TOMFOOLERY

2004-04-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

its 4:09 on april 11. i have an economics exam in two days.

jodi's msn name reads 'tonight its only me and you.' curiosity overtakes me; mistake #1...

ego:
only you and who?

amica:
you

ego:
yeah but whos you?

amica:
tom

ego:
no

ego:
tonite it's only tom + his calc text

ego:
so youve got to be thinking of some other you

amica:
lol

amica:
damn

amica:
okay

amica:
soooo

amica:
its

amica:
you

amica:
you kno

amica:
you/

ego:
uhh...

ego:
yeah...

ego:
that guy

ego:
definitely

amica:
exactly

amica:
the one with the face

amica:
and the hair

amica:
yea him

ego:
yea

ego:
he seems

ego:
...

ego:
normal

ego:
good for you

amica:
thanks

ego:
uhh...

ego:
how do i put this?

ego:
...

ego:
im jealous

amica:
well u should

amica:
cuz u kno

amica:
you..

amica:
yea you is really hot

amica:
and like

amica:
woaw.

amica:
that butt

amica:
man

amica:
you has a great butt

ego:
see jodi your grammar is kind of off here

ego:
because you has actually conjugates to 'you have'

amica:
but you is a person

amica:
a name

amica:
and you wouldnt say

amica:
jodi have a great butt

ego:
yea except see im you

amica:
youd say jodi has

amica:
haha

ego:
so

amica:
you're not me!

ego:
yeah

amica:
how dare you

ego:
i am so you

amica:
no way man

amica:
how did u become me?

ego:
no no

ego:
im not you you

ego:
im the other you

ego:
you know..

ego:
the better one

ego:
that you

amica:
what you

amica:
ur not my you

amica:
cuz my you is here with me tonite

ego:
so

ego:
...by this logic

ego:
...you're a calculus textbook?

amica:
hm

amica:
depends if I'm you're my you

amica:
no I'm

amica:
my bad

ego:
your bad?

amica:
ohhh baby

ego:
who's baby?

amica:
you

ego:
WHO THE FUCK IS ON FIRST?

amica:
me

ego:
oh

ego:
...then whos on second?

amica:
you

amica:
not you you

amica:
but my you

ego:
...oh...

ego:
where am i then?

amica:
your on third

ego:
...oh...

ego:
hmm....

ego:
whos pitching?

amica:
you

ego:
im pitching...

ego:
while being on third?

amica:
you

amica:
your's on third

ego:
so im not on third?

amica:
I didnt say you're on third did i?

amica:
i said your on third

amica:
come on

ego:
so....wait where am i?

amica:
PITCHING

ego:
oh...

ego:
then who's on third?

amica:
YOUR

amica:
YOUR ON THIRD.

ego:
whos your?

amica:
you kno

amica:
the guy

amica:
with the pants

ego:
then who's on second?

amica:
thats your

amica:
you

ego:
are you implying that i dont have pants?

amica:
yup

ego:
...which one?

amica:
you

amica:
cuz I stole them off you

ego:
...so you stole his pants and gave them to me?

amica:
no i stole you's them

amica:
not his pants

ego:
oh....

ego:
so where did i get these pants from?

amica:
me

amica:
they're mine

ego:
why am i wearing your pants?

amica:
you stole it

ego:
and what are you wearing if i have your pants?

amica:
my pants

ego:
so....

ego:
uh....

ego:
ok

amica:
I got pants off my

amica:
jeez.

ego:
where's my?

amica:
AT HOME.

ego:
oh

ego:
with the candlestick?

ego:
in the dining room?

amica:
no shit

amica:
thats jack.

amica:
jack shit!

ego:
hes jacking off in your dining room with a candlestick?

ego:
are you sure you want to be wearing his pants?

amica:
no hes jacking shit

ego:
oh....

amica:
and I dont care

ego:
that doesnt really make it better

amica:
cuz how likes to steal shit

ego:
....i have to go now

amica:
bye you!

ego:
...umm....

amica:
you left

ego:
yeah

amica:
no

ego:
it was rude of him

amica:
yeah didnt leave

amica:
WHY WAS IT HIM'S FAULT?

amica:
him is still here too

amica:
jeez.

ego:
yeah

amica:
WHAT ABOUT YEA?

ego:
but hes been stealing shit

amica:
shit

amica:
YEAH*

amica:
NO!

ego:
yea too

ego:
uh huh

amica:
JACK HAS BEEN STEALING SHIT

ego:
sorry to disappoint

ego:
yeah they're in it together

amica:
shit

ego:
yeah

ego:
in shit

ego:
together

ego:
in the library

ego:
with the revolver

ego:
you know what im talking about

amica:
sorry tom, but you doesn't know

ego:
yeah

ego:
i know

amica:
frankly, neither do i

ego:
thats b/c hes a dumbass

amica:
tom is crazy.

amica:
HES?

ego:
oh yeah

amica:
wtf did hes do?

ego:
...beat little children up

amica:
who beat little children up?

ego:
hes

amica:
no

ego:
YEA

amica:
I thought WHO beat little children up

ego:
both of them

ego:
plus you

amica:
didnt know hes did too

ego:
plus bush

amica:
YOU is a GOOD GUY

ego:
dont forget bush

ego:
psh

amica:
fuck bush

ego:
if hes such a good guy...

ego:
then why is he according to you fucking bush?

ego:
hmm?

ego:
answer me that

amica:
I said YOU was a good guy

amica:
not HES

ego:
yeah i am a good guy

ego:
a damn good guy

ego:
whats it to you

ego:
?

amica:
you is angry at tom

ego:
he should be

ego:
tell him to BRING IT

ego:
me and him

ego:
in the conservatory

amica:
HIM?

amica:
or HE?

ego:
with the butcher knife

ego:
ALL OF THE FUCKERS

amica:
fuck the butcher knife

ego:
fine

ego:
with the...wrench

amica:
whats his name?

ego:
his name's larry

ego:
hes a gimp

ego:
and a mute

ego:
and hes only got one eye

. . .

. . .

. . .

yeah. this is called "passing."

2003-07-10T05:09:00.000-07:00

yeah...oi.

i dont have much time here but im trying to figure out how exactly to describe my experiences here. perhaps a translated and slightly paraphrased excerpt from our first flurbesprechung might be sufficiently instructive...

(flurbesprechung = every nite the supervisors get us all together and shout at us over the rules we managed to break over the course of the past day.)

MARIO, our supervisor dude: ok guys - today we had to have found at least ten or twelve bottles - vodka, beer, whiskey - scattered all around the grounds. this is totally unacceptable and if we have any trouble with this again we´ll have to discipline people very seriously. so please guys would you make an effort to throw out your fucking bottles when you´re done with them, k?

suffice to say it is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC here.

2003-06-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

...i wonder if my last comment regarding brian and chris was sufficient in expressing the flood of emotions i'm experiencing right now. an addendum therefore:

"don't go. please don't go. i'll wither and die without you!!!! wither and die!!!"

2003-06-30T23:14:00.000-07:00

i believe i can fly...i believe i can SOAR...

(my mother spent the entire days calling it SARS; she does that. she also has this brutal habit of removing the article from plural last names. for example, if i go to brendan's house she'll say 'oh tom's at moores',' as opposed to the much more traditional 'oh tom's at the moores'.' only a latin student would be offended...)

anyways for those of you who don't know SOAR is queen's acronym for someting-orientation-something-registration. you get the jist, ne? (queen's apparently is a huge fan of the acronyms. it was all a very WOIF experience for example, FYNIRS and non-FYNIRS alike.)

you would not believe it. i came in a tentative bio major who had picked his concentration entirely out of convenience and default and who was probably going to switch to a BA in Econ within three months. i left....my god i don't know what i left as but i had a copy of the crazy and uber-hardcore "physics for scientists + engineers"...

my timetable, as i invisioned it going in:

bio

chem - the easy one

econ

calc - the easy one

mandarin

phys - the offensively easy one

and as i left it:

bio (still there)

econ (still there)

calc - the intensive one; the one math majors are supposed to take... (what the hell was i thinking?)

chem 116 - the...not-so-easy one

phys 104 - the physics major one...the one i don't have the prerequisite one for...

mandarin

so two notes here: (1)that makes SIX courses; (2)the whole physics controversy - the one whereby i defied the laws of gravity and took the class i had absolutely no right to take, lacking any suggestion of a 12U physics credit - occurred as the result of a half-hour conversation w/ a prof i tracked down @ stirling hall, who emphatically insisted that all physics requires is math anyways and thus immediately approved me and sent me off - prerequisite or no prerequisite - to buy a course text and promised he would make the arrangements necessary if the online program gave me any trouble (very nice guy btw); oh yes and (3) this makes me a fucking moron i know but also turns me from a bio major into a maybe-bio-maybe-chem-maybe-phys-maybe-when-pigs-fly-econ major-or-maybe-medial but its all hypothetical b/c i will die within two months anyways. i should have just taken fucking engineering...

for the record - and i suppose i say this mainly to the gifted crew - this is my penance for not having taken ap calc or phys this year, something about which i have felt terrible; if i survive my first year, then i will have more than paid off for my easy gr. 12 experiences.

(however i now have new material to feel bad about of course: no latin. that was a really hard decision to make.)

maybe this is the point where i should say that i wish everyone the absolute best of luck with school. it really hit me today that the university stage has begun for us all; i'm not scared yet but i know i will be...and for any of you who are already there, i'm wishing you every continued success now.

(sorry; no more of that non-sense from me. what really matters is that i bought my first university text today.)

so the poetry of my day was not wasted on me. having spent (most *productively* too) the morning and afternoon at queen's university, i enjoyed the evening @ queens st. + university.

now this is b/c karin concocted the brilliant idea that she would try to get into REX for a jazz performance. the typical teenage tactic in attempting such a feat usually involves the invaluable assistance of an id of some illegitimate variety; karin naturally went for something of a different approach however. having ordered a coke, and upon being questioned about her age, she begged. she begged and pleaded; oh but its my birthday, oh but i came all the way down from unionville, oh but i swear i won't drink. suffice to say by the time i showed up she was sitting on the patio, with her coke, trying to make out jazz vocals and guitars against the evening traffic. it was...ridiculous? no, just entertaining.

oh but it was a fun night regardless. i'm advising all parties concerned to keep a careful eye on speaker's corner these next few weeks; it may have been karin's birthday and we may at some point have purchased some candles, matches and a piece of pastry and sung happy birthday in front of the entire city - with the help of some random strangers too.

anyways, i feel bad reading other people's blogs, b/c they are so alive w/ that school's-out-summer's-on spirit. my blog lacks it; i actually feel less inclined to post. i will admit my reasons, though it's something i don't like always to touch upon, and which i've only disclosed to a handful of people. the case is that i'm writing a novel. i've made several attempts at this novel over the past three years - all variations on the same themes and ideas; i feel very confident about this attempt first of all in that the last attempt broke 60 pages before i found i couldnt keep up the thread and second because this time around i have complete preparatory notes - plot summaries, character biographies and i've got all the symbolism and research down. (this as i understood it, though extremely grueling and boring, is the more serious, professional approach to the task) and thirdly because i'm really, really enjoying the whole process. why am i announcing this? i don't know; maybe to explain where my creative efforts are going these days, if in un-blog-bound directions; maybe b/c this blog is about what's on my mind and right now this is what's always on my mind. in the future, if it gets places i want it to go, i might put some excerpts up here, get some advice.

dirty confession of the day: i've started liking radiohead. a lot. i have now downloaded almost all their songs. it just hit me a few days ago too - out of nowhere. say what you want about them i know - beforehand i would have hated them too - but something's changed for me and i have a universal defense anyways: ~~time named them the "best rock band in the world."~~ they're natalie portman's fav band. i win ladies and gentlemen.

oh how we shall all dearly miss the digital banter of brian liu and chris chien...brave pioneers in this crazy world...men who dared to build it so that indeed they would come...who saw the potential and said "me too - oh me too."

yeah there was other stuff here at one point. i removed it. guess why.

2003-06-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

an excerpt from a recent icq chat (im sorry to have lost the actual history so forgive me if there are any...inconsistencies.):

TOMINIUS: so guess who's coming this sunday?

BRIANRIANUS: does the name start with an A and end with a vril Lavigne.

TOMINIUS: ummm...no. it starts with an A and ends with rin and...um....for some reason has a silent "K" at the beginning.

BRIANRIANUS: that's just as good.

suffice to say is a momentous day : ) unfortunately, there are apparently issues of quarantine...

so i uh....reloaded last nite finally. i have to admit i thought it was pretty good - with the obvious exceptions of the superman thing and some of the cg editing. but yeah - not as bad as people were suggesting to me.

2003-06-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

so how do i explain myself? over the course of the school year - even in the face of some pretty ugly workloads - i sitll managed to put out a few posts a week. now it's the summer - i've got no excuse...and almost two weeks have gone by. what can i say?

i dunno. i feel...uninspired. i suppose i could say a lot but i question how relevant it would be and perhaps more importantly how...entertaining. to be honest, i don't entirely feel like the thoughts passing through my head these past few days are actually coherent or consistent enough to be formed into language. an example:

TU: Tom what did you think of your paintballing experience?

EGO: sagoia jh jaebl;ab no;adbnj a,adl;bjk nab;lkabnakljdfbn ae;klb nhjaekb,aeklmb nmopab hikaenbadil;b jadknblakd

actually, there is a specific statement i've been readily using to summarize my summer-related experiences of yet. An example:

Banting Ex-pres. girl: So what have you been doing now that you're free?

EGO: chillin, killin - a lil shazillin.

true story.

so i woke up this morning to a frightful realization: i'm an old man. i had this conversation with jon some time ago, he being the first of our group to hit the old man stage; do you not recall when we were kids - not that we aren't now mind you - we could eat anything and do anything and were still in perfect condition the next day. those days have apparently passed; over the course of paintballing you see, i may have somehow managed to pull off a rather lengthy sprint across the field, dodging in full gun kata style the deadly approaches of various enemies, for which i paid this morning. i can't move; there is some awful pain in my umm....upper leg.....that acts up whenever i walk and hence i've been avoiding the stairs all day, and have been falling back on a kind of frankenstein-type walk: you know, the kind where you don't move your knees so your whole body kind of swings rigidly back and forth with each step. you know the image.

however its not yet possible for you to picture my condition because you've not been informed that i had an optometrist's appointment today. oh i did. and i got the eye drops - the one that make your pupils swell until your entire eye is an inky black ball a la encounters of the third kind. i always find myself particularly sensitive to these things.

now as any biology student will know (particularly if you've had the pleasure of creatively managing a cow's eye) an enlarged pupil restricts any of your near vision. as a result i had to kind of hold my head back to make sense of anything in front of me; remember in space movies where the rockets about the lift off, and the engines kick in, and the astronaut's head gets jerked back violently with the force of it all - right before his lip starts to curl back as the acceleration hits in? that was the position my head was in.

couple that with the beady alien eyes and the frankenstein walk and you can imagine the monstrosity that was wondering the halls of the carter residence today.

thats going to have to do for tonight - i'll ease back into the blog thing; eventually i'll be able to write the multiple-page wonders for which i used once to be famous.

note i cunningly managed to avoid ending that last sentence with a preposition - easily the worst of grammatical crimes. it's one of those things that really pisses me off.

: )

2003-06-12T20:37:00.000-07:00
hello all.

i made a promise today - that this would be the monster blog you've all been waiting for - the one thing that redeemed these past days and weeks in which ive left you all hanging - the thing that would confirm that rumours of this blog's demise have always been greatly exaggerated.

i cant though. im tired. very tired.

my logic was this: today for all intents and purposes was my last day of high school. admitted tomorrow i have a few more things waiting for me, but all things that mattered came to their natural close today and so i reasoned that at last i would have the precious time i needed to say what had to be said.

i returned from the classics bbq and...slept. woke up. showered. dealt with the nasty mustard stain one korean specimen inflicted upon my poor shirt. slept. woke up to the ringing phone and didn't bother with it. slept and well you can see how the afternoon went.

(in hindsight i must admit that i'm wondering who was calling...)

so if this isn't the mother of all blogs we were all expecting - what the hell then is it? well its very simple really: as we prepared for the classics bbq, we entered into a discussion on certain taboo subjects and a new - if somewhat racy - word was about to be most kindly added to my vocabulary by the enlightened and wise likes of my fellow classics seniors - and yet somehow the conversation stopped and we fell short of actually uttering this elusive term's proper definition.

i had forgotten entirely about the incident, until i dropped by @ bandages, where chris readily and explicitly reminded me of the matter. this thus and promptly sent me ravaging through the thousand pages of the "webster encyclopedic dictionary of the english language." you have no idea what kind of brutal disappointment awaited me in the "p" section:

papilla

papist

papoose

pappus

paprika

papule

papyrus

WAIT A SECOND HERE!

so you can no doubt appreciate my terrible dilemma.

2003-06-03T15:02:00.000-07:00
SO MY FRIEND KILLED HIMSELF TODAY

Brendan Moore - nice kid, right? Happy? Stable? Pyschologically fit? Right?

WRONG.

2003-05-30T10:48:00.000-07:00
looking back, a week later in sober hind sight.

AN EXCERPT FROM SIR CHARLE'S HOROSCOPE: aquarius, you will spend the rest of your life in a desert. Ironic isn't it? ISN'T IT?

2003-05-24T03:22:00.000-07:00
good morning all.

2003-05-20T13:57:00.000-07:00
YAOI

(Who can say no to a title like that?)

An excerpt from Latin class...(I apologize as this will involve some paraphrasing.)

Intrat Tominius, whilst Caiuus shouts at one Iessica concerning her dirty Yaoi habit...

CAIUUS: So how about that Yaoi?

TOMINIUS: Oh yeah. They had a dedicated room each night @ north.

CAIUUS: You went?!

TOMINIUS: Hell yeah.

(CAIUUS makes his shocked and alarmed gesture - with the violent hand motions. you know the one.)

TOMINIUS: Well ummm....we were watching Maico 2010....and I kind of just dozed off...and the next thing I knew there it was....a lot of....those them there things...

CAIUUS: And why were you there for any thing more than half a second?

TOMINIUS: Well I thought I might be able to pick up some chicks.

(CAIUUS collapses.)

TOMINIUS: In hindsight it wasn't the best idea...

too busy for anything else. will post when exams/summatives/etc lighten up.

if the occasional virgin visitor wanders by wondering what exactly this yaoi is ("three vowels in a row? what kind of strange stuff is this?"), a link.

2003-05-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Got back from Anime North; it was fantastic. I only wish I had the whole weekend to devote to the event, as it rightly deserves...for those of you going saturday, sunday - enjoy; its a ball. for monsieur gilbert, thx for the ride.

It's saturday morning and in sober hindsight i've done some editing to this post, which originally went on to say some very ugly things towards an individual with whom i've recently had issues; i decided it's probably best the good old blog not be reduced to such things and that decency probably sides against me. anyways, if over the course of the past night you happened to read anything here, kindly disregard it.

2003-05-09T14:33:00.000-07:00
ANNUS MCLARENI

back. these next few days/weeks are going to get pretty ugly so blogging will be rather sporadic.

PROM TABLES; my god - i know you're all going through it. i've never seen such a disgusting combination of politics, sensitivity and downright childishness. in some regards this is easily the ugliest side ive seen to many ppl and its all very...something awful. at a moment like this i'd love to name names; LOVE TO b/c i know thats what - who - everyone is thinking. (it was absolutely cathartic naming names concerning the OAC seating with eva for example.) i won't.

CELINE. i'll go with a capital letter trend here; i need to apologise b/c i did not mention our charming little korean grade nine girl in my first conference blog; naturally celine, who also performed excellently at both certamina - taking 2nd place at one point and i seem to recall 4th later on, performed fantastically @ conference. i know i fall into the foolish trend of over-emphasizing the likes of pui-yan; i'm a competitive type, i can't help it. but i hope celine understands that i am nonetheless immensely proud of her - i know the kind of work and dedication she's put in and maybe i can relate a bit better to her, she being a familiar mortal unlike our new god-like mlle wong. now i have a suggestion for all: let's just stop talking about conference.

and so NOW i choose to provide the much awaited details concerning conference. i don't really know very much; apparently i slept through everything important at conference, having collapsed monday night and awoken tuesday morning around 10 only to study through to 12 and walk out of my room to meet a very indignant shirley manh and the words "you missed chariot race?" "YOU MISSED CHARIOT RACE?"

so apparently the bulk of conference occured in the my three/four-hour lapse and therefore i have nothing to say except maybe that AP english went smashingly you might say. this is no small miracle considering the fact that i had stayed up past twelve the previous night - only to awake a few sparse hours later around six - listening to shirley and chiu recite in their loud, booming positively EPIC voices their vergil lines: SIN HAS NE POSSIM - shut the fuck up. nikhil and i agreed in hindsight that this was probably not so much the problem since there was more of a general, uniform murmur coming from the common room in the end, with their voices kind of blending in. the real issue was DIANA HO's voice flying valiantly and screamingly above the rest...towards the end i think i was hallucinating, in that i can tell you in all honesty that, hearing the terrible noises coming from that direction, i had convinced myself that raymond had arrived.

this general raucous sent me twice to my door to shout down our budding orators and a final time straight into the hall in my pajamas. if anyone is interested in the exact image, i imagine it will eventually emerge on jason's site in all it's plaid glory.

anyways, the screaming night fades into morning (im not certain you might properly call it morning at such a virgin hour) and we're off to ridley; finding our way to the building where our exam awaits us, i will relate to you what may have been one of the most entertaining moments in my relationship with mr testa yet; mr testa being normally a very reserved person, i was surprised to hear him volunteer, upon our seeing the ridley cadets in rifle training and my asking "are they shooting skeets?":

"NO, I THINK THEY SHOOT PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS."

This apparently is not that far off; Nikhil and I, standing in the hall waiting for our liason from guidance to arrive, met with several ridley students; by meet i actually mean that we received cold stares of the "what the hell are they doing here?" variety; actually, more of the "young people who don't wear navy blue sweaters, white shirts and ties actually exist?" variety. if looks could kill...

there were other incidences of which i could speak; i seem to recall a rather vicious instance at the final dinner which involved my throwing a butter ball at anna only to receive a brutal attack with sugar and salt packets, leading inevitably to a internecine process involving the throwing of ice down eachother's back, which ended with mr. slow's urging the "boy in the yellow stripes" to sit down. i will also recall the rather extended metaphor running behind barrie central's fashion show - some forgotten acronym yielding PENIS. the words "thrusting on," "climax," and "phallicular" were thereafter spoken - in all innocence and unknowing of course - and you can imagine the response. i want to stop here. i think there's a true "had-to-be-there" quality to the conference experience. the one thing i want to stress is that - mere seconds prior to the pronouncing of barrie central's fashion show - chiu and i had just initiated a round of a game involving the increasingly louder repetition of an anatomical feature...jason was nearby at the time, still complaining about the previous school's rather poor choice of helen of troy...

now conference cannot all be fun and penises can it? no. in fact, i have to say that one moment stands out in my mind as rather worrisome, in that i saw a rare and rather frightful side of three otherwise wonderful ppl. i sit down to my cafeteria table to hear chen and pui yan argue - apparently - over the colour of celine's shirt; some rather bitter remarks were exchanged on this rather trivial topic which soon descended into a veritable conflict until pui yan tried to escape by granting that chen is a proper higher level thinker (true) to which the response came - "I hate everyone. I'm trying to restrain myself right now from killing everyone; it's very difficult." no smile, no laugh; 100% pyschosis.

true story; but unfair to go to far with. chen's great; and i provided my paranthetical "true" on account of the fact i truly do see him a truly gifted individual.

this is not the only regard in which conference leaves something of a bitter taste in my mouth; i generally detest the situation in which AP english put me - missing what should have been MY contests, things like oral reading, sight translation, cursus history etc on account of the timing conflict. (in mentioning oral reading, i don't at all mean to begrudge shirley who did an awesome job with her SIN HAS NE POSSIM - shut the fuck up - and who, to my eyes, truly did deserve the trophy - on the other hand, i do THOROUGHLY begrudge dan chiu, who botched sight translation in a most offensive and disgusting way and delivered my poor achilles into the hands of leon grek; oh well, at least we broke his arm and shield off before hand - mdhs will be the last school to have enjoyed the tragic hero whole and undamaged.) this of course percluded me from any particularly significant placements and knocked me straight out of the pentathalon running. furthermore, and in this regard i guess i've more myself to blame than AP etc, i kind of resigned myself (as did most of us seniors) to the idea that this conference would therefore naturally and inevitably be a disappointment, which i think did something awful to my ethic and resolve in the weeks going in; i did not do quite as well as i could have in those contests i did compete in; it all leaves me rather embarassed and the effect grows worse b/c i've grown truly attached to this yr's juniors, as the academic-type-certamen-related-executive's-bitch i felt i had really formed a mentoring kind of relationship with ppl like celine, pui-yan, benson etc; they performed wonderfully, satisfying their half of the relationship excellently; from my half the failure came and for this i do feel....not my best you could say. i guess i should just say that i'm proud of them all and move on.

anyways, i was doing some conference related research when i came across a rather interesting site describing some conference placements from a few years ago. nothing too relevant of course, until a name emerged: "DOUG MCLAREN." (I was under the distinct impression that his name was "DOUGH MCLARAN," having been so informed by our conference roster, but *apparently* that was a typo.) The context was as follows:

SENIOR LATIN ORAL READING: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

Fair enough, I already knew that. But coincidences always grab our attention don't they? so i keep going:

SENIOR GREEK ORAL READING: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

SENIOR LATIN SIGHT TRANSLATION: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

Now this all seems to make sense - we know that Mr. McLaren was a murderously talented Latin student - obviously, but something seemed a bit incongruous in the following lines:

CHARIOT RACE: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

(No driver, no other runners; nothing.)

FASHION SHOW: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

And so it continues...

SENIOR PENTATHALON: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

INTERMEDIATE PENTATHALON: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

JUNIOR PENTATHALON: 1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

And i eventually come to the school standings:

OVERALL SCHOOL RANKINGS
1st place, DOUG MCLAREN

2nd place, UTS

...

In fact, I think there was only contest NOT won by Mr McLaren - I don't remember which contest, but one ambiguously named "SHAM-MAN" had taken 1st place somehow. hence it follows - for those of you so unlucky as to lack Latin skills - that I tittle this post "The year of the McLaren," with an alternate title being "ANNUS MAGNI MACI."

Finite casino was today - the note on which I'll end; I'm not an Avril Lavigne fan, but I was standing at the "celebrity" table - whereat you put your money on one of sixteen celebrities and win if their name is drawn from a bag - and i thought bliu might look upon me with particular pride if i bet on his gf; and so twenty went on the outspoken red head and twenty was indeed lost; a subsequent twenty was placed and subsequently lost; and the trend continued until i had lost an approximate $1900. thx bri. thx avril. i hate you both.

this is a slight exaggeration; eva and anna got their fair share of the $1900 killings with their highway robbery scheme cunningly disguised as a legitimate game. the high point of my experiences with them was scoring $10 having betted $20, which by their logic left me only $10 behind. for this they are both designated "casino whores" - more so eva - in my books. the title is more due to chiu than anything else, since he had assured me that the monopoly money with which ms ting and ms moon had copiously endowed me could be spent on feminine favours. suffice to say we were both thoroughly disappointed and thoroughly broke.

so i leave you kind reader.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: nothing.

"yi, er, san!" - the call with which, for some reason, kevin decides to begin a game of spit these days.

2003-05-06T21:15:00.000-07:00
back from conference. so much to say so much to say - not all good, but good in the most part. congratulations to absolutely everyone, particularly the juniors, particularly pui-yan naturally, of whom i am at this moment infinitely proud. many details to follow.

for the moment, it being past twelve and crushing exhaustion setting in on me, there are only a few thoughts i want to leave you with:

A day without sunshine,

Life without love,

Korean barbeque without meat,

COWBOY BEBOP WITHOUT FAYE,

And a cake without icing...

...

Classics Conference without Brian Liu.

2003-04-29T11:01:00.000-07:00
Again - I'm late. Very late. I am sorry for these delays but between conference, upcoming summatives, university stuff and ANIME (oh yes, and english), my time has been rather limited. Even if time were not an issue, living rather vapidly from project to project has done something awful to my creative capacities - and I lack anything interesting to share with you all. Since I do not envision the blog as a summary of the day's events, I can only promise that once the muse arises, a post will be faithfully waiting for you.

Got a call from UT last night. Was a most enjoying flattering experience. "Hello, my name is..." I don't remember the name actually, a Mr. Dugan, Dungan? "I'm a professor of economics at the University of Toronto; I wanted to discuss your offer of admission..." etc etc. It was most fun telling him to call back later, and relating the story to Chiu today was equally entertaining on account of the look upon his face.

Two friends have joined the world's emasculated ranks, emasculated being the word i prefer and have already put into ready use in lieu of one such friend's choice of "castrated." do take heart gentlemen.

for the rest of you: go out and buy those damn tickets already.

"AND NOR WILL WOOL LEARN TO LIE IT'S VARIOUS COLOURS, BUT THAT RAM IN MEADOWS, NOW WITH PURPLE DYE SWEETLY BLUSHING, NOW WITH YELLOW DYE, WILL CHANGE IT'S FLEECE; OF ITS OWN ACCORD SCARLET WILL DRESS THE GRAZING LAMBS" - vergil describes the golden age, in which we will not have to go about dishonestly dying our togae.

2003-04-23T14:33:00.000-07:00
AND IT BEGINS

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a heckler:

Though your shirt may be 123, I think you are a big fat 321. And yes, you do ramble. Quite.

-Anon

Now TOMFOOLERY is a democracy, so I suppose it's to each his own here. but i must admit that i am a bit curious as to who exactly our outspoken friend is, and so i ask you, Mr/Ms. Anon: "quis es?"

I wonder if anyone might be so kind as to drop a hint for us all...more to follow i suppose.

anyways, i guess i deserved it: i did after all invite the angry mob down upon me in my last post. it was natural.

finally, since i'm not in a particular blogging mood tonight, i'd just like to explain to everyone (read: brian) the reason why i've not gotten the isp link active - then go off for the night. i was surprised to see that blogspot will only host a person's blog alone - not any other pages. therefore, when i decided to post the isp on a seperate page, it occurred to me i would have to get a home page somewhere else and in doing so i would also have to replicate the tomfoolery format on that page, an adventure up to which i've not particularly been recently. anyways, i think i'll now just make the document available in my next post. as i've said, it's not a very interesting piece of work, but i think it is one of my better efforts and personally i know i've enjoyed reading over the isps of some of my english peers; at the least it will mean something to the ayn rand fans out there - i'm thinking mainly of jess.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: still the EVA soundtrack.

"We will welcome them with bullets and shoes." - the Iraqi information minister shows due hopsitality to incoming American troops - none of whom of course are anywhere near baghdad.

2003-04-22T19:10:00.000-07:00
IN DEFENCE OF WEATHER-RELATED OPTIMISM...

I must add: there is a certain portion of the Canadian population - namely the Canadian MALE population - that, upon the first suggestion of sunlight on the horizon, immediately go out to greet the summer, coming swiftly and with absolute certainty, in shorts and t-shirts. it may well be canada, it may well be april, march or even feburary - their motto is nonetheless something like the old postal services: "come rain or sleet or snow or thunder or harpes etc" - we'll still be out there in our shorts. if you're kevin siu, sunglasses may even be involved in the arrangement.

Now, normally, like most of you, I, seeing myself as a rational and restrained human being, stay warm and comfy in a sweater and pants, and ridicule these early summer-lovers as mercilessly as the rest. but today, i gave in - not completely mind you, i kept to the pants; rather, i donned a t-shirt.

wearing my uber-stylish, thoroughly 123 shirt many may have wondered what my exact intent was. it was an exercise in mind over matter. there is no spoon everybody - there is no spoon. i imagined that if i wanted it hard enough, believed in it long enough and needed it bad enough, the stars would align and somehow a golden saturnian kind of summer would warm this cold, barren, desperate and inescapably canadian earth. and - ladies and gentlemen mark my word - indeed the stars did align and indeed it did RAIN.

i suppose i've tended to ramble, so here is the crux of this crushing experience of mine, the summary for those who prefer a cut to the chase:

GOD: 1

TOM: 0

(But I'll get 'em all in the end.)

Thanks to Chiu for reminding me that anime is viewed by an audience - as opposed to being read by a reader as I had suggested in my previous post.

2003-04-22T16:51:00.000-07:00
so i arrive home from school today to find an angry mob in front of the house. i have to admit folks: i was taken aback, this was a rather unexpected interruption in my usual after school routine. and so i scroll down the possibilities in my mind: anti-war demonstration? peta? and then it all makes sense as i hear one girl in a typical avril lavigne getup shout into her loud speaker, whilst smashing in my father's windshield: "we want more blog! we want more blog!"

yes, it has been four whole days. to my loyal fans - im sorry.

the truth is that i've had little to say. under normal circumstances this would not have stopped me, but a recent conversation with joyce led to me to question whether i should pollute the internet with mindless drawling. indeed, joyce seemed to argue that the blog was an online replacement for life - she worried that people would be able to learn everything about a blogger simply by reading their posts, without any need to actually meet them and get to know them; i suppose likewise the advent of the comment board frightened her in what i assume very ludite way. i'm not certain this is the most accurate account of the blog - in that the kind of thoughts we all seem to post online are not necessarily of the variety we share in school. i would not go so far to say that they're any more substantial or profound, but there's definitely a degree of introspection and reflection that lacks in everyday conversation, and there an obvious license for personality and eccentricities - and of course tangents. likewise, i can't exactly picture the blog "taking over" anyone's offline life; certainly a conversation will occassionally tend towards whatever appeared on a person's page in recent days, but i've yet to reach the point where i meet a person in the morning and pick up from where we left off online last night, which seems to be joyce's propechy. if there's any culprit in that regard, i think we can all agree it's icq.

but when i attempted the traditional defense - it's a way to get your thoughts out there - joyce interpretted that i meant to imply that a blog is a diary, which she was right in inferring, but which, well, it is obviously not, or at least i do not think so. the content of this blog is not the kind that i would put in a journal - though i have little interest in writing a journal. perhaps then a blog is a journal for the extroverts of the world and for those of us who actually think (right or wrong albeit) that the contents of our minds can actually be of any interest to anyone else. i hate to let latin creep back into my vernacular but its all very much in the way a roman might write knowing that his correspondence would one day be published. i was kind of satisfied therefore with my final account of the blog as a personal, syndicated column - and perhaps that's what we're all really doing out here: writing for an audience imagined or real - for the hope that a bored soul will come along to read.

that's not accurate for all of us though: for the wittier ones, it's really a stand-up routine going on here. and jason advises us "all of blogging as spiritual experience." before i consider that side of things, i think ill go and watch ghost in the shell again...

on the subject, on popular gr. nine korean girl has most scandalously and blasphemously watched the EVANGELION OVAs without having watched the series, though in hindsight she's agreed to make up for it by pursuing the manga. i have given this treasonous young lady a good piece of my mind and i wish simply to make it now known that she will only bring ruin upon herself in the process: NGE i would submit is easily one of anime's most artful and affecting works; its significance, meaning and symbolism for the audience develop expontentially as you follow its 26 episodes. therefore, impatience can only dassh its impact and i thus urge any anime fans visiting over the next few days to make every effort to deter the unknowing and rash aforementioned popular gr. nine korean girl from the war path she has chosen. i likewise urge all such fans to ignore all of the girl's entreaties for explanations of plot and background in the series - perhaps it is the only way she will learn. i know, having dug into position for this war, that i can at least count on chiu's support...

celine, i must say, is a most impressive specimen. i've particularly enjoyed reading her recent blogs, though on one level they bother me greatly in that they signal to me certain feelings to which i should have been more receptive during the certamen fever - a matter in which, well...a matter of some definite kind it is. anyways, i want to applause her recent observation that the ice "was crying, I thought. It became water, becuz it started as water" - celine clearly shows a suggestion of a poet. i will say that her subsequent comment that "just like the fact that we will become dirt, becuz we all started out as dirt" rang a bit morbid to my ears, as well as her general fascination with the idea of killing things - an obsession from which even the inanimate is not spared - and likewise the remarkable recurrence of blood imagery on her relatively young blog. but we all know that that - well - that's celine, isn't it?

this reminds me that celine was one of two exceptions to one of the rules joyce established over the course of our conversation: that it seems most bloggers - at least in our circle - are males. the other exception was shirley. i neglected at the time to mention a few others, admitted. regardless, when i considered that these examples - and in fact the others too - seemed to have their own extrovert streaks, my vision of the blog as a column seemed to work out. i don't feel it's the most satisfactory of defitions and i suspect certain subtleties elude us.

on this wavering and uncertain note i must end. i want to apologise now if joyce finds it that ive in anyway misinterpretted our discussion so i should warn you now that some corrections may follow - not to mention the inevitable angry messages in the comment board. i suppose its a risk we're used to here at TOMFOOLERY - walking on the wildside, ne?

i will add one comment before signing off, and this concerns the poll at your left-hand side. some people have inquired as to when i will post the results; the fact is i have a few other creative questions ready. the answer is however that i will not post anything until faye has won by the landslide she deserves...anyone feel like they're playing with a fixed deck?

i guess i'm asking for another angry mob incident...

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: the End of Evangelion soundtrack. specifically "Jume no Sukima" - the break in the dream - a short and not particularly interesting piece but one with a haunting quality when it recalls that final scene between shinji and asuka...i hope i've not wrecked anything for celine.

ANYONE WANT THE LENS FROM A COW'S EYE? i took one home with me from the bio dissection.

2003-04-18T21:06:00.000-07:00
STOP EVERYTHING. STOP EVERYTHING.

I BOW DOWN AT THE CROSSROADS AND ADMIT IT. BRIAN, I HAD FORGOTTEN YOUR LINK AND I AM MOST SORRY FOR THIS GRIEVOUS MISTAKE ON MY PART - AND SO LET THE WORLD KNOW THAT THEY CAN NOW GET THEMSELVES ACQUAINTED WITH HUMANITY'S COOLEST MEMBER RIGHT HERE.

of course, in terms of making up w/ brian for my oversight, i will not go so far as to introduce cowboy bebop's julia to the hottest-anime-chick poll; i might say that it's for brian's own good, as part of my effort to discourage his violent and dangerous "spike complex," but instead i'll just put it this way: julia? dont be ridiculous. night all.

2003-04-18T20:58:00.000-07:00
wasted the day in the company of nobu, fred and matt; one of my teeth now hurts on account of excessive laughter. it was my original intention to share some quotations from the day but in hind sight they all seem a bit gratuitous. thus there will be no blogging today for all intents and purposes. take care of yourselves.

2003-04-17T19:45:00.000-07:00
not in the blogging mood of the moment - yesterday's two posts were of course way too much for my amature skills. thus i will say little though today was most eventful - the certamen party must be duly noted with extremely edible cake courtesy of the classics exec, though mr. mclaren was skimpy on the champagne; i want to explain that i had originally intended to join the exec after a rather uninspiring chem 13 session, the height of which was making fun of the fob-streak that has invaded april's wardrobe - skirt over jeans a la mlle. betty -, but the brutal lacerations i had earlier suffered at brian's hands procluded my involvement in any baking. judging from previous classics baking attempts, i cannot guarantee that the cake was conceived under the kind of sanitary conditions this logic would suggest, but it was indeed most - as they say - scrumptuous with a tasteful excess of icing.

i must note as well that i was particularly impressed with the fine lettering the exec had achieved on the cake, versus last season's marginally legible "congrat u r phat." the witty "bonam placentam" definitely had touches of classic nikhil, and led to natural puns...finally, i guess i should just emphasiz how proud i am of every certamen competitor - and that "every" includes one ronald leung; i reiterate my congratulations to everyone involved, who are all of course - in all regards - most phat.

the aforementioned infinitely popular korean grade nine girl treated us to some artificial roman coins produced for a french project of hers; they led to some rousing games of "heads or chariot" throughout latin class, which led inevitably to the removal of daniel's shirt...this, i should point out, took place in mr mclaren's presence, who took it in remarkably good stride with surprising tolerance. perhaps chiu should brush up on his wanting powers of restraint? i dont know.

oh and i began this all with comment that my blogging skills were exhausted - i suppose i broke into some epinepherine reserves of some variety. but now the high is wearing off, and so i want to close with only the most necessary of housekeeping issues:

there were two links i had forgotten to add the first time i moved in. one i had meant to add but subsequently forgot rather stupidly, though i submit that his blog is easily one of my group's most witty. hence welcome to "le baker" (my french is poor but brian assures us all it translates as "the white guy.") welcome likewise to celine - whose blog is new on the block, compared with my positively veteran week-and-a-half. i must warn visitors to celine's site that they may at first confuse her curiously capitalized title "The righteous and The wicked" with some lesser known work of Fitzgerald's; rest assured scott had little to with the kind of madness published on this page.

the menu at the top of the page now invites curious visitors to the ominous acronym "ISP." permit my ego to call it "popular demand," but i've had a few friends ask to read my most recent english essay - one of the rare works of which i am particularly proud - and hence - well - the link. at the least, the masses do need material to fall asleep to and i guarantee that this little number is more than sufficiently dry. (for now the ISP itself will not be available; i'll try to get it up tomorrow night.)

the comment thing is up and running, with fool-related tags found at the bottom of each blog. on the rare occasions that a transient visitor endows us some worldy knowledge, the tag will upgrade to "one fool" and rarely on to "many fools." Now i want to say it upfront and most clearly that there will be no abuse of this comment feature; the good people at enetation.co.uk do not work long and hard so that you can flood my page with messages to this effect: "has anyone ever noticed how damn sexy tom is these days? i don't know what it is - something about those teasing blue eyes i guess - but every time i see him i just want to..."
now i know this will be a problem for most of you, and therefore i suggest a system: i wouldnt dare ask that you restrain yourselves entirely - i know how impossible that can be - but whenever you feel the urge, just type "123;" this will be our code from now on for all "tom-being-so-sexy" related comments - three characters and we'll all know exactly what you're talking about, torrid angst and all. admitted, if you've come up with a particularly inventive way of describing my sexiness (say an italian sonnet), then i may perhaps allow it. otherwise, we should all keep faithfully to the "123" model, and hopefully the floodgates will hold.

so i was in a blogging mood in the end. what can i say?

CURRENTLY WATCHING: (i had temporarily forgotten the little system i had going here with these tags.) the animatrix series, part II: "program." my response is lukewarm at the moment, but i've not yet come to the watanabe episode, which is part III. i am thus expecting to be awed...

CURRENTLY WATCHING: "hello timebomb," matt good. remember those days ladies and gentlemen? those STRANGE days?

"Everything that is, is good, by virtue of its mere existance. Corruptibility implies goodness." - Thomas Merton. A serious quote? Does he mean it? Yes he does. I think we all know where it came from - jason uses it often. i found it at the bottom of an aforementioned email from him and was pleased to see it there, remembering that that was how he tended to end his emails in high school. so enjoy this rather optimistic food for thought.

2003-04-16T19:00:00.000-07:00
whoa - two posts in one night? can you handle it? oh i know you can. i just can't contain myself - what's to be said?

so i've been playing with people for the past few hours; has been most entertaining. an excerpt from an icq conversation with one very popular korean gr. nine girl:

POPULAR KOREAN GR. NINE GIRL: did u open the packages from queens?

TOMINIUS: what packages from queens?

POPULAR KOREAN GR. NINE GIRL: did u? did u?

TOMINIUS: yeah i know i know. i dont remember if i opened them yet.

POPULAR KOREAN GR. NINE GIRL: LIAR! I KNOW u remember if u did or not!

TOMINIUS: oh i dunno....are you sure i got a letter?

(Celine's a good sport.)

Likewise my mother comes home:

MATER: so there are two packages from queen's in the kitchen you know.

TOMINIUS: yeah i know.

MATER: have you opened them?

TOMINIUS:not yet.

MATER: are you going to?

TOMINIUS: in a while.

MATER: they're probably about acceptance.

TOMINIUS: probably.

MATER: they were express mail.

TOMINIUS: yeah i know.

MATER: if they were express mail then they probably accepted you.

TOMINIUS: probably.

MATER: you know that its express mail - they wouldn't send you express mail if they wanted to reject you.

TOMINIUS: it's queen's - who knows?.

MATER: can i open it?

TOMINIUS: no. (with slight hesitation)

MATER: would you like a letter opener?

TOMINIUS: not so much.

MATER: your father has a very nice letter opener you know, the one with red wood.

TOMINIUS: yes he does.

MATER: you know if they sent it by express mail...

oh its been fun doing this. but let's just put it this way: I'M GOING TO QUEEN'S BABY AND ALL IS WELL AND WONDERFUL IN THE WORLD. I'M GOING TO QUEEN'S. THIS IS THE MOMENT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR. thx to everyone for their congrats etc over the past night, today is a very very good day. best of luck to those of you who are still waiting on your letters...

2003-04-16T15:17:00.000-07:00
tomfoolery is moving up in the world ladies and gentlemen. was recently most pleased to receive an e-mail from one mr shim and the news that my "carne diem" bit has been featured on perpetual stroll. this being easily one of the most popular blogs in my circles, i consider this on par with cnn coverage. so soon tom foolery will be a household day.

jason has also advised i get a comment function going on, which is something i have always wanted but never bothered asking people about for fear that the response would inevitably be "oh you have one, just no one ever uses it." now however, the only thing standing between me and one quality comment fxn is however long it takes chris to answer my last icq msg - correction, a few more things stand in my way, when you consider my list of priorities for the night:

blog

study for calc

watch anime

watch anime

watch anime

etc

Suffice to say I will get to it eventually - if only for jason's sake.

i have to take back my previous comments regarding ratscrew. the gods above have righted my misled ways - on two counts.

first of all, i should remind you of markham's typical cafeteria table - though i'm certain the experience is vivid enough that even those of you who are two or three years into university have not entirely forgotten: the typical markham cafeteria table is coloured in ways indicative of what the previous five or six people to have eaten there had for lunch. fries being staples of the high school diet, this means the table will tend to acquire a signature red. hence, as brian and i cooly played through our usual game, we did not mind the suggestion of ketchup in the general area; likewise we called it a figure of our imagination that the colour was becoming darker, and perhaps, beginning to spread. even the first signs of red on the cards - indeed on our hands - did not interrupt that inevitable pseudo-reality drug-influenced zone into which we all enter keeping track of...two-card sums of nine...sandwiches...doubles....runs runs runs...until at last we appreciated that simple ketchup would not explain the growing red phenomenon before us. it turns out that i was bleeding - brian of course had maliciously attacked me in a particularly violent slap.

now you will recall that i introduced this whole anecdote with the explanation that it led me to rekindle my faith in the game; how you ask is this possible if today the exercise drew blood? well the answer is that this is the first time it has drawn blood for me; it's a kind of rite of passage you could say - in the domain of rat screw i am at last a man - i've shed my childish bulla and assumed a stained and bloody toga virilis. this pleases me infinitely.

a second lesser incident led to similar results: playing with two relative amateurs in my french class - playing in the owning sense - it occurred to me that rat screw could possibly become a career for me: tom carter, rat screw shark. imagine the potential benefits of hustling unsuspecting juniors in the game - imaging playing for money - for clothes. oh the possibilities...

but the man kids.

anyways, i'm going to be up and away now folks. there's one little detail i want to leave you with: there were two packages waiting for me upon arriving home today - both from queen's. i've not opened them yet, i prefer to test how long i can go without. but perhaps tomorrow's log will feature some juicy details...

"THE PROBLEM IS THAT THERE'S NO ONE OF ROOM TEMPERATURE INTELLIGENCE." <-- Stephen Jones discussing Canadian politics with me. I thought it was wittily put and actually intended to post it Monday but naturally forgot. Stephen i should say is one of the more clever influences in my life...

2003-04-14T13:08:00.000-07:00
uneventful day: spent english class in a minor state of shock on account of arguably the worst essay in the world recieving a shocking 9/9 on an ap marking rubric - a feat that marks today as a huge victory for the infamous pico iyer, a man who takes sincere and most personal pleasure in watching the english language degrade; chem class saw only my shattering a test tube and thermometer; fr and bio were an indiscriminate blur. over the course of lunch i was made to sell deca lollipops, over the course of which the classic game of rat screw has suddenly lost its appeal somehow...its a sad moment for me i guess, but im on to bigger and better things: hearts seems like fun.

so uneventful day now isnt it, but i come home and...no i've no intention of repeating the shirley story...there's a package waiting for me. i won't play any suspenseful games - it was from u of t -sorry, UT ; i'm apparently a ut scholar and a vic scholar, and they're offering $6,000 - 6,000 in unmarked bills the infinitely suave brian might say - with some bizarre renewal process. it's a very nice amount - not a chancellors yes but...well let's not start on that - and i have to admit that while i wasn't considering ut in the past it's certainly grabbed my attention right now. i suppose i'll have to wait...the "ANY DAY NOW" stage of things will continue for the next little while until i hear from queens. THAT will be the big day. in the interim, with only laurier etc having sent out admissions offers, i think this means the process has begun for all of us...

so again we must return to the "patience young jedi" theme.

this is a theme to which i must direct certain school friends - who are incessant concerning my prom date. it doesnt matter. its not important. in fact i think ive decided that its not worth what im putting myself through - definitely not given the chances i see myself having. so consider it put to rest, over with. give me a few days and then i guess i'll let it be know. i promise all the curious and insitent masses that you'll be sincerely disappointed. the whole affair really stinks of anti-climax - but this is clearly the safest way to end it. i regret to have brought it up and played with people's curiosity like this; i also regret the dangerous assumptions to which it has led.

so it took erin - banting's former president and justin's former...i dont know what title she prefers exactly but you all know - to speak up concerning certamen; i was surprised as to how long it took her to hear about the markham victory considering last time it was instant knowledge within hours of our return. true, it was particularly pleasurable to answer her "so who won?" with "in which category? oh i suppose it doesn't matter anyways," but in general certamen seems to have lost its cache. i have to admit - not to diminish the fantastic work of the markham teams - that this last victory seemed more a matter of default than anything else; little resistance involved, more simply gesture. i prefer not to win on these terms; what the hell was wrong with the banting redhead and the ever-so-popular young david? the infamous junior who's now upgraded to intermediate but holds faithfully to his nickname? erin tried to reason that they had just returned from a school trip to italy, that their latin semesters had ended etc, but it all leaves a rather bitter taste in my mouth, something that takes away from the significance of this win...anticlimax on two counts, ne?

writing a letter of complaint to the national post. this is not something i normally do; but their front page of last saturday - as well as their weekend section - both featured the headline "carne diem - seize the steak" and the latin student in me felt remarkably offended. so i've very politely explained to one anne kingston that the literal translation comes out rather hedonistically as "carne diem - a day by means of flesh," with all suggestion of any seizing having been removed with the imperative "carpe." i softened the blow you might say with the assurance that the minor transgression will not impact my readership - you may call the complaint esoteric, though i hope my latin peers will be proud, but i dont like seeing a paper like the post succumb to linguistic slips. my left-minded friends will hate me for saying this but i take certain pride in the post, and i absolutely need it to maintain its high and educated ground over the star...and worse still, the sun.

piano lesson coming up so i'll stop here. a few corrections/addenda from previous blogs: (1) the chancellors winners mentioned earlier were of course brian and gary - it's apparently now general knowledge so let me congratulate them publicly and by name. (2) apparently the sweet queens dorms recently described do not feature QUEEN-sized beds in spite of the resultant possibility of brutal word play - they are simply double beds. by the logic of jodi jahnke, with whom i bus back home form school, this will still be sufficient for the company of five females. im not quite clear on her math there but i swear i saw a square root sign involved and i suppose i can always hope...

good luck with university all; i know there are people who are worrying out there. the ironic part is that they're the people who should be worrying least of all. a month will pass and everything will have worked out beautifully.

CURRENTLY WATCHING: not quite - but i soon will be breaking into that new animatrix material. should be fun. review to follow.

NO WISDOM FOR TODAY - I CRUELLY LEAVE YOU UNINSPIRED.

2003-04-13T20:15:00.000-07:00
Missed two more precious days of blogging I know. I've been late so many times that...I don't know...if I was a woman I'd have officially reached menopause. That's the best analogy this tired head can produce right now. I'm sorry.

So I've been busy (read: watching anime and avoiding doing hw mainly; extremely disappointed with nadesico, the series in which for all intents and purposes a twelve-year old girl commands a starship with ridiculous results.)

I had to close Thursday's log with a reference to life's "crushing and emasculating" experiences, a reference which turned out rather prophetic, in that one such experience met with me on friday afternoon: i lost chancellor's. im ok with it now but it was pretty bad at first i guess; people from our school did win (i dont think im allowed to say yet) and i want to emphasize again that i have no hard feelings towards them for it; they're good students, good friends; they deserve it and i'm most happy for them. anyways, in hindsight, i do have to admit that it was only after my nomination that i convinced myself i stood a chance - beforehand, i can still remember thinking to myself that this essay was not chancellor's material...i have to admit also that there's one person im particularly grateful to at this moment in this regard, who at the time rather cooly advised i "not be a pussy" about these things; this is always very healthy, sound wisdom.

now i have to explain what the worst part of it is: i think my chances of getting a nice dorm have dropped dramatically; you know the ones im talking about - the veritable condos in one of the new residences - the ones with QUEEN size beds (oh yes i'm well aware of the pun - we all are.) not to mention jacuzzi etc...

of course, the news at first sent me second guessing. other ppl have been getting acceptance - who can help worrying? besides, now a friend has acceptance from QUEEN'S - that's a dangerous and frightful first, ne? anyways, i immediately check my trusty online application, which over the course of several months has identified my application as "pending decision" - no change yet. the wonders of technology: at the press of a button - a mere instant - you get to find out that absolutely nothing is happening. "ANY DAY" now, that's my motto; of course if said day arrives and i dont have a principal's scholarship, i will not be responsible for my actions...

patience, patience young jedi.

now the one aspect of my life where patience is NOT lacking is of course in the romantic domain. talked to the mystery girl; not about it, no, of course not - talked around it for at least two hours. what's wrong with me? i suspect i've lost my nerve; i should have asked the moment i decided, rather than go through this damn waiting game - putting myself through this damn exercise. i have a tragic tendency to think about things too much, hesitate too long...but knowing myself i'm not going to stop making promises as to when ill have my answer. the occassional demands from friends - quis est? quis est - have become frequent so the answer is only that it will happen when it will happen or it won't happen when it won't. down right stoic of me no? perhaps but a stoic doesn't get sick to his stomach at the idea...i dont want to do this. maybe i should just go alone...maybe i should just not go...if it was a good idea then it would all feel more natural, don't you think?

so i at some point referred to a friend recently accepted at queens. the aforementioned "friend" is karin chu who hails from the middle kingdom. she's also got waterloo and u of t in her pocket and she's chosen UT. as far as i'm concerned, in that my interest in the subject revolves mainly around getting karin as geographically close to me as possible, this is a definite improvement over waterloo; now i have a month or so to convince her to shift north just a few more degrees and all will be well.

i truly do miss karin, with whom ive always had a very special relationship (read: very platonic relationship), and i feel bad in that i cant supplement it via icq or email; i look forward greatly to her returning, though judging by our usual luck she will arrive on july 7th, the eve of which will see my own departure for germany. of course, i now have my first major commitment of summer 2003 booked (animecon aside): i am apparently having coffee with karin and ms webb. call it bizarre i dont care but last summer, meeting the two of them like that was actually really fun. i'm a cardholding member of "the family," what can i say?

its a curious habit we all have of reducing "u of t" to "ut," one to which i was introduced by fred who says it with true grace and style; while we're at it, University of Toronto being of course a household name in even the most international of circles, i think we'd be safe reducing simply to "Tee." of course, that's not the most inventive of abbreviations going around; betty, for example, has apparently applied to one "H2Oloo" university. personally i'd love to attend a university that uses chemical formulae in its name; the only thing better would be one that sneaks in a binomial expression somehow...

so i'm happy to witness fred's corruption at the hands of faisal and nobu; he was taking particular joy over friday lunch hour watching nick make creative use of one of those extendo-arm-contraptions on poor kara. i'm looking particularly forward to our upcoming axis and allies match, a disgustingly esoteric and always inescapable obsession that he, matt, nobu and i share. its world war two, with the allies facing down one emperor frederick dong of the land of the rising sun...and i hate to admit but hes doing damn well, it will be a brutally close fight for india i suspect. besides, we're all a bit weary of fred since he was the first person to take down russia in a western world match: the ploy has naturally evolved into the "dong maneuver." of course, these are not the actual reasons i'm looking forward to axis and allies; it's more the dialogue, an example being:

NOBU: OK, it's America's turn; I get 2 bombers, 3 fighters etc etc.

FRED: Don't forget your three Chinese infantry in Szechuan...

THE INEVITABLE RESPONSE: Yes Nobu, just the way you like 'em: chinese, and three at a time...

fred's definitely an interesting character, and easily one of my best and most loyal friends. there's an interesting juxtaposition in his character; i think first of the brutally logical scientific mind and then the chinese boy in the bunny costume being shot down in a game of paintball and i think most of you know exactly what i'm talking about...

i think i need to go to bed but i'm going to close with a note on animatrix. Apparently I was the last man upon the face of the earth to hear that there were going to be nine matrix short films, and, more importantly, that eight of them were going to be directed by anime legends, but now that i'm in on the news i say that this is extremely cool news. I've already begun downloading the first three and am - loyal bebop fan that i am - particularly looking forward to watanabe's A Detective Story. Of course, watanabe has let me down before - Wolf's Rain being arguably one of the crappiest series produced with easily the dumbest premise ever conceived, even next to that of a bizarre series brian recently described to me in which a team of adventurers, among them a 12-year old tank-driving girl, seek to find a way back home by stripping elves in a bizarre fantasy world. I forget the name, but yes, WR is even worse than that - the let-down factor of WR's having been in any way associated with cowboy bebop putting it well over the top. But hey, apparently I have weird anime tastes...no one agrees with me regarding SEL, or NGE (well save font the bastard who doesnt count.)

REPEAT: FONT THE BASTARD WHO DOESN'T COUNT.

oh but i am - how do you say? - just kidding.

isn't that a great note to end things on?

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: The Kenshin "Seisouhen" soundtrack. Good stuff.

"IS IT FROM THE SEX OF ANAL?" <-- sub-title from a cantonese movie i watched on saturday nite; probably not verbatim but you get the jist of it. the situation is that the guy has been stabbed in (not UP, just in) the ass and now has a distinct limp. any latin student has to admire the creative use of the genetive case here...

2003-04-11T19:41:00.000-07:00
Not too hot a day in the life of Tom. ergo not quite in the mood for blogging. details to follow. yes, add the events of friday, april 11th, 2003 to the long list of stories ive promised and cruelly withheld: my ode to mlle. manh, the certamen details, and of course the mystery girl. i promise all will be revealed...in the morning, or the day after, or the day after...

2003-04-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen a dynasty has begun. Just got back from Certamen and - of course - we swept. Let me rephrase: WE SWEPT; we gun-kata'd them you might say, I dunno. We won jr, won intermediate, won senior - that would make THREE. And that would make it so for the second damn time in a row. A dynasty has begun and I know I could not have asked for a better end to my last Certamen. I take back what ever doubts I had re: the juniors in the previous old blog - they really pulled through. Pui-Yan was her usual awesome self, but I'd also say it was Benson who particularly out did himself.

I'm tired, and there will be full updates to come but here's the run-down: RAYMOND came; brian saved the day filling in for the invalid anna and the 'your momma' jokes never stopped at our table; sean apparently did not die; eva went around in a tank-top-like-thing for a while; ronald was a usual bastard; chris apparently enjoys sex with dead ppl (admit it, are you that surprised? proof to follow); chiu had to be a bastard and wrecked significant trigun plotline for poor chris, who's only at ep. 13; there was an excess of questioned answered by the word "ERGO;" so here's a five-minute excerpt from a one-and-a-half hour bus ride:

CHRISIUS: So at my orgy there'd only be dead women.

OMNIA (mainly raymond): BOOO!

CHRISIUS: But there will still be holes to put our penises in.

OMNIA (mainly raymond): YEAH!!!!

CHRISIUS (looks confused): Why are you laughing...?

(Oh I kid. Chris does not actually hold orgies involving dead bodies - he's not the sharing type with these things. It's all fun and games with you isn't it Chris? Until rigor mortis sets in and it won't come out...)

BRIANUS: How about playing strip/sex poker? So like if you can't get to the colour you have to take off some clothes?

TOMINIUS: Have sex on blue!!!

RAIMUNDUS: Oral on red....oral on red.

CAIUUS: What if you haven't taken off your pants yet?

RAIMUNDUS: Just fit more in your mouth...

That's basically how it went; if I got the exact wordings wrong you'll all have to forgive me. Celine was dangerously nearby as we went on - i hope she didn't hear too much, it got pretty bad. Anyways, it's 12:16 and I have to write up tomorrow's announcement so I'll be off; as I said, full updates will follow.

A few closing notes: I know who Chiu's going to ask to prom but I'm not saying a word so don't bother; likewise my mystery girl i've been putting off for the past little while - courage has abandonned me. hopefully i'll find whatever it takes to ask her tomorrow, but judging by recent evidence i'm expecting a brutal no.

on the subject of generally crushing and emasculating experiences i had the in-class Owen Meany essay today in AP english. The only thing I could possibly say on the subject is expletive in a way that shames even i. etiam me pudet ergo...whatever. nite folks.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: La Mer, Debussy.

"SHE'S AWFULLY WELL SHAVEN FOR ONE OF THOSE." <-- response to chiu's observation that a certain certamen moderator has a "scrotum face."

2003-04-09T11:41:00.000-07:00
Finally, starting to live up to the 24/7 reputation aren't I....

Finite class; this period was MADE for blogging. Of course, I can't help but feel a bit guilty for taking advantage of Ms. Ting's tolerance/kindness/naivity or whatever quality it is that makes it so easy to waste time in her class. Personally, I think Ms. Ting is actually a really nice teacher - contrary to what others might suggest. She has a very admirable faith in things making sense - a kind of unshakable, very scientific confidence that all things can only be logical in the end. I know most ppl get bored listen to her typical "What's the answer - is it one? Is it two? Is it 289? Well then why not?" - but there's something I appreciate in the idea that only one answer will work in the end. I guess I'm reading too much into it....meh.

So we're reparing for Certamen. Theresa is practicing within ear shot right now..."Where did the auxil-" BEEP! That fast baby - but not fast enough. I'm hyped for the big day - a bit nervous, but I'm ready; besides, THIS ONE'S FOR CHIU, better do my best. I hope we can pull off another streak, but I'm also going to be realistic about it. The juniors lack the enthusiasm they showed first time around, and I'm starting to appreciate that some relatively huge generational gaps divide us from Celine and Co. - and as for Sean - BOY - I hope he's just studying and not actually violently sick or sth; we're quite hopeless with out him. Valetudinate soon boy, valetudinate soon.

I should note that In Latin class today I was pleased to see the intermediates have begun their ablatives of means - oh little chien is finally growing up. touching, really.

Anyways, again, I'm going to leave you without my promised ode. It will have to wait for another day when my creative juices are a bit more viscous. I'll attempt it in dactyllic hexameter, naturally. Pretty boring day - what can I say? Things will get interesting tomorrow...

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:the three - LOUD - blondes at the back of the room. You know the type. "Way to talk, no talk" is the most recent wisdom I've been so lucky as to overhear.

"I'm not going to be intimidated by someone who's still fighting an uphill battle with puberty." <--- the invective with which last Certamen season began, directed of course towards one Banting senior...

2003-04-08T19:05:00.000-07:00
Nothing to say. Very busy between Certamen, Calc and Finite. (I know that a lot of ppl would suggest I should be ashamed to have to study for finite but I have to admit I don't find it as easy as I was lead to believe.) Plus I've still not recovered from my English-related heart attack...Forgive me if I'm brief.

AN ODE TO SHIRLEY MANH

So I come home today after a rather uneventful day and find The Economist waiting on my doorstep; now normally I never read this paper, but today some quasi-divine force quite literally forced - perhaps inspired - my hand to go boldly forth and struggle with that elastic band...Call me crazy ladies and gentlemen, but I had a feeling about the paper of April 8th, 2003 - no ordinary day now is it? Anyways, no doubt I am shocked to be greeted by a hauntingly familiar face on the front page; but where had I met this female specimen? And when? Who was this..."Renaissance teen"? Oh yes - the caption reminded me - this was the one and only Shirley Manh, with whose infamous presence I am lucky enough to modestly share the school halls. Anyways, congratulations to Shirley, Ontario Jr. Citizen of the year. I think this may now make her the most famous person I know - I'm going to go get her autography tomorrow.

Anyways, I promised an actual ode but it's 10:00 and I need to study some still, so that'll have to wait. If I can figure out how, I might even get some fanfare running for next time...

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Strange Days, Matthew Good Band. (Over the CP streak - absolutely cold turkey.)

"The best way to prevent pregnancy is to be the guy." <-- it wasn't me. But I thought it had some crude wit to it.

2003-04-06T19:27:00.000-07:00
I know. I'm late. It's only my third day blogging and I've already missed one post; downright sinful isn't it? I guess that says something about my good old resolve, ne? Anyways, if you're upset b/c my description @ the top of the pg promised "24/7" ("24/7 baby" actually), I think we've got counsellors on hand to help you deal with the shock...

So I've been busy I guess. My position is that I've "spent every waking moment studying for Certamen." In fact, my position is that I've "forsaken both food and sleep to prepare for Certamen." Chiu would be proud.

Anyways, there's not much to say after my little epic of Friday, except something happened on Friday that I didn't mention, on account of the fact I only realized it tonight: the cowboy bebop movie has opened IN CANADA. IN TORONTO to be exact. i know i've already seen it half a dozen times, i know it's going to be dubbed and i know that chien is right in that "now we're gonna have halfassed anime fans saying how cool bebop is etc etc." But hell - it's cowboy bebop, i'm going to see it, and it's going to be fun. "Bang."

Decided who I'm going to ask to prom; i was thinking about it yesterday morning as it occurred to me that everyone's been pairing up in recent days. at first i felt rather...queasy...on the subject, but now that i think i'm settled, it really does feel right. it's someone who has meant a lot to me for a while now....I'll stop I guess this all sounds like a bit much. Anyways, I'm not saying who yet but I'll hopefully have asked her either tomorrow or the day after and then maybe i'll let the anxious masses know. i guess i'm prepared for either answer though - being quite unexperienced in the wild world of romance, i'm not entirely certain how this is going to go. Wish me luck won't you?

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: In my Place, Coldplay (I guess Friday night has put me on a little Coldplay binge. Having spent so much time criticizing Karin's music tastes, I suddenly feel a bit hypocritical.)

CURRENTLY WEARING: Wearing? Whoa - where did that come from? But I knew you all wanted to know. And the answer is my pajamas, meaning I have quite literally spent this entire day producing my damn bio research log - i mean, training for CERTAMEN.

"Living well and beautifully and justly are all one thing." - Socrates <-- courtesy of Nobu; he had used it in his grad write-up, which he kindly let me read. There's something I like particularly about it.

2003-04-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

So I've done it; I've finally moved in. I've always wanted to be blogging, but I kept writing it off until I thought I'd have the time.

Of course, tonight I don't have the time. Next week is going to be TERRIBLE: in addition to the usual hw etc, today's English exam has been put off to Tuesday, which should be a great convenience to everyone but is in fact just going to fuck me over to a new degree, considering the other fun that's been planned for me...I furthermore have CERTAMEN of course, for which I've not at all studied and for which I most certainly should be preparing, given that CHIU expects me to play a vital part in his final-year victory. If he knew I was not studying, he'd probably STAB ME IN THE FACE as he so often puts it. But I figure that, this being a new blog, it will probably take some time for people to start reading it, and by the time Chiu finds out that I've put off my duties, I'll either already have won or I'll already have died - either way. If it's death, I guess he'll do something to the body, but I was expecting it anyways.

So yeah, the absolutely best way to start a blog is losing the first post. I had actually already typed all this stuff up an hour ago, but I naturally had to get an error message. "you always have to copy and paste into notepad :(" Chris advises me. So true. So true.

If I'm not studying for CERTAMEN, if I'm not doing hw, at the least I should be writing my year book write up. But inspiration has yet to strike me. I'm extremely hesitant to follow the typical "shout out to all my fds: AD, BC etc" strategy; I've read half a dozen from previous year books and they all reek of overcompensation: they seem only to intend to assure the reader that "yes, please believe me that I did indeed have friends, and please do believe me that we did indeed do things." On the other hand, I'm equally hesitant to go for the quote-unquote deep approach; these write-ups are usually signalled by some profound quotation and always seem a bit over the top. For example, one Eugene Zassoko, of the 2001 class, assures me that "when I am gone, I shall remain in the people's minds, the star of their rights...the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes." A bit much, no? I've been trying to find a modest middle ground, but I'm failing of the moment. I was thinking of doing something with "I came, saw, conquered," but perhaps thats a bit cliche.

500-sth characters - why must it take so long? And as Betty helpfully points out to me in the height of English spelling, "you only haf 2hr5m 2 decide buddy" - and that was at least half an hour ago...

There's something I don't like about the whole idea of graduation. The feelings I get on the subject...I don't think I've grown up enough over the past four years, and, looking back on all the studying I did, a certain sense of regret reminds me of the things I've missed. I don't mean to imply I'm particularly upset on the topic, it's just I've suddenly turned nostalgic in a way I never have before, and I'm suddenly aware of the paths that had been available to me...This is what thoughts of grad are doing to me.

So I must ask: is it wrong to cheat a computer? A website? As most of you probably know, I'm going on my German exchange this summer (at long damn last); this requires that I complete a placement to confirm my fluency. It was something I originally put off with the promise "I'll do it after midterm exams." So that means it's been two months right? And I can't go unless I pass. Anyways, last week I was reminded in a very GERMAN way (simultaneously by email and telephone) that I had better write this thing, so this afternoon I figured the time had come...

It's online; the set-up is not exactly fool-proof; it's more of an honour-system arrangement: you write the test, the website gives you your score, and you email the score to their office. When you start, they ask you not to use any aids. I was okay with that I guess for the first fifteen questions or so. Then the word hits me: trotz. What the hell is trotz? I don't know, but my dictionary from the back of the room taunts me with the fact that it indeed does know. At the same time, I recall my father's observation that "it's funny you know - of all your tests you've prepared the least for this one and yet the most is riding on it in one way," which is true in that I've not prepared whatsoever for this and which is also his subtle (or not so subtle) way of reminding me that my tickets have already been bought and my deposit placed. So I admit it; I transgressed; I looked the thing up. I mean, it was trotz; there was no was Latin was going to help me. I caved. Apparently it means "despite." I guess that makes sense.

Another word came up; it was fehelende or sth like that. "Missing" apparently. Anyways I submit the test and guility read that I apparently have BIII-level fluency, which is apparently significantly higher than the GII-level I've signed up for. I go back, write a second test, and this time change a few of my answers for the worse. I now have a more reasonable GIII-level score, and I'm going to Germany - SARS, Saddam and Osama be damned. But none of the questions I changed involved any "fehelende" or "trotz," and so I'm left with my dirty little issue of conscience; I've been a rebel, no?; cheated the system - a GERMAN system mind you, GERMAN systems being most intolerant of rebels, cheating and deviation from the expected in general. I suppose I must learn to deal with the terrible knowledge of my own transgression, and resign myself to this new war path I've chosen...

So half-an-hour has passed and I'm still waiting for inspiration to come re: grad write-up. Waiting for my acceptance from Queen's - ANY DAY NOW I keep assuring myself, but we all know Queen's has the ego to keep me waiting to the absolute lat minute. Waited forty minutes for the bus this morning. Just waiting in general I guess...

If inspiration shall not come, it's best I force it I suppose. Nikhil has set an enviable example by drawing a "Sound of Music" quote out of thin air; at the least, as I had originally resolved earlier today, I should put my time to something productive in some - ANY - regard. In fact, at the least I should be practicing piano. I shall instead - exhausted as I am - go on with ICQ. Betty regals me with stories of a certain 6-cm wonder in her AP Calc class; Simon, who's now logged off, was formerly reminding me of the old "Pocket Gong" routine from Gr. 9 drama class: "Have you ever felt the need to GONG - on a car, in a plane, away from home? Well now you can with the Ishi Mishi Super Happy Pocket Gong...Gong on the Go...The Ishi Mishi Pocket Gong is Y2K compliant, and now - limited time only - with purchase you get the Ishi Mishi Mega Hyper Knife - it slices, it dices all your food and shoes...etc" Fun stuff; I remember that class well, particularly Simon's inspired imitation of a Pokemon fan, though I didn't remind him of it. (Forgive me, I've forgotten that Simon should juslty = Psymun, but I'm not going back to correct spelling.) I guess he and I are both on the same nostalgia streak tonight; that might explain the whole grad write-up issue, though I understand he's finished his now...

So Catherine asked me her "ratio" question today. I guess it was my turn. We had previously been discussing certain questionable websites and so at first I thought she was asking me for the ratio between THE GIVER I and II; I was about to offer a conservative esimate of 100-fold when I realized she was referring to ME, and decided that I would have to be a bit more modest; she clarified by putting it as from "normal, boring everyday to...*musical interlude*"; in the end I couldn't answer; I was blushing terribly. Typical me I suppose. I guess I still can't discuss these things maturely, even with friends.

I wonder who she's asked - beyond the usual suspects. Actually, on the subject, does Blogger do polls? But I kid.

So I've been phallic twice in one blog - my first one too.

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: Clocks, Coldplay (not to say that I particularly like Coldplay, but I saw the video today and it seemed to have a kind of pleasant atmosphere.)

CURRENTLY WATCHING: Nothing. Waiting for enough time to watch Nadesico. The last thing I saw was probably the final gun sequence from Equilibrium. So...sweet. I admit the dialogue leaves something to be desired, but still: "I am INDEED Christian Bale and I am INDEED so cool."

"You're not Swedish, but you'll do." <-- classic, no?