The air conditioner stopped working sometime yesterday and it hasn't fixed itself in the corner of the office where I work. The heat has become fairly distracting and I've been making frequent trips to the water cooler to replenish my lost liquids. After a while, my body actually climatises itself to the surroundings, but everytime I get up to walk a couple of metres away from my desk, I am greated with a refreshing burst of cool conditioned air. The worst part of the day was returning back to my desk and facing the localized heatwave.
Walking around outside in the hot but breezy air was actually more refreshing than sitting at my desk. I'm partially convinced that there might be heat blowing out of that vent.
.3:06 PM
Yet another post about the blackout.
I couldn't sleep thursday night. I kept waking up throughout the night in the hopes that my alarm clock would be flashing 12:00. i wanted a sign that my electricity was back but it was not to be. I even had a few dreams of the electricty in the building being restored and that I had to get ready for work. They seemed so genuine and real until, of course when I gained consciousness. It reads kind of like a cliched hollywood script that throws in dream sequences for a lack of a better way of telling a story. But I assure you this was no script.
So I woke up friday morning. Despite a lack of sleep the night before, I was wide awake. I looked at the intersection. The lights were not working. I still had no electricity. I called around only to find out there was no work today. So, what the hell was I gonna do? I got dressed and made my way to the variety store around the corner from where I live to purchase a copy of the globe and mail. Along the way, I found broken glass from the windows and doors of variety stores that had been broken into over night. Just one more confirmation that yes, I do live in the hood.
It's quite shocking that people would take advantage of a situation like this. In times of need, people are looting. It's quite ridiculous. I suppose it's only marginally worse than shopkeeps who gauge the public by charging $3.50 for bread or 99.9 for gasoline. It's supply and demand. I'm told it's simple economics. Everyone's doing it - so it must be right?
So I went back home on friday afternoon because I was still without power and I was starting to run out of things to do and quite frankly, I was getting a little annoyed by my landlady complaining to me that she was out of bread and that she had nothing to eat. Yes it sucks but there are people in third world countries that have nothing to eat indefinitely. Putting things in perspective, doing without bread for one or two days really is nothing to complain about. Or maybe our society is just selfish.
London was more fortunate. The power there was restored early friday morning. For the duration of my stay, there were no blackouts and although Friday and Saturday were quite humid, the temperature cooled off a lot for Sunday which made sleeping in the townhouse a little more bearable.
.2:37 PM
i got this from a mailinglist this morning.. check it:
btw, if someone gets the lenscrafters analogy he uses, can you please email me to explain it to me? cuz i don't get it.
Stayin' out the way
Where I live, there's an expression that those who aren't trying to
get swept up in the thug/playa/drug dealer mentality say when we're
asked how we're doing. That phrase is the title of the post: Stayin'
out the way.
"Hey, Jim, what you been up to?"
"Mostly working and doin' artwork. You know, stayin' out of the way"
It's the new mantra of those that are trying to make something of
themselves through legal means. If I see one of my old friends who's
gone down that "other road" I'll still talk to 'em for a lil' bit.
They don't hassle me about my never getting into trouble like they
did when we were kids. These days, it's about what's goin' on in the
area, Hip-Hop music, movies, sports, games, so on and so forth. I try
to get some political stuff flowing every now and again. No matter
what they're doing now (as long as they're not killing or hurting
people), they are still my friends and were more truthful to me than
many of the ones who went to church every Sunday or got good grades.
Still, I don't hang around them too much, because you never know when
their other road is going to intersect with one of those bumps or
come to a dead end. And if I just happen to be there at that time,
I'd be just as dead, because bullets know noting of virtue and thugs
know nothing of LensCrafters. Some friends and I were near a drive-by
shooting a few years ago, and I can tell you that anyone who finds
that kind of thing glamorous is a dumb ass bastard or bitch. I can't
think of one thing that was fun about it. Not at all.
Every once in a while, I'll run into another friend who's tryin' to
stay out of the way as well. Usually, it's my friend Q, who I've
known since Junior High School and is even more dead serious about
Hip-Hop than I am (if you can imagine that!). Sometimes, a crowd of
younger cats hang around to listen what we're talking about
(especially if it's politics or Hip-Hop). Most of them have the "I
don't care" look on their faces... the look that they're parents may
have had when they should've been paying attention to them. But out
of that crowd, there's 1 or 2 that are taking it info in, but can't
let it be known that they're listening. Me and Q know because that
was us about 10 years earlier. As they leave, they give us an
additional nod to let us know that they understood what we were
talkin' about. And those are the ones that give me a little bit of
hope for the future.
August 6, 2003
.5:03 PM
usually when i can't get a song out of my head it's usually one with an infectious melody or lyrics so real that they get you going mmhmm. you know - something like "i am getting so hot i wanna take my clothes off". you know what i'm saying? but yesterday after work, i couldn't get dirty three's "I Offered It Up To The Stars & The Night Sky" out of my head. Well, not all 13 minutes of it but the last section of the song. i replayed the part where the violin, guitar and drums come together and crash into one another creating a wall of sound that can only be described as intense. the drumming at the end really is beautiful. like an artist using his entire palette and every brush he owns to create the right feeling.
It's loose but controlled.
Sparse but so full of colour.
Like an orchestra with 3 people.
August 4, 2003
.10:09 PM
with the steady stream of reality tv shows on the loose, the world of tv seems to have lost it's creative edge. not that there was ever a lot of that in the first place. so we throw in a little more money. throw in some more steamy scenes. throw in a predictable
twist and you've got the making of a new reality tv series.
i can't really justify why i've been watching 'for love or money II' the last two consecutive mondays. maybe it's because nothing else is on at 9pm. maybe it's because i accidentally left the tv on after watching canadian idol. or maybe maybe maybe the suspense is
killing me. not really.
so i wonder how a show like this would be received in a culture that isn't quite so materialistic. a culture that values quality of life over money.
a culture that doesn't understand our buy-buy-buy lifestyles. whatever happened to sitcoms like alf, full house or family matters? these shows actually taught life lessons other than sex and money. maybe it's just a convenient distraction for us while the u.s. government bombs 3rd world countries in the hopes of freeing them from terrorism. or even more scary, maybe we've been brainwashed into enjoying these shows.
August 3, 2003
.11:17 PM
The #17 birchmount bus is always full of surprises. Today was no exception. As I was about to take a seat near the back, a man in his mid to late 20's began asking someone to "come here n' take a look at this". Not immediately realizing that he was talking to me, I simply ignored him and took my place. He kept asking me to "come here a minute". He had a laptop unfolded across his lap.
"How do you use this thing?", he asked.
Not wanting to get too chummy with a sketchy looking stranger, I simply replied "well you hit this button ....".
"This is sweeet! Nice laptop, huh?" he exclaimed.
I shrugged.
"You want this laptop? a thousand bucks!"
I shrugged again.
"Man this is like like a four thousand dollar laptop."
Eventually he lowered the price to $500 but it was fairly obvious that his property was hot. Realizing that he couldn't sell his wares to anyone, he eventually got off at Eglington. Perhaps he had better luck going westbound.