02 .28 .02
My eyesight is getting terrible. My sight was never that bad to begin with since I've only ever needed weak prescription lenses but lately it's noticeably bad. I used to be able to work at my computer without my glasses but now everything is just a blur that concentration can't even remedy.I think it would probably be a good idea if I went for another eye exam. They'll just tell me that my eyes have become much worse since the last time, and that I'll need pop-bottle lens glasses to fix the problem.
I probably won't even be able to get contacts because my right eye is already dry and irritated enough as it is, let alone without something cupping the front of my eyeball.
I hear laser surgery is an option but I've got this thing about people slicing open my eyeballs with a scalpel and shooting concentrated beams of light at the back of my retinas.
02 .27 .02
It's shameful. I work in a small office and a large part of the communication made between myself and my coworkers is over the intercom system and even by email. It's office laziness at its greatest. When Chad is on the phone I can hear him talking from my office, yet when someone calls for me he rings me on the phone to tell me to pick up. He could speak up and just say, "Ryan, line one." But I guess yelling through the office isn't really a great idea.
The intercom I can understand but unless we're sending files or large amounts of information, I don't think there's any need for us to be conversing in text format. Sometimes the emails don't even reach us right away because of server delays. Too often I've been asked if changes had been made to some site and I've had to say no. The email had yet to reach my inbox and said changes could have just as easily, if not more easily, been scribbled down on a sheet of paper and left on my desk, explained to me over the phone or, dare I say, in person.
This is probably my most pointless rant ever.
02 .24 .02
Well, this weekend was certainly more productive and eventful than most. Today, Nathan, Charlotte, MacPhee and myself went for breakfast at the Linkletter and then did a little country looting. There was this recently vacated house out in the country that we were able to get into and acquire some useful booty. It was stuff the owners had left behind so it was pretty much fair game.
We nabbed a lamp, a fan, a mantle clock, a 4-slice toaster, a Monopoly game, a 1930s acoustic guitar, a Nintendo and some games, and various other junk too. Quite a good day, it was.
Yesterday I completed about 90% of Back Alley Discs' web site re-design, and then, on Friday night, a bunch of us went down to King Wok for dinner, and then came back here to play a few games of Fireball Island. That was a fun night.
Weekends like that need to happen more often. Hopefully next Saturday and/or Sunday, we can go out to that farm again and shoot some footage or maybe even a full skit in the barns. I can get some pretty neat stuff in there for sure. Even some photos would be cool to take. Although, I won't be able to shoot a damn thing unless I can get my DV cam fixed before then. And it would also be nice if I could get a full skit idea developed and storyboarded before we go.
I highly doubt any of that will happen. Put on your negativity hat.
02 .17 .02
I was up at 10am on Saturday and today. I went to Charlottetown with MacPhee and Charlotte yesterday morning and did the run around town thing. I ate a huge second breakfast at Smitty's, and generally just killed a dreary afternoon.
When I got home, Ian and Holly came over with two garbage bags of Star Wars toys for me to sell on eBay. We watched Ghost in the Shell and while I didn't entirely understand just what the hell was going on, the movie was pretty amazing visually. For anime that was made in the early 90s (I think) it blew my mind, I figured it probably came out a few years ago by the crazy look of the animation and digital sequences.
To finish off the night, MacPhee and myself drove out to Charlotte's to hang out with her and Nathan, eat Liz's homemade soup, some of Dave's homemade humous, play Scrabble and rub the kitties' bellies.
Earlier today, my sister and my dad picked me up to go to my grandparents' place for lunch. My grandmother got the cast taken off of her wrist on Friday so she's still pretty bothered by swelling and not being able to do a whole lot because of it. My grandfather has been doing the dishes for the past 6 weeks and I'm sure he'll be glad when he doesn't have to do that chore anymore.
02 .11 .02
Another classic exmaple of just how messed up PEI's weather can be: rain in the morning, followed by freezing rain, then snow, sun, more snow, and a whole bunch of cold, cold, wind. The roads were extra bad and tonight this guy passed MacPhee's car on the inside lane so MacPhee let him know by honking at him and flicking his lights. The guy pulled over and got out to talk to him. The redneck just freaked and started yelling, prompting me to wonder whether or not MacPhee was going to get a punch in the face or not.
Anyway, he just kept a cool head and the guy eventually calmed down and ended up walking away and looking like an idiot. So funny.
On Saturday night, I went to Charlotte's with Nathan where her parents had a belated birthday dinner for her which consisted of some of Dave's droolworthy, homemade fajitas. Damn, they were good. I'd consider writing him a cheque every month to compensate him if he would make me a batch and drop them off to me.
And that night, after we came back here, Sharon dropped off something I've been waiting for all week: The Lord of the Rings on 4 VCDs. Oh my, yes. They're DVD quality, direct-from-the-studio releases that found their way onto the Net. This guy at her place of employment burned them for me (on his own discs, I might add) and now they sit here waiting to be watched whenever the hell I feel like watching them. Extra sweet.
Normally I might feel a little twinge of guilt about having these VCDs but I plan on buying the DVD when it gets released anyway so it's not like I'm costing them any cash.
02 .07 .02
My eyes feel like there's sandpaper on the inside of my eyelids. I should most just stop typing this now and go straight to bed with plenty of eye drops. But no, I must forge on and torture myself. Thankfully it didn't get this bad until after Black Hawk Down was over. I went to see it with Kent tonight, whom I haven't really seen in probably over two years.
The movie was pretty intense and all out harsh in some spots. I really liked it because it was just pure chaos in the streets of Mogadishu. Some really spectacular cinematography going on too, and it was insane to see choppers going down amid buildings and people. Not only that but the guy who played Legolas in LOTR was in it. That was weird to see.
But enough about movies. I can't think very well right now and I'm not exactly a movie critic. I liked the movie. So that's that. What really made the day great was waking up to find a package from Erin waiting for me downstairs. She sent me a Valentine's Day gift which consisted of a fuzzy, white teddy bear with a giftbox that held a really good Peanut Parfait (fudge peanut truffle thingie). It's sitting on top of my Mac now keeping me company.
02 .05 .02
Today was a good day with regards to mail received. I found a copy of Jad Fair & Phono-Comb "Monsters, Lullabies..." that I won on eBay sitting on my desk when I arrived at work this morning. But that's not it. Oh, no. That was just the apéritif! There was also the soundtrack to Roman Polanski's The Tenant (and Tess) and it completely made my day, even though work was long, boring and tedious.
The score sounds amazing! It's crystal clear compared to the quality of the music in the movie I have. And the CD package and design are really nice. Good use of thick, matte finished stocks and clean layout, plus the booklet is all in French and has extensive liner notes. The only downside to the whole thing is that in addition to paying $24 US for the CD, I had to pay 7 more bucks in duty. Pricey but worth it.
So now I have The Tenant on VHS, the novel by Roland Topor from which it is based, a set of sweet lobby cards, a press book for the movie, and now the soundtrack.
I think it's safe to assume that this movie is one of my favourites of all time.
02 .03 .02
I figured today would have been a completely useless one. It began shaping up to be a day of pure laziness but thankfully later on I actually accomplished some things. I sorted through more junk, made some CD inlays, did some RAM troubleshooting, and got my eBay auctions straightened away. I have to stop posting so many things at once because it's just too hard to keep track of all of the auctions. Not to mention the fact that the 4 latest auction winners' names all begin with "R" and two of them are named Richard. The emails back and forth can get pretty confusing.
Tonight Nathan mixed down a bunch of Space Opera to my Mac so that I can start preparing the files to be burned to CD finally. It'll be nice to have everything off of the tapes and onto CDs. Of course, in addition to the big job of the mixing and burning, I'll just end up having even more projects to do when it comes to re-doing the inlays for the new format. I certainly never have a lack of things to do.
Last night I went to Waterworks with Nathan and Neil to see Static Age play. Then, after that, Neil came over and we ordered Greco pizza at 2:30 in the morning. Thankfully we agreed on omitting all "meat" from the pizza but, even without meat, it's still a pretty heavy and disgusting thing to have in your stomach when you go to bed.
They don't have ground beef or ham at Greco. They have beef or ham "topping" which just sounds completely disgusting.
Friday night, Luke and Shawn came over to watch Dogma with me and Charlotte. I'm not big on Jay and Silent Bob but I did enjoy this movie. Chris Rock didn't even annoy me. I thought it was pretty funny and was definitely entertaining. It was about 1000 times better than Mall Rats. Of course, a documentary about varnish production would be more fun to watch than that movie.
Afterwards, we sat around and talked about how much we tortured people and all the mischief we did and do. Ah, to reminisce ... and to think about the bad karma points we've racked up.
-->> Contains no MSG.