Getting more typical, nightly

Too many things appear as if out of thin air. They do not exist but in my mind, and maybe in yours now too. Until I write things down, the many-things-in-the-air are just there waiting to be flaired.

Yesterday, I met someone named R. at an internet café near my place. He's also a UofT student and he hails from Seoul, and he clarified with me that Seoul was indeed in the southern part of South Korea.

Naturally, our conversation drifted to Starcraft, and although we didn't discuss strategies, he did invite me back next week. Considering he works there, it makes sense that he would want my business, but separate from the business aspect, he also seems like a cool dude. He went to the same college at UofT that I went to previously, as well.

Prior to meeting R., I also met someone named J. at a bar. She was a waitress there, and she was easy to talk to. We talked about music and jukeboxes, and she was not aware that there was a song named after her by the Allman Brothers Band.

Now I'm off to go play Overwatch at a gaming café in koreatown! It's looking like it might be my new favourite (Blizzard) game!

Wandering Minds

I find it a lot easier to write about random things that happen throughout my day rather than plotting out a detailed summary of the important things that happened.
I feel like a writer without a plot, and a plot is nothing more than a conspiracy, is it not?
Writing inspiration comes from events that make sense. Events that make no sense are just paradoxes.
The paradox of the matter is that it's cool to write things about the anti-establishment when writing about the corporation is far easier.
Losing myself in my verb tenses, I finish this blog post with a heartfelt hello to an old, old friend.
H-l-, but I think he probably prefers to be called E-a-.

Hey Blogger, remind me:

Living in an ocean of confusion

It's ten o' three in the morning and all I can think about is Paramore again.
I know Lyra is coming back to visit me soon, if she isn't here already.
I feel all over the place and music is making things better

These are lyrics from Pool by Paramore. The way Hayley sings this part makes me sadhappy.

As if the first blood didn't thrill enough
I went further out to see what else was left of us
Never found the deep end of our little ocean
Drain the fantasy of you
Headfirst into shallow pools

-

Today is boxing day. I don't really feel like spending money. Really, the only thing I want is either music or Nintendo Switch accessories. Maybe I'll pick something up for that, but otherwise, I'm saving.

I'm excited for UofT to open up again. There's nothing to do!

I am against CICO madness

[–]NickleNackle   [S] 1 point 1 year ago 

What are the main reasons that grains are unhealthy?

[–]Meto_Kaiba 1 point 1 year ago 

Hmm. Off the top of my head:

1. Grains are full of bad proteins; meaning, they evolved protection mechanisms to NOT get eaten. We've circumvented these mechanisms through various processing methods, from mechanical or artificial, to fermentation (which is fairly healthy, but still not ideal).
2. Grains are notoriously difficult to digest because of these proteins and anti-nutrients.
3. Most of the "big" grains today (corn, soy, wheat etc.) have been genetically modified to be grown effortlessly and in mass quantities - but at a cost of taste, biodiversity, and fair wages.
4. Grains affect bodily functions quite severely, e.g. soy being an estrogen replacer (if I remember correctly). This has led to the rise of auto-immune disease (there's a correlation there).

When it comes to your personal health, it's best to do your own careful research whenever possible.
Out of the list that /u/andrewmhunt mentioned, I'd recommend picking one and trying to get through it bit by it. I really like Mark's Daily Apple as he breaks down the information in an easy-to-digest way (pun intended).

How do you destroy something that was created, literally?

Answer:

The Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy

地球往事

Sharing some not-so-valuable info

Today I walked to Lawrence Square.
Then I took a subway to Yorkdale.
I purchased a small A&W root beer full of HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup).
I purchased a small lavender & basil scented soap.
And then I walked home.
Great exercise!

Sharing some valuable info

"Using your abs to move heavy weight a few inches is just weird." - Mark Sisson

One of my favourite fitness authors writes about how doing crunches and stuff is pretty pointless. Figured that out years ago, but it's hard to go against the grain.

Thesis 1: There won't be a White Christmas...

... because the condos generate too much heat.

GH

A party song I listened to today

If only girls bought us drinks instead, huh? How's that for a new norm?

Job loss

I feel it's appropriate for me to write a post about what happened.

I don't want to name them because bashing previous employers usually doesn't end well for the employee, but if you've been following my blog for the past few months you should know which company fired me. For me, it is the company that I will forever remember as the one that let me go the day I was supposed to become a permanent salaried employee.

It would be a lie to say that I'm not angry at them for firing me, especially considering that my direct supervisors never told me I was doing a bad job etc.
I bear no ill will towards the corporation, although I now certainly do have an additional reason not to love capitalism.

I will miss the friendly relationships I built with my coworkers on the client care team. I will not miss the interdepartmental tomfoolery, nor will I miss all the weed & paraphernalia. I (and my sister) will most definitely miss the staff parties.

So, do I go back to school? Or maybe I should try working in a completely different environment like a yoga studio, part time? The corporate life was fun, but I think I want something more down to earth.

I really don't want to be a french tutor, mais si ça paye les factures, peut-être devrais-je commencer ma petite entreprise franco. Je ne suis vraiment pas qualifié pour enseigner la grammaire. À vrai dire, je serais surpris si il n'y avais pas d'erreure de grammaire dans ce paragraphe. Non, c'est plûtot mon vocabulaire français que je peux facilement enseigner. Le. La. Pas compliqué pour moi, pas mal compliqué pour les anglos et les autres personnes qui parlent des langues sans gendre.

-

I said I'd make an effort to add more multimedia to my blog, so here's a picture of Rudolph I half-assed coloured over the weekend:

Best quote I've read in a decade

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive" - Anais Nin

Darkness I crave; light I seek.

I feel like fading to dust.


My heart is still there, buried beneath layers of rusted armor.

Locked inside.

With a million different keys.

And only one I wish to set them all free.

You don't have to _____ if you don't want to

 

It took a long-ass time for me to enjoy Paramore's latest album. Over a year, in fact. It's growing on me.

Kind graffiti

It's always nice when you find uplifting graffiti.

Tuques and beanies

On my downtime at work I was browsing our merchandise shop when I came across what was clearly a tuque being labelled as a beanie.

I don't know if you know the history of the tuque (and I'm not about to lecture you), but it's pretty much a staple of Canadian culture. When it gets cold, people wear tuques. Now, you can argue about the spelling of the word toque, but in the end, we're all just looking to keep our noggin' warm.
Here is my tuque. I don't know why it's sideways, but it'll have to do.

 So when someone calls a tuque a beanie, well, I boil on the inside. I decided to take a poll amongst my coworkers: I showed them the hat above, and asked them "How would you describe this hat?". All six of them unequivocally said it was a "tuque", with 2 people calling it a "winter hat" before clarifying. I'll take a picture of that poll for due diligence and post it below when I get the chance.

As you can tell, I'm pretty particular about my data. The poll was informal, but the results were real: don't call a tuque a beanie! It is frankly, insulting.

Thank you for listening to my rant. Have a good day.

CBDiablo

I thought I saw some snowflakes falling today but it seems the sun chased them away.

I had a busy week. Lots of new releases came out, so a lot of people were eager to order. And boy did some people place big orders - 6 bottles of CBD here, 60 grams of Blue Dream there, no big deal. Except it was a big deal because many people had been waiting weeks to get their hands on out-of-stock product. And within 2 days, the CBD oil was gone again.

Anyway, just a glimpse of what my work life is like.
In other news, I got a Nintendo Switch - Diablo edition! Holy fizzlebangs it is SO awesome. I've never owned a console in my life (aside from gameboys) and it is the pinnacle of entertainment to be able to sit sprawled out on a futon and play incredibly fun games. If you're reading this and you have a Switch, hit me uppp!

I'm on the hunt for a concert to go to. I know it's not typically how that works, but I realized the other day I hadn't seen any music I liked live in a while. I should probably go to something different than Paramore for a change, but if they're in town... well, it's always a good time. Oh, and I did see Kardinal Offishall at a private event with Aurora the other day, that was neat.

That's it for now!

Autumn skookum

Crimson earth, magenta sky
One of the above is not a lie

Costume partay

Working at Aurora, I get access to a lot of cool events, usually things that Aurora has sponsored. One such event happened last week with the "Boombox" costume party at Bell TIFF Lightbox. I was given some VIP passes to go and I had a pretty good time. I wore a wig, so at least I had something to wear.

It was a large venue, with a few different themed rooms. On entering, you had to go through some haunted house-like creepy areas with scary sounds. But the main stage (with an open bar nearby) had a band playing some 80s tunes throughout the night. Servers were handing out bad appetizers, mostly mushroom based.

When I went upstairs, I found there was a VIP section only for Aurora employees, so I got some comfortable couches to sit on and sipped on a cider for the rest of the night.

Pigeons know the cold is coming

Finding refuge near the CN tower

Happy Legalization Day!

I almost forgot to make a blog post today, but I wouldn't miss such a historic event!
So yeah, I work for Aurora now and it is EXCITING being part of the whole legalization process!

I noticed the typo but did nothing to fix it because my shift was up

Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose

I realized coming into this blog post that I wanted to write just like I have all the other times in the past; that is, mostly stream of consciousness and submit. And there's nothing really stopping me from continuing with that tradition, except that I said I would try to shake things up. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that each blog post is unique in and of itself. Why else would I have the "kaleidoughwheel of destiny" on the side to click on? Each blog post has to be able to stand on its own for me to even publish it.

What I can probably do is update the layout. I've never actually given it much thought: once in a while, I switch the theme up a bit to something that I think looks cool, and I kind of set it and forget it. I think I would have to take a look at what modern layouts are like from other personal blogs and update it to something that's on trend. Otherwise, I run the risk of ending up like what an oldschool 90s website looks like to us. I must say that old school internet, as I call it, has its charm, with its easily clickable HTML links and relatively straightforward navigation.
I would definitely say that I'm starting to fall behind current internet trends when compared to say, 12 years ago when trolling was still a delicate but worthwhile art form. Nowadays, I spend way too much time on Reddit and although I do find a lot of interesting things and have some good exchanges once in a while, I still feel like I'm filling my head up with too much junk.

--

It's been a good week. I finally got my taxes done and out of the way, so until next year I guess. Work is still great. I'll keep the mystery of my employment until another blog post, since I see myself working here for a while.

Hiatus over

In all my years of blogging, this is the first time that I've spent a full year without publishing a post. Thankfully, on my archive list, you will still see 2007-2018 or whatever because I did blog in 2017, and here I am blogging for the first time in 2018. So it won't look like I skipped a year but if you follow this blog, you know that a year gap in blogging is a little excessive even for me.

I wish I could say I've done some deep introspection on how I want to move forward with this blog, maybe with a more focused approach to posts and maybe some redesign to get up to date to the late 2010s. And to be honest, this introspection is about as deep as what I've written so far, so honestly, it's not much introspection. I'm probably just going to keep blogging like I did before, albeit a little more frequently.

For today, I'm far too tired to add a picture or something colorful to the post, so I'm going to just keep writing. Who knows for how long - I actually do get tired at 10pm now that I get up early for work.
I'll probably end up talking about my job some other time. That's what takes up most of my time these days. At least during the week.

On Saturdays I like the farmer's market. Sometimes I get this lemonade, it's kind of pricey but you get 50 cents back if you return the cup they give you. I'm always thirsty on Saturday mornings and a hot coffee during the summer is just about the last thing I want to drink. So I'm okay with paying for overpriced lemonade instead of overpriced coffee.

I listen to a podcast called No Such Thing as a Fish on my commute down the university line in the mornings and it's a fun way to wake up my brain. Each week, they present four really random facts that they've uncovered and go into details with absurd and hilarious results. I do like my British humor, and I have to suppress laughter in crowded trains sometimes.

Till next time.