He's Like A Detuned Radio

Well, Peter tagged me for this and because there's nothing more intimidating that peer pressure and the thought of people not liking me. Here I go...8 unknown things about myself.

1) I hated myself in Grades 6-8 and it took me a long time to resolve these feelings towards myself. Not losing baby fat until high school is a terrible thing to happen to someone's ego.

2) I didn't even kiss my first girlfriend. This was Grade 8. In retrospect, it was a pretty unhealthy month and a half.

3) I would be happy to never set foot inside the United States again. Crossing the border in the past 5 years has never been anything but a hassle. Canadian border guards ask the same questions yet manage to do it in a way that doesn't portray them as total assholes.

4) Regarding the second half of point one, I still have a very poor body image of myself. The only time I've ever felt happy with myself was after going to the gym last summer. For all of the reasons that one would choose to go to a gym, mine is mental.

5) I feel bad for allowing friendships with people from high school to fall apart these past four years. I'm going to try and rectify this in the next few weeks. I would like nothing more right now than to get everyone one together for a game of football at Woburn, impossible as it is.

6) I've shot a gun. Actually, a couple of different kinds of shotguns. It took a while to get the hang of it but before I knew it, I was knocking those clay pigeons out of the sky. It was a pretty exhilarating experience.

7) Alright, here's another political one. I support instituting a toll to enter the downtown core. Where this core is, I don't know, but I do know that it will reduce the amount of times that I drive down. Parking downtown is the same as 2 TTC trips. Throw a toll on top of that and it's no longer the cheaper option.

8) I dread recommending restaurants to people, in the fear that it'll be so bad that'll suck and blow at the same time. Actually, I dread recommending anything to anyone because I worry that I'll ultimately be wasting their time because as much as I liked it, they hated it.

BONUS 9) Because this is too good not to share. I love Laguna Beach and can't wait for new episodes. It's the second best comedy on the air right now behind The Office. I just wish I had a button on my remote that I could press which would cause Cami to be hit in her troll face by a two by four. Bitch. MTV is the best for sitting at home in the afternoon.

I'm not going to tag anyone since if anyone hasn't done this be now, they're never going to do it.

I never know what to title this thing anymore so this stretch of randomness will continue on.

Over the past two weeks, I've written almost a half-dozen uncompleted posts that have been left to rot in that void between my brain and the internet. I don't know if I'm going to try and change my recent posting habits or go back to posting almost daily. It'll be pretty quick as my life has once again restored a sense of normalcy.

A phone bill does a surprisingly good job of keeping track of the events of your life. For instance, why I felt the need to make 13 long-distance phone calls on July 23 or another 9 on the following weekend. This phone bill is the last tangible thing connecting me to Windsor and my house there. Maybe there's a sub-conscious reason for not paying it or it could be because I forgot to pay it last month and it's a substantial amount.

I'm off to see Tool on Saturday, TV on the Radio next Thursday and Kid Koala on October 27. I really don't think I can over-hype the latter. It's a really good time and there's a reason why I'm going to see him for a fifth time. (Alright, two of those times he was opening for Radiohead. But it was still awesome.) Whenever Buck 65 makes it back, I'll have to check that out too. I need me some Centaur.

It's almost hockey time and with that means the return of the fantasy pools. I did a draft on Monday to kill some time. [I got Malkin in the 11th round (pick 126). People are idiots.] Looking at player names and wondering about who'll bust and who'll surprise, got me to thinking about how much I miss Phil. Much of our time in Windsor was spent arguing about stupid things like fantasy hockey or football or basketball. Phil always wanted to put in crazy categories like shorthanded points and faceoff wins. Individual defensive players in football and other seemingly random categories. Pizza dinners with him, Alfred and myself where all we would talk about was hockey. We all wanted Stattracker but we didn't want to all pay for it so Phil bought it with his credit card and gave us his password so we could all use it. That's just the type of guy that we was. I still wish he was here and it'll never seem right.

I went back to Fit 4 Life last night and signed back up for 12 months (+ 2 free months) with the intended goal of getting some muscles again. And getting back that 15 pounds I lost since last summer. I liked how I felt at 165 and I want to get back to it. Unfortunately, this time I'll have no one to push me and it's going to be up to me to keep myself motivated and healthy. It's the latter that derailed me last time. Running into the goalpast, heat stroke and the flu within a month did a nice job of that.

I went to Supermarket in Kensington last Thursday with a friend from Windsor who's here for Med School at U of T. Really, really good. Highly recommended. Nothing like good food, hipsters and a little Feist in the background to make a guy feel at home. And along with that, it reminded me why I need to spend more time trying new restaurants downtown. There's so many good restaurants in this city and I've got to try to try them all.

I'm not dead. Just busy with life. No job yet or for a while.

Check back tomorrow for one of those dreary posts where I talk about everything that's been going on and everything that will be going on in my life.

Or don't...

It's been a while since I've written anything here. And it's not for a lack of things going on. Sometimes life just gets too busy that you barely have time to take inventory of yourself, let alone finding time to write. And it's unfortunate because one of the points of this whole thing was to keep people up to date with my life when I just didn't have the ability to do that over a pint.

Minding all of that, let's start with the end of the semester, my last semester in Windsor but not the last semester towards my degree. Exams went well and that's been seen in marks so far. Easily my highest marks so far in university and barring some disaster, my first trip to the Dean's List. I still don't know what my capstone mark was but since I worked for more than 4 days on it, it shouldn't be less than a A-. I honestly don't know how this has happened though I think the lack of a guaranteed 'disaster' course helped. (Transport Phenomena or Chemical Reaction Engineering). Starting this semester, I'll be taking two distance education courses to help to complete the degree. A sociology and a political science. I doubt they'll be too straining and it's not like I won't have the time to spend on them.

I was held "hostage" for about a five minute period in Windsor by the campus police as friends were sent out to search for another slightly intoxicated friend. From beginning to end one of the most bizarre hours of my life.

My computer is still not fixed.

Sometimes we're faced with a scenario where we feel inadequate in our abilities to help someone. You never want to over-step your bounds. I don't know what this is...what I'm trying to say is:

There's nothing worse than the feeling of helplessness. The inability to control the events impacting on your life. The inability to gave support to the people you care about whether it be through distance or communication.

I just want to do more.