[MSN Spaces] Ripped abs and all.

So, when I originally set out to write this blog, like Chris, I didn't want my entries to degenerate into the whiny, emo, 'I feel so sad, I could cut myself' type of entries you see so often. Well, I should amend that. When I ORIGINALLY set out to write this blog, I had the intention of not writing this blog (as noted in my first entry)... but even *I* didn't believe what I wrote there. I'm glad I didn't, because I now have a nice (albeit small) readership and it gives me a chance to do some writing that I can actually enjoy. So, when I originally (the second time) set out to write this blog, I wanted more of the content to be humorous articles (a la "...it's just a series of consecutive flings...") rather than 'look at what I did' journal entries. Things change, and most of the content so far has tended toward journal entries... I think it's gone over well with my audience even still, since I've managed to keep them humorous. I want to have more non-journal type entries, but my ultimate goal is still just to keep this place fun and entertaining.

So what's the point of this entry? Not much really. But to further my goal of humorous writing, I present to you the following:

There are many times when a simple decision (or a series of) can make such a positive impact on your life. For me, learning how to dance, and more importantly, deciding to tryout for the swing team I'm on were two such decisions. I seem to have two modes for making decisions: on-a-whim and think-it-to-death. No, that's not true; I have three modes: on-a-whim, think-it-to-death, and implant-an-idea-in-my-head-and-let-it-fester. Learning how to dance was on-a-whim. Trying out for the team was implant-an-idea-in-my-head-and-let-it-fester. I have to thank Emily (briefly a member in the first days) for implanting the idea.

I think I'm starting to stray from the topic...

Anyway, for anybody that didn't know me before dancing, I was your typical computer geek, complete with lack of muscles. About a year and a half of being on a swing team, that's changed nicely. Lots of dancing and lifting girls will do that. I'm rather pleased with the tone and definition I'm getting. All I need now is added mass and I'm good. To illustrate the point, I have put together my Before and After picture below:

* The author may not be exactly as shown.

I think you would agree with me that the After is a nice improvement.

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] "Oh cool! It's an Acura!!"

Hehe. Quick little story before the weekend recap. Sunday afternoon, I was driving around downtown with Holly. It was such a beautiful sunny day, so I had all the windows down full. My music was off, so we were enjoying the sounds of ... the city. And conversation, of course. I'm driving along Douglas and turn up Johnson. A family is jay-walking further up the block. I notice one of the boys (about 7 or 8 yrs old, I would guess) dawdling along, staring at my car. As I drive past them, I hear him say "Oh cool! It's an Acura!!"

It's nice to see proper vehicle appreciation starting early.

Victoria Hot Jazz Jubilee!!

Four days. Six venues. Eighteen bands. All that translated into one amazing weekend of great music, fun fun dancing, and little sleep! My CD collection just grew by two, as I picked up two by The 51st Eight (Worth the Weight and Live at the Hot Jazz).

So let's start this off on Friday. The "plan" was to meet up with sav, Christabel, Matt, and whoever else (Chris and Chelsea?) at Central Bar and Grill to start off the Jubilee with Dick Johnson's Mardi Gras Band and 51st Eight. Somehow Holly and I never quite made it out the door.

Saturday started early. We were downtown by 11AM (this is the weekend, 11AM *IS* early). I dropped off Holly, as she was meeting her aunt, and I headed off to the Edelweiss to park my car for the day. Free parking is a good thing. I grabbed some food, eventually meet up with Holly again, and we take a nice leisurely stroll along the waterfront on our way to the Bedford Regency to meet up with the rest of the group. We show up just in time to leave. Onward to the Empress! As we walk, Matt keeps walking astray. Me thinks we need to leash that boy. We get to the Empress and dance to the sounds of Dixieland Express. After that, it was back to the Bedford for We Three. Mmmm, the Bedford has a niiiiiiiice floor. It'd be even better if it was bigger!

At this point, our group (18 of us!) head to the Wicket for an early dinner. Food was pretty good, as usual. Afterwards, we split up and headed off in different directions. We'd meet later on. Sav, Christabel, Sarah, Matthew (hah! I remembered your name, this time!), Holly, and I headed to Bastion Square for some gelato. Mmm, gelato. We then take a nice wander through the Inner Harbour on our way back to the Empress and the rest of the group. At one point, sav tried to create (well, expand) a sinkhole in the (cement!) walking path. I think you need to put on a few more pounds before that'll happen, sav. We continued on and walked past the Floating Boat Show in the harbour. There were some sweet sweet yachts, including one really nice cat (catamaran, for those clueless in-duh-viduals ). *drool*

We get back to the Empress and catch the tail end of the Louisiana Joymakers. Off for some coffee. I don't remember what that place is called, but it was a cafe on the corner of Fort and Douglas. One of the girls working there was pretty nice. The other was rather surly. Quite surly. No wonder the place was so quiet. Coffees in hand, we head back for some Belvedere Broadcasters before heading off, once again, to the Bedford to see the Joymakers and finish off the night with The 51st Eight. Rajeev and Angela joined us at this point. When we had left for coffee, I had noticed some boas on the souvenir tables. I thought sav would look rather fetching in a boa. Coming back, I stopped to ask if they were for sale (they weren't listed on the price sheets) and asked how much. Sadly, $15 was a little more than I was willing to spend at the time. That money went towards the CDs I picked up.

So the group made their way out of the Empress in various combinations. Sav and Christabel got stuck talking to people, as usual. Holly and I got stuck, as I met up with one of my first students (he took Swing 1 the first time I taught). After a conversation with him and his lady friend, we headed out. In the lobby adjoining the Crystal Ballroom, we were told there's a metal disc in the floor, centered under the dome in the ceiling. If you stand on the spot, it echoes like CRAZY!! Obviously, we had to try it. I can confirm, it does echo like CRAZY! Pretty fun!

Back at the Bedford. I told Rajeev that we'd have a dance later. So later, we get onto the floor and dance to a medium paced song by The 51st Eight. (They are high energy, so slower songs are a little scarce.) Many people were amused! Angela took a few good pictures of us, so I hammed it up for the camera. (Angela, I want those pictures, please!) Unfortunately, she didn't get one of the dip at the end.

But we weren't the only entertainment on the floor, not by a long shot. They played Claire McKenna's 'theme song' to introduce her as the guest clarinet/singer and one woman did a bit of a 'striptease' to the song. Hehe. Throughout the set and to the end, there was the occasional Solo Charleston jams, which are so much fun to watch and jump into! I've done a mini one with Matt at a performance awhile back, but I wasn't about to jump into these ones just yet.

After closing the dancing with The 51st Eight, Holly and I took a nice leisurely stroll through the night back to my car to finish off the night.

After all that, we still had Sunday to go. The first bands started playing at 9:30AM, but not bloody likely that's gonna happen! Holly and I did get to Harbour Towers for the Belvedere Broadcasters at 1:15... well, we got there halfway through their set. Sav, Christabel, Sara, Dave, and Tina were in attendance. The West Harbour Ballroom at Harbour Towers has two levels. The stage was setup on the lower level, with the dance floor waaaaaaaaaay off in the back on the upper level. Now that's just wrong. It just made it seem like it was an after-thought. Add to that the weird/crappy nature of the floor and the setup was not the most conducive to dancing. Christabel and I did attempt a dance on the floor, in the centre, but we were the only swingers on the floor and the other couples quickly closed in on us. We were trapped and being bombarded from all sides!!! One nice couple stopped in the line of dance and let us through to safety. We finished the song on the carpet beside the floor. After that, all our dancing was done on the carpet beside the stage.

With the Broadcasters finished their set, sav and Christabel headed for the Empress and We Three. The rest of us were too lazy to move and stuck around for The 51st Eight. Heh... 'too lazy', I say. It was the last set of the Jubilee and they (and we) pulled out the bigger stuff. Got in some good fast paced, hectic dancing. If you've ever heard 51st play, you'll know that their songs tend to be high energy... and LONG. Was a good workout. For the last song, we tried to get a steal jam going with Andrew (who showed up for 51st), but plain and simple, he was a punk. "I can't cut it at that speed." Bah, wimp! So Dave, Sara, Holly, and I (Tina sat this one out. Safer, considering the flailing that can happen with steals and her arm being in a cast.) danced the song, swapping partners. Every combination went on, with Dave and I dancing together at one point. That left Sara and Holly to dance with each other. Some of the high speed partner switches went off amazingly smoothly. It was just too much fun! We got a lot of comments from people in the audience saying how much fun it was watching us dance. I love hearing that. It works out well for everybody; I get to have fun dancing and they get a show if they aren't dancing.

So with the Jubilee over, I drove Holly home so she could study for a final exam. The "Oh cool! It's an Acura!!" happened on that drive. After dropping Holly off, I got home and gave my car a much needed washing. So for now, I have a shiny car. I love it!

I can't wait for this coming weekend!! It looks to be even bigger and more exciting!!! A quick teaser: my birthday, an expected NEW birthday, dancing dancing and more dancing with Hot Koko!

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] Confused? Me?

It's a good thing I have a girlfriend, or else I'd be having an identity crisis right now.

For the random visitors that read this (welcome!), I'm on a swing dance team. We've had a few auditions recently, and because of people not showing up for various reasons, for a couple auditions we've been short follows. So I've been a follow for two auditions recently. Well, three auditions, but the first one was early last year. I keep getting called upon to follow since I'm probably the best follow out of our leads. Yep, good thing I have a girlfriend.

Hehe, I jest. Following is fun and helps my leading. In classes, I've popped in as a follow when the opportunity arises. It's also really fun to see the reactions of all the people not expecting it. Some guys are just so very uncomfortable with the situation, while others go with it and have a ton of fun! You can have some very entertaining dances that way!

So anyway, in this latest audition, we did one aerial called 'the knicker'. As a poor first-pass description, the follow does a back-flip with assistance from the lead. I quickly drew up the image below. Hopefully it gives you a good idea of what the knicker looks like.

I'd just like to say that OMFG the knicker is so much fun! I've only ever done it as a lead... until now. I repeat; OMFG it is so much fun!!

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] Four day long weekends aren't long enough.

Another long weekend has come and gone and what do I have to show for it? Sleep deprivation. Oh, and some really good memories.

So let's see...

Thursday night, Holly swung by and picked me up to go skating with a couple of her friends (it's tough being alone with three girls, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do). The last time I had gone skating was a couple years ago. It had not gone so well that time. Something about the blades on the skates being so very very very dull as to be almost convex... Yep. Fortunately, this time around I got skates with a decent semblance of sharp edges. I was pleasantly surprised by how well I could still skate... and stop. I wasn't flying around with reckless abandon and speed or kicking up a nice spray of snow as I stopped like I used to in my younger years (when I would go skating every week), but I could get up enough speed to seriously injure myself or somebody else while maintaining enough control not to... or at the very least, the illusion of. But I longed for the days where I could just run onto the ice, instead of gingerly stepping on for fear of losing my balance and making a fool of myself. At least I didn't have to hold onto the side and reach with my skate; no, I could step on from the middle!

So yeah, we're on the ice, skating around together. Occasionally we'd do the little "Whip O' Death" thing, or I'd give Holly or one of her friends a nice little boost from behind. I think the easiest part, though, was when I just stood there in front of Holly as her friends pulled us along. Here we are, four of us skating around in circles. After my confidence in my skating abilities improved, I resurrected my age-old lazy skating style of hands in pockets and pushing here and there to maintain speed. Well, most of the time it ended up being a one-handed lazy style, as my other hand tended to be attached to Holly. You know how that goes. Fun time was had by all.

Friday late afternoon, I head out to a potluck BBQ for Rotaract members at Liz's place (was out at skating). I'm apparently now an honorary member by association. Twas fun. Hanging out and food. I got a nice comfy, leather seat, complete with great service by Holly. Life is good.

We started playing a trivia game called "People of the World" or something like that, but I had to leave in the middle to go teach at Swing City. Teaching went well, I think. I taught with Carolyn and it was the first time I took lead mic at Swing City. I've done it before at UVic (where I also taught with Carolyn), but I've only taught with Christabel and sav at SC. I usually defer to them. As for sav, you have to fight him if you want to talk.

Speaking of which, that was a funny incident a few weeks back. I was scheduled to teach with Tina at SC, but she was not feeling well, so she couldn't make it. Christabel was having a bad day and wasn't feeling great, so I asked sav if he wanted to be my follow. So I ended up teaching with sav as my 'lovely follow'. Was pretty amusing... especially with his "doorknocker" beard. (I'm sure there are other names, that just happened to be the first page when I Googled 'beard types'.)

Saturday night, Holly and I (gee, are you sensing a pattern here?) went out for dinner at SpiceJammer, a pretty decent Indian restaurant. Not the cheapest food, but the food is good. So far, we've pretty much traded back and forth picking up the bill and Holly picked it up this time. Old assumptions still reign. After swiping the credit card, the waitress brought back the bill booklet and set it down on my side. She came back as Holly was signing the bill and I noticed she gave me a quick glance. Entertaining, really. Chivalry ('new' definition, not the classical definition which few people actually know) and the accepted norm are still pretty prevalent. I suppose it would have to be to be the 'accepted norm'.

So after dinner, we go wandering the streets of downtown, with the ultimate goal of getting ice cream... well, gelato. We step into Oh Gelato! and start looking at flavours. As we're doing that, a group of people walk past and one of the guys (mid-20s) looks in and starts screaming excitedly! Was really funny! Anyway, we get a cone of Chocolate Raspberry and Mango Coconut and head out. It's kind of cold outside (~6°C) and we're walking around with an ice cream cone. Not really all that weird here, though. So we're wandering around and a group of girls walks past us. I distinctly saw one of the girls eyeing the cone with definite envy. Sorry, but this one's ours.

Sunday afternoon, I taught the last class of Swing 2. It's a lot of fun teaching and we had a good group, but there's just something about being finished with a class that's so satisfying. Especially when that class falls on my crazy hectic Sundays, which are now at an end... for now. Since March, my Sundays have been crazy hectic busy. I'd teach Swing 1 at UVic at 12:30 - 1:30, then a short break of a few hours, then teach Swing 2 at 5:30 till 7:00, then 30 minutes to rest, then team practice that goes till around 10-ish. With UVic having finished with the end of classes a couple weeks ago, I was down to Swing 2 and practice... but as of Sunday, I'm now down to just practice. It'll be nice to have some 'lazy' Sundays again. How lazy they will actually be is a whole other matter, though.

What did I do Monday, you ask? Not too much. Hung out with Holly in the morning/early afternoon, then went to the last class of Swing 4. (I don't care if you didn't ask, this is my blog, so you asked!)

And now for something completely different... a song for all of us Code Monkeys:

Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton.

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] I could use about 17 hours in bed...

I think I'm still running off a bit of sleep deprivation from snowboarding. Oh well, so worth it.

What follows is a collection of various thoughts and events that I've had since the last entry. Please be mindful of the abrupt shifts and uneven landscape. Do watch your step.

I've learned, once again, that reading Sara's livejournal is evil, with its yellow text on dark blue background... the hard way, of course. The yellow/blue gets burned into my retinas and I'll be seeing the ghost images for the next... week. It was bad enough on a CRT monitor, but the effects are exacerbated by the LCD panel. *shakes fist at Sara*

Monday nights, I've been taking Swing 4 to refresh and hone my lindy skills. One of those strange events happened where the guys outnumbered the girls. We were short three (then two, as a follow showed up late) girls this past Monday. Since it's fun, generally unexpected, and can help your leading, I popped in as a follow every so often. It wasn't until later that I realized something. I've actually danced with every single person in that class before! All but two of which I had previously danced with socially! Rather amusing, I thought.

After Swing 4, a contingent headed out to Swan's. I invited Holly out before, so she showed up at the end of class, and we went together. Swan's was fun. Haven't danced there in several weeks. It's always an interesting experience dancing there. It definitely gives you practice at your floorcraft and protection skills. Mix together a small dancefloor, the band, pillars, a bar table island thing, chairs, wait staff and patrons roaming about, and the occasional non-dancer and you can imagine how hectic things can get. Anyway, to continue to the point, I think Holly's status has been changed to 'lapwarmer' in some people's minds... and conversely, I'm a 'buttwarmer'. I'm ok with that.

Today is my 'Chinese' birthday. I should explain. The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar cycle, as opposed to the Western calendar which is based on the solar cycle. So I have two birthdays, one based on the lunar cycle and one based on the solar cycle. You can see in my profile that my birthday is April 29. That's the solar cycle birthday. Convert back to the lunar cycle and you get my real ('Chinese') birthday of March 15. Well, 15th day of the 3rd month, that is. This year, that day happens to be today. Since it's always so hard to get everybody together, we had a big dinner last night. This was also the first 'official' time my family met Holly. I think it went well. Holly was amused at how my "brother and Evelyn are kind of like big kids with interesting not kid-like lives". "I'm not surprised cause that's kind of how you are too". The "you" in the last quote is obviously me, if you didn't catch that.

One more thing: "I'm going to Happy Birthday you again on the 29th". Birthday celebrations are fun!

Ok, one more 'one more thing': After work, I packed up my stuff and headed out to my car. As I walked out the door, I hear a call and look over to see Holly sitting on the steps! What a great surprise! We hang out for awhile and I get a great massage. This turned out to be a pretty good couple days!

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] Karma?

It figures. After such a great weekend, things start going wrong as soon as I get into work. Gotta love Mondays. Luckily, it was only one incident, but it was annoying nonetheless. So I get into work and turn on my monitor. The screen kind of "pops", but it still works. I check my email, fill in my timesheet, and go to check one of our servers. I'm checking a few things on the server and look up and at my own monitor. "Hmm, it's just black." I look at it for a bit, thinking (hoping) that it's just the screensaver taking too long to load the pictures. I stare at it and nothing happens. Grrr. I finish up on the server and check my monitor. Shutting it off and turning it back on succeeded in making it work for a couple minutes. Repeat once more and I go to steal one of the spare monitors we have lying around. But 19" spares are few. I ended up grabbing one of the new 17" LCD panels that were included with the two new computers we bought. I'm running at a higher resolution now, so that should compensate for the size difference.

So now I'm switching monitors and here's where things get more annoying... if only because it's my own stupidity. I crawl under my desk, unplug my monitor, and lug this heavy heavy behemoth to another desk. I then plug in the LCD and turn it on. "This resolution mode is not supported. blah blah blah" Sonofa! If you don't know, LCD panels work best on a certain resolutions; they have a 'native' resolution. They also only work on a limited number of resolutions and usually only with a refresh rate of 60Hz. Crawl under my desk again to unplug, lug the old behemoth back, crawl under my desk AGAIN to plug in, and turn it on. Quickly change the resolution to the LCD's native resolution. Crawl, lug, crawl, turn on. "This resolution mode is not supported. blah blah blah" SONOFA! Crawl, lug, crawl, turn on. Quickly change the refresh rate down to 60Hz. Crawl, lug, crawl, turn on. FINALLY! So now I'm using the LCD. Adjustments on it are rather ... annoying and the light uniformity doesn't look to be the greatest. Go Dell... We'll see how well it works. There's an old 19" CRT I can switch to if I don't like the LCD enough.

Gotta love Mondays...

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] Bittersweet weekend...

Bittersweet and epic. I would rank this as one of my best thus far. Why it was bittersweet, though, will make itself clear as you read further...

There's not too much to say about Friday night, since it was a short night. Holly popped by as I was finishing up work and gave me a quick back massage as I sat there, staring at my screen. Concentrating on work in a situation like that is well-nigh impossible. I gather my stuff and we head out to dinner and hang out for awhile. I had to wake up too bloody early in the morning, so we part as she heads to Swing City and I head home.

There are a few things for which I will willingly wake up godawful early. I should amend that: I will willingly wake up godawful early in retrospect. When I'm actually waking up, it's a whole other matter. Anyway, snowboarding is one of these things. 4:30 in the morning, especially a Saturday morning, should not be allowed to exist. No, scratch that. It should be allowed to exist, but only if I'm sleeping... or otherwise having fun. Load up the vehicle and my brother and I are off to Mt. Washington. Watching "'Allo 'Allo!" on the way was enertaining. If you've never heard of it, it's an old, very funny Britcom that's about a French café owner in France during World War II. (IMDB entry) I highly recommend you check it out.

On to the slopes. The skies are overcast, but it's nice and warm. We get to the top of the mountain and take our first run. And there it is, the smile of pure ecstasy. The runs were so freakin' fast, it was just beautiful. There's one section about halfway down (if you go down Linton's Loop and connect to Rainbow) with a set of 3 large rolls... OMFG, with all the built up speed, flying off the crests was just sooo effortless! There's just something so divine about leaving the ground and being so secure that the hangtime is serene and peaceful! Do that several times in a row (and on several runs) and you can just imagine the smile on our faces. Add to that the short lines at the chairs... We probably got about 2x the number of usual runs in that morning!

After lunch, the sun peaked out on and off and the runs turned to slush. The sun is a great thing, but it's so bloody hot! We even left our jackets behind. Again, there's something so good about snowboarding in a t-shirt and vest. I could have done without the vest for much of the afternoon! The bad part was the slush. Slush makes for slow runs. Oh well.

There was one particularly funny incident. We were stopped beside the entrance to the upper terrain park. The terrain park is marked off by rope strung between posts. At the entrance is the big, standard warning sign about the terrain park. Anyway, one guy somehow manages to slowly knock over the terrain park sign. That was amusing, but not the incident I'm referring to, though it did play a part. So moments later, this skier comes along and somehow gets his left ski trapped under the sign. Imagine as he falls over in slow motion and gets himself tangled up around a fence post, left ski still trapped by the sign. On top of that, he managed to break one of his poles. Everybody that saw it was laughing, including him, so it was all good.

I guess you had to be there...

End of the day and the Dummy Downhill. (See my previous entry for a quick description.) Here are some of the highlights:

- the man on a (sadly, fake) toilet: This dummy only made it about 1/3 of the way down the slope before veering off to the side and plowing into the barrier. The toilet tank came flying off and the bowl tipped over, bringing it to a stop. However, the head popped right off and kept going to the ramp! Morbid, yet so very funny.

- 'Top Secret': The secret? It was a bunch of scrap wood with a tarp cover. This one only made it about 1/5 of the way and veered into the barrier. It shattered nicely.

- the Smarties box: This thing was filled with Smarties. About halfway down, it plowed through a snow pile on the side like it was nothing. The pile corrected the trajectory, but the top of the box flew off. Minus the top, thousands of Smarties went flying as it went up and over the ramp. Very nice rainbow effect.

- giant lumberjack: This was a giant lumberjack, axe in one hand and massive beer can in the other. This dummy was so massive and heavy that it only moved about 2 feet before sinking into the slush. The builder tried to push it down, but it wouldn't budge. So then he goes to the FRONT and tries to PULL it! Maybe not the smartest idea. Didn't budge, so he tries pushing again. It managed to slide a few more feet before sinking in again.

- the big, giant dragon: This was a massive dragon, about 12 feet high and comparable wing span, complete with smoking nostrils! Its trajectory was true and went flying over the ramp. Nice!

The others weren't so memorable. The important thing, really, is how well they flew over the ramp and how spectacular the destruction was. Sadly, there wasn't any over-the-top carnage, but some of the flights were really nice!

Dummy Downhill, definitely recommended!

Alas, it's the end of an era. My brother and I have been going to Mt. Washington every season together for quite a few years. Sadly, it looks like all that is at an end. With my brother moving to Vancouver (going full-time with the BC Ambulance Service), and him and his wife having a baby, it'll be a rare occasion that we can get together for a day on the slopes.

Oh well. Things always work out in the end. Who knows what adventures lie in wait?

Some more "'Allo 'Allo!" on the way home and the night is over... almost. After getting all the equipment and dirty clothes unpacked, I grab a much needed shower and head to Holly's. A wonderful massage is a perfect way to end a full day of snowboarding!!

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] Another day, another team practice, another attempt by Sara to break me.

I've lost track how many times she's tried to break me. That's why I love you, Sara. You just never give up.

Anyway, this time around, we had broken up into groups and were doing free-form aerials. When doing free-form aerials, usually two people do some random and crazy shit (as long as somebody is off the floor and preferably upside down) while another spots. So I pick up Sara, throw her over my shoulder and to my back. I swing her around a bit so I can grab her with my left arm and then swing her legs around to the front, back on her feet. Then, as she is wont to do, she jumps up and wraps her legs around my waist. Now, I've gotten used to this and can catch her without thinking or being given time to react (she never does). So I caught her. Only bad thing was, I was a little off-balance from swinging her around, and so we went down. My left foot ended up on the outside of my body, knee in, and Sara on top. Not the most comfortable of positions. Tweaked my left knee a little, but aside from a minor bruise, it's all good.

Well, even if I had been injured, I'd still have some things to look forward to, at least. You can read as much into that one as you want.

CORBA!!

Vilas or Reed, if you're out there and reading this, I didn't mean to scare you. But SAVE YOURSELVES! SAVE YOURSELVES WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!

I should explain. CORBA is evil. I won't go into the details of what it is, but trust me, it's evil. Vilas, Reed, and I went through a horrific battle with CORBA in a Software Engineering course at UVic. Whatever happens, we'll always have the battle scars as a common bond. That and Resident Evil... but that's another story. Oh, and "Spiderman Will Make You Gay". Yeah, don't ask.

So then, why did I dredge it back up from the abyss into which I had fought so hard to banish it? I'm working on a project at work where we're modifying an existing body of code... that uses CORBA. Yeah, kill me, kill me now. I have a feeling that I'm going to have flashbacks and nightmares this weekend...

Speaking of this weekend... I'm going snowboarding on Saturday! This Saturday also happens to be when the Save-On-Foods Dummy Downhill is happening on Mt. Washington! w00t! Imagine "dummies" (up to 200lbs!) on skis and snowboards being sent down a run towards a very large ramp at the bottom. Now imagine how fun it is to watch as these things soar through the air toward impending spectacular doom, destruction, and death. THAT's the Dummy Downhill! A couple highlights from previous years were the cube freezer on skis (seriously, that thing FLEW) and the man on the toilet (porcelain shatters rather nicely).

Holly awaits, after that, so the CORBA flashbacks and nightmares should be tempered luckily.

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] "...it's just a series of consecutive flings..."

That's one way to define a relationship. I like it! There's a back story to that quote, but you won't hear it here. At least, not until my possible plans play out one way or another.

A couple quotes from a recent conversation:

"Must have been a funny sight. To[sic] sets of very good dancers doing nothing but sucking face."

"There are only two forms of guy dance. 'I look like a dumbass' and 'I look like a dumbass, but she's cute'"

Clubs and guys. We all know this is true. Why do you think most guys don't dance? Especially in a club. Alcohol helps, but then you just get a drunken dumbass on the dancefloor.

Last Friday at Swing City, I was telling Christabel about the various forms of 'guy dancing' you see at a club. Oddly enough, they all involve a bottle of beer firmly attached to his right hand (left, if he's a lefty) and held at about chest height. Here they are, with level of difficulty:

1) Slight Head Bob (Easy)

You know this one. It's the minimum amount of movement possible, and therefore common. The guy just stands there, beer in hand, slightly bobbing his head up and down, trying his gosh-darndest to look cool.

2) Side-to-Side Step (Easy)

This is another very common one. It's slightly more difficult than the Head Bob, as it involves moving the entire body (sort of). The guy stands there, beer in hand, and steps left, then right. Repeat.

As a comical side note, done quickly, this becomes the "I GOTTA PEE!" dance/shuffle.

3) All Hail the Dark Underlord (Beginner Intermediate)

This is usually only brought out for certain types of music. Heavy metal/death metal is most appropriate. Left hand is held up to approximately chin height. The hand itself is placed in an "All Hail the Dark Underlord" position, hence the name. This position involves curling the middle and ring fingers over, and then curling the thumb over those fingers. The pinky and index fingers are held up straight, so as to represent horns. The left hand is held here, while the head is moved to varying intensities. At the easiest level, the head is moved as with the Slight Head Bob dance. At the most extreme level, head-banging occurs. This dance pushes towards the boundaries of Intermediate, as two movements (or non-movements) are combined.

4) Slight Head Bob + Side-to-Side Step (Intermediate)

As the name suggests, this dance combines the first two dances into one (hopefully fluid) motion. Timing issues become apparent here. As combining two separate movements can be rather difficult, the guy may become flustered periodically and will revert to either the Slight Head Bob or the Side-to-Side Step. Once confidence has been regained, the other dance may be reintroduced.

Males who can successfully dance this for lengthy periods are not common.

5) Slight Head Bob + Side-to-Side Step + All Hail the Dark Underlord (Advanced)

As the name suggests, this combines the first three dances into one complicated spectacle. Not to be attempted by the inexperienced, as injuries may ensue; the most common of which is to the ego.

Males who can successfully dance this are very rare and generally command a large harem. These males must also be cautious, as many of the lesser skilled males (some larger and therefore dangerous) may become jealous.

6) The Shield (Advanced) - Identified by Chris

While the dance itself can range from easy to very difficult, this dance is assigned an Advanced rating since it requires a willing female. Finding a willing female is not an easy task, especially when the male shows his dumbassery by attempting to dance.

At its most basic, the male attempts to dance while not being seen. He accomplishes this by attempting to hide behind his female companion. Despite the male's attempts at hiding, this often turns out rather humorously and only serves to highlight his predicament. For instance, Chris played football in high school and is a rather large fellow. You can imagine the sort of comical antics that can occur when he attempts to hide behind a female, who for the most part will be much smaller.

An important aspect of this dance is the male's need to inform other males that this particular female is taken. He accomplishes this by maintaining contact with her in some form at all times. The male may also visually deter other males by staring down hopeful suitors.

As for the actual dancing performed by the male, it can consist of any of the above dances. This entirely depends on a combination of the male's skill level and current distraction level. In some cases, the male may simply stand there while the female dances around him. This is actually the ideal situation for the male. However, the female may become bored if the male simply mimics a statue.

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That was your lesson for the day. I hope it was informative.

That is all.

[MSN Spaces] "Now that's what I call a weekend."

I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.

Oh to be back in high school... Oh wait, nevermind.

Funny incident last night. I head out to dinner with Holly and a couple of her friends... a couple couple. Some rather amusing conversations during that, but I won't get into it here. So after dinner, Holly and I head up to Mt. Doug for a little conversation and the view. (What did I say about not reading further into things? Get your mind out of there, it was all very tame, I assure you.) The sky cleared up a bit, so we could see the city below and a few constellations above. Throw in a lovely waxing crescent moon (and a beautiful girl!) and you get a very romantic scene. I had my fleece blanket thrown about our shoulders, but that only does so much, so after a bit we head back to my car. (Read my above parenthetical comment.) We're lounging under the blanket in my car, and since it's a cold night, the windows start fogging up. (You know the drill.) People come and go; nothing unusual.

Then one car pulls up. Country music starts blaring out of the stereo and a few drunken high schoolers start singing and being 'rowdy'. Still, nothing unusual, but it was all rather amusing. Sooo, dinner and a show! Another car shows up and they start playing music. Better music... at least some of the time. The Spice Girls is *NOT* better music. They keep this up for awhile and eventually leave. Holly and I hung around for a little longer, but soon took our leave, too. It was all very funny.

Oh yes, to be back in high school...

Ooooh, I almost forgot!! We went out to dinner at Moxies and Holly was having a little trouble deciding what to have. I pointed at a random item and that was what she actually ended up getting. VICTORY FOR THE RANDOM POINTING!!

Anyway, I also joked about ordering off the Kid's Menu. Looking at the Kid's Menu, I noticed that the items came with a dessert: The Volcano! We finish up dinner and the waitress asks if anybody wants dessert. Holly and I get a dessert menu and are trying to decide what to have, as the waitress comes back. "What's The Volcano?" Turns out it's ice cream with caramel, strawberry, or chocolate inside and over the top, so it "erupts" as you eat it. So we end up getting that. As to whether we want caramel, strawberry, or chocolate... my answer was "We should get all four!". Four? The waitress replied that she could put something else on it, like blue cheese. It's a good thing that didn't happen! We left the waitress with the order of "surprise us". Twas a good surprise. She mixed all three (sadly, only three, not four).

But that wasn't the coolest part. The dessert came in a special bowl with an outer chamber with some dry ice in it. She sets it down on the table and pours water into the chamber and the smoke/fog starts pouring out everywhere. Pretty damn cool!

So yeah, next time you're at Moxies, get The Volcano. Or 'The Volcanoe' as the bill said.

That is all.