journal [archive]

May 21, 2004
.5:03 PM
thugs.

It was lunch time on a friday afternoon when me and my buddy decided to go and drop by shopper's drug mart to grab some goods. I had a particular craving for chocolate bars, so I walked to the candy section to check out their selection of sugary treats. We quickly decided what we were each buying and proceeded to the check-out lines. My buddy stood in one line while I stood in the other. While paying for her merchandise, the lady in front of me dropped her wallet. I was about to help pick it up for her, but I decided to wait about 15 seconds. Assuming that she didn't know that she had dropped her wallet, I proceeded to bend down and reach for it. As soon as I touched the wallet, she snatched it out of my hands with a firm grip and without any hesitation. I could see her eyeing my hands to make sure I didn't actually steal anything from her coin purse. When I looked at her face I could tell she was trying hard to ignore me. When our eyes met, I got an unhealthy dose of shut-eye. She wanted nothing to do with criminals like me - criminals that help people recover their wallets. God forbid, people like us are quite possibly the lowest scum on earth.

So what's wrong with this picture? When did I turn into a badass? How about never. People say I have this "goody-goody" look which is a blessing and curse I suppose. It all depends on the situation of course.

I suppose I have to give the woman some credit, though. She was just playing it safe. Everyone knows that a shopper's drug mart check-out line is one of the most dangerous places to be especially at 1pm. Add the fact that one needs to open one's wallet to pay for goods, and you're one step closer to an orange terror alert. Think about it - a thief could easily reach in there and take all your money or worse yet, steal your wallet. I don't know what I would do if someone took my Mr. Sub loyalty card with one stamp.

People like to assume the worst I guess. You assume the worst when you watch city pulse every night and count the number of crimes that have occurred in the past 24 hours. Toronto is a dangerous city. Whenever a visible minority commits a crime, the full details are given. If it happened in Scarborough, the media will let you know that loud and clear. We must be living in a dangerous city. I guess we should all treat each other as terrorists and enemies. Trust nobody. Everyone keep to ourselves. I say that jokingly, but in reality that's sort of the way Torontonians treat each other.


March 5, 2004
.2:52 PM
Maybe March will be a less busy month for me. Here's hoping for 2 updates this month - if we're lucky.

One of the problems of not updating this enough, is that when I do update it, I feel obligated to do a status report on what I've done in the last month. This entry will be no different.

February was an interesting and busy month. I finally moved into my new place on my birthday with the help of my pops and S. We were fortunate that we only had about 3 minivan loads to move so it wasn't too painful. The bed and couch were purchase from "Integrity Pricing" Leon's and were delivered on the wednesday of the following week. The same day, Rogers came and installed cable tv and internet at my place. After setting up the wireless router, I was able to find that my neighbours also had wireless routers that were not secured with WEP. Perhaps if I were unethical, I could have just freeloaded off their Internet. But I think Rogers needs my $$ badly, so I've gotta help out them out.

The week following all that I left for cancun. You're probably wondering why the heck I'm doing everything in such a short time span. You see, this trip was planned out before November and in hindsight, if I had known I'd be moving in February, I probably wouldn't have committed to the trip.

In any case the trip was fun and the weather was gorgeous, but I couldn't help but think about how much I missed the people back home a few times during the trip. I felt a little selfish for not going with S but I don't think she was upset at me. I hope. S is going back to Japan for 3 weeks before returning here in less than a week. Sure I'm a little bit bummed by it all, but the knowing that she's returning in early April makes it all so much better.

I'll have more free time in the next 3 weeks. Maybe I can catch some more reality tv and watch Will "Hong Kong Ricky Maatin" Hung get exploited more.



February 1, 2004
.9:17 PM
Well, my condo hunting is complete. I've settled on a place at yonge/finch. I am currently waiting for all the paper work for the mortgage to be settled. Once that is done, I will officially own a condo on the 13th of February. Exciting. Scary.

I have some mixed feelings about leaving my townhouse in the hood (scarborough). For the last one and a half years, living in scarborough has toughened me up and definitely made me more paranoid about walking up Birchmount from Shepherd after midnight. I'll also miss riding the #17 bus to Warden and all the sketchy individuals that I have had the pleasure to meet.

But most of all I'll miss my crazy landlady who's awkwardness has actually worsened since the beginning when I moved here.

I'll miss the summers when she turned off the air conditioning in the middle of the night just to save electricity. I'll miss the day that she fucked up her cable modem because she kept turning the damn thing on and off all the time. When the rogers technician came over and told her not to keep turning the thing on and off she was angered because leaving the thing on would add another 0.05 to the monthly electricity bill.

But best of all, I loved the times she would randomly disconnect everyone in the house from the Internet because she claimed that we were all stealing her internet. Conveniently for me, one time I was in the middle of doing an Internet banking transaction too. I tried explaining to her that at night time a lot of people are using the Internet in the neighborhood so the connection is slow for everyone. It was like trying to speak verbally to the blind and deaf. It was like she couldn't hear me and she couldn't see my lips moving. What was the point of arguing or explaining? It's my fault that I'm using too much internet in my banking transaction. Shame on me.

Or the few times she yelled at me for talking too loud on my cell phone. Nobody complains when she's yelling on her phone gossiping with her friends. Oh did you know so-and-so is pregnant? omg! Did you know so-and-so's gained so much weight? Not that I'm really listening to it of course. But even with my tv cranked up in my room, sometimes I get a little taste of the conversation whether I like it or not. Gossiping. Talking shit about others. It's something to make ourselves feel better.

Can anything good be said about my experience living here? Maybe. It's fucking cheap to live here. I get cable tv. I get cable internet. I get a decent sized room. I get the top shelf on the fridge -- which is also the most spacious. 90% of the time I don't see the landlady.

Please forgive me for selling out and moving to north york. Scarborough will always have a special place in my heart. I have a bullet lodged in there to remind me to always always keep it real.



January 13, 2004
.5:23 PM
New year. New things. New resolutions. Review old resolutions. What were my old resolutions? I don't know. It's strange how some things we just forget about or keep pushing off. I'm kind of like that with resolutions. I need measurable goals. Wait no I don't. Or maybe I do. I don't know. Some things you can't measure quantitatively, so what do you do? Make a list in your head and tell yourself to do it. A year later you'll realize that you did none of the things you set out to do. Oh well and the cycle continues.

Most people don't really care about resolutions after January. It's like saying fuck it I tried to end world hunger for one month but I failed so i'm giving up. Try again next year. It's not like it's going away anytime soon, right?

You can probably tell by this meaningless cwazy drivel that my mind seems to be everywhere these days. My life used to be divided into well defined time chunks. Each of them independent with virtually no overlap. There's the time for myself. The time at work. The time with friends. The time with friends. The time for the family.

Right now there are too things on my plate. The gf intersects all aspects of my life which is definitely more of a good thing than bad thing... but it means sacrificing my other time chunks for her. And of course I'm in the market to purchase a condo sometime soon so my money hungry real estate agent pesters me all the time at work, at home, when i'm with my gf, when i'm with friends.

And the biggest struggle for me right now is to make time for everyone.

Maybe in a month, things will be less hectic and I can stop neglecting everyone around me.

I'm tired.

This is my monthly post. Expect an update in 2 months. Maybe sooner. I don't know.


December 10, 2003
.1:27 PM
It seems like I update this thing once a month now. Soon I'll be posting once a year.

Anyway here's a quick recap of November: (listed in point form because I'm lazy)
- went to Lee's Palace to go see Prefuse 73 and Manitoba with P
- Oscar Peterson live @ roy thompson hall w/ S
- got all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed
- back in the groove of playing badminton again semi-regularly
- the focus group (pure jokes)
- did NOT go see the Matrix Revolutions.
- bought a new pocketpc. (dude i've got a dell :o)
- kept it real.



What's on tap for december? I'm working until Dec 24, and then I'm taking Dec 25-Jan2 off. Last week of december and new year's will be spent in the arctic (Montreal/Ottawa) /w S. Xmas and boxing day will be spent at home with the family.






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