The 29th Sunday was the official beginning of Sunday shopping. I can no longer complain about Xmas decorations, holiday music, and other things Xmas-y. I still don't want to hear stupid country renditions of holiday standards, though, but at least now they seem more appropriate. But just barely. So because the stores were open yesterday, I went up to the mall with Nathan and Melissa to do a bit of shopping and then got some ingredients for pizza. I ended up going back to Tyler and Melissa's and we had some really good, homemade sausage pizza. Afterwards, we watched The Blair Witch Project which I haven't seen in a few years. That's one of those movies I will always like just because it's damn creepy. The stuff your mind comes up with out in the darkness is scarier than anything they could have put on screen. I ended up crashing there overnight and got to listen to the insanely howling winds coming in off of the water, followed by even more insane heavy rain. It was completely miserable out when I woke up to head back in town but after I got some more sleep it was super nice out. So mild, in fact, that I got my bike out again. I figured the bike would be taking the rest of the year off and hit the roads again sometime again in May. The 27th On the way down to breakfast today, Nathan and I saw this woman deliberately cross the street to meet us. She starts the conversation with "Do you like old people?" to which I reply "Of course, we do." Right off the bat I thought she was going to mistakenly accuse us of something that we had done to some old people since she didn't exactly seem friendly. In any case, she goes on to explain how she visits with an old woman at the rest home at the end of our street who never gets any visitors and is really lonely. She tells us she has 4 children of her own to look after plus a full time job so she can't visit the woman as much as she'd like to and basically asks us to go visit her. I know it's very compassionate and humanitarian of her to approach a couple of strange men and plead for them to brighten some lonely old woman's life. However, at the same time she managed to bring on a major guilt trip and make me feel terrible. I was no more than a minute outside of my front door and my mood for the morning was completely soured. I could be a kind soul and go visit the woman since I am unemployed and have quite a bit of time on my hands but, being the anti-social, socially awkward soul that I am, there's no way I'd ever be able to volunteer my time to visit strangers in a depressing old folks home. Sure, they'd probably do all of the talking and be very appreciative and happy to have a visitor but I couldn't deal with the departure. Even if they didn't intend to make me feel guilty, I'd feel horribly bad when I had to leave. I'm imagining one of them starting to cry or wanting a hug or begging me not to leave or asking me when and how often I can return. No way I could deal with that and, besides, most strange old ladies scare me to begin with. Anyway, the day wasn't a wash after that. I had my breakfast, went about my day, and then hung out with Tyler and Melissa at his parents' place and got a bunch of Chinese food. That is the last time I get Chinese take-out because I always eat way too much and it's never as good as it is in the restaurant. In other words, I didn't feel very well after the meal. After that I went over to Sharon's mom's with Nathan to play board games with Sharon, Tamara, Ateesha, and Farrell. It was Sharon's birthday so she had a game night with snacks and sweets. And, of course, I ate way too many sweets and felt even more ill than before. I even burnt the side of my face when playing Cranium after acting out "catnip" by imitating my cat who rubs his face on the floor when enjoying his drug of choice. A few hours later I went to bed and had what seemed to be 12 hours of dreaming that involved murder, an evil Newfie Santa Claus, and lots of other non-related, peculiar things that I can no longer remember. The 26th Tonight MacPhee came into town and we rented Super Size Me. I've been meaning to see this film for a long time and to also buy the book Fast Food Nation. Though, I'm sorry to say I'll end up watching 1000 movies before I ever manage to finish a book. In any case, it's one of those documentaries that has convinced me that my 4-year abstinence from McDonald's food is not nearly enough. Though the only thing I ever get from Burger King is veggie burgers, I still eat at Wendy's and don't hold back there except for fries. Thankfully my KFC eating days have been over for a longer period of time than the McDonalds habit. Then there's Dairy Queen which is just gross and made me sick last time I ate there so that one is out altogether. I know the stuff is bad for me and I thankfully only eat it only once a month at most so that's not really bad. But I manage to somehow turn a blind eye to the fact that the food they're selling is probably, in most cases, terribly refined, full of chemicals and drugs, and taken from animals that are treated rather inhumanely. I have to admit that for a town this size that seems to have far more fast food options than traditional restaurants, I've done pretty well avoiding temptation when I'm out and about with an empty stomach. I'm generally eating better foods too at home and paying attention as much as I can to where my produce and meat comes from as well as the brands I buy. Unfortunately, I'm missing a lot of my favourite foods since I've stopped buying Kraft products but there are generally some pretty good substitutes. Damn, I miss Chips Ahoy cookies though. The 25th This afternoon I went over to Tyler and Melissa's and she made these awesome pub club sandwiches for supper. A chicken breast, bacon, sauteed onions and mushrooms, lettuce and curry sauce on grilled garlic bread. And I guess to make sure that we'd all pass out from eating too much, we had two each. But damn they were good and worth overstuffing myself. I really need to start my Xmas shopping soon even though I'm dreading it and have hardly any ideas on what I'm going to get for people. I can't leave it until the middle of December or it's going to be hectic. I really like Xmas and giving gifts to people but the lead-in to the holiday season is such a commercialized hassle that it sort of wears down on any enthusiasm I have. The 24th It was trivia night again and it turned out the only people on the team were me and Nathan this time. Didn't matter though because we kicked ass anyway and tied 2 other teams for 1st place, missing only 3 questions. However, we got 3rd place after a tie-breaker but had I kept my original answer for one of the first questions we would have won the whole thing. Anyway, I won't dwell on that any more but I need to start trusting my gut on some questions. The 23rd I went to see The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie tonight with Nathan and Tammy. It was weird and funny and strange, as is to be expected. I've probably only seen a dozen or so episodes over the years and more of them recently on DVD but the only thing I was hoping for as I started watching was that King Neptune would have had the same voice as he did on the show. I like Jeffrey Tambor but I liked John O'Hurley (Elaine's boss, Mr. Peterman) much better. But other than that it was great to see how a big budget can make the animation pop off the screen, to watch the bizarro humour for a solid 90 minutes, and it's always nice to see David Hasselhoff. The 22nd I went to Tyler and Melissa's last night and Tyler made this really good pasta with sausages. I think I ate it so fast that I've got some in my lungs somewhere. For dessert Melissa made chocolate cake and taught me a valuable lesson: a teaspoon of cinnamon makes any chocolate cake better. She was correct. Afterwards we sketched and watched The Exorcist but by the time it was over I didn't want either of them driving me home when they could barely keep their eyes open. I ended up sleeping on the floor and staying there until the afternoon. But being up at 8am makes for one hell of a long day. I don't know how they manage to get so little sleep and function like regular human beings. Oh wait, coffee. The 18th I went to see Nathan open for Sarah Slean and Ron Sexsmith tonight at the Jubilee with Tyler, Melissa, Charlotte and Sharon. It was cool to hear the new songs played live and watch Dale get a crazy amount of sounds out of a single snare drum and a few shakers. I didn't really know any of Sarah's songs but I liked them all and she's quite the eccentric. She has a really good stage presence and a great band. Ron did too and had some pretty good jokes to go between all of his tunes. They both had amazing voices and Ron sort of had the look of Roy Orbison and Elvis about him. The cool suit helped. The 8th I woke up around 2pm today and stumbled around the house all bleary-eyed and without my glasses until I woke up. I figured going into the cold porch to check for mail would wake me up for sure. As I stepped into the porch I was blasted with this brilliant white light and when I focused on the source I realized it was the sun beating down on a bunch of damn SNOW. And we're supposed to get more tonight, though, the first batch didn't amount to anything and hardly any of it made it through the day. But still! It's only the first week of November, dammit! Anyway, as depressing as snow is there was at least that nice crispness to the air. But still, it doesn't make snow any more bearable. I ate way too much tonight at my sister's birthday dinner. That's hardly news though. I'll eat a can of frosting if you give me the chance. The 4th What the hell is with the millions of commercials for the millions of new air freshener sprays and devices? It's like the world has suddenly become terribly unfragrant and now we must all purchase these products to make sure our homes, clothes, cars, offices, etc. are all freshly scented. Not to say that things in this world don't stink but these companies and their marketing ploys are really disgusting. We do not need to fill our immediate environments with airborne chemicals or cover our clothing, furniture and bedding with chemicals either. Granted, I don't like it when things stink. I enjoy the smell of freshly baked cookies floating in the air rather than the curry from last night's stir-fry lingering about. I think the cat box is a pretty disgusting thing and I could understand having some airspray next to it but this trend that every room in your house needs to smell like fields of fresh flowers is ridiculous. Spray it where you need it, if you need it. Air fresheners and sprays have been around for a long time but just think about all of that extra crap you're breathing in or absorbing when you really don't need to. The products they're introducing range from the mundane to the absurd. Ok, a plug-in here or a can of spray in the john is one thing but a battery-operated timed-release device is just foolish and intended for those who "don't have the convenience of an outlet where they need freshness most." The worst I've seen so far is a CD player-like device that "plays" a cartridge of scents. I think a self-cleaning corkscrew is more useful than that moronic thing. I hope nothing bad happens from all of this spraying and squirting but it wouldn't surprise me if lots of people get lung cancer or something years from now because of the shit they use to try and make everything smell "fresh". The 3rd I was invited to Tyler's tonight for Melissa's 25th birthday dinner. She made these really good ribs and now I'm jonesing for more ribs. Of course, the entertainment was provided by D'anyil throughout the meal and he spouted strange and cute toddler sentences guaranteed to get a laugh. Afterwards, we had poundcake and two kinds of ice cream. You know, getting all decadent and such. But a little while later I went home and returned with another cake I had baked but left to cool before I went over for dinner. I don't think we needed all of the extra cake, sugar and calories but at least I was able to give her a little gift for her birthday. The 2nd Well, Halloween has come and gone yet again. I seem to celebrate it each year in a different house. But with that holiday over with I guess it must be time to gear up for the next one—Xmas. Oh wait, they already started that about 2 freaking weeks ago. They were scaling back the Halloween candy and merch before the 31st which doesn't make any sense to me. It's like clearing out your stock of shorts and sandals for sweaters and gloves in July. It's depressing to see. I walked by a store today that had a line of little snowmen that lit up and danced back and forth to a crappy country-rock Xmas tune. This is November 2nd, people. I still have my Jack-O-Lanterns in the window. We don't need to hear Xmas tunes for at least a couple more weeks, let alone 2 days after Halloween. We definitely don't EVER need to hear country-rock Xmas music either. The push from the glut of consumerism makes me sick. Being the hypocrite that I am…I saw this segment on Discovery today about these new video cell phones that shoot video clips in addition to photos, acting as a PDA, being BlueTooth-enabled and, well, being a cell phone. I love techie stuff but I know that's something I don't need. I have to admit, though, that I'd love to be able to mess around with one of those thigns for a while. Especially because it's so multifunctional and you can trick out at least one of them with 1GB of memory instead of the 12MB it comes with installed. I think they said 20 hours of this low-quality video can be stored on it along with 20,000 photos or something ridiculous like that. And, of course, I want the new iPod that now has photo storage and browsing built-in plus a colour screen. Although, it wouldn't make sense to get that unless I had a digital camera, which I don't but have been meaning to get so that I can let it sit on the shelf and not get used but I could push lots of buttons and plug cords into it and so on and so on. The U2 iPod is just foolish. It looks cool but it's foolish. It's probably the most sickeningly blatant Apple marketing ploy in a while. But golly! You get a U2 poster when you order it. Yee-fucking-haw. In case anyone reading this knows or knows of Bloyce Albert, you can visit a new section I added to my site today. Click here to visit the official Bloycespotting site. It's 4:45 in the morning or so. Last time I checked CBC they were calling the electoral college votes at Bush: 249 and Kerry: 242. Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow to find our neighbours down south seeing Kerry: 270.