Beers I've Drank: Cannery Brewing's Maple Stout

650ml

5.5%

from Penticton, B.C.

A breakfast beer! A very strong maple syrup-y flavour with an oaky texture at the beginning with very slight bitterness that melts into an almost molasses or a sweet caramel aftertaste. Definitely an "occasional" purchase, but very tasty and unique.

Small Victories

That's what'll get you through some of those days.

Like today.

When I transformed some old locker shelves into a stackable shoe rack. Suck on that, Ikea.

New Post

I was watching The Day After Tomorrow yesterday (pun intended) on TBS, and I've got to say that, in the 6ish years' time from whence I saw it in theaters (back before the viewing audience re-re-re-discovered 3D and we were all content with simple smell-o-vision)...

IT STILL SUCKS.

Mind you, that sentiment slash abridged-quasi-review strictly refers to the events immediately after everything gets blown straight to hell, but whose roots are embedded throughout the first 45 minutes of delightful scientific inaccuracy and climatological tomfoolery and this one guy on Dennis Quaid's team gettin' some mad Yellow Fever (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yellow%20fever, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyRWuklsiQ) for this bitch-face Asian person.

I don't even mean that racially, I mean I myself am Asian. But she totally has one of those "career >>>...>>>> bringing a white dude home to my parents and pissing them off" faces, especially if he's not a doctor or lawyer or some majestic fuzor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzors) of those two professions. She definitely does not get what that young whipper-snapper is doing, talking in double-entendre-speak.

Anyways, the main protagonist (aside from Mother Nature) of the film (oh, and also aside from IT IS TRULY HUMANS WHO ARE THE GREATEST BEASTS OF THEM ALL!!!) turns out to be (amendment to that last aside, that was the message/moral of King Kong)...

...some frickin' WOLVES.

WOLVES?! ESCAPED RABID WOLVES?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

My fantasy basketball team had a more threatening team mascot (the Memphis Grass Munchers -- with a movie tie-in tagline of "KICKING YOUR GRASS EVERYWHERE, OH, IT'S (L)AWN, BABY").

It will be forever classified as, and stand as a sterling example of, Movies I Want To See Muted Entirely Except For When Shit Is Blowing Up. But don't worry, that category won't stay lonely too long - I haven't seen "2012" yet. Oh boy.

Pre-2010 Resolution(s) - a work in progress

(1) Develop an uncanny habit of trying to make an attempt at staying in slighty-better shape. Layman's terms: run 20 minutes every morning.

(2) Shoot fire from my hands.

What My Friend Thinks of Me on my Birthday (today)

What my friend Angela says: (in response to me asking for a pony for my birthday)
"A pony? That's lame. I thought you'd be more of like an man eating fish type of guy."


What I thought:
"A pony? That's lame. I thought of you more like a MAN-EATING FISH type of guy."

TOP LIST BIRTHDAY PARTY WHOOOOOOAAAAAAAAA BOIIIIIII

"I'm Back, Babydolls!"

I'd like to point out that the title of this post is a quote from my personal favourite episode of How I Met Your Mother (Season 1, Episode 10). Unlike HIMYM, however I will not spend the next 8 months of your lives needlessly baiting and switching. Grumble Grumble.

Readers, please take note of some new stuff from wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay back in June and July that I've only recently gotten around to posting just just now now.

School starts up again in about a week's time, so look forward to a full-fledged year of reading about Alley Icemen (Here). Be back in a bitty.

Impractical Theme day: Awkward Ninja Day!

(To the whimsical jingle of the Apple Autoglass ads): Awk-ward Nin-ja Day!


AT THE OFFICE PARTY:
"Dammit, Dave wore exactly what I wore!"

DURING HIDE AND GO SEEK
"I can't find anybody!"

ON A SUNNY DAY
"Black was a bad choice"

CAREER DAY AT NINJA ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL
"What are YOU going to be when you grow up?"

ON INTERIOR DESIGN
"Why is my house soundproofed?!"

June 21

Grumble.

As much as it would seem I hate to admit it, it is as though Hamilton is my "natural environment" when it comes to keeping my loyal readers (who are, admittedly, in dwindling, dangerously low numbers) satisfied. No song aptly - at the time - named "Of a Week". No more poetry from a yesteryear Me, one full of envious, boundless energy and enthusiasm about the most juvenile things and convoluted romanticized visions of "love". There's actually this one where I compared love to skating. I know, right? Ridic. And this other one? It was about how many different varieties of the colour green there were. Da-dum.

I've posted two videos on facebook in the meantime (well, three, but two of them are just version 1.0 and 2.0 of the same...'unique skill'). But vlogging - wait, that's what the video blogging Portmonteau is? That is weak - is not my sort of thing. Especially not with the limited filming space my laptop gives, i.e. a room that resembles a 7-year-old's nursery, complete with poster of the original 150 Pokemon, as well as a ludicrously expensive Transformers Optimal Optimus on my shelf, adjacent to now-dusty and forlorn houseleage soccer trophies of a once-former glory...and next to a toy car playset of, of all things, a parking garage. How exhilarating.

But wait, who am I honestly trying to kid - my FisherPrice Parking Ramp Service Center?
It is The Shit.

Of Plating (of a meal. not, like, armour-wise.)

Coincidentally, I was at my friend Laurel (see last post title)'s birthday party, where, upon reading the appetizer menu, an idea burst forth into my brain -- one of intra-plate food placement.

Please turn your attention to Figure A, the chicken finger.

Figure A: ordinary chicken finger

And now, please turn your attention once more to Figure B, the chicken FREAKIN' HAND.


Figure B: EXTRAordinary chicken fingers

Wonderful. Wonderful wonderful. The dipping-sauce 'palm', by-the-by, is a mixture of three parts ketchup to one part mayonnaise, as demonstrated by my dear friend Adrian. Who sadly is no longer with us. Because he is in Halifax. Away.

Also, those blue and red lines are supposed to be veins and arteries. Because when I began this crude and thoughtless MS Paint job I started sketching my right hand, despite having to use it to control the delicate Paint mouse handling. Unsurprisingly, this plan went completely FUBAR almost instantly, when I realized that drawing the back of a hand is really boring. So really, this is a juxtaposition of 'a right hand, but if the palm of the left hand was instead replacing the ex-palm of the right hand'. That's right. Ex-palm. Outer palm? It's a good thing I'm not studying physiology.












Teehee.

Enough of me idly sitting on the laurels of my 50th post...

Back to 'work', it seems.

Lots's beens happening the last month or so. I have a girlfriend now (!), so that's pretty neat-o (easily the biggest understatement of 2009, but I just feel like mincing words today). Have a job for the upcoming summer months. shrug.

I guess this impromptu time to re-begin blogging again came at a bad time. I'm supposed to be studying (a-ha! driving lessons, right, forgot about that) right now, using my poor man's version of a homemade steering wheel to simulate -- a broken extension cord as the wheel, with rolled up newspapers criss-crossing through it acting as the 'spokes' and the horn. Yes, it is as diobolically crappy (yet crafty) as they come, and I've had to rebuild it once already.... but it'll do for the moment?

The thing about blogging is that I choose to refrain from using emoticons to directly showcase how I'm feeling while I'm writing this. As I'm sure many blogs do...the ones I read, at least. Suffice it to say, it's safe to assume that most of the time there is a stellar, handsome young man with a world-wide smile on his cheeky (in terms of behaviour, not cheek-size) face. But you can't see that I'm currently sick. Blargh. It's the flu, I think. I've displayed all the listed symptoms that those handy public transit buses have displayed to me: sore throat, loss of appetite, runny nose, fatigue, sore joints; more, or less.

Nobody likes being sick (2nd nominee for biggest understatement of the year), and I wholeheartedly agree. T'were it a physical ailment that I could see with my own eyes? Yeah, sure, okay, I guess this voratiously lobotomized left kneecap sticking out at a -23 degree angle could stop me from going up and down stairs. But anything that's making you sick from the inside out (save the flesh-eating bacteria, that is the polar opposite of the 'bee's knees', bar none. relatedly in the 'would-literally-go-crazy' bin would be 'having words tatooed to the inside of your eyelids'. imagine seeing something forever, indefinitely? it must'nt be too hard to picture, just close your eyes, clear your head and....oh wai- YOU DON'T SEE BLACK (your eyelids, duh) YOU SEE WRITTEN TEXT. how utterly messed up must that be?! forgetting for a second the procedure itself of tatooing legible things on the inside of an eyelid, just, just....wow. didya want to go to sleep, and rest those weary eyes? n'uh uh. crazy.) I feel is much worse, particularly for morale and psyche.

Oh, and I re-activated my old neopets account from 4-plus years ago. To nobody's surprise, my griffin pet is "very very hungry".


Listening to: Jenn Grant's Echoes.

50th Post

Wow. What a journey it has been.

There are roughly 365 days in a year. Why do I bring this up?
Because at the current velocity of posts per day, I am going at a measly 50 (published) posts per 310 days, which works out roughly to 1 post per 6 days.

For SHAME, AIH, FOR SHAME!

To commensurate this being the 50th's post, I shall strive to indulge you, my loyal (if imaginary) readers with a more accurate, more up-to-date, and more riveting account of my life if at all humanly possible.

ADDITIONAL INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT ME

This evening was my first-ever time of wearing contact lenses, a feat which is significant in itself because I have been one of the most staunch supports of the Toronto Chapter (or, at least, within my meager 700 or so friends on and off of Facebook) of Glasses are Awesomer Than Contact Lenses Or Laser Eye Surgery.
GATCLOLES.

*<Mandatory Musical Interlude>
Nahnahnahnah nahnahnahnah
nahnahnahnah nahnahnahnah
nahnahnahnah nahnahnahnah
nahnahnahnah nahnahnahnah
GATCLOLES!!!!!

Anyways, they're a set of monthly disposable contacts that I'm to begin wearing today for 3 hours, and increasing my dosage by an hour every following day to get myself used to them.

Not going to lie, having lived my entire glasses-wearing life (so, the past 11 or so years?) with glasses, it's....it's pretty mesmerizing; in particular, looking into the mirror and realizing you can see yourself clearly without anything on your face?

It's something, I tell ya.




*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P46bQNssQWQ
A timeless piece of TV Mastery. Wooooo.

Hups! Last Post was a Lie

So it turns out that my life might actually involve more than just mindless job-hunting (read: have a job interview soon, so that 'hiatus' was a) a load of bullshit, and b) a self-proclaimed omen of near-immediate future awesomeness. in the job world. not so much elsewhere.)

I was milling about the house today trying to hook up my wireless internet when I realized I was missing a rather key piece of the puzzle, the elusive power cord. I figured the bigass black power charger thingy for it was in my now empty-garage (my brother having since taken possession of the 'family' car, which I guess provides a reasonably stupid excuse for why I haven't learned how to drive yet. other than my chronic laziness, laissez-faire attitude to driving and my adoration with public transit. actually this past week more than ever I've been agitated that I can't drive yet, for numerous reasons, the most pressing of which is 'I want to go places by myself when I want to'). Anyways, I happened upon one of those ridiculous door-frame-supported chinup bars my friend had lent me (......for an indefinite period of time in exchange for no money. like what my friend THE_REAL_ADRIAN does with the magazines in his high school library) and in true 'what-the-hell' shoulder-shrugging curiosity, I thought I might try me some P90x.

Having done the pre-warm-up training test thing they recommend (so you can't sue their asses when you tear or break something in your body during the actual workout), albeit several months ago, I started off with Part 1: Chest and Back in my basement. I used a:
-makeshift soft sorta-like-a-doormat mat (for the following Ab Ribber X workout. more later.), which I'll definitely need to replace with a professional one, if I continue
-bottle of water
-friend's chinup bar for push-ups (but not chinups, because I was afraid it might tear down one or more doorframes. and a wall. because my house is old. olde school.)
-lawn-chair type chair
-two bags full of heavy encyclopedias to simulate weights

To sum up my first real P90x workout?
"Holy what the incredibly painful bageezes sore sore sweating like a woolly mammoth did NOT want to believe I was that out of shape tired burning muscles slightly dizzy need a hot bubble bath in one of those Japanese bath houses or a nap but it would have to be an X-TREME nap"

That host guy is ridiculous, but he sort of grows on you in a cocky way, like you're directing all the anger of not having chiseled sculpted abs at him and his talkative sneering face.

All in all, one of the better workouts I've had the last couple of months, namely because this past year the focus had definitely been shifted towards academics. One thing to note is that the chinup bar works wonders for doing pushups, because without them my wrists began to become sore just pushing up off the floor.
Will update you all as things (hopefully ripped abs and muscles; and not muscle tears, a loss of self-confidence, and subsequent crying) develop!

On Indefinite Hiatus

...until I find a job and sadly, once again, become an actual contributing member to society. Darn.

Intermission

The outright best part of that word? Mission. Such is life. This, in particular, is the Intermission of the hiatus you all have been experiencing.

As you might be able to deduct, I'm on a bity of an unofficial unannounced hiatus, although it isn't anything to worry and lose your hair about.
Unlike the Great AlleyIcemen,Here Hibernation Hiatus of Winter 2008/2009, in which you, my precious readers, were caught in a 3+ month drought of the oh-so-essential, life-altering, perception-shifting blog posts from yours truly.

On a related note, it appears Springtime is in the air, and all around.
Indeed, it is time to, as they say, Soak Up The Sun.
A truly ample opportunity for Workin My Way Back to You.
(These pitiful excuses for Spring- and seasons- themed musical puns are brought to you by the absolute lack of songs or bands in my iTunes having the word Spring in them. Clearly, Winter and Summer kick Spring's rainy ass in Season Popularity contests, and it's no wonder why.)

In lieu of my posts, I am more than happy to redirect you all once more to my dear friend Stephanie's blog (http://www.fightthemasses.blogspot.com/)

I'll be back posting just as soon as my exams finish up.
BE EXCITED!