The End

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

The experiement was a success! Ha! Okay, sort of.

I did sleep in and sit around and drink coffee. The house is sort of clean. Well, it's cleaner. The late lunch was wicked; pasta mixed with a roasted red pepper spread, and then boccochini, mushrooms and olive oil tossed with it. And wine. I finally scored two bottles of Cono Sur and all those big, juicy flavours got to roll around in my mouth. Oh, sorry, that sounded a little gross. We did meet Ch and Ca for the art show, which was fun, and I did buy comics. L and I got invited to their house, situated in our old neighbourhood, and we played Pirates of the Spanish Main and drank tea. They have the coolest work space. Oh, and we did end up taking photos, just not around the neighbourhood. We just finished watching Sideways, drank more wine with crackers and humous. Hummous? Again, the proper spelling eludes me. We didn't get around to seeing the play. Maybe next time.

And no work done for paper. Pha-pha-pha-phooey.

On the itinerary for today:

1. Sleep in (done), sit around and drink coffee.
2. Tidy up the house a wee bit.
3. Have late lunch.
4. Wander around the neighbourhood and take pictures.
5. Meet up with Ch and Ca for art show.
6. Go to the play at the Firehall, Tales of an Urban Indian.
7. Relax the rest of the day, possibly buy comics.
8. Scribble some notes for sociology paper.

As an experiment, I will see how many of things I will accomplish by tonight. Too bad science isn't as fun.

Symmetry

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

Pretty stoked for the new Hellboy comic to come out. I mean, I like B.P.R.D. and all, but I need some real monster action soon or else!

I'm going to ask to take the digital camera to school/work and take some shots of the campus and work.

No good fiction yet. Haven't found it. Then again, I haven't looked too hard either.

Cats, with apologies to Tom

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

salvador3 Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

This is my cat, Salvador. He can be such a clown at times, twisting himself around for the camera and revealing a hint of his fangs to complete the composition. We were given a digital camera on loan, and now I want to bike around and take pictures all weekend. There is an art show this weekend at Shine, and the dynamic duo Ch and Ca (I don't know if she spells her name with a K) will be attending. When an opportunity to capture human souls via digital technology arises, I'll be there wearing a huge, hideous grin.
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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

At home, writing. I'm really tired (I generally dislike hearing how tired people feel. If you're sleepy, go home. But, please make an exception for me this one time) and fuzzy headed, so I should take a nap before I go out fencing. Busy day. I don't have to time to call anyone or look at headlines. What the hell is going on in the world? Maybe Sal knows.

I want to learn how to get rid of the Decepticons Attack! tag.

Feh

Lately, the muscle behind my left shoulder has been sore. The ache is beginning to really bother me. This is it. As I shoot towards the age of thirty, I can feel all the past injuries, hidden under years of drinking and exercise, begin to crawl out from under the sinews of pink and white flesh and tug on my unsuspecting pain receptors. I can't jump off cars anymore. I can't drink coffee, Red Bull, tequila and stay awake for forty-two hours and expect to walk into work with my shorts worn over my pants and dried leaves mashed onto my back. I can't do it. Not anymore.

There is hope, my friends. I spent the weekend writing, drinking at an after-hours club (we arrived way before the after-hour mark, just to check it out) and stayed up until three to finish editing the play. Which is done. Thank God. I'm really proud of it and the changes I made really tightened up the conflict, which seemed flacid sitting there in the center doing very little. I added some dramatic "anchors" that reeled in the comedy relief when I needed him back onstage, and all the characters were given some depth. After the wrokshop, there were a couple people who replied back, saying not to change anything. This is a future apology to those people: everything changes. Sorry.

Copenhagen was good. R was misinformed, which was totally not his fault, and we showed up two hours before the box office opened. Only magazine needs to get itself straightened out. We wandered, ate breakfast (cheese, basil and olive oil crepe for me, plus large americano) and we wandered some more, chatting about architecture and books. We drank more coffee and eventually got back to see the play. Oh, I also picked up some material for my essay. Copenhagen is complex, sure, but at times the dialogue was bogged down in some trivialities that attempted to bridge the physics together. I understand that the science was important, but the forward motion was thin at times. There were small bits of comedy nestled in the script that lightened the mood, and they were effective. The connection between history, philosophy, sociology and science was threaded together rather tightly in the subtext. I would like a copy of the script. Anyone know a cheap spot to buy scripts?

So, yeah. Working on the anthropology paper. I need a couple of more books on the history of the Native American Church. What I have is so convoluted in narrative, I'm having a hard time picking out the facts.

Anyone what to produce a play?

Might as Well Start the Weekend Right

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

For the next three weeks I will immersed in my schoolwork. The first week will be the worst, and the following weeks will slowly deflate like a balloon. So, I want to share a couple of things I'm really excited about.

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

Um, Philip K. Dick. What can I say? The man is gen-u-ine. I think it's intersting, not to mention topical, to make A Scanner Darkly film. Video cameras are installed on street corners now; their dull electric eyes recording, recording and recording. The film is animated, no less.

I will be meeting R at 7:30 A.M. to get tickets for the Copenhagen play. Hoo boy. After the play I will be starting my anthropology paper on peyote religions in North America and a sociology paper on urban transportation. Plus I have to edit my play.

L, A and I checked out the perogy dinner at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's auditorium. For ten bucks you get a decent meal and it has a really friendly atmosphere. There is a huge, cool bookshelf crammed with, um, books tucked away in the corner. I wanted to cruise by and peruse the titles, but I would have had to climb over diners and chairs. What I wouldn't do for literature.

Life just got much more exciting. Should I place an exclamation point at the end of that sentence. Fug it.

I sense an adventure. The tsunami from December has revealed structures belonging to an ancient Indian port:

"They could be part of the mythical city of Mahabalipuram, which legend says was so beautiful that the gods sent a flood that engulfed six of its seven temples.

The new finds were made close to the 7th Century beachfront Mahabalipuram temple, which some say is the structure that survived the wrath of the gods.

The myths of Mahabalipuram were first written down by British traveller J. Goldingham who was told of the “Seven Pagodas” when he visited in 1798…."

Check it out.

Um, yeah.

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

Something tells me Alfred forgot to lock up the liquor cabinet.

"Master Bruce, don't you think you've had enough Shnapps - "
"Don't you dare lecture me. . .old man. . .where the hell is Dick?"
"Pardon, sir?"
"Grayson, Grayson! The little drag queen. . ."
"I believe Master Dick is out for the evening, sir."
"Master Dick? Yeah, I bet. Damn it, call up that Kent hick, we're going out!"

Hilarity ensues.

So, uh, I finished the scholarship, with help from L of course. I ended up writing about women in the fishing industry. I just have some work to do here. This is boring. The entry, that is.

News!

For the benefit of friends and family, anyone can leave comments to this blog now.

Minutes later. . .

Now that I've recovered - hahahahaha! Ha! Hohohahahaha!

Okay, snort!, okay. I'm fine.

Hahahahaha!

Ah, I love old comics. Good stuff. I'm editing the English mid-term paper, even as we speak, and I'm going to go over the play. The workshop went really well, although I was shaking the whole time. The actors didn't get a chance to rehearse long enough, so some of the jokes fell flat. But I did get a couple of really good laughs. The feedback was tremendous, lots of great ideas where generated from the class and the actors, plus comments from a bonafide director! So good! I think I may have been bitten by the theatre bug.

I also have to go over some of my research material for the scholarship. My topic? For. . ? Oh, the scholarship. Right. I'm just writing a cursory overview of Canadian labour history. Maybe something on the Ottawa Trek in the thirties. Who knows. Ginger Goodwin is always a good topic.

Later, I'm going to see Ong Bak with K and the kids, and eat, drink and be merry.

Batman Outed! Finally!

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

HA! Hahahahaha!

Hahahahahahahahaha!

wOOt!

naughty

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

Does anyone else have this problem? You're taking a walk in the park, totally self-absorbed, then this scene erupts out of nowhere.

Just across from me, there's a girl wearing a Nike t-shirt with the word "Strength" emblazoned across it. What? The strength of a low income country's grossly underpaid, painfully overworked workforce churning out thousands of these t-shirts? The strength of maintaining the illusion where you are an athletically inclined individual? Which one?

Well, ahem. I had fencing last night and I think I finally understand the disengage and the counters. We've been doing some informal bouts to practice the theory we learn at the beginning of class. I get more and more stoked to start aikido. My foot is still aching, so I'm going to make a doctor's appointment to learn some excercises to strengthen the muscle as it heals. My doctor is also a sports medicine specialist. I lucked out.

The weather lately has been unseasonally warm, and the evening sky is usually painted bright orange and red. I've been taking walks lately, during my breaks from writing, to formulate ideas and solve phrasing problems.

I need to call my friends, finish my mid-terms, edit the play, cook French food and ride my bike. I'm writing an essay for a scholarship, due on Monday.

There are people living in other people's basements. And then, there are people living a hundred feet above the street. There is just too much light flashing past doors and windows, too many screeches and yells. Orange globes float over the sidewalk. A man and a woman walk together.

"How did we meet again? Tell me the story."
"Not now."
"Just tell me."

In every room, a television broadcasting. If I could ask, would everyone in this city report in with me? Something brief. Not just friends and family. The whole city. I want someone to clock in right about now.

Bring the End to a Dear Old Friend

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Originally uploaded by Decepticons Attack!.

I have to head to work to finish some stuff, then go to anthropology. I'm working towards the College Reading and Learning Association’s International Tutor Certification Program, or CRLA. There are three levels and I'm working on level two. The certificate is internationally recognized, so I could tutor for extra cash when we live in Slovenia. Slovenia? Wha? More later.

I just spent the last couple of minutes editing my past posts. Man, that is embareassing, er, embarrassing.

Go

Hot damn! Get on horses! Fire your pistols! In the air! Aim! High!

Let's go! Get on! Quit thinking! Don't smile! Don't speak! Look ahead!

Shoulders shake! Dance with snake! Level! Your! Sights!

Step! Down! Direction, go!

The only direction is go. If I ever, ever, hear back, stop or maybe there will be trouble. Trouble so deep and moist you get dirty just thinking about it. If you want to talk to me, your direction must be go.

And Now, Part Two.

Sorry.

The play is coming along nicely, but it is a challenge. I also have a take home mid-term, an English essay and my outline for my sociology paper all due within the same three wek period. This will be fun.

Fencing is going well. My left shoulder has been bothering me since Tuesday, and I'm still trying to master the counter-six and counter-four, plus my disengage is a little off. I found that displaying a little aggression works in some cases - charging a little can seem unsettling to an opponent.

Still haven't gotten around to check out aikido, but I know there are beginner's classes on Saturday. Archery is way too expensive for me at the moment, so I will follow the sport vicariously through books and the Olympics. I also want to learn some basic boxing, did I mention that already?

Right now I'm reading Paul Valery and Philip Larkin, plus some intro stuff on Barthes' semiotics and linguistics. I have been craving fiction lately, where is all the good fiction?

Part One.

Okay.

Last weekend L and ended up in Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon. It. Was. Fun. We left Saturday morning at 5:30 in the damn morning to meet our 6:15 bus. Luckily, we live really close to the bus terminal. The border was no problem; a grumpy, mumbling border guard at the crack of dawn will not prevent me from participating in my first con. Never. We took some food for ourselves and ate it up before we arrived at the border. When we finally got into Seattle we hustled to the hostel (not a spelling error, we did, in fact, stay in a hostel) which is five seconds away from the Pike Market Place. We had coffee and crumpets at this cute shop nearby and took a bus to the con. The local, downtown buses in Seattle are free! Didja know that? I think we spent only $2.50 on transit the whole time we were there. Anyway, the con was super busy - the line-up for Vasquez was long, like intestinal tract long, for the entire weekend. But I was there to meet Bendis, and Bendis I did meet. We attended his panel, which was basically a collection of Marvel writers answering questions from geeks in costumes (my favourite was the priest, WTF was that all about? Preacher? God, I hope so) and luckily, there were only a couple complaints about Hawkeye's death. I walked over to his table and he signed my Daredevil #40 - he was really cool. When the writers made fun of the questioning geeks at the panel, he totally validated the fans. He chatted with me briefly about #40 and how cool it was for him to work with some of his favourite artists. It was an incredible experience. I just hope my nervousness wasn't too obvious. I attended a few panels, like comic book history and self-publishing. I also picked up some old DD comics and met Tim Sale and Tony Harris. I never had a chance to meet Jim Woodring or Robert Kirkman. Oh well.

Seattle is awesome - most stuff is marginally cheaper, yeah, but everything is open later! We had Nepalese food on Saturday night, and L picked up hummus sandwiches from our favourite kosher deli. Seattle coffee is not overrated. And what about our heroine, L? How did she fare being around nerds all weekend? She was there for Saturday, but on Sunday we checked out the underground tour, where for ten bucks you can check out the old tunnels under Seattle. You also get a brief history lesson (whee!) that has inspired me a little to write about Vancouver. After the tour we went out for coffee because it started to rain and we wanted to warm up. So on Sunday we parted ways: I went to the con and L did a little touring of her own.

School and work has gotten interesting. My one act play is due Thursday and the school will be shut down on Monday from the strike. I haven't decided yet if I will picket. I can really use the time to finish my work, including an essay for a scholarship. I know, I know; it's my duty as union member to picket. More in sec, the library is closing.

Going, and gone.

I just remembered I have to write an update, but I have to get to class. Things on the table:

1. Emerald City Comicon
2. School
3. Fencing
4. Chinese New Year
5. Work
6. Seattle (relates to 1)
7. Projects
8. Purple prose

I'm feelin' 666

Hey! Hi. How are things. I'm fine. Just fine. Great. Okay, I've been a little bummed out.

I know I should be updating this thing more often, but my schedule is really tying me up. I do jot down notes as I go along, like ideas for stories and segments of poems that I want to explore and expand upon. Fencing is really fun - we actually got to wear the mask and armour, then sparred with partners after the warm-up and drills. My counter-four and counter-six really need a lot of work. The instructor told us not to be discouraged if we don't get it right away, the fact that we are learning the basics now rather than flailing about wildly is actually a better start to the sport. I sometimes feel as though I'm wasting the other student's time if I'm having trouble with a technique and screw up the exercise. I had to spar with another lefty, who is really talented, but my counters were all over the place. I thiink I'll ask him to spar to make up for it, so he can get a chance to really fence. But dear god above, I am so sore.

Lately I've been feeling like a fraud. In English class, the one class I cherish, I can't even talk. I spend at least ten hours on campus before I arrive at class, and by the time I get there I'm too tired to want to participate. There are these guys who sit in the back who totally dominate the class. And if you guessed they are all friends, you would be right. One of them is an excellent talker, that is, he sounds as though he's reciting from a text and makes it sound like his own words. I dunno, I could be wrong, I'm just a little bitter. But when I'm asked my thoughts on the text (Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants") I can give a response but when I'm asked for evidence all I can say is "I just got a feeling from it" and I swear I heard snickering in the back. I came to the conclusion I'm more of an intuition person than a "thinking" person - I feel my way through a situation before I find rational proofs.

Even at work I don't think I'm capable of doing the right job. Although, the other day I helped someone with their history paper and I was amazed how animated and inspired I got, and this is Canadian history, the most hated of them all! I'm just feeling a little ambivalent at work - am I actually doing a good job?

Listening to: dub, vintage punk rock, noize, and whatever violin music I can pick up.
Writing: poems, a play, comic, and ideas for short stories and scripts.
Want: a digital camera, to up the memory on the laptop.

And yes oh yes, L and I are heading out to Seattle for the Emerald City Comicon Saturday morning. Six A.M. baby!