Tuesday, October 31, 2006 

When is Tomorrow?

I'm working when BG and AJ pass by.

BG: In the Philippines, is it yesterday or tomorrow?
Me: Umm, behind.
BG: So where is tomorrow?
Me: England?
AJ: It's only 5 hours ahead.
Me: China's a lot ahead.
AJ: Egypt's only 7 hours.
Me: Taiwan's 11 hours ahead, I think.
AJ: So we still don't know where tomorrow is.

As soon as the two leave, I wonder what kind of conversation I just had.

---
I think my body has been fighting something for the last few days, though I have scant few symptoms. Clammy hands, recurring headaches, and at the end of the day my temperature goes up a bit. I'm okay in the mornings though. Oh, and I lose my voice when I get home. Now that's just plain weird.

10/31/2006 11:00:00 p.m. | |

 

"Very Confidential"

Someone, I'm not going going to say who but her name name rhymes with "Tea", asked me to write up a document today. She said it was "very confidential." I went off on an email tear. Something is either confidential or it isn't. That's how it is in my world and that's how it should be in all worlds. So, in my passive-aggressive sort of way, I snuck the following tidbit in the document, partly as a test to if she'll actually read it but mostly for shits and giggles:
...is some company that does things that I don’t know what they do, but I’m sure that she does so she’ll have to fill in this space because I can’t. They’re highly confidential though, or as she would say, “very confidential.” You can’t have something “very confidential!” It’s either confidential or not. It’s like saying something is “very unique.”

10/31/2006 10:49:00 p.m. | |

 

Hallow's Eve

I can't wait to scare the kids tonight.

Here's my getup. (picture to follow) HA!

10/31/2006 12:27:00 a.m. | |

Monday, October 30, 2006 

POS

There's this point of sales thing. We call it POS. Not me though because I have the mind of an eight year old. Every time I see "POS" all I can think of is Piece of Shit. And I laugh. Yeah, I'm mature.

10/30/2006 11:37:00 p.m. | |

Sunday, October 29, 2006 

Haunted Mansion

What happened last night?

I'm trying to remember the party, but my mind feels a little hazy.

There was a guy dressed as a Wraith from Lord of the Rings, but I didn't get a good picture of him. There was a guy and girl with awesome fake GSWs on their faces. There was 3 Gems that I could count. A Luigi, a Prom Princess, Homer, John McEnroe, Hugh Hefner, Napoleon Dynamite, and Batman. There was also a guy with a rubber penis hanging out of his pants. I assume it was rubber. I didn't get close enough to actually inspect it. I have a picture though.

10/29/2006 09:15:00 a.m. | |

Thursday, October 26, 2006 

Toronto is a small place

Toronto is a small place.

CB, a new friend, told me how she had met TD years ago. I work with TD now. They had met in New York or Vegas. I can't remember and it doesn't matter. Being the only Canucks there, they instantly found each other, drawn together by a strange attracting force, a Canuck Force, if you will.

Even stranger is that I think I've read some of CB's work before. I'm trying... to... remember. Her name sounds so familiar and the work she does has always interested me. I'm sure I knew her before I met her.

That reminds me of a Savage Garden song...

10/26/2006 10:02:00 p.m. | |

 

Fucking Liars

A guy called today asking for DJ's email address. His words, verbatim, "Yeah, he's a friend of mine. He actually just called."

Okay, sounds reasonable but suspicious. "His email address is Johansberg..."

I deliberately did not spell the name and waited for his reaction. "So it's J, O, H, A...?"

"Yes." Wait for it.

"How does the rest go?"

Intriguing. Most people would know how to spell their friend's surname.

Seeing as we're a people company, there was no reason to withhold the information. So I gave it.

That guy, if he's a recruiter, is not very good.

10/26/2006 09:12:00 p.m. | |

 

Come five o'clock, this place turns crazy. And it's only Thursday.

10/26/2006 05:32:00 p.m. | |

Tuesday, October 24, 2006 

Random Conversation. Random Thought.

"It looks like chicken hearts."

"Those are mushrooms."

"Are you sure? They look like chicken hearts. Those are chicken hearts."

---

My brother's in New York. I hope he's having fun. Before he left, I told him to stay clear of anyone offering you something for free. And that Times Square is so different now that the hookers are all gone.

10/24/2006 11:37:00 p.m. | |

 

HJ!!!!!!!!

I was thinking about you today!

I was doing this thing and about ten seconds into it I blanked out, stared into the street and thought, "I miss HJ. She's so much better at this than I am."

We miss you!

10/24/2006 08:01:00 p.m. | |

Monday, October 23, 2006 

Faye Eews

Family came together for prayer and laughs. Here's a snippet of what happened.

Faye: Eew! Eeeww!
Auntie: Who's saying that? Who's eewwing?
Dad: It's Faye. You should hear Karen. You can hear it from the basement all the way to the second floor of our house.
Me: Hear what? Her normal voice?

I told this story to JR. He didn't think it was zingy enough. Screw him.

10/23/2006 12:43:00 a.m. | |

Monday, October 16, 2006 

More Random Thoughts

I'm becoming like my father. I didn't expect that to happen till much later on in my life. Well, I've always been an advanced learner.


My entries of late have focused on The Job. Hmmm. I need a life.


Peace and quiet would do me well this day. Hectic is too tame a word to describe today.


Another Pot of Gold "Excellence" box showed up near my desk. It hasn't been opened though. My guess is someone's going to rip it open before lunch.

Update: Yup. It's noon and the box is already a quarter empty. Vultures!

There's Timbits too!


There's two hours left and I am practically out of gas.


BG: Who keeps loading us up with these chocolates?
Me: I have a theory. You don't have to eat them, you know.

10/16/2006 11:25:00 p.m. | |

 

Blue Eyes

Hell, I don't even know the colour of her eyes. But this song feels like it's about her.

The universe feels like it's talking to me. Events, plans, big decisions are happening or being made all at once and I feel like I'm being pulled towards too many directions and pushed in too many paths.

I want to walk each and every one of the myriad paths that lie before me.

10/16/2006 12:49:00 p.m. | |

Saturday, October 14, 2006 

Scrubs Season 4!

Scrubs season 4 came out this week. I'm already on disc two.

As per usual, I haven't really been watching it so much as the other thing: It's on while I'm doing other things like writing and work and cleaning up; the usual weekend stuff.

Many of the episodes, so far, I don't remember seeing on the telly.

Oooo. Heather Graham looks gorgeous.

Scrubs has consistently been one of the funniest half hours of television for the last five years. But it feels like it's starting to wind down. Season 6 will probably be its last.

Now I'm sad. Time to watch another episode!

10/14/2006 08:00:00 p.m. | |

Friday, October 13, 2006 

Friday the 13th: The Diet Contest Gets Nasty

2006.10.17
Yup, still posting entries which went unpublished due to blogger's technical issues last week.

-----

GT barges into DS's office. He's in a meeting.

GT: That's so inappropriate.

She gives him The Evil Look.

GT: Bastard! You're such a bastard! You're an evil bastard. You're a horrible human being.

She turns to the guest in DS's office...

GT: Isn't it horrible?

People are stuffing their faces full of Kentucky Fried Chicken courtesy of DS. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the office...

MA: Where's FC? There you are, you big bucket of Kentucky Friend Chicken.
FC: Two buckets!
MA: Is this what these people make you do? Get dirty bird?

Back to GT and our other colleagues who are trickling in, attracted by the smell of crunchy chicken-y goodness...

GT: Nobody can walk away from it!

BG is talking to his beau on the phone after inhaling a half bucket of KFC:

BG: So I'm about to go to lunch to get a salad...

Much later in the day:
FC: I like spam! It's a good source of canned meat!

For the record, I had only one piece of popcorn chicken .

10/13/2006 08:00:00 p.m. | |

Thursday, October 12, 2006 

Today's Randomness

2006.10.16 23h43EDT
Now that blogger is working on my computer again, I'm free to bore you and my future self to death with words and sentences that lead to no where.

-----

Here's a random sampling of today's thoughts and goings on.

"This job would be perfect if it weren't for clients or candidates."

I didn't say it and it felt so damn true today.


I am wired. I can't steady my heads, my mind is going a million miles a minute. Sugar is running through my veins. All this from the cake. The Cake. It's one huge slab of chocolate and vanilla.

So I'm carrying The Cake from Sobeys. Why? Because I'm part of the Celebrations Committee. Why? Because I like spending the company's money. Back to The Cake. It measures about 2.5 x 3.0 feet. It's a big slab of sugar covered with sugar. It almost got blown from my hands by today's strong winds. As it were, only the lid got blown in my face. The cake was fine.

The cake was more than fine. It tasted wonderful and everyone loved it. Even though I did most of the work, I gave AP much of the credit. Why? Because I'm a nice moron.


So this liar came in today. He's was a bad salesman. He went under the guise of checking the meter of one of our machines. Only, when I showed him the machine, he started talking about how old it was and the new regulations the government is implementing in 2007 that makes the machine obsolete. I'm familiar with the regulations. I know when 2007 is. To top of it all off, he's making his pitch to the wrong person. I was being nice showing him where the machine was. I had no authority over purchases of that nature.

The funniest part of the whole incident is that the person who is in charge of those purchases hates that machine manufacturer.

Later on, DJ comes over and sees the guy's card on my desk. He asks about the bad salesman so I hand him the card and say "he's horrible." DJ promptly puts the card down on my desk.


Breast cancer click is a year old now... I started it on Oct. 4, 2005. And I still do it. Every. Single. Day.

10/12/2006 11:38:00 p.m. | |

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 

Why Technology Is Bad

Western civilization relies too much on technology. I rely too much on technology.

I have a habit. Every night, when I get home and settled, I log in to work. I check my emails one last time, look at my calendar for the next day, and prepare a list of things I need to do or to catch up on. When that simple ability to log into my computer at work was taken away tonight, I went into conniptions.

I don’t go into conniptions, so this was a learning experience. Me going into conniptions involves clicking the Redial button over and over and over again–knowing full well that the connection will not be made. It involves me checking my personal email to distract myself, the clicking the Redial button again 10 times, then checking the cbc.ca, then clicking the Redial button another 30 times.

When my computer finally connected, I was over-joyed. Why? Because I was finally able to invite people to lunches and meetings, clear my inbox, and clean my overcrowded desktop.

It’s a habit, not unlike crack.

10/11/2006 09:59:00 p.m. | |

Tuesday, October 10, 2006 

SWOT

Just finished writing my SWOT.

What's a SWOT? It's this thing we have to do for work. Work? Yeah, I know, it sounds boring, but it can be very helpful especially if you really care about your work. Most people don't.

I still do. So I use it to improve myself. The last time we did this was eight months ago. I feel like I've changed a lot as a person.

Yup. I definitely lost some weight.

Back to the SWOT. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. I'm still unsure what my threats are, but I'm definitely sure multitasking is one of my strenghts and lack of focus one of my weaknesses.

Hmm. This is my work SWOT. I wonder what my personal SWOT would be like...

Hmm.

10/10/2006 10:29:00 p.m. | |

 

Random Things of the Day

"I've got a papercut on my tongue."
-GT

---
I can finally hear the drum beats clearly.

10/10/2006 10:27:00 p.m. | |

 

Yelling And Finding Room

There's a lot of yelling in my office. I'm sure I've made note of this before, but in case I haven't, I'm making a note of it now. I don't usually notice it but I noticed it today because we had clients over for the whole day. I'm sure they could hear people laughing and yelling and generally having a good ole time, thems clients.

Ah, yes, clients.

With all the interview rooms and conference rooms we have, you'd think we would never run out of space. You'd be wrong. Loser.

There was (almost) no room for a new client. All I needed was a largish room, big enough to accomodate a TV, and another smallish room with a computer. Took some time and determination to find it. And a little help. But, eventually, with half an hour to spare, we found space and got it ready in time.

Usually, I like flying by the seat of my pants, but not today. I feel like I'm coming down with something. Sigh.

10/10/2006 10:15:00 p.m. | |

Monday, October 09, 2006 

Excellence Is A Habit

It's so hot. I think I'm coming down with something. Shit. It's 12 degrees outside and it feels like 30 in here. Damn. I blame GT. Who passed it on to AK, who probably passed it on to me.

On other news, I was reading shtuff online and found this, the Quotation of the Day:

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts. (Aristotle)

Excellence is a habit. I've heard that somewhere before but can't pinpoint the source in my mind. I have to think more about it but I can't think in this heat.

10/09/2006 11:35:00 p.m. | |

 

Family @ Rex Saigon

"There sure is a lot of Thai food in this Chinese Buffet."

Alright, so I'm not a genius today. Everyone's bound to have an off day.

But it was nice to see family again. Little babies Kenneth and Veronica were so cute. My cousins, their parents, looked relaxed, or as relaxed as new parents could be.

Playing with the babies after dinner was hilarious fun. I learned a few things. Veronica likes to feed her toys, especially her books. Kenneth likes to play with my long hair. Lastly, and most importantly, Kenneth does not like the words, "Goodbye" or "bye." He squeals and stamps his hands and feet repeatedly as he cries. Veronica, on the other hand, likes to blow googbye kisses to everyone.

I've a feeling Kenneth's Terrible Twos with be exactly that. I can't wait.

10/09/2006 02:47:00 p.m. | |

 

Gobble Gobble 2006

This year's Thanksgiving dinner was the bestest ever.

Family gathered around the table, sharing stories about the children.

My childhood was the main topic of conversation. My fear of dogs, my love of climbing things, my habit of falling off the things I climb, my propensity for attracting trouble and getting taken to hospital.

Some of the stories I knew, others I didn't. Like the one about the neighbourhood kids coming over and bugging my parents, asking for me and my sister to come out and play.

Or the crazy nanny we employed. She didn't last very long. She liked watching and talking to water boiling.

Or the story of my birth in San Juan de Dios hospital. My mom thought it was just gas; I'm grateful my grandmother thought different, or else I might have been born in the toilet.

There were so many other stories. It feels good to hear stories about your childhood from other people's perspectives, especially your parents'. It makes me feel young again.

10/09/2006 12:01:00 a.m. | |

Sunday, October 08, 2006 

Dreamlog: War

I'm in a battlefield, rifle at the ready. The field is familiar. It's Olivia Road.

I don't know who I'm shooting at, but they're shooting at me.

I lend a gun, a fancy automatic, to someone beside me. The piece looks like something my brain just made up because it looks too futuristic to be real. Its black coating shines as I pass it off to an unknown soldier. He's unknown because I can't recall his face. What I do recall is that he's a friend. He feels like a friend, like I've known him forever. He runs off and all of a sudden...

I have a sniper rifle, my preferred weapon. My right holster holds a silver magnum. Perched atop a bunker (I don't know how that's possible either, but hey, it's a dream), I aim at moving targets, wait till my heart slows down, and as soon as it goes tttttttthump, I pull the hair trigger. One down. I see three more. My men are shooting at them too. I steady my aim, wait for one of them to stop, and BOOM. That's two. The men at the bottom take the rest of the invaders down.

Afterwards, a stranger hands me back my automatic. I look at the stranger for a beat and look at the gun. I hold it in my hand and stare for a long time. With a deep sigh, I move on, walking towards the smokey battlefield, deeper into enemy territory.

10/08/2006 12:01:00 p.m. | |

 

In Which I Express Total Joy & Sadness.

I did nothing today but read and write.

The simplicity of the day fills me with joy. The kind of joy produced by all those other good things like newborn puppies and chocolate covered coffee beans.

Yet, the day seems only half-filled with my painting still daring me to pick up the brush.

On a related and sadder note, my parents bought a painting. For $400.

My first reaction to this news was, "I could've painted you one for much cheaper."

10/08/2006 12:34:00 a.m. | |

Saturday, October 07, 2006 

Lindi Ortega

Lindi was on Surreal Gourmet. The one where Blumer cooks food for TTC subway commuters.

How freakishly appropriate that when her voice caught my ears, I was reading Plato's Republic. The last time I saw her was after our philosophy exam. I think it was Logic class.

The only reason I remember her is because she's a memorable person. I think her hair had pink highlights then, and she was very vocal about the exam. She was very vocal, period. I remember her telling me about her musical journey and her aspirations to make it big. I remember listening to her songs and thinking she's got tremendous potential, and she can definitely make it with her attituded and talent. I remember I wanted to see her perform live. I should.

Looks like she's on her way.

10/07/2006 12:01:00 p.m. | |

Friday, October 06, 2006 

Fly lands in my eye.

While walking down Queen Street West.

And that's my story.

10/06/2006 08:25:00 p.m. | |

 

Sweetie

AK: Arvin, can you take a look at this and edit for me?

Me: Send it over and I'll see what I can do, missy.

AK: Thanks hun.

Me: You're welcome...

RL walks by. He's new. He's cool.

RL: Arvin, can I ask you something?

Me: ...umm, sweetie.

RL: I'll come by later. When you have a second.

Me: I wasn't calling you, 'sweetie", RL!

10/06/2006 08:21:00 p.m. | |

Thursday, October 05, 2006 

ROFLMAO Revisited

KB: BB, I used to do it to her too. I'd call her and ask for your extension. She used to tell me, "I'm not doing it, you have the spreadsheet!" She never budged. Every time I asked her, she'd send me the spreadsheet. Whoever there's right now, they just transfer me over.

Me: The receptionists have names, you know. They transfer you because they just don't have time to deal with you.

KB: Maybe they respect me. Anything is possible! I should track down BB, wherever she is and give her a call... and say, "BB, get me Arvin!"

Laughter.

10/05/2006 10:15:00 p.m. | |

 

Quotation of the Day

FC: TS#!$% (sounds like "Chiki") it means ass. It's kind of bad.
BG: Yeah, like no one in here uses that kind of language.

10/05/2006 10:12:00 p.m. | |

 

Rudeness

Today, I got a hang-up.

I haven't had a hang-up in a long damn time, and that's saying something because I get a lot of goddamn calls a day, from colleagues, clients, and everyone in between.

I felt rejected for a second. But only a second because they called me.

10/05/2006 10:12:00 p.m. | |

 

Mr. Math

We're not all idiots in the Office. ML was filling out a type of IQ test to see if she still remembered her schooling. CN got her hands on the test.

Apparently, one of our clients subjects job seekers through a rigorous written test involving math and english. It looks like the SATs.

After CN gave up on it, she asks me if I could figure it out. I glanced at the question. It's math.

60, 30, 20, 15, 12. What's the next number in the sequence?

Me: "So, they ask everyone to take this? Do they have to pass?"
ML: "No, no. They've hired people who've failed it. It's just a company process."
Me: "The answer's 10."
DJ: "Yeah, there's a pattern."
ML: "That's what Dr. Math says. I looked it up on his website."

10/05/2006 10:09:00 p.m. | |

 

Today's Randomness

Imagine the Angel walk, with our Chairman in the middle and consultants all around him, walking down the hall.
Girl 1: "The fun and games are about to begin."
Girl 2: "You haven't even seen the kind of shit that's about the start."

---

Our prez was walking the halls giving away chocolate bars. I love having chocolate companies for clients.

---

Alright, I'm peeved. Someone at work was giving away Eskimos v. Argos tickets. And they were gone even before I could even lift my fingers to reply to the email.

---

"Every once in a while, we do work, even when I'm in my bare feet."
-GT

10/05/2006 10:07:00 p.m. | |

Wednesday, October 04, 2006 

Fantasy Hockey

One of the things I like about work is the people and the fun. Today, we had a hockey fantasy draft in the big meeting room at lunch. It went on for at least two hours.

Everyone from the president was there. Cool eh?

10/04/2006 10:30:00 p.m. | |

 

Spoon Gnomes

We have a big kitchen at work. Today, it held no spoons. You need a spoon to eat cereal. At least, you do if you're eating it in an office environment. I scrounged around for five minutes until stumbling onto a bag of plastic spoons in an out-of-the-way drawer.

I mention the lack of this most valued utensil to II , who just happened to be walking by. She made me feel a little stupid, saying, "Check the executive kitchen."

Of course!

So I went to the executive kitchen. The drawers were brimming full of magical spoons. Okay, it wasn't really brimming. It had a few, but not enough. I remember there being more spoons.

I think we have Spoon Gnomes stealing our most valued utensil. And keeping me from my delicious breakfast.

10/04/2006 10:26:00 p.m. | |

 

"What does closed door mean?"

TS: Is DS still there?

Me: Yup.

Me points to office. TS Looks into room.

TS: I don't see him. Is he on the floor?

Me: No. He doesn't do the GT thing.

TS: Nuts.

TS leaves. Five seconds later, DS walks into room. Me opens mouth to say...

DS closes door.

Five seconds pass.

TS: Oh! What does closed door mean?

Me lists off possibilities with left hand fingers.

Me: On the phone. Playing video games.

TS Motions to knock.

Me: Do it.

TS: NO!

Me: I'll do it.

TS: So you'll knock and just push me in?

Me: If I have to.

An hour and a half later. DS is pacing in his office, talking softly into his headset.

TS storms into my area, looks into DS's office.

TS: Oh. Hrmp.

Me: *laughs*

TS: Hrmmm.

10/04/2006 10:19:00 p.m. | |

 

RFP From Hell

We got it! We got it!

It's a funny story.

Months ago, we wrote an RFP. We stayed at work till 10 pm writing this RFP. It was the RFP from hell.

Me and several other people and their spouses (who was missing their wives so much that they visited us at the office to bring food, moral support, and a laptop) worked long and hard on this mammoth document.

Why? Because we were crazy. And we still are.

It feels good to know that our herculean efforts were not in vain.

10/04/2006 10:17:00 p.m. | |

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 

ROFLMFAO

KB told me the funniest thing of the day. See, every time he calls me, my phone display reads "KB Transfer". He was in the office, he was less than ten metres away. This being an internal call, the display shouldn't read that. It should read "KB Calling."

So I asked him why that was. He explained, "I don't know your extension, so I always just call reception to transfer me." Always!

We laughed for five minutes straight. He continued to elucidate, "I have a phone list on my computer, but I'm too lazy to open it up." More uproarious laughter.

He did try to save face saying, "BG's worse. When we were in the other office, he used to just shout to the whole room, 'What's Ah-vin's extension?' as if anyone in the room knew." I was really hurting from too much laughing. "He'd say it like some cloud of dust would magically appear in the form of the extension number."

After all the face-hurting laughter, he says, "Now I don't know what I called you for." By this time, I was on the floor, grabbing my sides. I was hurting everywhere.

10/03/2006 10:45:00 p.m. | |

 

RadioShack Hits Home

The first time I read the RadioShack story, I was surprised. Email is a terrible way of finding out that you've been canned. Then I found out more about the story and it didn't sound so bad. Then we did it today.

I still feel horrible. I still can't believe I wrote part of that letter. Not the important part, but I still had a hand in it.

Ugh.

10/03/2006 10:40:00 p.m. | |

 

Bullshit Poker

Today's early morning meeting was a hoot. We played Bullshit Poker with $5 bills. Basically, everyone gets a five dollar bill and you try to create "hands" with the serial number of the bill. The first person goes, "I have a pair of ones." Then the next person tries to beat it, "I've got a three ones." And so on. If you think someone's bullshitting their hand, you call them on it and if you're right, you get their five dollar bill. This goes on until one person has all the fivers.

You're probably looking at a fiver right now. If you look closely, the serial numbers begin with letters. We noticed it too.

GT, while trying to figure out the best hand she's got, announces, "Mine's got 'HOT' written on it. Well, I guess I am." Without missing a beat, TS shouts, "Mine says 'HOR'." Hilarity ensues. Everyone in the fracking room was howling.

Then we got on to business.

10/03/2006 10:29:00 p.m. | |

Monday, October 02, 2006 

Empty Headed Writing

The James Blunt concert is tomorrow and his album has been playing in my mental jukebox for the entire afternoon. More so since FC sent an email about 2 tix she's holding. And even more so when TC asked about said tix.

In other news... I was in the weekend's Toronto Star. It was a story about Waking City. Congratulations to Christian! Nice piece!

Today was pretty uneventful as Mondays usually are. Tomorrow promises to be better what with an early morning meeting and all. And possibly some more writing.

Ah yes, writing.

I was working on a document today that just didn't want to end. My zombified mind was typing words on the keyboard but the words didn't want to form coherent sentences. What prolonged the suffering even more was a couple of instances where my brain decided to up and leave my head.

"Let's delete that wrong letter and put the exact same one," my empty head said. "Or, let's delete that wrong letter and replace it with the exact same one, only this time, capitalize it." That actually happened. Three times.

10/02/2006 11:00:00 p.m. | |

 

My Website

It's been a terribly long while since I've posted on a Sunday night. These have always been my favourite posts as this is the time of week where I'm most contemplative.

Today, I'm contemplating my website. The first step is deciding what kind of site it should be. It has to showcase my writing, my art, and that's where I hit a stumbling block. It has to be more than that. Should I put a blog? Could I make a business out of it like copyblogger does? Is there something I want to say that people want to read? Or should it just be a completely personal website inviting readers into my life?

So I skipped step one.

The second step is choosing a name. If it's a personal site, my full name might be a good url. Even if it's not a personal site, if the product is me then my name or some variation of it would be a good url. Or I can go with something completely different. At first I went with Toronto themed names. But why limit myself to my city? One thing for certain is that it has to be words. Real words or words which are close enough to real words but different enough that they stand out: flickr or ebay spring to mind. Another idea is to play on my name. Something like starvinarvin but not so crappy. Right now I'm leaning towards made up words.

So step two needs work.

Step three is design. Four is content. But I can't get to either until I have a step one and two.

So I'm going to bed now and letting my unconcious mull it over.

10/02/2006 12:14:00 a.m. | |

Sunday, October 01, 2006 

Waking Empty

Waking City is over. I can get back to my "normal" life.

My bicycle feels neglected. My exercise routine is shot. My painting is dry. My blogs have suffered. My bedroom is a mess. My reading piles are a combined six feet high (that's not Waking City's fault, but since I'm on a roll...)

For the last two weeks, this game consumed almost every waking moment of my life. When I wasn't at work, I was running around the city looking for clues or solving puzzles.

It was an intense experience.

Thanks to the game, I saw so many parts of the city which I will definitely revisit.

Parkdale is one. Sure, I hated that place while I was there. Sure, the Roncesvalles puzzle was very, very, very hard, and I curse it even to this day. Sure, it was cold and the bums there kept asking for money or staring at you in a "hey baby" sort of way. And sure, it made me miss the season premiere of Grey's Anatony, but you know what? I'm coming back. I see myself having coffee at Alternative Grounds, or trying the food at Chopin's, the sugary sweets at Queen of Tarts, and even saying hello to the lovely lady at the pet store who helped us tremendously.

The Village is another. This Ain't the Rosedale Library looked like a nice place to re-visit. And I missed so much during the two days we were there because my focus was completely on the puzzles and not the neighbourhood. I am definitely coming back.

Kensington too. Must buy some cheese at Cheese Magic. And say hi to Jacqui's aunt at Moonbean. There was a fantastic spot on the roof of a parking garage in the area which showed a fantastic view of the city. Mental note: bring camera.

There are other locales and I will be talking about them in my summary of the whole experience. Either here or on my blog. Or both (even though that's frowned upon... c'mon it's the same content! I will not rewrite it).

I took many pictures and videos; over two gigabytes. That's about 500 stills and 20 videos. As soon as I think of a way to share them which won't drive me nuts, you'll be seeing them too. I hope.

If you're interested in media there's some at iplay.torgame.com. For more about the game and possibly when the next one will be, check out www.torgame.com.

For now, back to life. Back to laundry.

10/01/2006 06:33:00 p.m. | |