does it for the good news/bad news portion of this outing... but I think you get the picture.

Last night, I also rented Shaun of the Dead... man, that's a funny show. Also was down at the bar for the Canada/Switzerland junior game. That was quite good.

Today, brought the laptop in for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06... and after work, will be heading to the Saddledome to see the Flames take on the Wild. Got my Gaborik jersey on and everything for the occasion. Lee will be so impressed.

Anyways... I'm off for my first round of the day and a game of Tic-Tac-Toe with Sue... catch ya later!!

Can I See Some ID?

You know what I realized yesterday... I didn't carry any ID with me at all. Talk about mud on my face when buddy at Rogers Wireless asked to see my Drivers License when trying to purchase a new SIM card for my phone.

"Uhhhhh... I kinda lost that too."

So, with pie on my face... I walked out of the shop with my tail between my legs. I then realized... shit, I can't get my new Drivers License either. Dammit! So in essence, I accomplished nothing after leaving work yesterday. What a great feeling that is. Nevertheless, I brought my passport with me today and I will sort everything out at some point today. I think I'll get my SIM card at lunch and then go for my Drivers License after work.

On the brightside of things, I feel a little less depressed than I did yesterday. That surprises me, 'cuz I did get next to no sleep again last night. It was a sober evening, so when my head finally hit the pillow, my mind miraculously turned on back to hyper-drive. I think this now qualifies drinking as a way to get my head to sleep. It sucks that the evil of that is that I don't actually get to sleep until after 1am. Granted, I did look at the clock at about 1:30am in my disgust of lack of sleep.

Last night, I got around to watching the 40 Year Old Virgin. Yeah, it's pretty fair to say that was hilarious. I thought the supporting cast was actually much funnier than Steve Carrell himself... except for maybe the waxing scene. That will be a DVD to add to the collection when I get into the groove of buying them again. I'll probably end up renting something else tonight as well... either Wedding Crashers or Mr. & Mrs. Smith... neither of which I have seen yet and wouldn't mind a gander. I still have lots of catching up to do, movie-wise.

It looks like its gonna be another quiet day on the range. I don't think I'll see too many filings today and everyone else (except for Ernest) will be in the office today. Troy should be along any time now.

Tonight, I've gotta find myself a TV as well for tonight's World Junior game... Canada and Switzerland, I think. Damn, I wish I thought of that out the door... I would have grabbed my jersey on the way out the door, just in case I had to stop somewhere. I think I have to make it home anyways to say good-bye to Grandma, as she's flying back to Kelowna tonight. Crap, I hate conflict of scheduling.

Vancouver will also play host to the Canucks and Predators, which will come on right after the Junior game on TSN. It looks as though I might have to go to the Wildfire tonight. Woo hoo for more hockey!!

Well, I'm sorta dried up now... everyone is soon to be in, so I think I'll just surf away.

How Canadian Am I?

Pretty Canadian
You scored 90 Canada speak and 89 Canadianess!

You know a lot about us. You probably know someone who owns a Ski-Doo up at their cottage.


My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
You scored higher than 51% on Canada speak
You scored higher than 63% on Canadianess

Link: The Ultimate Canadian Test written by echox2 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

How About Some More Clicks?

Today, in my ULTRA-slow day at work... I thought I would do another referral-type post for all of my visitors who want to have a few more clicks on their page. I've got a few here and a few there, but I wouldn't mind a few more... and I'm sure that's a pretty fair trade, right?

First off... the Auto-Clickers. This is a great way to just show your page off to those who may catch a glimpse doing the same thing. Some of them even say they'll pay you at an exceptionally low rate just for your business. Meh... whatever works, right? On my buddy's computer... I started up my five favourite Auto-Clicker sites. This'll run all night and I'll earn credits just so people can stop by and see the logo. That's all I really want. Then maybe... just maybe... they might stop for a read. You never know. So onward with the list:

FortuneCookieHits.com - this one is probably my favourite. There's no fuss, no mess and the credits get used up right away. When you do your surfing, there's a pretty good chance that the credits will go within the next day or so.

Another quick credit-using Auto-Clicker is Clickism.com. The screen does like to be on top, but if you're not paying attention to it, that won't really matter. It is pretty good and it gets used by a lot of people, so quite a few people will see it.



Next on the list is WePaySurf.com. They're great 'cuz they give you a whack of credits just to start. No need for waiting to up your credit level. Plus, I look at my hit counter quite often and see that there are quite a few new people coming through this service.



The next couple are alright... but I don't really think too highly of them. They also give quite a few credits to start and their exchange is pretty decent. HonestyHits.com and SLBigHits.com are ones I keep on in the background... although they like to pop-up to be seen as well. Can you blame 'em??

So those are my Auto-Clickers... I'm gonna leave my buddy's computer on all night and see what the credit levels are gonna be like. Tee hee.

Manual Clickers...

Now, I'm sure most of you have come through BlogExplosion.com... so I won't talk about it quite as much. Yes, it's the best Blogging Community on the web... it gives ya tons of options for readership, games to be played and other Bloggers to chat with. If you haven't come from BE, then I suggest you check it out. Just go through my link above.

BlogSoldiers.com would have to be my next favourite. It has given me quite a few credits in my time there and I do enjoy going there from time to time. I don't surf it as much as I used to, but when I do, the content is generally quite good.

Blogazoo.com is also a very good exchange site. I use it as much as I do Soldiers, but it doesn't seem to give the same sort of bonus credits as Explosion or Soldiers. There is a hunt for Gazoo's, but thats pretty rare to find... just for 5 bonus credits. The content does change a bit through Blogazoo and I have a few referrals that surf quite often, so it can't be that bad.

Other manual clickers that I've been to are... BlogClicker.com and BlogXchange.us are also okay. Xchange moreso, but both will bring in genuine readers for the clicks that you do. I say go for it if you can.

Well, that'll conclude my shameless advertising spots... but hey, I'm just like you... I wanna get more people to my site... just so maybe one day, the right person will come along and give you tons of money to Blog for a living. C'mon... you know you've thought that to yourself too.

Stupid Partying

Self-destruction. I can feel the walls slowly giving way... I really have to stop the partying and be good again.

I did make it to work today... although I was almost 3 hours late. I chatted with Fred and he said he would have been a little more ticked if it wasn't as quiet as it is.

Last night, I was out with Jeff and Benny again... we ended up at the Roadhouse downtown... again. I did leave on my own steam... knowing full well, I'd have to show up at work today. I got a cab home, which was good... I was in at just after 2am, my target time for getting home. Got in, warmed up a mini-pizza (which I didn't eat), set my alarm and passed out.

I finally woke up just before 9:30am... I looked at my alarm clock, it was set. The little dot signalling that the alarm is on was on. I just slept through the radio. Fuck! I hopped out of bed... threw some clothes and a hat on and jumped out the door.

I couldn't really hammer it down, 'cuz well... I still don't have a license in hand. But I made it down anyways, got a cup of coffee and some Timbits and got into the office. There was only one news release to setup for tomorrow, 1 filing to prepare and 3 others to file from Friday. All in all, about 20 minutes worth of work.

Otherwise, I've just been sitting here trying to get my eyes to focus... I think the flourescent lights aren't helping me cope so well, I think I might go turn them off now.

Yeah, that's better. I opened the blinds behind me to let in some natural light... I think I can handle it now.

But gee whiz... I dunno whether I'm maturing or something, but the partying isn't quite making sense at the moment. I'm not ending up with any girls... which is both good & bad, I suppose... I'm really starting to regret some of these nights... see my birthday details... and well, I think it's just costing way too damn much.

I must re-iterate... the New Year's resolutions will be kicked into effect to get my ass back in gear. Laying off the ol' hooch will be good for me. I can't wait to see how long I can go. Then I can start casually enjoying myself again without being too stupid. I think Jeff wants to do something like it, hopefully he can stick to something like that. It'd be great to have a little help with this.

With the lack of drinking... I'll probably be able to afford a new camera, get my ass out of Langdon and do all those road trips that I really wanna do.

Anyways... less than 4 hours to go until home time. I'm hoping I can make it to a Rogers Wireless shop so I can get a new SIM card. That'll be super-handy if I can get my phone back in order. It's actually kind of good that I don't have it working at the moment. I feel a little more free without it. I have much doubt that I'll actually get my license sorted out today. It is Boxing Day's stat holiday today. Those sort of places will probably honour it, eh??

Gonna sign off for now... might be back on before the end of the day.

Another Christmas Gone

Well, going on 10pm... Xmas is pretty much put to bed for another year. Went and saw the boys, promised them their hockey game on Friday since I didn't manage to get the tickets quite yet... but I wanna take them for sure.

I wanted to be as low-key this year as humanly possible... and I think I pulled it off despite the family interest in the holiday. I do like to think of myself as an independant person and I dunno... if I want something, I want to depend on me to get it, rather than accepting it as a gift from someone else.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate when someone thinks of me to get me a present... but the social programming of guilt if one's present doesn't live up to one that is received does linger in my head. Plus, there is a real sense of guilt that I'm taking something from someone.

I try to think of myself as a decent person... there are instances and events that will limit the amount of praise I'd give myself in this situation, but I think I'm at least decent. Granted, I am assembling a list in my head of those who don't think I'm above creton... or asshole... but that's for me to know and well... me to know. I'm pretty good at knowing who doesn't like me... downright despises me... or just has a small chip on their shoulder that they name after me. People are fairly obvious that way. Hell, I am to people I don't really like... obvious, but not slap-you-in-the-face blunt.

This year, I was actually exceptionally good to the folks... I spent a good lump on their Shiatsu Massaging cushion for the la-z-boy in the living room. I wasn't supposed to... but when I saw it at Home Outfitters... it just sorta made sense for the both of them. They both complain about their backs and it wasn't something they'd actually ask for... so therefore, it was a thoughtful gift. I like those. I don't wanna pick from a list when choosing a present to buy. That's what I enjoy, if anything, about present buying.

Now this year... I was a lot less bah-humbug than I was the couple years previous. The two years in England... I tried my damndest not to celebrate Christmas. I moved out of Sue & Peter's house on my birthday to avoid it... mostly 'cuz of problems with them... and 2004... I was living at the Post Office with Mark, Tim & Stacy... everyone else was away doing there thing and I joyfully did laundry in the house by myself. Hell, I got to watch Citizen Kane out of the deal.

Honestly, I did sorta feel like a Grinch... even when the heart grew a size or two... when it came down ot the nitty-gritty of course. I didn't want to buy presents. I didn't want to receive presents. But, I buckled down and got a few things... and promised a few things. Luckily, I was rewarded with less than glamourous presents... a couple fleece shirts, a gift certificate, another button-up shirt... and socks. Lots of socks. Fantastic. Nothing extravagant... just easy. I couldn't be more pleased. When I move to my island though... there will be no such thing as Christmas. That's like the number one rule.

Now... I want to concentrate on the World Junior Hockey Tournament... work... and then bring on the Olympics. I don't know about girls at the moment. Valentine's Day is still the last day before chasing (full-on) again... and that target should be met with ease again. Barbara though, I will keep in contact when I get my new SIM card and such, since my Sony Ericsson is gone now... or so I am to assume.

There's something in me to be a bit better of a person than I was in 2005... but I really have to have the drive to do it. Can I? Possibly. Will I? That's another story. There's still a great part of me that would rather transplant myself from here to somewhere else... anywhere else... especially a desert island, to just start a new. Hit the reset button if you will. Granted, if I can gain people who don't like me, including family, in England... I don't really have a hope in hell anywhere else.

Is there a moral to this story... possibly. Don't fuck up with people... or don't burn any bridges... it'll always come back to bite you in the ass. Even guilt-wise.

Boxing Day tomorrow... don't think I'll be taking part in any of the sales... although I would really like to replace my camera, if at all possible. I wonder if I can get a good deal on a new phone.

Extra Rough With A Side Of Ouch!

There was going to be pictures for this post... but my camera. It is gone. Shit. I would have called to tell you... but my phone. It's gone too. Damn. Credit card. Yup, gone. Driver's License. That too.

In reaching my goals for getting wasted... I ended up losing pretty much everything, including reason. The only thing I didn't lose, thankfully... was my debit card. I have no idea how I ended up with that if I lost everything else... but I did. Man, was I ever blottoed.

I fully intended on getting super-drunk last night and feel like crap today... but I didn't really think I would be making cancellation calls for my phone and credit card. It's really kind of a downer.

Another thing that was odd... when the autopilot was turned off last night, I was standing at Heritage Station or one of the train stations down south. I didn't have a coat or anything, thankfully it was above zero last night. I managed to get on a train... and the next memory I had was arriving down at Chinook Station. Then... I was downtown wandering around pondering the 5 W's. I walked and walked... managed to get a hot chocolate at an Esso station and then grabbed a $60 cab ride home.

I don't know how I became alone that night... nor why I left Jeff & Benny. This is a terrible tale for any other night... it's surprising that it happened on my birthday.

I finally awoke at 1pm this afternoon... not feeling overly hungover in the head. Rather my gut has been churning for quite a while now. It's sorta stopped now... after dinner, anyways.

This sort of thing makes the need for cutting back the alcohol consumption all the more real. I think the resolution will hold tight pretty well. Come January 1, I will see how long I can go without drinking. Sort of quitting... but not really. Just a hiatus from the liquor cabinet. I wanna make sure I can go for a while again. I have explored this non-drinking thing before... I think I went two weeks the last time.

Anyways... tomorrow is Christmas. We'll probably head over to Chris & Dale's to see Grandma and boys as well. I didn't manage to get the tickets for the boys and myself yesterday... my credit card was maxed out because of my car insurance, so I couldn't get them online. I never made it down to a Ticketmaster outlet either. D'oh! No matter though... I should be able to get some tickets for cheap from Julie. She works around the 'dome anyways... so I will give her a call on Boxing Day or when I'm at work on Tuesday.

Have a good day tomorrow if you don't see another post saying so.

Twenty-Five

Yup... after a hard night... a soberingly busy morning at work... heading out to lunch and then that's it for the weekend.

Not a great deal of incentive to write more... but it should be a pretty good night tonight, I figure. I'm gonna head home after lunch and do the family do... go get my hugs and such and then out I go!!!!

Get in!!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

There I Am!!

I'm proud to announce that I did the commute to work in under 30 minutes today. I was blessed with a pretty open road to start and almost a muppet-free drive through the small part of the city. Starting at 6:47am and parked in front of the building at 7:13am... I was 4 minutes shy of the half hour mark and awfully damn proud of myself. It's certainly a benefit that I got up early enough to beat the morning rush... and it's also a benefit, 'cuz I get to Blog nice and early as well this morning.

Hey this morning, I'm gonna include a picture from Google Earth... yeah, I finally downloaded it on the work computer. It's so much faster than my laptop, so it works a little bit better. It's such a great tool. I can see where I work on there... I've even got a little marker picking out where I'm sitting RIGHT NOW!! Wanna see where I am in relation to the country?? Okay then...



The marker looks a little small... but that's where I am sitting RIGHT NOW!! Cool, eh? Oh the glorious things that technology can do these days, eh?? I love it. Just so you know... it's the blurry yellow dot... that's where I am. Calgary. Yup. Right there.

You know, I have to go make a pot of coffee... I'm currently empty in the ol' Travel Mug at the moment... bare with me a nanosecond.

Geez, what took you so long?? All I did was go and make a pot of coffee... and you decided to take your time to get to the next paragraph, eh?? Oh sure... it's easy for ME TO SAY. I'm the one who's writing, you say... well... I guess that is true.

Anyhoo...

Sadly, I think it's time to give up the ol' McDonald's Breakfasts again. Well, actually eggs in general. I have a feeling with the re-inclusion of those tasty little treats, that my skin is taking pimple beating again because of them. So, I guess I'm gonna have to quit again. Technically, I am somewhat allergic to them... and probably breakouts are one of my "reactions" to it. That is actually true for my milk allergy... breakouts and fatigue are my reactions to that. It's gonna be a tough sell over the holidays, for sure... but I think I'll manage. I had quit drinking Egg Nog (reluctantly) quite a while ago... but the temptation will be very great.

Can our hero overcome this temptation?? The bookies are calling a 3/1 that he won't. I don't know which bookies... but that's what they're saying.

Whoa... I just got caught up with that Google Earth... sort of lapsed through some time in writing this piece. Okay... moving on.

Last night, Grandma arrived at the house. She had somewhat of a late flight in and didn't arrive in Langdon until after 10pm. Got in a nice visit with her before heading to bed. I'm hoping to catch her again before going out tonight.

Tonight, it should be the start of the messy holiday season. Goin' down to the Riverbend Station... get home first, drop the car off, hopefully a quick visit with Grandma, meet up with Benny and head down to the Station. There I will try and meet up with Randy (Gout) and Kelly for a holiday bevvy. So, that'll be good. Then about 9pm-ish... some of the crew from the Wildfire will be down. Greg wants to put together a Street Hockey tournament at the bar and wants me to help out to organize it. Sounds like fun.

That's my plan for tonight. Tomorrow is my birthday... I'm hoping that it'll just be a gong show as well tomorrow as I have a feeling tonight is gonna be one too. Woo hoo!!

Anyways... I think it's time to start up ol' Tiger Woods and get my first round of the day in. I got quite a few rounds in yesterday and only one after a small drink session at the pub last night.

Man, do I love strong coffee!!

Great Text

You know, this whole not chasing thing is really good. I'm not bragging... I'm just saying. In all, what I'm saying is that if I was chasing, I wouldn't have such a good reaction to not chasing as if I was to be chasing.

I got a text message, unclear of whether it was from tonight or last night... it was bundled in between some late-arriving texts that were in that time frame. Nevertheless, I got them all tonight... 1 from Barb and 2 from Jeff... one definitely from tonight. Nevertheless...

So, I had left a voice mail for Barb on the weekend, saying that I'd probably be out... blah, blah, blah... would like to see you when I can. That's all well and good... I don't want to be harsh, 'cuz I know what her schedule is like and I'd be surprised if she found the time. I left the messages more for her to know that she's still in the loop and that I'm still thinkin' about her... without saying exactly that. Despite the lack of games I like to play, there is still an "acceptable" way of going about these things.

So, tonight... a big shock for me as three texts come in from the same time (as per explained earlier) and to my surprise that, yes, one was from Barb. It was quite nice and still leaves a nice feeling that:

"Hey, just letting u know im alive and not purposely ignoring u. Just really busy."

And you know, my personal read of her says that, yes, this is true. Yes, I did know her schedule before hand... yes, I have explained this before... and yes, I don't really mind. Man, if I minded it would be a much different story here than it is now.

I'll go on record right now... a few beers in, but more honest than stupid... is that I do like this girl. Barb is a genuine, uber-cute girl... she's quite intelligent... she likes to party... and in my head, she just fits. I don't know... I would hate to think that there's a girl (from this standpoint) that fits better than her. It's truly unfortunate that she is in the food/drink service industry... more for the hours than anything else... but you know... I would like to keep this good feeling about her by staying away from chasing. Which, I intend to keep up.

Just for clarification... contacting is not chasing... it's a civil thing to do. Sure, I'd like her to come out, but I think if I was "chasing," I would guilt her into coming out into situations that aren't overly necessary. Sure, I would have enjoyed her company out in town, but... am I gonna chase her until she does... no. I have way too much respect for her and the work she does to do that sort of shit. I am well-prepared to say, 'when you're ready... I'll be here.'

Patience, patience, patience.

Actually, a tough thing to say when I could use the company around now. But it's for the greater good... and the greater good there is better than the stressful good now. Silver lining, m'friends... silver lining.

Update on My Song of 2005

Alright... as suggested I would do yesterday, but only remembering late and putting off until today, I am going to revise and update my Favourite Song of the Year list. I still hadn't found my favourite songs of 2001 & 2002... so I hope that I can find them online today. I just have to remember what songs came out in each year.

So, if I become a tad disjointed in writing this piece, it's only 'cuz I'm doing a few things at once for this post.

So, let's go over this year's nominees for the Favourite Song of the Year. Please notice how I'm not saying "Best Song," because this is MY favourite song, not everyone's... how am I to know what everyone thinks?? I barely figure out what I think half of the time.

"Other Side of the World" by KT Tunstall
"Half Light" by Athlete
"Take, Take, Take" by the White Stripes revised from original Get Behind Me Satan tracks
"Neighbourhood #3: Power Out" by the Arcade Fire revised from the double selection from Funeral
"Positive Tension" by Bloc Party
"You Are A Runner And I'm My Father's Son" by Wolf Parade new entry
"Walk Away" by Franz Ferdinand new entry

For most of these songs, they hold a lot of meaning with leaving England and all my friends... others are good stories... and most of them are ones I absolutely love to sing to myself. If you haven't listened to any of these songs, I really recommend them. Heck, if you sent me an e-mail, I might be able to hook you up with one or two of them.

Previous Winners List:
1996: Lightning Crashes by Live
1997: Building A Mystery by Sarah McLachlan
1998: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls
1999: The Future is X-Rated by the Matthew Good Band
2000: Stand Inside Your Love by the Smashing Pumpkins
2001: The Space Between by the Dave Matthews Band
2002: A Beautiful Thing by the Tragically Hip
2003: Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes
2004: Chicken Payback by the Bees

Hey!! I did it... I found them. Man, I'll tell ya... I don't know how I missed those tunes (highlighted in RED), but somehow I did. The Space Between is such a compelling song... it hits all the right visual metaphors when you're reluctantly slipping away with you lady. A Beautiful Thing is somewhat inspirational to me to just be there for whomever needs you the most.

Today's Obsession

Well, after skipping the 2005 version of the game, I have gone out and bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 06. Jeff and Benny have also picked up the game, so we can play some network golf as well. That may keep us inside instead of in the pub a little more often.

Since it's been dead in the office all day today, I've pretty much had the game on all day. It's worked out considerably well. I'm sort of playing catch-up, since Jeff has had the game for about a week now and had made it quite far already.

I've been so busy with this game that I haven't really been able to think about posting anything here on the Blog today. Granted, there isn't a great deal going on at the moment. I do have to make it up to the insurance office where I've got the insurance on my car. Apparently, my credit card didn't work for them when they tried to put the payment of the whole year through on it. Which I thought was quite odd, because I have done my best to keep the card as clean as possible. Won't that go to hell when I go Xmas shopping, eh??

Speaking of which... there's still some Xmas shopping to be done. I think I might try and hit the mall on the way home tonight. I think that would be best for me. I can hit both the insurance broker and the the mall as they're pretty close together. I can't really think of anything that I could get for Mom and Dad... I think Tegan only bought small things for them, as we had agreed. I think I might hit one of the electronic shops for Dad... he likes his gadgets these days and for Mom.... hmmmmm... that's a good question. Since Grandma is gonna be about this Xmas, I will pick her up something as well. And for the boys, I will get them tickets to the Rockets/Hitmen game as I'll get one for myself and take them to the game. I will probably grab enough tickets so I can take Dad and Uncle Dale with us as well. That would make for a good day out. It's on December 30th... so it'd be soon too.

The lack of chasing girls the past little while has done well for the old psyche of late. I have tried to contact Barbara and stuff, but I haven't necessarily been chasing her down. More just friendly phone messages, as I still can't seem to get her on the phone herself. But I haven't left any messages since Friday or Saturday. I don't think I really will plan to contact her, although if I was out for my birthday on Friday in town, that would be good if she'd come out. But I might just get ripped with the lads instead and see what happens.

Well, I think I'm gonna have to give some shout outs in the BlogExplosion world... the Rent My Blog system has done wonders. It's starting to become a great tool... for new clicks, readers and advertising partners. The Blog, Tomorrow Could Be Better wrote a nice little blurb for me as she's hosting my logo for a week... it would be rude of me not to give her a link back for the time being. Boy, there's already 17 clicks from her already... and it's only been a couple days. Her spot will definitely be worth the 30 credits it cost. Just recently, Did You Know? came up and gave me 65 clicks (38 unique) for 35 credits. Now, that's what I call value. Thanks to these Blogs for bringing the readers!! And welcome to all those who come from the Rent My Blog spaces. Please leave a message and let me know which site you came from.

Anyways... Ernest has gone... and so will I. Woo hoo!

Sketchy At Best

Sigh... not a lot goin' on today. I got what I needed to do done today, which is important, of course.

Just put the Bees on the MP3 player... gotta keep the pace of the afternoon goin' with only a couple more hours to go in the day.

I managed to update the hockey pool too today. How exciting. The Sherpa's Yaks aren't doin' quite so well of late... still riding the injury train down.

Anything else exciting, you ask?? Ummm... the floor hockey game at 6:30pm... that'll be good. I might have to look into some more padding to play with those goons, but I might stick it out with the lack of hockey pants... it's pretty rare for me to get one in the legs there anyways.

I have yet to make any more resolution additions to my previous list. I think what I have should suffice for the entire year. The diet resolutions are still years away.

I should be making some additions to my top song of the year competition. There are some additions that need to be made for candidates. Maybe I will re-visit that tomorrow if the work is slow again. For a reminder of where I left it... here ya go.

Be sure to visit Rick Mercer's Blog site this week and sign his Beer Not Kids petition... read the Blog first to know what's goin' on. Beer. Beer. Beer.

I think I'll leave it at that today.

Long Time, No Write

Gee whiz... would you believe that I haven't updated this in like 3 days? Crikey.

It's been a tad busy, between the drinkin' and socializin'... nothing really major to kind of write about. It has been a little bit of a loss for writing inspiration of late.

Friday, I made it out of work a little bit early to go meet Benny & Jeff down at Chinook. From there, we dolled Benny up and headed into the downtown core. Stops at Fuel and the Mynt Bar in town got us really, really drunk. We met up with Jay at Fuel and kind of went from there. Man, did we ever get trashed. It was a pretty good night. For some reason though, I ended up splitting from the group and calling up Julie at 1:30am... eventually crashing over at her place for the night. Still have yet to figure out why... 'cuz I don't really remember... nor do the lads. You know it was a good night when...

Last night... met Benny at his place, we had to go into town to retrieve our jackets from the Mynt Bar, since we had drunkenly left them there. Then we went down to the Black Swan to meet Jeff there after he was finished his Xmas party for work. That wasn't quite as fun as before... the place was pretty busy, but it just wasn't a great party atmosphere. We decided at around midnight that it wasn't quite the place to be... so we headed back to Langdon and into the Wildfire. A few more there, but it wasn't a heavy one as it was on Friday.

Today... been a bit of a quiet one. I did some errands out and about in Strathmore and Calgary... went to go pick up a parcel that Tegan sent home. But really... it's been pretty lazy of a day. Watched some football and been occasionally stopping in on Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, as Pa is watching it upstairs.

For some reason, my phone doesn't like to receive text messages still. As I was sitting upstairs, I received 4 text messages that would have come during the week and weekend. Two were from Barbara and the others were from Benny. I'm wondering what I could possibly do to get my texts working properly. Here, I was thinking that Barbara was ignoring my text messages... but again, I should really know better. I think I'll just give her a call after I finish writing this passage... just to see whats happening. Probably end up just leaving her a message, as I'm pretty bad at catching her by her phone. I wouldn't mind trying to get her out while we're out partying next week.

By the sounds of things, this next week should be fairly busy again. Monday: Floor hockey with Brydon and Trevor... starting much earlier, something like 6:30pm or something. That'll be good. Tuesday: probably will need Tuesday night for some shopping of some sorts. Wanna get some Xmas presents for the folks and the boys. Wednesday: finish whatever I don't get done. Thursday: Greg said that a big group of them are goin' down to the Riverbend Station for a pretty good one to tie on. Friday: Birthday night... let the weekend begin! That's about all I got so far...

I'm working all week... Friday we're done at 3:30pm... so that'll also be helpful. There's only one big project to do this week... I've done most of the hard stuff, Troy is still working on bits and pieces of it and then we'll be expecting the other half tomorrow or Tuesday. We wanna get this one done before the weekend, which shouldn't be too much of a problem. I still have a few bits and bobs to finish up on my original document I was working on, that'll be my first priority tomorrow morning, I believe.

Other honourable mention for the weekend... I finally found another pair of sunglasses with orange lenses. Woo hoo!! Another pair of Nikes for me... and I had to be bloody drunk to pay the $180 I did for them. Ah well... they were helpful over the last couple days, as the sun has been out on the cooler, clear days.

Right... dinner is ready. I best be off. Until tomorrow.

too Tired To Write Too Much

Man, is it Friday yet?? I wouldn't have minded getting up as much if today was Friday. It was surprisingly tough to get up this morning, despite having a few (or six) beers last night and getting to bed before midnight. I would have thought my immediate departure for Dreamland would have made for a more refreshed morning than it was.

No matter... I'm here and I'm nourished after a couple Breakfast Burritos from McCrap. They aren't bad... they're certainly not as dry as the McMuffin sandwiches and they get salsa too. Nothing like a good fiesta of flavour first thing in the morning.

Could be another slow day at the office... which is good. It'll save my energy for floor hockey tonight. I'm gonna have to fill in the gaps of time before hockey though and I'll toy with a couple of my options throughout the day.

Anyways... maybe I'll come back when I'm a little less tired. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

Issues and How To Make Friends

Now, me knowing myself... I don't think exceptionally high of myself. Self-confidence is something I didn't invest in too much at an early age. Granted, at an early age self-confidence came at a pretty steep price and being the Sesame Street kid that I was, I certainly wasn't willing to pay that price then.

Let's not make any comparisons between then and now, shall we?

Anyways... things that I have learned in my time as a functioning (semi-functioning at times) human being tells me that principles are good things to stand by. Not only stand by, but live by. If you have principles, no one can possibly knock you down from certain platforms of thought. So I've taken this and made principles for myself. Things that I hold true to myself and if I'm ever caught letting go of said principles... it would seriously make me consider what the fuck I'm doin' here in the first place. And for my normal readers, we all know how much I think... be it day or night.

If there was one principle that I truly set myself by, which sort of came up tonight (but not to a great extent) is that if you're my friend... you can trust me. You can tell me anything and you can trust me with it. The Golden Rule stands (and should be the first principle I mention, but it isn't). If I said something to a friend in confidence, allow me to highlight in confidence, then I expect it to be in confidence. I would have confidence in the fact that said person wouldn't say what I said to them to the wrong channels. I concede the idea that even my best of friends are gonna chat a little... and maybe said issue would be a burning topic... but I would have confidence in them that they would say something that they'd have (or we'd share confidence in) so the wrong channels would not be informed of said conversation.

I believe in that wholly and completely, 'cuz I look at the consequences... and if there wasn't enough sitcoms on TV to teach consequences that when your friend comes back and says "So & so said that this person said that you said that I enjoy that sort of thing," it tracks back to you and you look like an ultimate prick, dick, asshole or any other vulgar useage of the English language you prefer. That doesn't sit well with me... geez, I have an uncomfortable feeling when the boss asks me if I went for lunch or not. Not all the time, but some times.

Now, I consider a few people my friends... and I would like to think that someday that some of these people can have the trust in me to make me a better friend. You never know, I might choose to dispel my troubles to them before I Blog it to the entire world one day and I might need one of these people to help me out. I would like to know that they trust in me the way I'd love to trust in them.

On the flip side of the coin, however... it is possible that a person that I don't like (which I probably have given signs of dislike to, but they're too dumb to figure it out) tells me a secret or two, which I would be a privvy to divulging to people of a "don't-need-to-know-basis," but even that's rare. It has sprung in front of me a couple times and to be fair, I think I've only spilled any beans if only when asked. I'm not an out and out gossiper... its not my thing. It's something I can't really stand.

I only really brought this up, 'cuz of a social situation tonight... one friend is having troubles and tells another friend without knowing that I was sitting there half-listening to the conversation... but nothing was divulged as a good friend would do. Trust certainly has to be earned these days, and I have a lot of respect for people who make you earn it. It means there is some principles in play... who am I to argue?

Back to Hump Day

A stupid white Buick or Cadillac stopped me from my under 30-minute drive to work... instead, I arrived right on 30 minutes. Argh. I think of it as the 3-minute mile... only much less fanfare. Traffic on the Number 1 was moving at a brisk pace, except around the normal spots (at 84th Street & 68th Street intersections)... Barlow was as empty as per normal and I made all the lights except for the turn onto 32nd Ave... but I didn't have to wait very long. Cars moved out of my way on 32nd... the lights stayed green all the way down, turned onto 12th Street... and there he was. Dogging it all the way down the road... but at the time, thought... no problem... maybe a good thing. Sure enough, it probably was... as we passed by a cop car or two in front of the cafe... but then he decided to make the same last turn as me!! Nooooooo!! By that time... too many seconds had melted off to be too aggressive and sure enough, when I powered down the car... I was already on the 30 minute mark. Ah well... there's always tomorrow.

This morning's music selection was the album "Young For Eternity" by the Subways. I picked it off of iTunes last night when I was just shopping around for some more tunes. That's some really good driving music. There were a few pretty good tracks on there... it'll be an in-car favourite in no time.

"Be my... be my... be my little rock n' roll queen..."

I finally found out my text messaging problem with my phone last night. Or at some point yesterday. When I actually save a number on the phone, I should always include the area code in front of the number. Just entering the 7-digit number in when you save it initially doesn't seem to work at all. So, I wrote down the important numbers that I wanted to save again and re-saved them for texting purposes.

A slight and small admission... once I had found out the secret power of texting again... I did send a small and friendly text to Barbara... you know, to see if my theory stands up, 'cuz I couldn't text her before. Sure enough, it went through okay. I'm not really holding my breath with my text... I only really said, if she had some free time over the next little while, that I'd enjoy seeing her again. That was it... nice & light. That was nice & light, right?

Canucks 3 - Rangers 2. Result! That's exactly what we need... and then tomorrow, the Flyers host the boys. To be honest, I've been talking a lot of smack about Matt Cooke... I wouldn't mind him and his somewhat oversized contract to leave Vancouver for a quality defenseman... but his first game back makes me consider otherwise... for a while. I guess he can stay on the "what have you done for me lately?" clause... but my keen eye is watching. There is a slight concern for my Canucks in their lack of consistent scoring and/or consistent defense. The answer may in fact lie with a trade including Todd Bertuzzi. Don't get me wrong... I love Bert and will defend him to the death... but for the team... his giant salary and lack of dominance does sort of rub me the wrong way, especially for a team that now has lost their number 1 goalie... the Canucks need to strike fear in the hearts of the NHL, instead of just being a "pretty good team." TSN.ca's column of rumours and news, Backchecking, suggests Bertuzzi going to Florida for Nathan Horton and Mike Van Ryn... I've gotta say... I kinda like that deal. Granted, throw Matt Cooke in there for like, Stephen Weiss... and you've got yourselves a deal! Man, I should really send my resume into the Canucks organization... I could do that job. No problem.

Wednesday today... a couple small filings for Troy have arrived... maybe I'll get them done before it's too late. That way, he can continue to help me with my big filing. Then again...

That poor Troy though... he's really becoming the old addage, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Although he's only 30... I'm finding it difficult to even teach him the basics continuity... and then he's wondering why he gets all confused when he can't find files or doesn't understand why things don't work.

I've never really been one to be a "babysitter," per say... so, I do find it increasingly difficult to watch over him. He's a more logical thinker than Meathead was... 'cuz Meathead barely thought at all... but being aged seems to give him the idea that he knows more about "basic logic" than me... and he's the one having trouble.

Me: It's really important to name your files according to what they are... that way other people if they need to, they can see what you're doing.
Troy: Uh-huh... uh-huh.

Day or two later...
Troy: Clayton, I know I've asked you this before... and it's probably an easy fix that you'll just come over here and do, but...
(I slide my chair over to his desk, he flips screens and explains a bit)
Me: Yeah, I can see your problem right away... you didn't name your file properly, either here or in your hyperlink. (Enter repetitive speech about HTML coding here)

Once Lee has driven Troy outta the office... I will definitely let Fred know that he'll have to look beyond the first person he sees with a resume before hiring again. Some HTML experience necessary... moderate users recommended. Any bloggers in Calgary need a job?? Will have to see Blog site before interview... just for coding, not actual content.

Geez... its amazing we're already 2 weeks into December... where has the time gone? Ah well... only a week and a bit until the 4-day holiday booze-up. Maybe I should save the ol' liver until then. Possibly. I don't have any more pending events until the 23rd... maybe, I should. Maybe I should.

Oh well.. time to clock in for actual work. I'll think about that non-drinking idea.

Gilly...

Attention... DJ Gilly... Twisters needs some New Pornographers... get as much of them as you possibly can. Very much like the Bees, but a bigger sounds and a more produced sound. You'll love 'em!!

My Feet! My Feet!

Again, I found 6am came a tad too early this morning... and not for the usual reasons either. Last night's game of floor hockey with Brydon and Trevor's crew was an hour of pretty decent continuous action. It was great. But seeing as though it was on a Monday, the ol' frame wasn't quite ready for it and it suffered badly through general usage of the muscles. Man, my feet were the worst. I don't know if it was the softer floor, but when I was lying in bed, it felt like I was standing on them all day and finally got off of them to feel them throb. It just didn't feel quite right. So in all this uncomfortable-ness... it was pretty hard to get myself to sleep last night.

Anyhoo... yesterday was a pretty good day. Ernest and Fred brought me into Ernest's office for a chat. They informed me that my 3 months were already up... which means automatic raise AND they want to make me EDGAR "Team Leader" which includes another raise after that. Hooray!!

"You like me... you really like me."

That's pretty exciting, eh? I'll be back on my feet in no time. Come the NewYear, I should be on my way to looking for a new place to live and to house the mates comin' from across the pond next year. Hooray!

Hmmmm... what else is new? Well, I think I'm gonna go RAM shopping for my laptop pretty soon. Jeff wants to get goin' with playin' Doom 3 all the time and well, I can't say that I blame him at all. He wants to stay away from the Wildfire for a while... political issues... and well, I wouldn't mind saving the money. A case of beer and some Doom can make for some pretty entertaining nights, I'd imagine. So, I'm gonna try and price out a gigabyte of RAM for my VAIO and see where that gets me.

In other Blogging news, I've got my logo up on the Shitty Blogs Club... now, let's see how shitty I really am. And welcome to all of those who are here to find out.

Tonight... I reckon I don't think I'll be making it to badminton with Rob & Michelle... I have an odd feeling that I won't get the call to go. Just call it a hunch...

That won't be so bad actually... although, it'd be really good just to get out and about. I really gotta think about finding a racket as well.

And I think that's just about it for me this morning... got a few small filings to sift through this morning... and then the lads should be here for me to pester.

Resolute Absolute

Good morning Mondayers... a balmy zero degrees this morning in Calgary, didn't really even need to warm up the car too much. Woo hoo!!

This morning, I've been trying to buy rental space for this Blog across the Blogosphere... try and get the logo out there a little bit more. Maybe I should be advertising the "get a Sherpa in your picture" campaign again. That worked kinda well, right?? It's really just the time factor of it all... I should maybe write that into my "resolutions" for the New Year.

Last night, I was chatting with Louise... got onto the conversation of me actually writing up resolutions for 2006... posting them on here and then sort of sticking to them through writing on the Tales. I'm thinking I should start prepping them up for a January 1, 2006 implementation date. I've only got less than 3 weeks until the day dawns on me... so, I should get crackin' really. I believe that I can trust you guys to keep me on the straight and narrow.

1. After the hangover on New Year's Day... count the number days I can go without having another drink. Not to quit drinking entirely, but just to give me reasonable cause to see if I can stop for a while.
2. Play more sports during the week. I am going to try to do this before the New Year, with getting into Badminton with Rob and Michelle... but more floor hockey until ball season, where I'd like to be playing two to three times a week. Playing something at least.
3. Road trips. I would love to take a week this year and do a great road trip. I would love to do the drive out east, 'cuz I've never really been. I have a strong desire to make it out to Ontario to go visit some friends and people I've never truly met before... go see Mel in Wawa and Mark in Sault Ste. Marie... with stops in Regina & Winnipeg, just to say I've been. How cool would that be?
4. Get myself sorted out again in Calgary... as much as I like Langdon and all... I'm still out living with my folks. Gonna have to get my own place again... get back to what I was doing before. Then I can start hosting my own parties.

Those are four pretty solid resolutions to get myself sorted. If I think of any more, I'll be sure to write them down. If you've been here a few times before, you should maybe make some recommendations to me for more resolutions... an outside opinion can go a long ways. Hell, just make good use of the comment section on the page.

I'm thinking that if I am going to be immersed (somewhat involuntarily) in the Xmas culture this year, I better get myself into a festive attitude. Yes, yes... I know, Rum and Egg Nog and it's just that easy... its a shame that the Egg Nog will knock me out or else I'd be all over that. Oh how I miss Egg Nog from the holiday diet. Actually, what I'm getting at is that the holiday season is supposed to be rather joyful and happy and all that pizzazz... so, in order to remain jolly... I am shutting down the girl-chasing for the holidays, possibly past Valentine's Day. It's a very daunting task, but I think it can be done. I will only drink to laugh and be merry... try and turn off the attract-o-meter and try and behave myself.

I had found myself getting all too wrapped up with the girls of the past few weeks... so, I'm saying 'fuck it.' I don't really feel like putting myself out there and getting turned down through the holidays... so, I have put my chasing shoes away for the season. Not to say I won't accept being chased... shit, if Barbara or any of them for that matter decides to call me, it's sort of in my best interest to agree to that sort of thing... hey, gotta give credit where credit is due.

Let's see how long that plan lasts, eh??

Hey all... please don't forget to visit Mark on the Rent My Blog section... or all the time for that matter. That way you can send your picture of you doin' your best Hans Solo for Mark's Hohmannite experiment. It's Sherpa Approved!!

Well, it's almost time to get back to my giant filing project. I think I'll Photoshop a little bit of the front cover... it's not that I'm actually telling you what I'm doin', since I'm not really allowed, but it also gives me a graphic for today's post. Yup. It's a lightbulb. You can just feel it's efficiency, can't you?

Whattya mean, you can't? Hmmmm... that's a shame.

Tonight, I got a game of Floor Hockey to go to with Brydon and Trevor down around Heritage. These guys play league games, so I'm getting somewhat of a tryout in net... if I get there early enough that is. I'm thinkin' if I play as well as I did on Thursday, I think I've got a pretty good shot at making a team and therefore enhancing my chances of achieving resolution number two.

Today, I'll also have to do a lot of work to the hockey pool for updating purposes. I didn't do any of my Waiver Draft posting, nor did I do any stats... so that's a job for today as well. There really isn't a great deal on the plate today, so Troy will be kept as busy as possible... maybe even pass Lee a filing or something... you know, if one comes in.

More plans for the week... Tuesday, try to get out for Badminton after work. Might have to go find myself another racket, I wonder what they're worth here. Hey Baz... do you remember our wicket rackets we had playing behind the Jones' house. Mmmmm... carbon fibre. Wednesday... probably gonna be a movie day. I fancy finding the Fantastic Four flick and drooling over Jessica Alba for 90 minutes. Thursday... more floor hockey and meeting up with Julie as she will be finished her exams for the year and wants to get really drunk. And that's about all I have at the moment. Hey... if you've got any good ideas... leave a comment or call me. I've always got my phone on me!!

Now, get to work, slacker!!

Go Away... No... Stay!

Harrrumph. That's just the way I'm feelin' at the moment.

I feel like I should be doin' somethin'... but I don't really have the energy to do anything. Jeff is headin' down to the Wildfire for a bit tonight, but I don't really fancy the bar. I don't really fancy watching Lord of the Rings with the folks at the moment. I wouldn't mind goin' to see if there are any copies of Fantastic Four at the shop to rent... I wouldn't mind sitting down and watching that tonight. Hmmmm... maybe after a bite to eat, I'll consider heading over there. I should get out anyways, I left my CDs that I keep in my car at Jeff's... I took them inside to play the Franz Ferdinand album.

Last night was okay... for a sausage party. Did get fairly drunk last night... half a 1L of vodka and a half case of Mountain Dew Energy... it did go down a treat. Shame that the Flames won though... and its a shame I didn't get any frickin' points for the hockey pool in that game.

Yesterday also saw the waiver draft for the hockey pool... that went over quite well. Each team had the opportunity to swap their injured or poorly players. Had a few drinks at the bar and then was off to Jeffs for the Flames/Sens game. Pretty good night... good laughs. Was sort of expecting more people... including some girls, JEFF!



Today... just a fairly lazy day. Had to go get my car nice and early from Jeff's place... that was a treat. Okay, it was 11am... so it wasn't too early... but I didn't really wanna get up today.

I helped Pa with the water filter system today... he was changing all the filtering sand in it. That was a fun little job. And that was pretty much that for accomplishments in the day. Oh no, that's not true... I did install Doom 3, which I bought yesterday for some network play. It turns out, I may need a bit more RAM in the laptop to make sure that runs a lot smoother. It wasn't very smooth at all.

The new band of the moment... Wolf Parade. You should really check 'em out... especially if you're finding yourself more and more into the Arcade Fire and other similar bands. I downloaded the album off of iTunes the other day and I will be keepin' that one in the car for a while, me thinks.

I'm wondering what tomorrow holds for work... probably gonna be kinda slow. That'll be alright. I'll bring the laptop with me and see what kind of work I can do on the hockey pool. I should be posting the Waiver Draft results tonight... but I'm feelin' kinda lazy to do that. It is still early though... you just never know. I think I will check for the Fantastic Four in a little bit though... and then give Jeff a call to see if I can get my CDs back. I'd hate to think I wouldn't have them in the car for the commute and all.

Plus 14

You wouldn't believe it, if I just told ya... but yes, I was in shorts and a t-shirt today. Hell, I'm still wearing it... but it is getting a tad chilly in the basement of the house.

What an absolutely stellar day... it's a shame I so tired or else I'd be out there still havin' a hoot. Ah well... I'll publish a little bit more about the weekend later. I don't really fancy it now... I just wanted to post the picture.

Drunken Posting Is Fun

As per the title... drunken posting IS fun. Actually, whats even more fun is reading what you had written only eight hours before and wondering if that was really yourself writing all that shit down and not using spell check. Ha.

I'm sorta disappointed this morning... neither one of the folks woke me up to help Mom out setting up at one of the local craft fairs this morning. Setup was at like 10:30am... and its only just 11am... and I would have been alright with it, 'cuz I'm pretty well "fresh as a daisy" this morning.

Today... I've got to sort out all the hockey pool stats and waiver draft lists and such. I think there's also the job of changing the sand in the water filter sometime this weekend. That will also be fun. And quite possibly a trip into town with the boys tonight.

There's a pretty good chance that someone here will be getting super-drunk again tonight. Woo hoo... I'm the only one here at the moment... so it's gotta be me. I really wouldn't mind heading into town, then I'd leave Barbara a voice mail message saying to come find me where ever I would be at that moment after she finishes work. Here's hopin'.

Welcome to Saturday.

Friday Night... Until Now...

Oh my goodness... the line between cool and weird was crossed to no end tonight. I had the consideration of calling Barbara to say she should come and party with me in Langdon were properly avoided.

I called Jeff to see what the party was gonna be like... and absymal it was gonna be.

Once i had gotten home, I gave both Benny and Jeff a call and the plan was gonna be meet at Jeff's to see what we'd do from there. Well, Jeff and I tried our damndest to sort out our local text messaging probelem with our wireless network provider... he with Telus and me with Rogers... but we couldn't do anything about the poor service we received.

Nevertheless, myself, Jeff and Jay met Benny and his roomates down at the pub for more than a few... more even before it began to be more weird than normal at Benny's place (without Benny).

I left once Jeff climbed into the hot tub sans outfit with one of the fruitiest kids of the neighbourhood... it wasn't gonna go well from there, I could imagine.
Anyhoo... still really drunk. Just got finished chattin' with early mornin' England.

Good World Cup groupin'... wear my St. George with pride!

Sober As... As... As???

Hey!! It's Friday morning and I'm as sober as... as... have you ever noticed that everyone is now drunk?? I can't even make that comparison anymore. C'mon... you don't think Judge Ito wasn't wasted through the OJ trial?? Or how 'bout the judge through the Jacko trial?? They were drinking just to get through the press junket every morning. So yes, this morning, I am sober.

I'm expecting a pretty 'lax day at work today... gotta project on the go at the moment, which I'll probably continue to work on. It's a really good replication job from Word to HTML which is turning out quite well actually... and it'll be a big selling point if I can get this thing to look as good as it does on the screen. Maybe once it's actually disseminated, I'll link up to it and say... yes, this is mine!!

Yesterday was quite good in the office. I got Lee to help Troy and I out with a few of the simple ones, so I don't have to worry about them today... except for filing them this morning. Troy is coming along alright here with the job... don't know if he's really quite sitting well with Lee and I. I think we've found each other gangin' up on him a bit. Nothing terrible like Meathead... but Troy's comment that Gord Downie (of the Tragically Hip fame, for those foreign visitors) can't sing didn't sit well with the Stapler and I... and we found ourselves a tad hostile towards those comments. So... he's got a ways to go bridge that gap. Being a Detroit Red Wings fan doesn't help either.

Last night after work, I did end up calling Amber and we met at a Second Cup coffee place behind Sunridge Mall. We sat down and I let her talk for pretty much the entire hour. She was telling me all about the some of the people from Rutland Senior Secondary that she still saw or heard about. And then she went on about her teaching up in the Northeast of Calgary. She's teaching Grades 7, 8 & 9 at one of the middle schools here in town. I'll be damned if I can remember the name of the school, but I'm sure I know how to get there, 'cuz she did give me directions.

Afterwards, I still had a couple hours to kill before floor hockey, so I headed down into the core to go find something to eat. I parked my car at the building where we play and then took the 5 minute walk to the train station, which is only one stop out of the downtown core. I did a fairly quick in and out, 'cuz getting down into Sunnyside was a bit of a struggle due to the 6pm traffic on McKnight Blvd..

Floor hockey last night was quite good. A few more younger fellas showed up and made the game quite exciting. It was 5 on 5 with a couple subs per team last night, which kept the pace up and made the game a little bit more predictable from the crease point-of-view. Despite a super bonehead error of playing a spinning ball off my stick, which in turn spun itself right through my wickets when I looked up to play it... I had a pretty good night, taking two of the three games from the other keeper, who is pretty good too.

After the workout, it was pretty much straight home for me. Jeff & Benny were both at home when I called, so there was no stop at the bar last night, which was probably a good thing. I'm here, wide awake and sober this morning... so in hindsight, it was probably a good thing.

I wasn't able to catch Barbara on the phone at all yesterday. She probably worked a full-double shift again yesterday and I did sorta call during times where I only would have caught her if she wasn't working the double... I might try again after work today to see what her plans are for the weekend. I would really like to catch up with her if I can get the chance.

Another one of today's missions will be to update the hockey pool site and get my list of available players for the upcoming waiver draft. I'm not overly pleased with my team... well, for one, not many guys played this week... both the Senators and the Canucks played very little... then Martin Havlat pretty much got the news he'd be done for the gist of the year... I'm still waiting for word about Dan Cloutier and his injury. Sens and Canucks go tonight in Vancouver... since Auld will probably be in net (and I won't get any shutout points from him)... I'll cheer for a barn-burner where both Naslund and Spezza get at least 3 points a piece. That would make me a very happy camper. I should also see the return of Wade Redden to the Sens line-up tonight... I've been missing him. Oh yeah... and I lost my other top defenseman, Joni Pitkanen to a huge knee injury... 4 to 6 bleedin' weeks. I've got drops a plenty to consider on Saturday.

Well, I guess I shall see what kind of monkey business will transpire today... I'm hoping for a quiet one with a chance to clean up the To-Do List today. Wish me luck.

Oh yeah... and before I forget... Flickr now has setup profile addresses for photos. Here's a link to mine. Click here for more of my uploaded photos... they're all in my Zeitgeist down on my sidebar... so, there shouldn't be much of a surprise.

One more thing... good ol' reliable Kelly... he found me the Jennifer Aniston pics that she's suing the photographer for. Man, you just gotta love the internet, eh?? I'd post them... but that's not really kosher.

Stories From Dreamland

I think it's pretty fair to say that last night was a complete wash... I didn't get anything done that I felt that I probably should have done. Instead, I slept. Oh man, did I sleep.

I was yawning as soon as I walked in the door at quarter after five last night... sat down, chatted with Mom a bit, watched a bit of the news, milled about the kitchen for a few moments, sat back down, yawned some more, tried to keep my eyelids from closing, failed miserably... so I said, "I'm goin' for a nap."

Boy, oh boy... did I nap. I didn't wake up again 'til midnight. So back to sleep I went... and back to dream land I went as well.

The dreams were pretty vivid as well. Well, a couple of them anyways.

The one I remember best was sitting out on the lake with a few people & friends... including a guy I used to work with at Maritime Life, Shaun McKee. No idea why he was there, but nevertheless... we were all spending the day on the lake in an inflatable boat... floating around. The water was so calm and flat. When on the lake, you've pretty much gotta skip rocks, right?? Since the water was so calm & flat... the rocks that I threw skipped forever. When we made it back onto the beach, I found even more rocks to skip. When I threw them, they went forever... halfway across the man-made lake. And then there was this unbelievable rock shaped somewhat like a "T" and the bottom was a great big point. So, I grabbed it at the top of the "T" and threw it with the same spin and it skipped! Amazing! Well, not quite as amazing as when it stopped skipping on the water and begun to spin on the top of the water like a top. In my amazement, I was jumping up and down, yelling at everyone to look at the amazing rock on the water. After the rock had disappeared into the water and my dances of joy ceased, I heard my name called from over the small hill behind the beach. I ran over the top to see Theresa in a nice little blue bikini top walking away impatiently, since it took me a moment to climb over the hill. Finally, I caught up to her and she invited me to the house behind the beach for dinner.

And that's pretty much when the dream ended there. How's that for a good dream to remember?

The other dream I kind of remember was me in the office with Fred, looking out the window from my office and seeing the back of my car in the shape of an exploded pop can. Well, I immediately woke myself up and remember saying to myself in my head, "again with the bad car dreams? Enough of those." Put my head down on the corner of the bed and fell back asleep. I'm rather unsure what I dreamt of afterwards, but I knew it was just after 4am when that happened.

And that's the story of my exciting night last night. Any questions?

Anything Out There?

The clock has it out for me, I swear.

So last night, I did end up meeting up with Barbara... only before I had forgotten my debit & credit cards at the office AFTER I had my bite to eat at Joey's (what an embarrasing debacle)... and it wasn't a bad night. I may neglect to say it was a great night... I guess it could be a considered a good night, it was fun after all.

I met up with her at Limericks down in the south... she only works like a few blocks away from there, so it was super-easy for her to get there and it was after 7:30pm, so the traffic was super-light and I just hummed all the way down the Deerfoot to get down to meet her. We ended up having a couple drinks and chatting away. Again, we laughed and laughed... made jokes, told stories... but I do believe both of us were pretty hesitant to put anything out there. I knew I was... you get burned a couple times in your career and you do get a tad gun shy. It was good though, we kept it light and funny... didn't really reach an uncomfortable point.

A couple hours in though... she was somewhat organizing plans with some of her mates from where she works to head into the core for martinis at the Vicious Circle. That was cool... I had to behave myself, since I had to get back to Langdon, so I offered to drive the troupe, upon arrival down there for another drink or two.

Barb's friend, Kendra, showed up... that was the one that Mike had chased at Ranchman's the night I had actually met Barb... so that was kinda funny. Didn't really re-live the memory there, mostly 'cuz she had none of it.

Barb and her friends were pretty much all over the work topics as they sipped on their martinis... I had already had one and a couple beers, so before too long I was just drinking Coke to behave myself with. I just sat and listened for a while... but there wasn't much for signals goin' on, nothing really to be picked up.

I think there's a lot of hesitation in the fact that Barb's hours are food service industry hours... all the good social hours of my 9 to 5 job are therefore taken up by work and even through the holidays. That sort of played on my mind quite a bit when I kept thinking if I should throw something out there, but then how I could I really find myself getting attached to someone I would possibly only see once a week through the holidays and who knows what is beyond that?

So... as it stands in my perspective... I'm still gonna give her a ring here and there. I know a lot more about what her schedule holds, but I'm not gonna get too excited about it quite yet. I think that sounds like a pretty fair plan.

Nevertheless, I ended up driving her home last night... she left her car down in the south. She's gonna go to school by bus this morning and then train it down to work, I figure... but yeah, I got her home, a hug and a peck on the cheek and a lot of thank yous and we parted ways for the evening. It wasn't something to really take advantage of... it was just about 2am. Geez!!

So, I pretty much flew home on the empty highways out to Langdon... it was just about 25 minutes, reaching speeds of 160km/h on the straight Number 1. The wind was down, the sky was clear... yeah, it was a pretty good night for a drive.

I got in and pretty much fell into bed. I knew it was gonna be a pretty short night. And it was. And it didn't help that I was dreaming like a motherfucker again... and obviously sleepwalking and being super-destructive in my room. Actually, Sunday night as well... I caught myself sleepwalking. Both nights, I pretty much cleared off my end table beside my bed of everything that was on it, including my alarm clock. It was unbelievable the amount of sleepwalking I was doing... at one point, I finally woke up as I found myself checking my phone for something... what?? I can't remember.

My mind is terribly overactive... and somewhat physically interactive as well. How scary is that?

6am again came too early... twice on the snooze... no really hot water in the tap, so I just wet my hair down a bit... got dressed... got coffee... warmed up the car... got into work (26 minute drive)... the desk lights were on, which looked really odd, meaning that there was someone here after I had left to pick up my cards... and then tried to snooze for 40 minutes... but again, my overactive mind would only allow me to shut my eyes and make myself believe that I was snoozing.

That's pretty much me in a nutshell of late... I guess, I better think about a new pot of coffee and work then.

Everyone Wants A Slinky

That's the scene from my desk... my MP3 player, a stack of McDonalds hockey cards and a slinky highlights the great display on my desk this morning.

Much like yesterday, today is probably gonna be a nose to the grindstone kinda day. I only worked on one filing all day yesterday... man, was it huge. I have almost a replica of that filing to do again today. I'm hoping a lot of the tables and stuff that I had to convert to HTML are the same as the previous one. Thanks very much... copy & paste. That'll make the day so much better.

Now we're getting into the year-end sort of filings and some companies seem to be panicing because they are still to file some of their 2004 year-end shit still. Geez... there's nothing better than an inbox full of Financial Statements. Mmmmm... tables are HTML's best friend.

I think Troy and Lee... not to mention, myself... will have our work cut out for us here with EDGAR.

I tried giving Barbara a call last night a couple times... the second time around 7:30pm, I left a message. Fortunately, she called back! Yeah, we'll meet up sometime after 7:30pm tonight... so that's mildly exciting. I'll probably end up working until that time, just so I can feel comfortable leaving the office without a giant load still to come.

On the way in this morning to the office... one of the lighted boards on the Highway said the temperature was minus-31 outside. Ugh. I haven't looked at my Weather Channel do-hickey on my page yet... I wonder what that says. I thought we were supposed to be having a chinook again here soon. Lee said plus-7 on Friday... here's hoping.

Alright... I've got a new cup of coffee... time to get the filings that have come in already sorted out for Troy when he gets in. You know, I'm in charge of that sort of thing now. Woo hoo!!

Minus 24

That's what the thermometer says outside the kitchen window. I'm hoping... oh, so hoping... that the wind is down or else I'll freeze my newly gelled hair clean off. It's gonna be a fuckin' cold trip into town... warming the car up or not.

Nevertheless... I'll make it. I'm sure I will. Then I will write some more.


Yesterday's cold ass picture of the Cavalier... brrrrrr.

Laugh At Misfortune

You know, I think its a good thing to laugh at other people's misfortunes. I actually kinda hope that I get more comments like Julies regarding my drunken decisions... if anything, it should make me learn not to do it again.

Will it, in fact, make me learn never to do it again? I'm not making any guarantees. Maybe... just maybe, there will be a little bit in the inner programming of my autopilot system that will be changed if you guys continue to laugh at this sort of misfortune.

I laugh at people with the good intention of getting people to learn that they are making mistakes. Okay... that's just half-true. I would like to say that that's the only reason why I laugh... but really, I just find them so funny and my sense of humour is quite broad... soooo... I'll pretty much laugh for the sake of laughing.

Nevertheless... if you find the need to point and laugh at me... I say do it! Make an example of me. I am someone who is always sort of conscious of what other people think. And hey, I might be conscious of it, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm gonna really do my best to change for them... I'll just adapt to them, so I don't have to take anymore shit from them. Good plan.

18-Minute Post

Ahhh... good ol' drunken Blogging. I honestly hope that drunken Blogging becomes my new drunken activity. Then I'll tell ya what I really think... mwah ha ha ha!! No one shall be spared... unless my memory quits on me. Then everyone will be spared... for then.

That may also take the place of stupid agreements being made with girls I don't really like so much... or fancy at all. Apparently on Friday night, I was chatting with Anitra... one of the larger set girl-patrons of the Wildfire. We've chatted on several occasions, mostly about hockey... she's an Oilers fan and well, me being the Canucks fan, we've butted heads a couple times in the pub... namely the first game on Hockey Night In Canada that the Oil won in a shootout. K, sorry... I'm going off a bit there... Friday... I apparently agreed to the deal that if she bought the tickets for an Oilers/Canucks game, that I would get us there and pay for a place to stay.

I did WHAT?!? Unfortunately, Benny was sitting right there as we were discussing this last night... and he agreed that I did say such things. Fudge! She apparently (or allegedly) found tickets to a game in January... in Vancouver... for $200US on eBay. You have got to be fucking joking... this is a bleedin' nightmare if this is so the case. How the hell do I do this? I thought my autopilot was a little bit better than this. Apparently, I am wrong.

So now I'm gonna have to call her and find out if the bad news is true... OR avoid the situation like the plague and hope that it blows over. This looks to be a situation where I'm gonna need my pith helmet and take a beating in the trenches. You know, I'd really like to go to the game... it'd actually be a ton of fun. And yeah, I guess goin' to the game with her won't be too bad... but it's the night over which is gonna cost me a fuckin' fortune. Like hell we're sleepin' together... fuck that. *shivers down the spine*

How 'bout honesty being the best policy?? Maybe... if I get that done early... maybe, just maybe, I can avoid such a nightmare. Fingers crossed people.

Alright... we'll put that one in the pile with all the other "issues to deal with when they arrive."

Tonight... finally gonna watch Anchorman. Everyone else in the world has seen it... so I'm getting that inkling that watching movies will be the in thing again. I haven't really been too keen on watching movies lately, but now I'm sort of getting that itch to watch shows again. Fantastic Four and War of the Worlds are on my list to see next, I guess... I set-up my DVD player and TV now in the basement for easy movie watching. I'm also gonna have to re-visit my collection of DVDs one of these days.

In the foresight category of issues... Monday should be a busy day at work. Got a few big filings to get through. The day should just fly by. Tuesday, work and (hopefully) make it out with Barbara. Wednesday... no plans yet. Probably gonna give Reese & AJ a call with a list of available players for the the waiver draft in the hockey pool. Thursday... call Amber before floor hockey and possibly have a visit... that'll be mildly interesting to catch up with her. Friday... probably let the madness continue for normal weekends. Saturday... waiver draft for the hockey pool. Sunday... hungover.

Wow... I filled that week well, me thinks. Maybe try and throw another movie or two in there somewhere... this could be a decent week.

Anyways... now it's time to take off. Apparently there is gonna be some salad ready upstairs while the leftover ham from last night is warmed. Bring on the Anchorman... and a new episode of the Simpsons!!

Blast From The Past

Yeah... ended up goin' to the bar tonight. Thought I'd catch the Oilers/Bruins game. The old man started to flip channels after the Leafs game was done, so I had to take off.

There were a couple birthday parties goin' on... none of which I knew of, so I mainly stuck to my stool at the bar and drank my bottles of Keiths. I had to call up Benny to get him down there as I was drinkin with a guy he worked with and chatting with him off and on.

You wouldn't believe it tonight, 'cuz I certainly didn't... there was a girl who had walked in with a few guys (into the Wildfire that is) who looked ridiculously familiar to me. Turns out... I did know her... Amber Mazur. Her and her posse were sitting right next to me at the bar and I'd find myself looking over and saying to myself... 'that really looks like Amber.' Well, I waited and waited and waited until I heard her name from one or two of the guys. Once I had heard it though... I looked over at her and sort of lip-synched... 'Amber' to her and she looked at me with that quizzical 'how does he know my name look.' Then I lip-synched (half-saying, it was loud in there tonight)... 'Amber Mazur, right?' Well, this sent her into a pretty good panic... 'where do I know you from?' she asked. I tried to hold out as long as possible to tell her who I was and where I knew her from, but as soon as I told her she walked up to me and we started chatting a bit.

What a shock to the system that was... and it will probably still be a shock when I call her up on Thursday to get together when I need to kill some time before floor hockey. But she was saying that another one of our Grad classmates is living across the street from her in Downtown Calgary... Dana Kelly. I always sorta liked Dana... she was quite the character.

So yeah... I said I'd call her up on Thursday to get together... that'll be really neat. She's the first person I've seen from Rutland in 4+ years... easily. The two of us were never really friends in school, but we obviously knew who each other were. If I remember correctly, she didn't have the best reputation in school... but I guess she didn't have the worst (amongst the guys, anyways).

Otherwise... that was the majority of my night tonight. I have no idea what I'll be getting up to tomorrow. No plans... I'm hoping for a load of sleep and watching football. I'd be really okay with that.

Oh Well

In between games watching Hockey Night In Canada... I'm in my sweats as I'm not actually meeting up with Barbara tonight. She's got a paper to write for Monday, which she hadn't even started. So... here I sit.

I didn't get up to too much today... didn't really feel like it at all.

Don't know if I'll go down to the bar tonight... sort of undecided. I might after the Oilers/Bruins game, not too sure. Don't really feel like drinking tonight... still sort of disappointed about the cancellation.

I guess we'll give it another shot on Tuesday next week... so, we'll see what happens.

I'm Awake...

Oh man... I don't remember writing the entry down below last night. I was pretty fucked, eh... ha ha ha. Oh well... that's what I get for having a few too many beers.

Well, I had a somewhat rude awakening this morning... well, not really rude, 'cept for the fact that I didn't get to bed until after that post last night at 3:16am. 10:30am this morning I felt a little tap on my leg. Sorta unsure what was goin' on until I lifted my head off my pillow, turned around and standing there was Graham... whoa! Trying my best not to swear... there he stood with a big grin on his face... 'I scared the bejeezus out of you,' he chuckled. 'Ya sure did,' I remarked.

Chris and Graham came out to visit while Josh and Dale were at a hockey practice in Indus... so they came and said hello. So, I had to wake my sorry ass up in a hurry to hang out with Graham.



There he is wearing my Spezza jersey... cute kid. Such a young & naive little character. He's a pretty big Avril Lavigne fan... we were in the process of making a mixed disc of all Avril tracks before he had to go. I'm gonna have to get it to him sometime soon.

Well, I think I'm gonna have to do some catching up with this Blog right now... I've been meaning to add a comment from one of my recent visitors. Jay from SpongeBlog had taken on the Tales as a renter on BlogExplosion's Rent My Blog, but when he came for a visit himself, his security settings on his computer wouldn't allow him to leave a comment... so he left me an e-mail with the comment he wanted to leave:

"nice blog, photos. thnx 4 advertising on my site. if u come by and comment, i'll add a pemalink 2 u when the campsign is done. once again, thnx

Howard Jay Meyer http://spongeblog.blog-city.com"

Thanks Jay... awfully nice of ya to say. By the time you guys read this, I'll probably have a link on the sidebar for him too.

Oh man... I think I'm gonna have to take a nap this afternoon... I just feel wrecked at the moment. I can't believe I've already been up for 2.5 hours... I also can't believe it's also 1pm. Fudge.

Last night was quite fun... went over to Jay's place just after 8pm last night. Actually, Pa and I stopped for a beer at Brewster's with his old manager, John (Taffy's Tyrants) before heading to the Wildfire to pick up some pizza and another pint... then to Jay's place.

At Jay's... met a few of his buddies from town... Jeff was there as well. We sat, had a few beers, played some Asshole and watched Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back (one of the funniest movies, ever!). Then we headed over to the Wildfire for more beers, laughs and such... it was a pretty good time. Chatted with all sorts of people again in the Wildfire... and pretty much headed home around 3am-ish. Good times.

Here's a good link for you guys... a little food for thought. Geez, I'm a link machine today. Heh heh.

Well... maybe I'll finish up writing a bit later... I'm in dire need of a nap.

Trying

It's after 3am... so this'll be fun. Man. I'm fucked... and I'll probably type like a grade-school kid who hasn't found the backspace key yet. Please bare with me. If I let every spelling mistake go, then I will be perceiveded badly... just like thaat.

Man, am I bombed.

Too many beers... not enough women.

Stupid December Nights...

And what time did I get home last night? Which time? The first time... yeah, that was probably around midnight to grab a couple beers... the second time, to go to bed... about 3:30am. Ugh.

I didn't manage to catch up with Barbara in person last night... I pretty much knew it was gonna be a tough sell anyways, so I'm not terribly disappointed... but we are getting together on Saturday night, so that's quite alright.

Floor hockey was a tad sad last night... only 10 guys showin' up... and the 4 guys I had in front of me were not runners... so I got lit up pretty badly. Why did I get to face the good shooters of teh night?

On the way home, I thought I'd stop into the pub for the NHL highlights and scores and a couple bottles before heading home... only to see Jeff, Jay, Benny and pretty much the whole lot in there playing pool.

Curses.

Of course, the social gear kicks in... and forget it. By 1am, we're apologizing to the Jeff's grandmother and mother for the noise (constantly) as we sat and played poker until 3am. Once the DVD of Jay and his days in the Air Force kicked in... forget it, I was outta there. I shouldn't really have been there in the first place.

I stumbled my way home... only to walk through the door and hear the old man on his lazy boy recliner stirring as I slam through the screen door.

Curses... again.

Needless to say, 6am came a tad too early. I took the ride in with the old man this morning... probably a good idea. The snow was still coming down... the water in the shower was not getting warm, so I didn't do that this morning... rather, I went outside and shovelled the snow. Not only our driveway, but the neighbour's driveway as well... they're combined, the wind was down, I still had to wait for the car to warm up... why not?

See... even in my half-asleep, drunken stupor... I'm still a nice guy. Go me!! I'm gonna have to reference these sorts of things when Barbara asks, I'm sure.

Troy is in now... he's awfully chatty this morning. I guess I better put him to work while I sit here in my daze... man, it's great having someone work underneath me who wants to work for training purposes. Too awesome.

Tonight... sounds like a beer or two after work... and a house party to go to afterwards. It begins again. I have to get nice & hungover for Saturday night... 'cuz apparently Barbara will be a mess after her shift and it would be wrong to just let her suffer alone. So, I'm getting wrecked for her sake tonight. Just don't let me fall into a ditch or anything like that. Then it'll be all good.

Shut-eye... that's what I need. If I "just happen to fall asleep..." just look the other way.

Thursday is the new Friday!!

Crossed

Ahhh... finally, it's quiet enough to get a post in at work. I haven't been super-busy, but I have tried to organize the schedule for Troy and I to sift through the big files we have on the go. We'll be okay... thanks for the concern.

Another cold day in Calgary... makes me glad I'm indoors working. Kind of.

Tonight, it's floor hockey @ 8pm... but I have to get through the time in between. I did say to Barbara that I'd call her, so I'll try and kill a bit of time with her in between. I know we said that we'd look to do something this weekend... I think she said something about Thursday being a bad day to do something... oh well, worth a try right.

That's about all I have to chat about today... there is really nothing past that. Probably when I head home after the floor hockey, I will drop into the Wildfire to see if I can catch any of the Oilers/Canucks game tonight. It might actually be fairly busy in there, so it sounds like a good idea.

Hopefully tomorrow is quite quiet... I could do with a nice quiet day. I have 3 big documents for Troy and I to do for Monday & Tuesday... so a slow day would let us get through a little more training. He's coming along well... but there are a couple lapses in his memory... nothing major. My patience level is still quite high with him.

Fingers crossed for a while yet... wouldn't mind getting some face time with Barbara.