senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
all of life's a stage
Sunday, 05JUN2005:finally stopped hitting the snooze button around 14:30. took a few minutes to update my mix playlist on my mp3 player before heading in to the office to check if i needed to do anything before tomorrow morning. luckily, i didn't (yeehah!). both malcolm and qajaq were in, so i chatted with them before heading to northmart for a grocery run. saffron sure is pricey !
later, greg called to see if i was interested in another round of ball hockey. i was. however, he wasn't able to twist any other arms, so we decided to go out on a hike towards the park. the lovely sun that had been out all day disappeared just as we got underway, but we soldiered on. we hung out at the pavilion to check out the view of the bay and as we turned back, we ran into alison and bella (and mary and callum) who convinced us to stick around for a bit longer.
heading up the the ridge across from the pavilion, we scouted out possible locations for a stage setting in case we manage to get organized enough to put on a play this summer. by holding it outdoors, i wouldn't have to worry about the lighting stuff and could make a return appearance as a cast member. heck, i might even be persuaded to make my directorial debut :)
alison offered to give us a lift back to town and on the way, enticed us further with an offer of soup. so, we went back to their place and had a lovely meal of pumpkin soup, fresh bread, chocolate-dipped strawberries and gingerbread cookies. yum!
we also got a chance to chat with john about the challenges and potential of nunavut, including the positive and negative consequences of an increased mining presence. he remained optimistic that any difficulties would merely be growing pains and that eventually everything will work out for the best.
closed off the evening by watching an episode of 'quantum leap' from season 2 ('catch a falling star'), featuring the stunning janine turner and the sly john callum in supporting roles as the mischievous leads in a production of the musical 'man of la mancha'. this was the year before they reunited as cast members of one of my favourite shows, 'northern exposure'.
taking pleasure in the little things
Monday, 06JUN2005:spent most of the day clearing up odds and ends. stayed a few hours later just to get closer to wrapping up the conference report so i can get my reimbursement cheque for expenses. got home to crack open my comics shipment which arrived today *joy*.
dived into the 2d issue of 'oddly normal' first, but it suffered in comparison with the manic exhuberance of 'death jr.'. i think he was aiming for the harry potter going to magic school effect, but i think a few more in-jokes were needed to make it work. or maybe the jokes that were there just went over my head ? not having an idiot-box means i'm always playing catch-up to some pop culture.
also played a few more rounds of 'poker kings texas hold'em' and turned over my first royal flush. i was almost as giddy as if i had won real money :)
do you think that's air you're breathing ?
Tuesday, 07JUN2005:so much for virtual poker being good practice for reality. i got my butt well-kicked tonite. todd, patrick, spencer, becky and i faced off and i ended up going out 2d. all of the tricks that worked against an A.I. didn't faze real human opponents at all and i didn't have the patience to wait for premium hands or to bet them properly once i did get them.
ah well, i'm still ahead overall on my poker evenings. i'm just glad that i didn't manage to get to a casino down south, because if i played there like i played tonite, i wouldn't have been pleased with the results.
i'm thinking of titling my next mix, 'snow in f**king june' to commemorate our lovely iqaluit weather this week. today, it got warm enough a few times that the snow became rain, so that made me a bit happier.
counting coup
Wednesday, 08JUN2005:so, even tho i lost at poker yesterday, i'm doing well on my budget, so i felt ok to spend some money today. first, i covered the investment side by transferring some money from my chequing account to my trading account. i was left with a toss-up between CLG and STG.
the first is a gold play in nunavut which hasn't made it to the mine stage yet. i already have some in my rrsp as a hedge against a general downturn in the economy (and hence in the overall stock market), but i was tempted to buy some for my trading account as well since it is bouncing around its 52-week low. however, i chose to place an order for the 2d because since it is a penny stock, a few cents change can mean a big percentage profit. i've made money on its bounces before, so i figured i'd see if history would repeat itself. the trade is for a fixed price and i left it open for a couple of weeks.
i also went and spent some dough at amazon to use up a gift certificate that i had been given to compensate me for the loss / misplacement of a few of my items. stuff i ordered:
- Thurston Moore - Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture
- Patrick Smith - Ask the Pilot
- Lowest of the Low - Sordid Fiction
- Bowling for Soup - A Hangover You Don't Deserve
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - OST
- The Vandals - Play Original Country Tunes
first, rebounds off of the walls were a much bigger factor. second, the gym was half the size of the high school gym, meaning the ball went from wall to wall much quicker. also, while the goalie could pick up the ball in the crease, all players were allowed to play thru, meaning that the goalie couldn't just haul the ball into the crease to play keepaway.
kook, nattuk, andrea, robert, john and i played against joseph, scotty, steven, guy in white jersey (GIWJ) and girl. GIWJ scored within the first 2 seconds when the ball rebounded off of the back wall from the initial kick, right to his feet, and he put it past my shoulder. one goal went between my legs as i was crossing in front - i managed to tag it but not enough. one goal was given up when i dropped the ball trying to do a fancy behind the back basketball pass.
another goal was given up when i ran out to challenge and the ball was passed to an open man in front of the net. the other 2 were fairly decent goals, either catching the corner or hitting the far side of the net. robert scored 2 for our side, so without my 4 screwups, we might have had a tie game.
ah well, karma has a funny way of balancing things. after a shower, i rushed to the legion to catch the show put on by andrew and chris in the quiet lounge. i rushed because i knew that the kitchen closed between 8 and 9. when i got there, i found out that the kitchen closes at 8:30, but they were still putting away the buffet fixings. when i asked, the attendant said that they were closed, but when he saw me drooling, he relented and even offered me a discount.
i piled my plate with as many wings, egg rolls and fish balls as could be fit. carrying this to the quiet lounge, i joined rose, cyndi, lisa, BB, liz, jim, morgan and joe. morgan and jim were making side bets about whether i could finish off the stack, but they learned that no one should ever bet against my appetite. when all that was left on the plate were clean-picked chicken bones, i had polished off 4 fish ball, 8 egg rolls and 18 wings (plain and honey garlic). *burp*
oh, and the musical accompaniment to my performance was fine. a mix of jimi hendrix, neil young, pink floyd, rolling stones, weezer and sublime. after the 2d set, i wandered over to the other side where i ran into malcolm, chris, olivia, david and willy. we decided to head over to the pool room where 2 tables were wide open, ripe for our takeover.
my first game was against malcolm. he demonstrated a keen sense of position, clearing 5 balls off of the break before giving me a chance. when we were down to the black, he tapped it in, only to watch in horror as the cue ball went down a second pocket.
joe was next to challenge me. this time i had the upper hand and was up 4 balls when i managed to scratch the cue ball when trying to position the black for a finishing touch. ouch.
game 3 was a rematch with joe. only 2 balls were left on the table when he sunk the black. we were shaking hands when we noticed out of the corners of our eyes ... the cue ball rolling towards us ... *plunk* ... and suddenly there were no balls left on the table :)
my next challenger was s2Xv ** (up.pa.ka). he wanted to play for $5 in addition to the table, but i had seen him play before. to put it simply, he cleaned the table on me.
on the first rematch, my rack was so poor that i not only scratched on the break, but also only broke one ball out of the pit. s2Xv patiently waited for me to mess up my shots and break out a few balls for him to play. he was onto the black when i managed to hook him by freezing one of my balls between the cue and the black while another ball blocked off the near bank. he went for the long bank and an unlucky bounce put the cue onto a 3d ball that i had strategically not sunk for just such an eventuality ;)
when he challenged me again, he went on another tear, but this time i managed to keep up. when i miffed my corner shot on the black, i was hanging up my cue for the night when i heard an exclamation. i turned around to see no balls on the table. he had hit the cue so hard that it had followed the black into the corner! this is probably the first time that i've ever kept a table i've won at the legion - i'm so proud of myself :)
on the final re-match, i was within 1 ball when he put the black away and i hailed him as master of the table for the evening as i was headed for home.
so, 4-3 for the night at pool, with 5 matches (and all 4 of my wins) decided by scratches. soccer was a disastrous 2-6. however, the tie-breaker for the day was a huge, greasy meal at the legion for a measly 10 bucks. final score for today: 2-1, making it a winsome day indeed.
** if all you see here is 's2Xv', you
will need to
download
the ProSyl font to see the
inuktitut
syllabics properly.chart source.
no planning required
Thursday, 09JUN2005:phoned up a fellow librarian in one of the communities in nunavut to clarify an email that i sent to him. he's originally from new brunswick and he mentioned that he's glad for the change of pace from his 'wild' post-grad student dayze. there is something to be said for the chance to get away from the rat-race.
after work, i got roped into supper at the nav with joe, morgan, jean, linda, michelle and michael. we each ordered a dish, plus spring rolls as appetizers and i was a wee worried that we would be taking mounds of food home at the end of the night. however, between jean and i, we ensured that all we carried home were full bellies.
got home to take a post-prandial (and sleep-catchup) nap before deciding to burn a copy of my latest mix to try out without headphones at the office tomorrow while filing looseleaf updates. worked on the mix cover and the new working title is "june + iqaluit = snowfall ?" there's another birthday party on saturday that i will crash, so i'll bring along a copy as a present.
hurray, the weekend is here !
Friday, 10JUN2005:soccer tonite was a definite improvement over wednesday. i finally figured out that the robert who scored 2 goals last game was the same guy who was a star in net in previous games. during the warmup, he gave every indication that he was going to play net this time, but once the whistle blew, he motioned me in. i hadn't bothered putting on gloves or elbow pads, tho, so i was forced to move about rather gingerly. it must have worked because i didn't let anything past me in the first half.
the front combo of nattuk and robert scored multiple times, with 2 assists and finishes apiece. the other team scored once right near the end, denying me a miraculous shutout. oh and nattuk says he scored one goal last game, making me feel even guiltier about the mistakes i had made. tonite, however, both kook and robert were very defence-conscious and i didn't cough up the ball. even a few poor throw-outs didn't come back to haunt me. john filled out the team roster as we had no subs.
after biking back down the hill and taking a quick shower, i hailed a taxi to drop me off at the quickstop so i could pick up some fixings before swinging by malcolm's for an impromptu bbq. a huge crowd was there, including chris, sara, mike, curtis, suzanne, fletcher, rachel, michelle, olivia, malcolm, john, willy and dan. malcolm used the bbq so much that olivia had to make a run for another propane tank to finish cooking the rest of the food.
after a dessert of ice cream drenched in raspberry sauce, olivia took it upon herself to call for a taxi to take us to the legion. the first car-load of us managed to get in without any problems, but by the time the 2d car-load arrived, the place had reached near-capacity and the members-only rule was being enfored. half of our crowd decided to head up to the storehouse. me, malcolm, sara and dan stuck around for another round in the quiet lounge. i called in an early nite as i expect a busy day tomorrow.
will rancid chicken do me in ?
Saturday, 11JUN2005:greg called in between my snaps at the snooze button to invite me out for a hike. i passed as i had made a haircut appointment to shave down my emergent afro. as well, i had already lined up a hike with robert and odile for later in the afternoon.
instead of taking the turnoff to the park and going directly to the pavilion, we continued along the west 40 to the next turnoff and then hiked along the shore back. i had brought my old film camera along and was going to take a shot of an old dump site juxtaposed with the awesome view of the bay, but realized that i hadn't actually put film in the camera since coming back from china over 19 months ago. we came upon a nice rock-enclosed nook with lots of spongy moss. i made the mistake of flopping backwards onto the moss; while it was as soft as i had expected, it was also soaking wet :(
when we got to the spot down the hill from the pavilion, we stopped to have an impromptu picnic of chips, peanuts and a cookie. odile noticed a field mouse and wondered whether she could catch it. i told her that if she caught it, i would eat it. thus inspired, she jumped into action, hoisting a rock aloft to take aim. robert got his throwing arm ready as well, but the field mouse, noticing that i wasn't armed, wisely raced towards me and escape.
back home, i tossed around the idea of going to subway for supper, but decided that the stinky uncooked chicken in my fridge needed to be addressed. i know about the dangers of salmonella, but wasn't sure whether i should be worried about the chicken meat actually going bad. after removing the most odiferous pieces, i proceeded to fry the rest and plop them into a curry melange to mask any ewwy flavours.
the evening was spent at rachel and fletcher's, where they held a birthday party for morgan and willy. morgan was awol for a bit until fletch walked over to joe's to fetch him. rachel served us a delicious carrot cake with raisins and walnuts. she also pulled out the betty crocker cookbook which suggested that 2 days was the maximum amount of time that chicken should be allowed to stay in the fridge before consumption. that seemed a bit extreme, especially given that mass refrigeration has only been around for what, 50 years ? i thought that one of the major reasons that europeans traded with the far east was for spices to mask the taste of rancid meat. anyway, in the future, i'll cook the chicken sooner ...
after morgan and co. left for the legion, and willy and malcolm arrived after closing their radio show, we got into an interesting discussion about whether the private morality of politicians should have any bearing on their public reputation. i guess my take is that i don't care about someone's private life unless it affects the trust that i have about whether or not they can do a good job. i'm voting for the person to stand up for policies that i support, not for their successes or failings in their own lives.
i volunteered to drive chris and willy home as their designated driver. however, this ended up being a bit more than what i had bargained for as fidel had crapped in the vehicle earlier. with windows cranked open, we made it down the hill to chris' new apartment and then i walked the rest of the way home. i watched the sunrise at 2 in the morning while kids were still out playing basketball and soccer and biking around.
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