Sweetus Interruptus

Last Friday Shani's mother passed through town as she was driving a moving truck back to Vancouver Island for her cousin. Plans were completely up in the air as no one really knew what was going on for sure. In addition I had my sister and her family here still. Luckily my sister took her family to the lake for the weekend. So I just get rid of some family when I hear that Shani is with hers in a hotel here on the south side.

I was invited to join them in the hotel pool, so I headed over there. The first thing I hear when I walk in the door is Shani saying, "I'm going back to the Island with my Mom for a visit. Would you like to come?" I'm a little flabbergasted and surprised as apparently they're leaving the next morning bright and early. I told her we'd talk about it later.

So we hung around the pool, and lucky me Shani's moms cousin also has a young rambunctious boy. After that it seemed like people were just going to hang around the hotel room, and hit the bed early so they could get an early start. One area where Shani is unlike her mom apparently. So Shani and I headed out to the big mall to see a movie, and to discuss stuff. We saw the Island, and I was pleasantly surprised. Better than I thought it would be. There is a few really emotional moments in the beginning that are quite powerful. Ewan MacGregor and Scarlet Johanson also do excellent jobs playing the bewildered clones that just want to live, and maybe find a little happiness.

The long and the short of it is that I knew I couldn't go with them. Even without the monetary issues I had noticed that the conditions would be extremely cramped for the journey with four adults, one child, one large german shepard, and one pug. The pug really decided it for me. I hate pugs; they are ugly stupid dogs that make snorting sounds, and have a boatload of health problems. Pug rescue society where do I sign up?

I'm joking a little of course, I really was tempted to go for a little bit. I do like the Island (Vancouver, not the one with all the clones), and a vacation would have been nice with Shani as the likelihood of us going somewhere this year is not good. The biggest desire though was to do something spontaneous. I've never really done anything like that.

Obviously this is an area where Shani and I differ. With her I never know which direction the wind is blowing from day to day. It's exciting, but also often a source of conflict between us. Hopefully one day we'll settle on a happy medium.

So she headed out, and I stayed here. She told me she would be back in a week, but I knew that was never going to happen. As it turns out I was right as she's still gone. Almost immediately I was worried as she has talked to me a few times about moving to the Island, and her Mom has offered to put us up for a while. My fear was that she would choose to remain there, although I knew that her family would be driving her crazy in a few days and she'd be glad to come back.

So I've been flying solo this week, and I must say I don't miss the single life. Of course I wasn't too solo as my sister's family returned to stay with us again. All the old stuff that filled my life isn't as interesting as it used to be. Stuff like computer games, roleplaying, comics, and books used to be my life.

I'll stop now before I get too mushy, but suffice it to say that I like the fullness that Shani brings to my life, and I do miss her.

Cya soon Bebe.

Turmoil in Purgatory

It's quite sad that I couldn't use the original title that came to me here, "Trouble in Paradise". What's even sadder is the reason I couldn't was because I play in a live game called Paradise, and it could get confusing. Leave me alone it's been a long day.

So everything I'm going to talk about is old news already in my circles, but please bear with me as I've been out of the loop.

Firstly, and much less serious is the fact that Purgatory had to be postponed because someone very important to the story couldn't make it. I was completely fine with that, and I quickly realized that there was no way the organizers were going to move the game to the week before. It had been my preference because Shani and I were thinking about heading out for some camping on the fifth of August. Oh well the majority spoke, and I knew the 22nd wasn't at all feasible.

On an unrelated note has anyone noticed as an adult how few weekends there seems to be in summer.

Anyways a few other people voice their concerns about the postponement on the Purgatory forums, and what they said completely crystallized the argument for me. On one hand you have the importance of plot where the game revolves around the story, and the character's place within it. So if someone who is absolutely necessary to the story can't make it to the game you have no game. This is common sense except for the fact that it brings out vividly the negatives of the story driven game. Obviously not everyone can take main stage so some people are going to be the bit players in a game with a lot of people.

Now I realize there is a million factors here especially in a game like Vampire where everyone has different abilities giving them different ways they can affect the story. There's the question of character, of your access to the story, and so on.

The other approach is the game where there is no real story, or one that only lasts for a single game. The players here would be in charge of their own amusement generally, and making their own stories. With this kind of approach no one is indispensible, and you could certainly run a game even with a lot of people missing.

Now that I've babbled I'd have to say that I prefer the story way. To me it's much more familiar to my tabletop roots. Every gamemaster has had to cancel a game at one point or another because a player that the current plot revovled around couldn't make it. Of course with a big live game it must be incredibly difficult to balance this. After all you have dozens of players with a very limited number of sessions to tell all the stories. It really requires people to take joy in watching other people's stories, and even though I like to have my finger in every pie I must say this is a big part of my enjoyment of Purgatory. Of course I hate not knowing everyone's secrets, and I'm dying for the game to end so I can hear what everyone was up to.

The second thing I will discuss very briefly as I really don't want to dredge up bad feelings on this again. A little over a week ago some anonymous person made a blog, and filled it up with personal information about people in my circle. Most of the stuff he had gotten from their blogs, but some of it had to come from other sources. I mustv'e been tired that night, but when I read it it really didn't spark a reaction. I think for a while I even thought that it was a genuine effort at research. Of course it wasn't, and many of my friends reacted negatively as they should have. A few of them contemplated removing their blogs after this invasion of their privacy.

Part of me at the time said; Whats the big deal? These people put their information on the internet already. If they didn't want it there they shouldn't have blogged. I think the big problem though is it how it could affect someone's job. I'm sure everyone has heard stories of people being fired for stuff on their blogs, and it's terrifying to think about how easy it would be for someone at your work to do a search on the company name and have your blog come up with stuff that could be looked at negatively.

The other big thing was the motivation behind this. Why would someone do this? For a joke? To teach everyone a lesson? They had too much time on their hands? I might be a little naive, but I tend to only see the good in people. My thought was that it was maybe a little joke on the people, and the person responsible didn't realize the full implications.

The badness continued though as people naturally talked about their suspicions about who this mysterious person was. Obviously it had to be someone who knew his. This made things worse, and there was from what I hear a small witch hunt for the perpetrator.

It's done now, and over. If there was a lesson there it was definitely learned by the people involved. Like I said earlier I don't want to bring this up again. Just needed to talk this out with myself as I haven't been to Thursday night Boston Pizza in a couple of weeks (possibly a new record for me since the first Purgatory chronicle started). Sadly the odds don't look good for me going tonight either. Not good news as I have a million things to do with all of the assorted games that I play, and I do miss just chatting with the people.

I Can't Think of a Good Title

Boy I'm really going to be in trouble when I really can't think of a title down the road.

Well a week has passed, so it must be time for a new update. I know the problem is not that I have anything to write as I can always go on a rant for a few paragraphs, but laziness and time wasted playing World of Warcraft. At least I started fixing my blog template. Although now I am looking at my friend's new template for his blog, and eyeing it jealously.

So as my said my sister, her husband, and their kids came to visit and the usual hijinks ensued. My niece is 12 and already beginning her teenage phase. She's moody, quiet, stubborn, and she prefers to be by herself reading. I was the same at that age though where my favorite thing was to sit in my room and read endlessly. She also unfrotunately found out that I have the Sims 2, and she spends my valuable computer time endlessly making new characters. I'm not sure if she's actually made it to the game part yet.

My nephew is six, and the source of a lot of the stress. He is constantly butting heads with my parents who are really not used to kids, and don't realize normal kid behaviour when they see it. My parents have always been really strict at meal times, and it's a crime in my house to refuse food. Well my nephew is incredibly picky, and there has been a couple of meals where war has broken out with screaming, and crying. I get the definite impression that his parents take a much more relaxed approach to dinner where he never has to eat what he doesn't want. Luckily he hasn't done anything like the stories my sister has told me yet. He sprayed the hose inside of the house of friend's of theirs, and he cut up their sofa with scissors. I have to laugh because I don't think you can avoid that kind of stuff completely when you have kids, and most importantly they're not mine

However what is not funny to me is being woken up in the morning by a hyperactive child jumping on me when I have stayed up late the night before, and I am sleeping on the uncomfortable couch. Then he proceeded to go on a long discussion about how gorilla's lived in trees while I thought about the odds that a jury would find me not-guilty of murder because of extreme duress.

There's a bunch of other stuff about their visit, but I think I should be cautious in what I say.

I had another interesting experience this week. Late Wednesday night I was taking Shani home, and I drove through a large manmade construction pothole. There was a strange flapping sound for a little bit that I assumed was just from the mud flaps when it stopped. Further down on the Capilano the sound comes back louder, and I can feel something is wrong. I know that I should stop immediately but I'm on the freeway. So I slow down and pull into those emergency space that they have on the ends of most bridges. Sure enough the tire is flat, and worse the rim has a huge dent in it.

Shani was saying that we should call some roadside assistance thingy, but I am a man and I need no assistance on the road, or on the side of it either for that matter. Despite my bravado I proceeded cautiously as I have never actually changed a tire in emergency conditions, or with the particular tools that were available to me. I did manage to put the spare on relatively painlessly in the pouring rain, and we continued on with me feeling all proud and macho.

There's some other stuff going on, but I'll pace myself and try to post more frequently.

Hurdles

So another week passed, and nothing accomplished. Although I had an excuse this week. On Monday I came down with a cold as I mentioned, and it completely drained my will to do anything slightly constructive.

Which was unfortunate as I had vowed to myself that I was going to have a productive week. Full of cleaning and organizing all my junk which takes up an entire room. I've been really meaning to cut down on my material posessions, which is difficult for me as I love to collect stuff.

I was also planning on becoming more active, and hopefully losing some weight. It kind of crept up on me, but I've noticed lately and the scale has confirmed that I'm getting a little chubby especially in the tummy region. I know I'm not a young pup anymore, and I know I need to start worrying about my health more. I've never really had any major health concerns, and I take it for granted that it will always remain that way. A bad idea I guess.

Anyways it always seemed like something gets in the way when I want to do something constructive. Like this sickness. Of course it is most often my own procrastination that does me in, or laziness if you prefer. For example look at my blog. I still haven't fixed the template even though I'm on my computer all the time, and Dave sent me a copy of his to work from. It's truly sad.

I need to start making lists like I did at work. They reminded me of stuff to do that I had inevitably forgotten, and I really like to cross stuff off my list. Sometimes I would do something, then write it on my list, then cross it off.

Another hurdle is coming up this week though. My sister and her family are driving up from Vancouver Island to visit us. It's a great thing as my family hasn't seen her kids in three years. I saw them last year when Shani and I went to the Island. But it seems unlikely that I'll get any peace to do anything while they are here. On top of this Shani's mom is going to be passing through on her way back to the Island so it should be an interesting week.

Well I think that's enough for now. The computer room is like an oven right now, and my computer is being very slow for some reason :)

Week of Nothing

It's been a little over a week since I've been off work, and I haven't really accomplished anything that I wanted to so far. Days off seem to pass by so quickly if you blink you'll miss them. So nothing terribly exciting happened either, but there was a few highlights.

Canada Day had a barbecue at my place with some friends that I called at the last minute. It was fun, and it's always nice to see their three year old son Alex. He's very entertaining. Then we went to see the fireworks downtown. They were pretty good, but not as good as last year when we stood on the high level bridge and they seemed to be right above us. My question is though; Why must people turn any public event into an opportunity to get drunk and yell various incoherencies off your balcony?

The next day was the first game of Fallen Angels at Mary's cabin. The cabin was super nice, as soon as we found it of course. Just a note the cabin is not in fact at Alberta Beach like some people's girlfriends had suggested. It was okay though as people were kind of lazing around looking very tired as if they hadn't slept the night before. Of course the excitement ramped up as the game started, and everyone got into it. The game was excellent, and everyone was really sad when it was called. The mark of a really excellent game. Despite what Cory says though I felt like I didn't really connect with my character. I can do evil, and make all sorts of nasty plots, but I have trouble being really mean in a game. Plus I hate posing for pictures. Never works for me.

The week as I said kind of went by in a blur. Nothing really exciting.

On Friday I was excited though as I was going on a date with Shani. My co-workers had gotten me a gift certificate to Brewsters as a parting gift, a restaurant which I enjoy, and I knew Shani likes. We had a good meal although both of us got really stuffed on their heavy beer, and had to get it packed up. Afterwards we went to the Big Mall to see a movie. We had ice cream, and we decided to see War of the Worlds. I'm really not sure what my opinion was of it. It was a good movie with a lot of human drama as Tom Cruise tries to keep his family safe in the midst of an alien invasion. I think the problem was that the drama didn't really get to me except at a few key parts. The acting was good, and I actually bought Tom Cruise as a blue collar, bad dad. Both of the kids were excellent as well though I didn't really understand his son's desire to head towards the fighting constantly. The ending is pretty faithful to the book, and I could see how people who hadn't read it would be disappointed. I liked it anyways, and the voice over at the end gave me chills. After that all I can say is that we went for a drive before I took Shani home.

Sunday was Shani's, Werewolf Game in the Park. Another good game that I really got into as my character took center stage. Lots of plotting, and I managed to make an enemy. Wheee! The problem I have is when the cliche comes up, "We have to work together for the good of the city, or else we're doomed." It's not just the Werewolf game either, as it comes up in almost every game. I understand why it's there, and it makes sense that the characters should work together. I just really don't like it when everyone is all happy and teamworky. This chronicle of Purgatory too it has seemed like no one can cross the street without getting their entire clan, the primogen council, and all of their friends to facilitate them. I'm exaggerating of course as their has also been a lot of backstabbing, and conflict.

So today it feels like I'm coming down with a cold. Despite my ten hours of sleep I don't feel like doing anything so my projects are going to be further delayed.

So I'll end today with a message for a special someone as ordered.

Note: The following may cause an extreme rise in one's sugar levels. Read at your own risk if you are diabetic or a high risk for diabetes.

I loves you Sweetie. That was just a bad dream. I'm not breaking up with you over my blog. See. Hugs and kisses.

Last Day

So my last post was going to be about a bunch of different subjects, and I assure you that had I finished it, it would have been fantastic. Oh well the world is spared my genius again.

The biggest thing in my life now though is my unemployment, so I'll discuss that.

Thursday, June 30th the last day of the fiscal year was my last day with the Bookstore. It was an interesting day full of mixed feelings, and last minute organizing. As I said it was the end of the fiscal year, and everyone was spending their budgets madly so they would get the same next year. It was a little hard to walk around seeing all this renovation in other departments knowing that I was getting axed to save money. The Bookstore has always given the College a fair amount of it's profits, mostly to ensure that they'll never be replaced by some big chain bookstore.

To me the logic fails here somehow. They could have easily kept the Bookstore open, and operate it at a slight loss. Obviously one of our major jobs has been to serve the student population, and one of the things I always liked about my job was that it was never competitively retail. Anyways it was a number thing, and obviously it made sense to my boss.

So I didn't have a lot to do in the way of work that day. Which was good as I had to say goodbye to everyone a million times. The ladies who work in the office next to mine both made me a chocolate cake which was incredibly nice. So I sat and ate cake while people filed in to have cake, and say goodbye. It was a little weird as I was never really super close to anyone there, but I really appreciated the thought.

Then I headed over to the big campus Bookstore where they were doing inventory, and taking a break to head to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. One of the managers had invited me by email, but I still felt guilty for going as I wasn't actually helping them. It was funny because the Print Services department had gone out for Chinese the week before. I'm sure they owed it to me anyways. Lunch was nice though as I sat by a few people I had known since I started. It was nice, but I realized I hardly knew anyone who worked there anymore. When it was over I walked back to the Store with them, and they started inventory again, eager to be finished so they could go home no doubt.

They were so focused that there was little fanfare as I left. I was glad that there wasn't a big scene, but it was also depressing. I can crave attention as much as the next person. Actually the funny thing was that I don't think people realized that it was truly my last day. A lot of people thought that the Bookstore was just being closed for the Summer, and that I would be back. I know that I am often uncommunicative and I should work on it, but I wasn't about to go around trumpeting to people that I was never coming back.

So I went back to my small college as I still had work to do. My obsession to see everything nice and neat drove me to complete a bunch of stuff I could have left. I actually ended up leaving late.

Well I won't lie, there was a few times when I found myself becoming verklempt knowing I would never be back. Thinking about it though I knew it was my co-workers that I would miss, and really I was thinking about the good old days when I first started at the big campus bookstore. The employees then had been almost like a family, and the bookstore had been a much nicer place, more generous place to work then.

So when I left I made a couple of vows. First that I was never going to go back to work for them again. There's many positive points to employment there, but I no longer have time for their screwing around. If I'm going to be loyal to the place I work I expect them to return that loyalty, and not just use me for as long as they need. As I write this I'm becoming agitated so I should move on to my next vow.

I was going to kill the next person who asked, "So what are you going to do now?" If I knew that I would be doing it instead of getting laid off from the stupid bookstore.