Ian spoke to the landlady today and found out the thefts occured sometime in April. Yeah, great notice. Despite having the serial numbers (which we'll be reporting to the cops shortly) I doubt there's any chance of getting them back after this long. Might get lucky through the police auctions though so we'll see.
The heat has been damn depressing lately so I stayed in this afternoon to finish reading Half Blood Prince. SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT :I have to say it's a really fun book that got me all weepy by the end and no doubt will have kids in a funk all summer. I'll just reiterate what I said to friend today by saying who needs Ritalin when there's J.K. Rowling to bring the little buggers down? Love it. END SPOILER.
So the sun is setting and I'm getting my butt into the office. Hopefully it'll have cooled down enough to get a decent night's work in. Arms sticking to your drawing table is really gross.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Today started off okay. A little slow getting started, a nice lazy Sunday, and then we decided to go down to the bike storage room to check on our bikes to see if they'll be needing any work before using them this summer. Open up the door and...
Just the snapped Krypton lock lying on the floor.
FUCK!
Ian's was a birthday present I gave him last year. I hope whoever stole the bloody things gets their meth addicted head crushed under a bus!
Ian has just postured that would indeed be the sound it make too: METH!
Even when times are sucky that man can make me laugh.
Just the snapped Krypton lock lying on the floor.
FUCK!
Ian's was a birthday present I gave him last year. I hope whoever stole the bloody things gets their meth addicted head crushed under a bus!
Ian has just postured that would indeed be the sound it make too: METH!
Even when times are sucky that man can make me laugh.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
More lost sleep but this time for a good cause. We got up early to get out to the Library and see Harry and the Potters perform a free show. Wow, these guys are good! So much energy and of course they had the girls screaming. Bought a bunch of t-shirts and two cds, Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock and Ed DeGeorge's other band's album: Ed and the Refridgerators Get Excommunicated. I love this stuff.
Friday, July 22, 2005
People do realise that prolonged sleep deprivation causes psychosis right?
I actually confronted them this morning briefly to find out when the heck this damn project of theirs would be done and the woman assured me it would be today whereupon I grumpily paced about the apartment until I got really sleepy again and passed out to the sounds of some godawful machine outside. Overslept like crazy but still not feeling very rested.
Almost halfway through Half Blood Prince and am very excited about it. Wish I had more time to just sit and get through it all but it's going at a couple of chapters a night.
Jeez, now the neighbours next to the neighbours have their dog out and it's barking like crazy. There's nothing more disconcerting than parents who allow their little kids to try and discipline a large dog. Kids are generally mean little fuckers and it makes me feel for the animal who is obviously just confused as hell. Someone is going to get bitten and then it'll be the dog who suffers. Fuck I hate people today.
I actually confronted them this morning briefly to find out when the heck this damn project of theirs would be done and the woman assured me it would be today whereupon I grumpily paced about the apartment until I got really sleepy again and passed out to the sounds of some godawful machine outside. Overslept like crazy but still not feeling very rested.
Almost halfway through Half Blood Prince and am very excited about it. Wish I had more time to just sit and get through it all but it's going at a couple of chapters a night.
Jeez, now the neighbours next to the neighbours have their dog out and it's barking like crazy. There's nothing more disconcerting than parents who allow their little kids to try and discipline a large dog. Kids are generally mean little fuckers and it makes me feel for the animal who is obviously just confused as hell. Someone is going to get bitten and then it'll be the dog who suffers. Fuck I hate people today.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Yep, they're still at it.
I'm just remembering some cds Bunche sent me a while back, lots of obscure stuff with raunchy lyrics. If I were to position the stereo just so, taking into account optimum projection through the leaves... yep, the neighbour's next back yard dinner party should be interesting.
I'm just remembering some cds Bunche sent me a while back, lots of obscure stuff with raunchy lyrics. If I were to position the stereo just so, taking into account optimum projection through the leaves... yep, the neighbour's next back yard dinner party should be interesting.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Home again, home again, jiggedy jig!
Lucky for us we decided to pack before crashing on Sunday night because the wake up call we asked for never came and we woke up a half hour before we were set to leave. I'm amazed we made it through customs at all looking as bleary-eyed and unshowered as we did but we did. As soon as we got through the doors to Vancouver airport we b-lined to the nearest magazine stand and bought a copy of Half blood Prince (It came with a free tote bag!). I've managed to get three chapters in and so far I'm loving it. No spoilers.
The cats appreciated us being back, Charlie, a Balinese and for some reason genetically prone to neediness, was making a lot of noise and making it known that he needed to be held for several days straight. What a great cat. Kinsey and Augie were nonchalant as usual.
What an amazing weekend! So much happened and we had a really memorable, fun time. It's too bad we had to come home to more crap from the neighbours... Which I'll get into in a moment, but first I want to mention Brian's fabulous present of coolness!
So Saturday night we meet up at the Hyatt Bar and Ruth has this big, wrapped box. I open it and am stunned to see a shoulder bag, like any other computer bag but on the flap is this orange and white silk panel stitched into it and a label that says something about the International Space Station and the Soyuz mission. I immediately love it and think it's just so geeky cool because I'm a huge astronomy fan. But then Brian and Ruth say "Look inside, look inside!" (it was pretty loud in this bar), so I look and find a letter saying that panel of silk on the flap is actually parachute silk from the Soyuz Lander that was up in space for 194 days. And it's signed by the astronaut from that mission which happens to co-incide with events in One Small Step.
I burst into tears. It's the neatest thing ever and fucking wow! I start showing it to everyone in the bar. Joss Whedon was right there and I shove it in his face and say "Look! This was in space!" and everyone was patting it down and feeling the silk. All night I'm meeting people and everyone is patting down my Space Bag (as Tony Harris has Christened it). I am so on cloud nine.
So we get home and the neighbours are building a shed under our window.
Back story. The neighbours on the corner have this house, which they claim is Victorian but damn if it's not Edwardian, and they have been renovating it over the past three years. The first year we moved in we had to deal with a hellish five days in the summer where they decided to pave down the entire yard with elaborately cut cobble stones. Being as cheap as they apparently are, they felt it was a great idea to cut all the stones on site instead of having them cut elsewhere and brought in. The result: five days, from 9am to 9pm of a wet saw screaming through our morning sleep, meals, work and relaxation time. Friends of ours on the opposite side of the building from us were totally rattled, we were on the verge of having a total nervous breakdown. No warnings, no apologies.
So then they build this silly dinner tent under our balcony. Okay, it's tacky, whatever. They have dinner parties in it and play the same bloody Eagles CD over and over all night as they chatter about inane crap. Okay, they're boring, let it be. Then September comes. And the rains come. And the tent ROTS. My asthma gets triggered by all this mould and I'm just miserable from it. Winter comes and it gets doused with snow and one night... Providence. I'm working late into the night and suddenly I hear a loud SNAP! I rush out to the balcony and see the tent caved in from the weight of the snow. A very happy night indeed. The tent is soon taken down and life goes on.
Spring comes around and more reno work. Endless days of circular saws and hammering and loud contractors. We start to get used to it. We still seethe but it's ignorable.
Then last fall a giant sign goes up on their lawn, the kind you see in front of construction sites for townhomes. We learn that all this work has been to convert this tiny, three storey Victorian house into three STRATA condos starting at $395,000. Of course we just laugh our asses off at this. I just can't imagine paying so much for a basement suite! What a bunch of greedy assholes. And then they build another tent, I suppose to make it look more attractive. Ugh.
By spring the price has been marked down to $354,000 and a few months after that the giant condo ad is replaced by a small real estate company's for sale sign.
Last month we awoke to chain saws. It was jarring and unpleasant and we made our way to the balcony to see a couple of "landscapers" hacking up the giant fig tree in the yard. This beautiful fig tree's branches have reached over to our railing for the last three years and we've enjoyed stretching out for figs, lying under it's shade and listening to rain on the massive leaves. Half asleep our first reaction is "This is fucking awful! What the hell are you doing?"
The guy with the chainsaw is incredibly aggro and defensive and starts yelling up at us to fuck off, calling us names, screaming about "liability issues" and then turns to his silent stooge and says "nuke it to the property line!". In other words the guy with the husqvarna is fucking PSYCHO. We go back inside and fume.
In the end the tree is still there but thinned so we don't get as much privacy as we used to from those neighbours. Yay.
We begin talks about a possible move. The apartment rocks but fuck this noise. We decide to wait another year until after we get married, which oh yeah, we're doing next spring, woo hoo!
Monday afternoon we get back after maybe three hours sleep the night before (the annual Dead Dog party was too great to miss) and what do we hear? More saws, more hammering, and this great, big, stupid looking shed going up under our window. It starts up again this morning, 9am sharp. No warnings, no apologies. Not one iota of consideration for the people living nearby who have to put up with all this shit. How can people be such assholes?
Lucky for us we decided to pack before crashing on Sunday night because the wake up call we asked for never came and we woke up a half hour before we were set to leave. I'm amazed we made it through customs at all looking as bleary-eyed and unshowered as we did but we did. As soon as we got through the doors to Vancouver airport we b-lined to the nearest magazine stand and bought a copy of Half blood Prince (It came with a free tote bag!). I've managed to get three chapters in and so far I'm loving it. No spoilers.
The cats appreciated us being back, Charlie, a Balinese and for some reason genetically prone to neediness, was making a lot of noise and making it known that he needed to be held for several days straight. What a great cat. Kinsey and Augie were nonchalant as usual.
What an amazing weekend! So much happened and we had a really memorable, fun time. It's too bad we had to come home to more crap from the neighbours... Which I'll get into in a moment, but first I want to mention Brian's fabulous present of coolness!
So Saturday night we meet up at the Hyatt Bar and Ruth has this big, wrapped box. I open it and am stunned to see a shoulder bag, like any other computer bag but on the flap is this orange and white silk panel stitched into it and a label that says something about the International Space Station and the Soyuz mission. I immediately love it and think it's just so geeky cool because I'm a huge astronomy fan. But then Brian and Ruth say "Look inside, look inside!" (it was pretty loud in this bar), so I look and find a letter saying that panel of silk on the flap is actually parachute silk from the Soyuz Lander that was up in space for 194 days. And it's signed by the astronaut from that mission which happens to co-incide with events in One Small Step.
I burst into tears. It's the neatest thing ever and fucking wow! I start showing it to everyone in the bar. Joss Whedon was right there and I shove it in his face and say "Look! This was in space!" and everyone was patting it down and feeling the silk. All night I'm meeting people and everyone is patting down my Space Bag (as Tony Harris has Christened it). I am so on cloud nine.
So we get home and the neighbours are building a shed under our window.
Back story. The neighbours on the corner have this house, which they claim is Victorian but damn if it's not Edwardian, and they have been renovating it over the past three years. The first year we moved in we had to deal with a hellish five days in the summer where they decided to pave down the entire yard with elaborately cut cobble stones. Being as cheap as they apparently are, they felt it was a great idea to cut all the stones on site instead of having them cut elsewhere and brought in. The result: five days, from 9am to 9pm of a wet saw screaming through our morning sleep, meals, work and relaxation time. Friends of ours on the opposite side of the building from us were totally rattled, we were on the verge of having a total nervous breakdown. No warnings, no apologies.
So then they build this silly dinner tent under our balcony. Okay, it's tacky, whatever. They have dinner parties in it and play the same bloody Eagles CD over and over all night as they chatter about inane crap. Okay, they're boring, let it be. Then September comes. And the rains come. And the tent ROTS. My asthma gets triggered by all this mould and I'm just miserable from it. Winter comes and it gets doused with snow and one night... Providence. I'm working late into the night and suddenly I hear a loud SNAP! I rush out to the balcony and see the tent caved in from the weight of the snow. A very happy night indeed. The tent is soon taken down and life goes on.
Spring comes around and more reno work. Endless days of circular saws and hammering and loud contractors. We start to get used to it. We still seethe but it's ignorable.
Then last fall a giant sign goes up on their lawn, the kind you see in front of construction sites for townhomes. We learn that all this work has been to convert this tiny, three storey Victorian house into three STRATA condos starting at $395,000. Of course we just laugh our asses off at this. I just can't imagine paying so much for a basement suite! What a bunch of greedy assholes. And then they build another tent, I suppose to make it look more attractive. Ugh.
By spring the price has been marked down to $354,000 and a few months after that the giant condo ad is replaced by a small real estate company's for sale sign.
Last month we awoke to chain saws. It was jarring and unpleasant and we made our way to the balcony to see a couple of "landscapers" hacking up the giant fig tree in the yard. This beautiful fig tree's branches have reached over to our railing for the last three years and we've enjoyed stretching out for figs, lying under it's shade and listening to rain on the massive leaves. Half asleep our first reaction is "This is fucking awful! What the hell are you doing?"
The guy with the chainsaw is incredibly aggro and defensive and starts yelling up at us to fuck off, calling us names, screaming about "liability issues" and then turns to his silent stooge and says "nuke it to the property line!". In other words the guy with the husqvarna is fucking PSYCHO. We go back inside and fume.
In the end the tree is still there but thinned so we don't get as much privacy as we used to from those neighbours. Yay.
We begin talks about a possible move. The apartment rocks but fuck this noise. We decide to wait another year until after we get married, which oh yeah, we're doing next spring, woo hoo!
Monday afternoon we get back after maybe three hours sleep the night before (the annual Dead Dog party was too great to miss) and what do we hear? More saws, more hammering, and this great, big, stupid looking shed going up under our window. It starts up again this morning, 9am sharp. No warnings, no apologies. Not one iota of consideration for the people living nearby who have to put up with all this shit. How can people be such assholes?
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Sunday. Home stretch. I don't know what's been done differently this year but compared to past years this con had been so much easier to deal with. Oh sure, there's the Saturday night freak out where all the emotions finally bubble over and nothing but an amazingly patient boyfriend can help you ride it out. But the rest of it, the crowded aisles, the near psychotic outbursts of the frustrated and bug-eyed, the air conditioning... all seem to be running a lot smoother this year. I've managed to navigate the hall without so much as a shove or a stepped on foot. And best of all, no mystery clouds of B.O. to jump out at you when you least expect. Everyone is being hygenic and polite this year. It's great.
I got this amazing present from Brian yesterday. It's too stunning to recount now as I have to boot it out to a signing, but stay tuned. More info tonight.
:)
I got this amazing present from Brian yesterday. It's too stunning to recount now as I have to boot it out to a signing, but stay tuned. More info tonight.
:)
Saturday, July 16, 2005
San Diego.
Again.
Man this is such an overwhelming place, but for once I'm having a very relaxing time of it. The flight down was wonderful and hassle free. The hotel is great. The people have been fabulous, my sister is here and we had a hoot of a time doing a spotlight panel together and Brian won Best Writer last night at the Eisners. Not only that but I had the amazing honour of announcing it to the world as the presenter.
Like I said, overwhelming.
I want to go into details but right now I have to get my ass to the con and do some signings at the booth.
Again.
Man this is such an overwhelming place, but for once I'm having a very relaxing time of it. The flight down was wonderful and hassle free. The hotel is great. The people have been fabulous, my sister is here and we had a hoot of a time doing a spotlight panel together and Brian won Best Writer last night at the Eisners. Not only that but I had the amazing honour of announcing it to the world as the presenter.
Like I said, overwhelming.
I want to go into details but right now I have to get my ass to the con and do some signings at the booth.
Sunday, July 3, 2005
If you're planning to take up astronomy as a hobby I would suggest Vancouver not be the place you expect to get a lot of results.
For months I've been waiting to see the Nasa spacecraft known as Deep Impact slam into comet Tempel 1 just outside the constellation of Virgo. My sister's balcony has a fabulous view of the southwestern sky and we were hoping to have a star party; snacks, some drinks, a pair of scopes and binoculars for everyone to share... but damnit the sky is completely overcast!
Granted it's not even that big of a light show. Some people have been exaggerating the extent of the flash to be seen, desribing it on on par with fireworks. Some of the more extreme factions of the Art Bell crowd have been throwing around speculation that this little thing will divert course as a result and cause an extinction level event on earth. Really, we're talking teeny magnitudes here. The comet is barely visible at mag 9 and will only brighten to about mag 6. For a comparison, Jupiter, which is just to the right of Virgo is mag -1.9, Neptune is 7.8. The higher the magnitude, the fainter the object.
But even so, I wanted to see it! I like looking at little fuzzballs in the sky. I love the idea that I could see a man-made event take place nearly an entire Astronomical Unit away. It's like being able to catch a glint of light off a moon landing! It's exciting!
But no geeky fun for me tonight.
For months I've been waiting to see the Nasa spacecraft known as Deep Impact slam into comet Tempel 1 just outside the constellation of Virgo. My sister's balcony has a fabulous view of the southwestern sky and we were hoping to have a star party; snacks, some drinks, a pair of scopes and binoculars for everyone to share... but damnit the sky is completely overcast!
Granted it's not even that big of a light show. Some people have been exaggerating the extent of the flash to be seen, desribing it on on par with fireworks. Some of the more extreme factions of the Art Bell crowd have been throwing around speculation that this little thing will divert course as a result and cause an extinction level event on earth. Really, we're talking teeny magnitudes here. The comet is barely visible at mag 9 and will only brighten to about mag 6. For a comparison, Jupiter, which is just to the right of Virgo is mag -1.9, Neptune is 7.8. The higher the magnitude, the fainter the object.
But even so, I wanted to see it! I like looking at little fuzzballs in the sky. I love the idea that I could see a man-made event take place nearly an entire Astronomical Unit away. It's like being able to catch a glint of light off a moon landing! It's exciting!
But no geeky fun for me tonight.
And speaking of Harry Potter...
The San Diego comic con is in two weeks. On the Friday of the con the new Potter book will be released at midnight. A bunch of us are planning to join the huge line-up expected at the downtown Barnes & Nobles. Great atmosphere, little kids dressed up in costume, goofy adults dressed up in costume, lots of lightening bolt temp tatoos no doubt. I was really looking forward to this... until I remembered something: the US edition of the Potter books are usually edited to change words like "jumper" to "sweater", "philosopher's stone" to "sorcerer's stone" etc. to make it easier for the yanks to understand.
Now, I'm torn! Do I get the US edition and then buy the Canadian/Brit one when we get back to Vancouver?! I was hoping to start reading this right away! Will I have to start from scratch when we get back?! Will I just have to WAIT through the whole weekend to find out what happens?! AAAGH!
These are the things I think about. Aren't you lucky I decided to start blogging more?
The San Diego comic con is in two weeks. On the Friday of the con the new Potter book will be released at midnight. A bunch of us are planning to join the huge line-up expected at the downtown Barnes & Nobles. Great atmosphere, little kids dressed up in costume, goofy adults dressed up in costume, lots of lightening bolt temp tatoos no doubt. I was really looking forward to this... until I remembered something: the US edition of the Potter books are usually edited to change words like "jumper" to "sweater", "philosopher's stone" to "sorcerer's stone" etc. to make it easier for the yanks to understand.
Now, I'm torn! Do I get the US edition and then buy the Canadian/Brit one when we get back to Vancouver?! I was hoping to start reading this right away! Will I have to start from scratch when we get back?! Will I just have to WAIT through the whole weekend to find out what happens?! AAAGH!
These are the things I think about. Aren't you lucky I decided to start blogging more?
Okay, here's something I am crazy excited about! One of my favourite bands, Harry and the Potters will be playing at the Vancouver Public Library on July 23rd! Yeah, it's geeky but these guys are fun! The songs are catchy and infectious (Save Ginny Weasley), charming (My Teacher is a Werewolf) and even tuggy on the heartstrings (Two Weeks of My Summer Left and These Days are Dark). Hopefully they'll have their follow-up album Voldemort Can't Stop The Rock for sale that day because I'm bringing my wallet. Harry Potter fans will get a big kick out of these guys so spread the word y'all.
Saturday, July 2, 2005
So I'm a bit bummed about not being able to have my server host this blog. They said it had something to do with their whole system needing to be changed and they weren't intent on doing anything so here we are. Blah.
Anyway, a friend of mine was bugging me about posting more so I'll make more of an effort to do so. I guess I became discouraged when I started getting e-mails and message board posts from my father that made me reluctant. I suppose I should fill you in on some of this in case you're confused. My father is a deadbeat. He's incredibly self centered, unreliable and devoid of compassion. Sociopathic is the word I think I'm grabbing for here. He took off when I was 17 to go shack up with a hair dresser and a gaggle of foster kids. He gave no support whatsoever to myself or my sister. He promised to help at every turn and very patiently, we waited for that support which never came. In my mid twenties I attempted to patch things up with him but again I was left overwhelmingly disappointed when promise after promise went up in smoke. My sister was nearly bankrupted as a result.
I no longer have a relationship with him. I feel it's for the best because not only is there the unreliable factor involved, he's just a complete stranger to me now and I have no desire to get to know him again. I get these notes from him from time to time and they just make me so angry because he makes these statements of being so proud of my accomplishments which to me feels like he's laying claim on them somehow, like he had a part in who I am now which would be laughable if it weren't so outrageous.
Knowing that he was visiting my site and reading my posts made me want to take it back, to tell him "No, you can't have this, it's mine and I share it only with my family and friends". I tried solving this problem the wrong way, I kept the things I wanted to share just so I could keep him from living vicariously through this site. Well fuck that. It's my life and I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to talk about cool news on the Y front, about things I find online, about my life and my family and my friends. But first I have to lay this down: Everything I've achieved happened despite my father. I learned to break out of some awful cycles simply because I did not want to end up like him and I did that by doing the exact opposite of what he did. I chose the life I wanted. I made a plan. I stuck with it. I jumped at the opportunities when they presented themselves. I didn't bail when I got bored or frustrated or angry. I kept my promises. When I screw up I do my best to fix it.
That's how you find happiness. It's really quite simple.
And now on to my blog...
Anyway, a friend of mine was bugging me about posting more so I'll make more of an effort to do so. I guess I became discouraged when I started getting e-mails and message board posts from my father that made me reluctant. I suppose I should fill you in on some of this in case you're confused. My father is a deadbeat. He's incredibly self centered, unreliable and devoid of compassion. Sociopathic is the word I think I'm grabbing for here. He took off when I was 17 to go shack up with a hair dresser and a gaggle of foster kids. He gave no support whatsoever to myself or my sister. He promised to help at every turn and very patiently, we waited for that support which never came. In my mid twenties I attempted to patch things up with him but again I was left overwhelmingly disappointed when promise after promise went up in smoke. My sister was nearly bankrupted as a result.
I no longer have a relationship with him. I feel it's for the best because not only is there the unreliable factor involved, he's just a complete stranger to me now and I have no desire to get to know him again. I get these notes from him from time to time and they just make me so angry because he makes these statements of being so proud of my accomplishments which to me feels like he's laying claim on them somehow, like he had a part in who I am now which would be laughable if it weren't so outrageous.
Knowing that he was visiting my site and reading my posts made me want to take it back, to tell him "No, you can't have this, it's mine and I share it only with my family and friends". I tried solving this problem the wrong way, I kept the things I wanted to share just so I could keep him from living vicariously through this site. Well fuck that. It's my life and I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to talk about cool news on the Y front, about things I find online, about my life and my family and my friends. But first I have to lay this down: Everything I've achieved happened despite my father. I learned to break out of some awful cycles simply because I did not want to end up like him and I did that by doing the exact opposite of what he did. I chose the life I wanted. I made a plan. I stuck with it. I jumped at the opportunities when they presented themselves. I didn't bail when I got bored or frustrated or angry. I kept my promises. When I screw up I do my best to fix it.
That's how you find happiness. It's really quite simple.
And now on to my blog...
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