1.3: I am your main supplier

Between a glimmer of hope and a shadow of a doubt, there I am.

Ever get the feeling humanity should be infinitely proud and equally ashamed of everything it has done? Me neither.

Late last week, it was very cold down here and Max had become kinda stationary and starting acting kinda aloof and shivering. Now, he's an old pooch, so anything out of the ordinary with him is met with concern (and apparently he'd upchucked earlier in the day.) Hoping it was just the cold, we tossed a blanket over him as he lay in the middle of the floor, hoping for the best. The next morning he was back to his old self, even moreso, bounding all over the place like nuts. We worry, but y'know, he's got quite some life left in him yet it seems.

Friday was a blur. After running an errand, Eric and I sat down and watched the Simpsons Movie. He seemed to enjoy it. Then I got a lift down to the Executive Snooker Club for Joe's show. We pulled into this weird Chinese strip mall thinking "This can't be the place..." but the address matched up and sure enough it was the only unit without any Chinese characters written on it, crammed into a little corner. Joe wasn't aware of the mall's status in the heart of Mississauga's China town either, and we had a laugh about when he arrived. I was a little early so I scoped the place out a while until Joe came with a few of his friends. We joked around, sitting on the world's lowest couch (me: "My knees are parallel to my face!") while people filed in, including Mansoor, who's been getting in shape for a marathon.

Eventually, the show started. We filed in past the people who were running the thing, and as we paid they noted down which act everyone had come for, because the acts were being paid based on that. Joe was on second. During the first act, Mansoor and I grabbedf some brews. The guy was an acoustic-electric act who sat and picked and strummed. Mansoor felt he was leaning on Nirvana a bit much, but I thought, he's just a guy playing his guitar in front of a small audience in Mississauga, he's not going to be the next Bowie. I thought it was pretty nice.

Joe came on around 9:30. He opened with a song I hadn't heard before, and followed it with Stargazing. The third song was a song I had half-jokingly asked him to play and dedicate to me, Hourglass, which is my favourite song he's written given it's far more upbeat than anything else. He worked in an excerpt from "No Woman No Cry" much to the crowd's delight. He then gave Mansoor a shout-out while introducing his "runaway hit" Broken Heart Complex. Mansoor deserves certain appreciation because he's done all he can to help Joe make it this far, and will probably continue to help him throughout his career. The last song was Mandi, which was prefaced by a note that the girl in question is no no longer around. The performance was spirited nonetheless, despite a notable foul-up of the lyrics midway through. He covered it decently though, Joe's got quite a burgeoning stage presence.

The third act came on, a 5-piece band with the two guitarists and bassist crammed in the middle of a very cozy stage, with the frontman elbowing his way to the front. The drummer was hidden behind the shirtless bassist. They joked about how they were going to "soften it up" a bit after following such a hardcore act.

So they started playing death metal. I just kinda sat there, unmoved. The weird thing about metal guitarists is that, objectively, they seem like some of the most talented players to use the instrument. They 're able to get some fast/furious licks that probably take a lot of skill. But the thing, I think, about metal is that it's a waste. The way they played was really generic and bland, with your typical crunchy riffs separating your standard blazing solos. Midway through the second song I'd seen the whole damn thing. The vocalist impressed the room with his pteradactyl impression, that incoherent screaming style I bemoaned when I reviewed that Callisto CD back in April. Full of metal, I got up and took a walk. Joe and many of his other friends were congregated in the lounge, having similar feelings as I did. I wondered aloud who was booking the gigs, and if they were just having a laugh by booking such a juxtaposition.

I went back in to grab my jacket, for good measure asking the chubby-but-cuteish hardcore-looking girl minding the cashbox what the next act was. She put plainly that it was metal (she was probably more excited about it than I was) and I grabbed my jacket and went. Mansoor gave me a lift home and we caught up some more.

Saturday I got up and took care of some business before getting a call. Pat and Chris wanted to know if I'd be down for Risk. I didn't even ponder how unusual that they were having a Risk game mid-afternoon. Eventually I arrived and found a stranger. It seemed they were trying to arrange a Staples employees game, but it kinda fell apart so they called me. It was flattering, really. So we set down and played through with this girl (Kat) while watching Life Aquatic and then How I Met Your Mother Season 1 Disc 2, which Pat hadn't even seen (yet how odd Chris and I had gotten all the way through season 2 disc 2.) We left the game unfinished around 5. After I got home, Eric came in with a new computer.

I went for a walk in the oddly mild winter evening. Sometime after, by the time I was ready to go to bed, Eric pulled out Killer Instinct for SNES. I decided to show him how it's done by tearing through the 1P mode with Cinder, as I am a master of the massive cheap awesome combo. Every now and a gail a character like Thunder (a Native American) or Glacius (a snowman?) would get the better of me, but by and large I managed to handle myself all the way to the last guy, whom I didn't remember. He was a 2-headed cyclops called Eyedol and he was a bitch. After several attempts, I had him on the ropes but lost. Despite my pumping adrenaline, I knew it was time to call it a night. I cooled down by playing a smooth round of Kirby's Avalanche.

When I got up to my room I found that my DVD player had stalled, overheated. I was troubled. The disc was no longer reading and the player wouldn't open. I decided on a temporary solution by nicking my mom's and decided to sleep on it.

In the morning it opened properly, allowing me to retake my trapped DVD (phew) but the fact was, it looked to be toast. After breakfast, I headed down to the mall to check various stores to price check a new player. Nothing met my fancy, but I decided to go later. I ended up going to Wal-Mart with dad and picked up a cheapo one and a dock for my iPod (also modestly-priced) for about $110 total. Hopefully this stuff holds out, but I think Wal-Mart's good about returns (I ain't shopped there in years and have a bit of an ethical problem doing so.)

Eric, B and I pulled out GoldenEye for the first time in many years and I proceeded to show 'em how it's done. Also, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, a game that begs to be remade.

Things have been pretty relaxed lately. The break was nice, y'know, not overly busy, but not too-too lazy. I'm ready to go back tomorrow. This is helped by the fact that my Philosophy prof got a last-minute jury duty call so class is cancelled tomorrow. I think I'm actually going to start doing the readings in that class. My New Year's Resolution is to be a better student and maybe actually put some effort into it. This may or may not be more difficult to follow than my previous year's resolution to vomit less in social situations (success, BTW.)

But yeah. There were three major things I meant to do over the last three weeks but didn't. Somehow I seem to get more done when I've got a lot going on. When I've got nothing, I just veg.

Something just happened that I'll probably have more energy to discuss tomorrow. For now I'm about to hit the bricks.

These longer/less frequent posts just ain't doing it for me, I think. It's hard to remember shit I wanted to talk about!

I hope you're enjoying yourself, under the moonlight (the serious moonlight.)

Keep on rockin'
-Scott