The 29th I got some more CDs in the mail today. I've been buying more music like mad lately but I had to get the new Sigur Ros for sure. Takk has some really great, classy packaging and the album itself is awesome. It's much happier than the last album so since it was so nice tonight I decided to go for a walk with that on my iPod. I wish the days would stay like this a bit longer but this is probably it for the year. The 27th It's cold and it's been snowing today. I wore a toque for the first time and it sucks. And even though it's cold and crisp outside, I still felt like going for a walk tonight because it was so quiet and calm. I should have because I need the exercise. Nathan played a Louisiana charity gig at The Jubilee tonight with Dale and Tom. I was able to get in to videotape his set and it sounded really good. Stand-up bass always sounds awesome and I really like seeing Dale on drums. They played a couple of unreleased tracks—one of them played live for the first time—so that was cool to hear and get on video. The 26th A shopping trip was made to Charlottetown today with Sharon, Nathan and Laine. I got some Xmas items bought for family and friends and some things for myself because I definitely couldn't pass up 4 ceramic tiki mugs for $6. At one point I saw a guy sitting next to Sharon on a bench that looked like Frodo near the end of his journey where he was all pale and sickly looking. This guy was pale, pale pale…maybe he was ill. Ill or not, he looked like a hobbit in a ballcap. After that we hit the big chain stores. They should just combine them into one big store called Wal-NavyDepotBucks or something. At Old Navy all of the floor staff were wearing headsets and I wanted one of them to ask me if they could help me with anything. I would have loved to have said, "Yes, you can help me. You can take off that retarded headset and go fuck yourself." I think for a place like Home Depot which is huge beyond huge that they should issue walkie-talkies to customers when they enter the store. That way you can actually split up from the people you're with without having to try tracking them down in futility, breaking down sobbing, and passing out at which point you're brought to the lost and found and claimed by your long lost companions. Then you just return the walkie-talkies on your way out or you set off the alarm. A simple and convenient system I think. The 23rd Downtown smelled like an old compost bin filled with rotting lobster shells today. It was wonderful. I got $350 worth of repairs done to my car today. I didn't exactly want to spend that but at least my car locks now, the door isn't wobbly, it's full of the necessary fluids and it no longer sounds like a small aircraft. It seems to drive a lot smoother than before too which is nice. Now I can keep stuff in my car and not fear so much that things will get stolen. The 21st Sesame seeds make everything better. Toasted sesame seeds on bread crusts, sesame seed crackers, in stir-fries, sesame seed oil, sesame snaps—anything. I think they have to be somewhere at the top of my list for the best thing to eat in the entire world. I honestly believe they can somehow find a way to use sesame seeds to solve the problems in the Middle East. I also think that once you own a car you start spending money like there's no tomorrow. I don't mean on just anything either, important things and the necessities. Ever since I bought my car I've been shopping and spending money more than ever. It's probably just because I'm out a lot more and can go wherever I want to, when I want to, instead of waiting for specific times to do shopping or whatever. I don't see how that would explain all of the CDs I'm buying on Amazon though… The 19th I drove to Charlottetown with Tyler today for a pot luck at Donnalee's place. She was having a meeting of sorts to get people to come up with ideas for future gallery shows, themes and discuss a co-op. I honestly had no real ideas and don't really see how I would be involved in the gallery exactly but it was fun to be there. I ate way too many snacks and dessert items. Donnalee did buy a CD though and so did Kira when we dropped by her place. For helping me discover something exteremly important, I have to give credit where credit is due. Melissa Morse, out of the blue, nailed the song title right on the head when she told me on messenger that the wanky sax song I've been talking about has to be Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty. Sample the grossness. The 18th We got The Neil Forbes CDs in the mail today and they're ready to be sold. I launched the site today too and will hopefully have some CDs available locally in stores in the next few days. I still don't have a really good sales pitch developed for people who don't know what kind of music it is. I honestly don't know what kind of music it is really. "Post-rock" doesn't really mean much to most people…or to me. I went to see the new Harry Potter tonight and it was pretty good. They did another great job with the special effects too. The dragon looked amazingly convincing. I don't think it was my favourite installment in the series though but I think I do need to go see it again. Ian and Holly showed up from N.S. too, kind of unexpectedly in the parking lot at the theatre. It took me a bit by surprise actually. I went to Tim's with them afterwards and hung out for a bit. I didn't need to eat a caramel crunch bar at 1am, I can tell you that much. After gorging at Pizza Delight and eating king size peanut butter cups during the movie, more sugar just didn't sit so well. I feel gross. Ian told me about this site called Superman is a Dick and I couldn't believe some of the stuff he was telling me appeared on old DC comics. This one is beyond hilarious and I thought Ian was joking until I saw it for myself. Some of this stuff is golden material that I could never in a million years dream up. There's a lot to go through but this makes no sense, this one is…well…, ummm, Supe's got issues, and this is why Superman shouldn't have been allowed to adopt Jimmy Olsen. Oh, let's not forget this whole Batman/Joker sequence either. Endlessly hilarious. The 17th Today was an odd day for music. I woke up to a program on CBC about a podcaster who played a song by The Bell Orchestre and now I have to buy the album because the music is far too good not to have. Then I went to lunch and it was agreed upon by myself and Nathan which song from the 80s was the worst and wankiest in the sax department. Neither of us can remember the name of the song but the greasy, gross sax stuck in my head afterwards. Then I went to two stores (on either end of town mind you) and, through means of some black magic, Oasis' Wonderwall was playing at each store. The DJs be damned for making me listen to that song. I hate that song. It sucks and it makes me think of gross eyebrows on a British fucker and working co-op ed at The Sign Station. The 16th That's right, the Supa-Sentra. Can you dig? Can you dig that I left it at the mechanic's overnight so that I don't have to get up early for him to fix the dashboard lights? Can you dig that I need my front door locks fixed? I can't believe how mild it is tonight because just last night it was snowing. I was able to walk around tonight with just a light hoodie on. Pretty sweet. It would be nice if it would just stay like this for the next 4 months. We came in 1st place again tonight at trivia. My sister and her friend Jill joined our team (a.k.a. The Dream Team) so they reaped the benefits of our status and ranking in the local trivia arena. The taste of victory must have been so much sweeter for the likes of them. I'm glad they could share in the glory, seeing as she's family and all. The 15th It snowed tonight. There was a strange stillness outside wherever I went. It didn't snow very much but it's enough to know that more isn't far off. It was actually kind of nice to see but the first snow usually is. Snow isn't so nice to see any more after it gets all icy and filthy on the side of the road. I bought some BBQ pita chips today which weren't very good but one of them had markings on it that looked like it was drawn by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the illustrator of La Petit Prince book. It looked like a crispy, fat-headed, Martian baby creature. I should have taken a picture but I had eaten it before the thought had even occurred to me. There's one thing I used to make a lot that I hardly ever make now—casseroles. Why don't I? I have no clue because they're fucking good. You don't even really need a recipe for a casserole, you just need to toss a bunch of good stuff into a casserole dish and bake it and it's a damn casserole. The 14th I'm eagerly awaiting the shipment of The Neil Forbes CDs because I want to launch the site and put up posters so that we can start selling these puppies. I'm really hoping we'll have them by mid-week and then I can put some on consignment here in town and in Charlottetown. Hopefully people will actually like what they hear and buy them because I don't want 100 of these sitting in a box in my room somewhere. Getting up tomorrow morning is going to suck but, then again, when doesn't it suck? I really, really have to get my car looked at and get a few things fixed. At some point I'd like to know what speed I'm going at night. The 12th I went up to the mall to buy some more stuff and Zellers was crazy. It was like Xmas already and I'm not looking forward to December shopping if it's like this already. The Xmas decorations are up and tunes are playing already too. I drove to Charlottetown later to see a movie with Kira and her friend Rebecca at City Cinema. We managed to find seats and the movie started with a couple of guys yodelling. It was not The March of the Penguins which we were supposed to see but it was instead a movie called Junebug. It turned out to be a great movie though. I'm glad I saw it because it was one of those small films that had a lot of fleshed out characters, great acting and an interesting story. It's good to see a movie like that every now and then instead of all the big budget Hollywood flicks. I wish we had a City Cinema here. After I got back, Tyler and Donnalee came over and we went down to The Heritage. It sucked as usual but we ran into a few people and talked for a bit. Thankfully left early and got some Chinese food. It seemed extra good too but maybe it was because I was so hungry. The 11th I drove up to my grandparents' place last night in the miserable weather, hydroplaning from time to time, to wish my grandfather a happy 89th birthday. It was kind of a nerve-wracking drive but I made it there ok and they insisted I stay the night instead of driving back in the pouring rain. The rain did let up though so I went for a short visit over to Melissa's place in Tyne Valley to say hi and watch a bit of TV. I got to meet the family dog, Lucky, who Melissa said looks like Santa's Little Helper and she was spot on. I wish I had taken a picture. I spent the night back in Ellerslie and woke up at an ungodly hour of 9am to get ready to head over to the Legion for the Remembrance Day service. For some reason, Neil Forbes and his mom were there and it didn't make much sense to me. I sat through an hour and a half of god-this and god-that—I would have gone to church if I wanted to hear so much about the almighty lord. I can't stand it when something civic like that turns all religious. At least it was inside though and I didn't have to stand out in the cold. The 9th My mom made a huge lasagna dinner for my sister's birthday tonight. Morgan had some of her friends over and we all ate excessive amounts of food. My mom makes a mean lasagna too but she also made a mud pie for dessert. It's so good that it puts an ice cream cake from DQ to shame. For shame, DQ. For shame. Tomorrow is my grandfather's birthday so I might drive up west at some point to wish him a happy 88th (I think). The 8th I slept in until 3pm today. Why? Just because I felt like it. It kind of messed up my whole day but that doesn't matter quite so much when you're unemployed. I still got my running around done and even had time to watch Nathan play Resident Evil 4 for another couple of hours. It's one thing to pass the time playing video games, it's another thing entirely to WATCH someone playing video games. I went over to Tammy's tonight and we watched Man with the Screaming Brain. I'm not entirely sure what to think about this movie other than it was pretty entertaining in a cheesy, campy sort of way. The script was terrible but it fits the whole B-movie genre pretty well. Bruce Campbell is always good though. He was just hilarious and retarded in this flick. The 7th I think I'm obsessed with rice crackers. I'm pretty sure I could eat four packages at once but the salt would probably make me shrivel up and cough out dust and cracker crumbs. The 6th I lent my copy of The Big Lebowski to MacPhee probably at least 5 months ago and he said he'd have it back to me in a week. I got it back today and the front cover is horribly sun faded and the DVD itself looks like it's been a rental for a year. I don't even understand how this stuff happens when I lend him things. It's like he does it on purpose almost. The 5th This car thing is pretty sweet but it's making me spend money like mad. I did a whole bunch of running around and buying stuff today, and yesterday…and the day before that. I'm going to need to slow down but what's this on the horizon? That's right…Xmas. There's going to be a lot of trips made to the mall over the next month and a half. The 4th Since Melissa had the night off and her birthday was yesterday, Laine, Kira and I wanted to plan something for her. Kira came in town to help me plan some things so we bought some party supplies, she and Nick made her a cake and I made reservations at China Star for a big table. After we ate we went to the Maros' house for cake and hung out for a while. It wasn't a big deal but it was fun and people did wear party hats for a little while. The 3rd After some running around and some hassles I got my car insurance for the year paid and registered my vehicle. I've popped the plate on and now my car is on the road. It's pretty freeing to be able to go wherever whenever. I went to see Saw 2 with Nathan and Laine tonight and in a way I wish I hadn't. It was way more intense than the first one and there were some scenes that I just couldn't handle AT ALL. Some of my "worst nightmare" kind of scenarios. It had some interesting plot twists but overall I think I liked the first one better. The 2nd It's hard to believe that November is here already. I really don't want the cold and snow to hit for quite awhile yet. It seems like the winter was only a few months ago. I bought a car today. It's a 1996 Nissan Sentra that seems to be in pretty good shape. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a lemon. I read some reviews and the car seemed to get some pretty good ratings for important things. I have to go get insurance and my registration done tomorrow. I just want to get this damn thing on the road. Then I can go cruisin' downtown for ladies.