Wearing a Sparky uniform, partying at the O Zone, condoms, and sports bars

Martin T. picked me up a bit earlier than Henry usually does, but that's okay - we spent the ride over talking about the Olympics (we'll both miss it), watching it on TV, being bad for skipping Fellowship to watch yesterday's game, events, ferris wheels, cranberries, Henry having a slight fever, his trip to Hong Kong / his relatives, and more. Interacted with Chrystal (glasses and SPACE FROM PARENTS!), Sabrina (Canada toque!), Golden (the Mint pavilion!), Jordan, Annika, little Eric M., Eric T. wearing a Sparky uniform, Matthew Ma #2, Nina, Emily, Gerard, Luke, and others. Sean got upset again when his color team didn't win, so of course was crying... poor kid! On the way home, we discussed Chinese zodiac animals (Ian is a Snake, Sean is a Sheep / Ram / FEMALE, as per his brother!, and Ada is a Pig), and stickers from trophies won last year. I don't think Ian was too impressed when I told them that I had heard of girls named Sean / Shawn before, but his parents were definitely unimpressed with Sean not being buckled in properly! ("My leg's stuck!")

Got home and called Eric before I fell asleep: sounded like his brother answered the phone, haha. Since Eric has to do sound tomorrow, it'll be around 8:45 - he said that I was partying at the O Zone all day (NO!), and had to get a gold medal from an American bobsledder as my price for a ride. Not sure whether this is worse than Corey telling me that I could deliver some condoms to the Olympic Village despite the high security there! Checked email just now to see that Martin J. votes for watching the game at a sports bar - since he rarely drinks, he'll rely on Jon for a venue. We'll see what happens tomorrow!

Falling asleep in the shower, gold medals, games, and teapots

I almost fell asleep in the shower just now - what the?! Henry called while I was showering, so I returned his call. Seems that he won't be able to take me to Awana today, so he got Martin to pick me up. Works for me, haha. Jon also emailed a bunch of us about the Gold Medal Game tomorrow, and possible options for watching it. I was also thinking about that, so we'll see what happens tomorrow! Canada also got two gold medals in ten minutes!

You Are Measured

You believe in moderation, and you're pretty good at practicing it too. You avoid all extremes. You try to live a sustainable life. You believe in conserving both your energy and your resources. You're the type of person who puts a pot of tea on when you need some energy. You don't depend on it, but it gives you a boost. Your signature tea: green tea - any and all kinds

The Teapot Test

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

Benadryl better help me sleep! / Jedi identity / Only seeming dead

Finally, I seem sleepy after taking two Benadryl! Of course, I looked up the possible effects first. I say "seem sleepy" because sleeping aids have fooled me before... but then again, I just drew on myself too hard with a pen, and also had at least ten typos while writing this. Bedtime it is!


Facebook quiz taken from Veronica:

Leslie took the "Which Jedi Are You?" quiz and the result is Anakin Skywalker (Good). You have the power of the Force at your will. You are sometimes abrasive and often tormented by your desires and commitment. You are a being of astronomical power!

Trivia fact for Saturday, Feb. 27: What famous 19th-century storyteller often left a note at his bedside stating "I only seem dead," for fear he'd be buried alive after being prematurely pronounced dead? Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

Slovakia ALMOST won against Canada!

WHAT THE HELL. THIS THING JUST RESTARTED!

Missed a call from Eric's work at 6:10, so called him back on his cellphone a few minutes later. He said he wasn't going to Fellowship, due to the Canada-Slovakia hockey game... I said that it was a good decision, because transit traffic was insane enough this afternoon. When he wondered what I'd been doing outside, I said that I was getting my new glasses frames. I asked what he'd be doing, and he said he'd either watch it at home or Alistair's - then he asked whether I'd go to the O Zone to watch it. Nah, I can stay dry here out of the rain, even if the mice ARE still around. I'll definitely call him tomorrow for Sunday, I guess!

From Candy: Our Father, who art in GM (Canada Hockey) Place, hockey be thy name, thy will be done. GOLD to be WON on ICE as well as IN THE STANDS, give us this day our hockey sticks, and forgive us our penalties, as we forgive those who cross-check against us. Lead us not into elimination, but deliver us to victory, in the name of the fans, CANADA, and the HOLY PUCK. AMEN!! GO CANADA GO"

The Canadians won 3-2, but Slovakia put on a lot of pressure as well, considering we were winning 3-0! Don't know what happened in the last few minutes of the game, though! Canada also got a gold medal in 5K short-track relay, a gold and bronze in short-track speed skating, and silver in women's curling. ▐ ♣▐ GO CANADA GO! ▌♥ ▌ (I also like the commercial for hand sanitizer that's on now...)

HER GHOST IN THE FOG / New blue frames and transit insanity / Mullets

Barb Scott just reminded me of this song, and that's why I'm playing it now. Good times. :D

Just got home from a rather insane transit outing to get my new blue frames. The Canada Line station at Brighouse was CRAZY, even if I somewhat bypassed the LONG lineup! At least I remembered where the glasses place was from yesterday even if my sense of direction seems to be non-existent. The technician wanted to know if I wished to keep my old frame - definitely not, since I don't think I could use them as a spare. At least I got a new Ellen Tracy glasses case! Going home was slightly less insane, and I was relieved to find that Eric had NOT called me from work.

Decided to wear my bling red sweater once I learned that my sister is in Tokyo now, haha - this rainy weather isn't appropriate for the DRAGON! After looking up caffeine content online, I got some Coke from the vending machine. Then I also used Google to look up how to remove a recalcitrant pot pie from its tin - the butter knife method worked, thank goodness. Finally, I can eat stuff!

You Should Not Have a Mullet

Unless you're being truly ironic, you should shy away from having a mullet. A mullet is so not you. You are modern, trendy, and sophisticated. You can't remember the last time you chugged a cheap beer. You don't have a redneck bone in your body, and you probably don't even know a Billy Ray Cyrus song. That being said, having a mullet would be the perfect Halloween costume for you. You would make a hilarious hillbilly.

Should You Have a Mullet?

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

I know ACHY BREAKY HEART, but not well. However, the rest of this fits. I don't know ANY girl who would WANT to have a mullet, anyway!

Assigned seating in Taiwanese movie theatres?

[00:43:32] AlenaBrolxFlami: I'm watching the Canada-USA women's game now... but I already know the result
[01:03:28] mrptptpt: aren't they delaying all the broadcasts on the West Coast for some reason, despite that being the local timezone of the events? that seems pretty dumb
[01:04:21] AlenaBrolxFlami: yeah, I think that's what NBC did from the opening ceremonies onwards... luckily, I have CTV
[01:04:47] mrptptpt: I have Z TV! well, it's just a Z, actually
[01:05:15] mrptptpt: but that channel has Japanese pro wrestling and sometimes real fighting pretty much every night!
[01:07:27] mrptptpt: great for falling asleep to since I don't really care about it and there's no storyline to follow, so I can have something on without really paying much attention to it, plus I don't really need to understand much :P they have short interviews backstage with a wrestler after the match, but generally it's wrestling matches only, nothing in between. as soon as one ends, it's maybe a short interview (30 seconds), and it goes directly to the opening bell of the next match :P
[01:34:51] AlenaBrolxFlami: okay, why didn't I get those messages? or at least, the window didn't blink :P
[01:35:11] AlenaBrolxFlami: hahaha... sounds really like your thing
[01:54:22] mrptptpt: there's plenty of English movies on TV too, so there's usually things to watch. the English things just have Chinese subtitles. same as movies in the theaters here
[01:54:38] mrptptpt: they have assigned seats in theaters here, which is sort of weird. I assume Canada is the same as the US where you just sit wherever you want to
[02:01:32] AlenaBrolxFlami: yeah, here you sit wherever you want
[02:01:58] AlenaBrolxFlami: assigned seating? how does that work? you get a ticket, and they show you to your seat?
[02:13:20] mrptptpt: no, you just go sit there... I guess they're numbered, but I didn't really notice, I just sat wherever the other people pointed me to :P
[02:14:00] AlenaBrolxFlami: oh, okay... still kinda weird
[02:14:03] mrptptpt: but they have people at the door to each theater (like the actual theater you watch the movie in, not the whole place), and they come in and say something before the movie, and they take your ticket and stuff
[02:14:29] mrptptpt: at ours, they kind of have that person, but it's one for the whole place... and they just say "okay, it's over there in theater 6" or whatever
[02:14:59] mrptptpt: here, you get that information when you buy the tickets... and I think it's on the ticket, then you go to that specific theater to wait until they let people in

Chinese stringed instruments and thunder snow

Called Auntie Ying, and told her about recent events - no, I didn't tell her last week since it didn't seem relevant to the conversation. But I told her NOW, heh... only because she asked why I needed to get my glasses fixed! Discussed respect, frames, grudges, stress, how my mother did something WRONG, hitting, trust, eating, co-workers, religion, prayer, how she noticed I was a bit down on Sunday (I hope it wasn't that obvious to EVERYONE!), the Olympics, and more stuff. It was an interesting conversation - we know Amanda and Conor like us. I definitely have known Amanda for almost all her life, and I know Conor will talk to me. He spelled "from" by himself on Sunday, evidently remembering what I'd told him the week before - yay! Also talked to Corey about Chinese stringed instruments:

[23:18:51] mrptptpt: hello? MSN keeps saying my messages can't be delivered
[23:18:51] mrptptpt: The following message could not be delivered to all recipients:
Corey says:
so are you going to eat sticky rice balls on Sunday for the Lantern Festival? today in English class, I learned that that's what all the cool kids do
the teacher said "stinky," though... but she wrote "sticky," so I'm pretty sure that's what she meant
[23:20:51] AlenaBrolxFlami: MSN just disconnected me, saying I had an invalid password
[23:21:37] mrptptpt: it says you're online for me
[23:21:55] AlenaBrolxFlami: no, no sticky rice balls - my mom banned me from the house, remember?
[23:22:18] AlenaBrolxFlami: because I just reconnected
[23:22:40] mrptptpt: no, I don't remember that
[23:26:06] mrptptpt: you said she got mad that you didn't do the dishes...
[23:45:06] AlenaBrolxFlami: I thought I told you that she banned me from the house, which was an aspect of her getting mad
[23:47:48] mrptptpt: well, I'll give you some tips on how to get along with Chinese people if you want :P they all seem to like me here! the English teacher wants to take me to see a kung-fu guy or something (I think it's a tai chi instructor) for some kind of demonstration, and she's arranging for some girl to come in and play music for me on one of those Chinese dealies... the flat-stringed instrument that you lay down flat on a table / lap / etc.? they told me the name in Chinese, but I need to hear Chinese words like 15 times before they stick
[23:48:24] AlenaBrolxFlami: I don't know the name of that one, sorry
[23:49:04] AlenaBrolxFlami: you're like a novelty there! white man in the city, yo! :P
[23:50:16] AlenaBrolxFlami: it's like Eric and Jeremy going to my Chinese church
[23:50:19] mrptptpt: you probably know what I mean, though :P if not, I guarantee you've heard it before. they showed me one, but they didn't know how to play it well... they just wanted to show me some Chinese instruments, since some people were practicing some in another room, and we could hear it from our classroom
[23:50:56] AlenaBrolxFlami: picture?
[23:52:41] AlenaBrolxFlami: well, I guess you can't if you don't know the English name
[23:53:50] mrptptpt: it's rectangular and has 16 strings. there's a diagonal bridge that goes across the strings, and you apparently just change the tone by pressing down on one side of the string (while playing a note on the other side)
[23:54:17] mrptptpt: they're in all kinds of kung-fu movies and stuff, and apparently it's a pretty well-known Chinese instrument. I'm looking for pictures
[23:54:57] mrptptpt: looks like you call it a Zither in English... I think... that's just from some Google results. it takes a while to load them on here :P
[23:56:33] AlenaBrolxFlami: and I was just going to say that based on my Google results, it's called a guzheng :P
[23:56:35] mrptptpt: well, I'm not totally sure this is exactly it... they said the traditional ones have 16 strings, and the modern ones have 21. the bridge wasn't THAT diagonal on the one they showed me
[23:57:01] mrptptpt: shorter, with more open string area away from the bridge thing
[23:57:35] AlenaBrolxFlami: well, I put in "Chinese zither," and the first bunch of results are about the guzheng :P (off phone now, so I can type faster - whee!)
[23:58:20] mrptptpt: if you just run your finger across it without doing anything, it plays a series of notes that you hear a lot in old Chinese music and stuff. if you could hear me, I could try to mimic that, and you'd recognize it
[23:59:47] mrptptpt: this is what they were practicing on... a two-stringed thing. they always write in Chinese on the board to show me the names of Chinese things... since I can't read them, it doesn't really help much at all :P but er is two, and I know the character for two, so I asked why it's named "two-something"... two strings
[00:00:25] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha... you're probably right... and I've heard an erhu before, some time ago
[00:01:49] mrptptpt: well, just use Wikipedia :P
[00:02:10] mrptptpt: I think the picture in the "history" section is pretty much the same as what they showed me
[00:06:14] AlenaBrolxFlami: that's pretty nice, then
[00:09:52] mrptptpt: I told them I have a guitar, so I guess they think I'm really into music :P I did tell them that I wasn't really good at it
[00:10:54] mrptptpt: if they want me to play, we can go to an arcade... they do have GuitarFreaks V6 all over the place here (GuitarFreaks is the Japanese game that Guitar Hero sort of copied)
[00:11:45] mrptptpt: I've never played it though, and apparently it's not very easy... I don't play it at home since it's not REALLLY compatible with Guitar Hero guitars, and the best solution involves switching between the guitar for songs and a regular controller every time you go back to a menu
[00:18:08] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha... well, I guess that's something you can do for bonding time or whatever
[00:21:09] mrptptpt: I don't know how you do it, but you can link GuitarFreaks and DrumMania machines (if they're the same type, which they are at all the arcades I've been to that have them here), and have someone on guitar and someone on drums. I should try those out before I leave, even though they're probably pretty hard
[00:21:19] mrptptpt: still no sign of Pop'n Music, though
[00:21:26] mrptptpt: that's what I really want to play
[00:23:15] AlenaBrolxFlami: does Jane know anything about which arcades would have it?
[00:24:46] mrptptpt: not really, but she's a lot more outgoing than me... so when we're walking around somewhere, I can just ask her where they are... and she doesn't know, so she just asks whoever is nearby on the street... and most of the time, they know and seem happy to help :P I know how to say "excuse me, can I ask a question?" and I know "where is," but I don't think I know enough to actually ask where something is, since I don't know the words for the somethings :P
[00:32:16] AlenaBrolxFlami: yeah, that would be a challenge...

Trivia fact for Friday, Feb. 26: What is thunder snow? A rare winter thunderstorm that is accompanied by lightning and a heavy snowfall instead of rain.

Inexpensive glasses frames, and breakfast for dinner - LiveCity Yaletown, too

THIS THING JUST RESTARTED! Went out this afternoon to do some banking, get a spare backscratcher (one for each room!), and have my glasses fixed. Did the banking and Aberdeen Mall stuff without incident (saw a dancing dragon with drumming at the mall!), but I wasn't surprised when I walked the wrong way down the street where the glasses place was. (I'm a ditzy local, not a tourist! :P) Got there just in time to be the last customer of the day; when the technician said that I could get new frames for just $29 as opposed to merely getting the glasses fixed for $20 (could be more sturdy that way), I was all over THAT deal! Heard that Canada's women beat the USA in hockey 2-0 for a gold medal, and also that Joannie Rochette got a bronze - that's pretty good! (poor Rochette's mother died a few days ago, quite suddenly... so much courage!)

Decided I needed coffee, so stopped in at Cambie Café... all-day breakfast (pancakes and sausages) plus refillable Colombian coffee for less than $5 is indeed a score! Read half the paper while I was there, too. Went to the HUGE Save-On Foods nearby just to get some sea salt, which I luckily found by myself since I'd forgotten about it last time I went shopping. After checking out LiveCity Yaletown for about 15 minutes, I was defeated by the two-hour lineup to get into the Coca-Cola House, so just went home. There's something to be said for being part of a massive crowd, even while a little lost. Figured I'd done too much walking to even check out Wintersleep tonight at the O Zone, so maybe I'll check out something tomorrow while I'm out anyway, since I need to get my glasses back. Talked to Kenny briefly, and am now talking to Corey about the Olympics and such.

"I have a cold or something now. :P I do have bubble tea though, which should help. But Jane's aunt (she's taking me to her English class as show and tell, basically, in the mornings when Jane is working) wouldn't let me pay for that... I asked her to help me order it. :P I don't want her paying for dumb things I just want... she bought lunch right before that anyway." He also wants me to force VANOC to play by the original rules - everyone competes NAKED! Hahaha, I don't think that would work! Speaking of being naked, it's time to SHOWER! (and also, I just read a blurb in the paper that said one of the two Olympic villages has run out of condoms)

Edit: Cold days, hot nights: Olympic Village secrets

Sex and the Olympic city (old article, but in keeping with the condom theme :P)

Lush fields with recyclables / SPONGEBOB and hitting people with pillows

When I could finally get to sleep, I had a dream where a bunch of us were on a cruise ship. Steph, Eric, Jeremy, and I unexpectedly saw Ivan, Natalie, and Nathan with their parents. When Auntie Eva said that Vanessa (who had inexplicably left the last A off her name) had a phone call, I had to go upstairs through a very lush and verdant field of grass to get her! On the way back, I was struggling because of the trucks and cars on the road adjacent to this field, as well as the random recyclable juice boxes / pop bottles and such IN the field of long grass! Don't ask me how that works... my dreams are WEIRD!

Last snippet of Taiwan conversation before bed last night:

[01:48:17] Flami: right now, I'm trying to figure out why my NEW sweatpants have little bumps :P
[01:49:00] Corey: probably from washing them
[01:52:17] Flami: no.... it was from the strings
[01:53:01] Corey: from the strings?
[01:54:16] Flami: those strings on the pants!
[01:54:45] Corey: the drawstring at the waist? how does that cause little bumps?
[01:55:36] Flami: yeah, that's it... because those were inside the pants :P
[01:57:06] Corey: that makes bumps on the fabric?
[01:57:54] Flami: no. just bumpy on the feel
[02:04:00] Corey: I thought you meant like sweater pills... I've had sweatpants get like that before
[02:09:20] Corey: 4543rrrrtgv 65ru i79
[02:09:41] Flami: heh, no... although my sweaters get like that
[02:09:47] Flami: interesting
[02:09:58] Corey: that's 5-year-old typing for you :P
[02:10:12] Corey: I'm lucky she didn't close the window
[02:10:48] Corey: I'm typing with a little girl hanging on my back, and if I don't pay enough attention, she hits me with a pillow or something :P and we have to watch Spongebob
[02:11:41] Corey: qrqrd2 yhhhbbhhjhjuu8988765444
[02:13:12] Flami: Spongebob?! Oh man..
[02:13:50] Corey: \yes, but it's all in Chinese, and he has a different name, but I don't remember what it is, even though she says it a lot :P
[02:13:58] Corey: something bobob or something
[02:15:03] Corey: mn55215t5779=224
[02:15:21] Corey: tftdssssssssssssssssssasaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawawswaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa2222222222222222222222222222222222:o)22222222222222
[02:15:26] Corey: qw
[02:16:19] Corey: well... now it's dinner time, but Jane's still not back
[02:19:33] Flami: I can't say I'm surprised she's not back yet...
[02:47:40] Flami: bedtime now
[03:05:13] Corey: the Dell thing is STILL at 2

You Are Thoughtful and Happy

You have an optimistic outlook. When troubles come your way, you try to see how you will grow and learn from them. You have a few friends and family members that you are especially close to. You can count on them to be there for you. You feel relieved about your past and those you have loved. You are happy to be moving on with the future. You succeed by pacing yourself. You realize that all that matters is the long run, and you aim to persevere.

The Desert Test

Blogthings: Our Quizzes Weren't Written By Bored 12 Year Olds

Go to Taiwan! Your laptop won't work, among other mishaps! / Kellogg

Anthony Dru Ashford, Sofi Quemera, and Brian Pearce all added me to Facebook. I have no idea who any of these people are, so I'll just mark the requests as such!

Canada beat Russia 7-3 in men's hockey, got gold AND silver in women's bobsleigh, got bronze in 5k speed skating, and silver was 3k women's speed skating relay! SO GOOD! :D [watched the Slovakia-Sweden game later, and Slovakia pulled off an upset on the defending gold medal champs... Canada plays them at 6:30 on Friday!]

Corey doesn't seem to be having a trip where everything is good:

[22:23:53] Flami: I'm procrastinating on mailing your stuff - so fret not! :D
[22:24:21] Corey: well, I'm pissed off! my laptop won't work!
[22:24:56] Flami: well, NOW you can fret :P
[22:25:04] Flami: Canada won four medals today, and beat Russia :D
[22:25:18] Flami: what happened to the laptop, by the way?
[22:25:40] Corey: I haven't seen any Olympics... I don't know what channel it's on, and Jane just says "oh, I'm not too interested in that" if I say anything about it.........
[22:25:57] Corey: I guess I could flip through 9 billion channels until I find it
[22:26:06] Corey: I'm here by myself, and she's at work
[22:26:27] Corey: it looks like the video card died somehow
[22:28:26] Corey: it wasn't working at all.. it powered on, but nothing happened. then after a while, when I turned it on, it would give me a beep code, but no picture.... now, it seems like everything works.. I can hear it boot into Windows.. I get the startup sound and all that, but no picture whatsoever. it gives some type of error right as Windows loads, but I can't see it since there's no video
[22:44:06] Flami: well, I have no Facebook friends in Taiwan, so I can't help you with that...
[22:44:23] Flami: man, that sucks
[22:45:41] Corey: looks like I can get a new video card on eBay for like $40, but it's not nearly as good as the one I have now (but anything is better than a blank screen)
[22:46:34] Corey: Dell wants $190 for a new good one
[22:46:40] Flami: yeah, that's true... are you going to get it shipped to Taiwan or home? YIKES!
[22:57:35] Corey: I'd probably have to ship it home..
[22:58:13] Flami: make that 4-3.... and that makes more sense - just have 'em ship it to home
[22:59:35] Corey: I'd like to have it work here, though... 99% of the reason why I even brought it is because the fucking plane is supposed to have power plugs, and it's my entertainment on the super long trip. coming here, I got an old plane that didn't have anything at all. it's supposed to have power plugs and a screen in each seat, so you can watch movies and play games and stuff. I didn't have anything.
[23:00:03] Corey: it was horrible, and I think I'm going to call them before I go home to complain (maybe they'll bump me up to business class or something if I do)
[23:00:30] Corey: now that means I'll probably have a plane with power plugs so I can finally use my laptop on the way home, but the damn thing stopped working
[23:00:52] Corey: so I'll have ANOTHER super long flight with nothing to do
[23:22:33] Flami: man, that really does suck... (stupid lag)
[00:04:33] Corey: well, I haven't been able to get Dell support on the online chat thing.... it's looking like it's the video card, though
[00:16:23] Flami: of all the times for it to crap out :(
[00:17:12] Corey: well, a lot of this kind of stuff ships from Hong Kong or Asia anyway, so I'm hoping that I can find one here
[00:18:08] Corey: we were at a night market, and they had the same cases (in person) for sale as what I can order from Hong Kong at home, but they only had the soft type for my phone (don't want that anyway... I want hard, and they only had pink!)
[00:18:47] Corey: my phone's case also broke on the way here... and the new battery I put in it quit working on me on the plane after like 10 minutes, so I had to put the old one back in...
[00:19:22] Corey: I even lost the string that goes through the hood on my blue hooded sweatshirt after it went through the laundry here (we found that though, at least)... everything is breaking
[00:20:02] Corey: and I just remembered that I left $55 (Taiwan money :P, that's like $1.50) in my pants pocket that probably already went through the laundry
[00:21:21] Flami: EW, pink?! man! doesn't seem like a good trip if everything is breaking or being lost :(
[00:24:13] Corey: oh, my watch battery died too
[00:24:54] Corey: so about all that's left is for my phone to explode, or maybe I'll be walking around, and my pants just completely fall down suddenly or something, despite wearing a belt :P
[00:25:08] Corey: Dell support is SLOW AS HELL
[00:25:15] Corey: they must have literally one person doing it
[00:26:27] Corey: I was number 3 in line for a long long time and I gave up... it said I needed Quicktime for this window so I thought it just didn't work. I tried in IE, but that 404's on me for some reason... now I'm back to Firefox, and I was 3 in line again... while waiting, I Googled the Quicktime thing and apparently you don't really need that. as I was again wondering if it was even working, it suddenly changed to 2 in line
[00:26:43] Corey: and there it sits... 2 :P
[00:27:15] Corey: so they must have one person manning the help lines... that, or the average help session is hours in length
[00:28:16] Corey: I'd call them instead, but I don't have a phone :P Jane's house does, of course, but I don't know how to call internationally on it.. she has a phone card thing I could probably use, if they don't put me on hold for three hours to waste it. maybe they have an international line.. I don't know
[00:28:24] Corey: I don't know how to ask to use the phone anyway :P
[00:31:40] Flami: yeah, that's not good
[00:34:38] Corey: oh, help me with my homework :P
[00:37:08] Corey: I have to ask 10 questions in English to some people tomorrow
[00:37:09] Corey: just questions.......... anything, I guess :P probably very simple things since I think most of them barely understand English. since Jane's working, her aunt is taking me to English class (I thought I was observing a foreign person teaching English, like how I'm possibly going to be doing, thinking her aunt ran the school or something... but she's TAKING an English class... .with a Chinese teacher
[00:37:10] Corey: she took me there today
[00:37:38] Corey: everyone was nice, but it's kind of weird since I'm the center of attention, and they all want to talk to me and ask me lots of questions to practice English... they wanted me to ask them questions in English, but I said I don't really know what to ask :P nobody had any suggestions for me, either (the teacher and Jane's aunt and another guy, who wanted me to ask things, speak enough English to throw out some suggestions :P)
[00:38:01] Corey: so my "homework" is to prepare questions to ask them tomorrow.......
[00:40:38] Flami: well, here's a personal question, NOT related to your homework: should I have a pot pie at 12:40 AM if I got up at 4:10 PM?
[00:45:23] Flami: as for the homework... "what kind of food do you like?" "what do you like about Taiwan?" "how are you?" "what do you do after class?"
[00:52:48] Corey: how are you is probably too basic... and they're all adults
[00:54:51] Corey: the work they were doing was reading simple conversations (a few sentences long, some slang involved) and answering a question about the conversation.. like one was about someone trying to lose weight by dieting, but it was worded something like "I've been eating less," then they have to choose "dieting" as the method of weight loss to answer the question
[00:55:19] Corey: so that seems somewhat advanced, but everyone had a lot of trouble understanding me, even the best of them :P
[01:03:35] Flami: could they understand the slang?
[01:04:30] Corey: I don't really know... the teacher explained that stuff to them, but she's doing that in Chinese, so I have no idea :P
[01:05:19] Corey: the correct answer is printed in a different color in the books, so they always know the right one (not quite sure what the point of that is when they give you the answer...........)
[01:05:48] Flami: HA. yeah, I don't know either
[01:13:47] Corey: well, I'm pretty introverted and don't really ever ask people things unless it's something related to what we're talking about or I really want to know something.. or if they ask me maybe I'll ask them the same thing back or something.... so I don't know what to ask :P
[01:16:30] Flami: you're asking the wrong person then, because I don't really ask people questions, either... other than the usual "how's it going?" or related to our ongoing conversation
[01:31:15] Corey: well be more outgoing for a few minutes, dammit :P
[01:31:21] Corey: STILL NUMBER 2 ON DELL
[01:31:46] Corey: by the time I get some help, I'll forget that the window is there, and they'll give up on me and move on
[01:35:06] Flami: dang... at least you have the whole day?
[01:46:01] Corey: I guess

Trivia fact for Thursday, Feb. 25: In medieval England, what was the occupation of someone named Kellogg? A pork butcher. The name is derived from kellen ("to kill" in Old English) plus "hog."

Dream of drugs and worship / Scott: "Start a blog!" Me: "I have one!"

Had a weird fractured dream where a whole bunch of wild party people invaded the conference room where Nathan, Christon, Jeremy, and I were trying to figure out things for worship on the piano and guitar. We put up with it for a bit, but had had enough when they started smoking a lot, and bringing massive platters of snack food in... we could see that they didn't even want to be considerate by taking some stuff outside. Christon found a catalog which explained the slang words for a bunch of common items found at grocery stores, including salt and pepper. We perused it for a while, and then yelled at the entire room. "We know what these stand for, and we wouldn't want to be you when the staff finds this out!"

My mother happened to be the staff member for the floor, and went in to give the party people HELL. The party people wanted us to join them, but we were NOT in the mood, especially after we found thin tubes of green shreds. Later, they finally left - a guy staff member wanted us to see some FIRE RAGE SHOES, and wondered if they belonged to anyone. We didn't recognize them at all - the dream ended when the party people wanted to apologize to us. No idea where that came from!

Got up to a comment from Scott, who seems to think that I should start a blog since my Facebook updates are often funny and entertaining to him. Trust me, I've been trying to find an alternative ever since Dawn couldn't see Blogger because I discontinued it! Watching the Canada-Russia game, too! Got up SO not in time to go to the bank!

You Have Your Ideas to Smile About

The thing that makes you happiest is your own little inner world. You always have a new thought that delights you. All you need in this life is your imagination. You can never be too bored or too depressed. People may think you are a bit of a flake, or that you have your head in the clouds. They truly don't understand what makes you tick and why you're smiling. If people could read your mind, they would be truly amazed!

What Do You Have To Smile About?

Work is Hard. Time for Blogthings!

SO TRUE! Most people don't understand this!

Hot Wings chips and scissors / Bad Olympics grammar / Houseboats

Went to London Drugs earlier to get scissors, and left with those / Ruffles chips in hot wings, and sour cream and bacon / 4L of apple juice. Showered when I got home, and then cringed at the bad grammar in the I Believe Olympics theme song. It's not "between you and I," people!

Trivia fact for Wednesday, Feb. 24: What did fictional detective Travis McGee christen the 52-foot houseboat he kept docked at the Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florida? The Busted Flush. McGee, the creation of writer John D. MacDonald, won the boat in a poker game.

Patches and Omega - LJ IS FIXED!

Support: Our development team has deployed a patch today that should resolve your loading issues. Can you please let me know if it is working for you?

Two users in boring_people have assured me that my journal is viewable on the regular server, so YAY! (production and Omega, hahaha)

Punches / Dream of being trapped in a black marriage?! / Gold! / Cherry

Facebook FAIL - Group Lists Reasons for Punching Women in the Face ... no words at all. People like my stupid ex would probably join such a group! I'm not going to reproduce the list here, since it's at the source.

I finally was able to sleep at 6:10 AM - stupid upstairs neighbors showering at 4-5 AM! For some reason, I had a dream that I was trapped in a marriage with a black man, and he wanted me to do something for him. He mentioned that he was horny, but when I refused to even help him with that, he said "Okay, fine. I'm not letting you do that for me today!" as if I would magically cave. Eric came in and wrote something in a book, so I looked at it later in private: "He's bad for you, and manipulative!" Jeremy came in the room and wanted to take me out, so of course I let him, after hugging him first... my "husband" wasn't too impressed, haha. Wonder if my subconscious is still processing the events of 2008... yikes!

TWO MORE GOLD MEDALS as of yesterday and today - GO CANADA GO! It's raining today, so no going out... the Canada-Germany hockey game starts in a bit, anyhow. Trevor is back on Facebook, too!

You Should Smell Like a Cherry

You are not as you seem. Most people think that you're sweeter and more innocent than you actually are. In truth, you are a total wild child. You just keep it all on the down low for appearance's sake. You are happiest when you're plotting and scheming a bit. You can't help it, you have a devious mind! You are good at charming people and getting what you want. You are naturally popular, and people just always seem to love you.

What Fruit Should You Smell Like?

Blogthings: Take a Quiz. Annoy Your Friends.

Past Life Name / Old Greek Joke Books

I'm confused since I can't figure out my password to anything alternative... and I just reset one, but can't get to the email. DAMMIT!

Leslie just got their Past Life Name. Their Past Life Name is Hazel.

Trivia fact for Tuesday, Feb. 23: What category of people were the butt of the greatest number of jokes in the ancient Greek anthology that's considered the world's oldest surviving joke book? Scholars. They were the subject of more than 100 of the 265 jokes in the book The Philogelos or Laughter-Lover, which was written in the fourth or fifth century AD.

Cole is following Dana, and then Dana runs to her dying ex-boyfriend!

Sark is at the dropoff while Jack is with Sergei. Jack wants Sergei to call Sark, and asks CTU to trace it. Which, of course, means that they won't get the trace. Jack tries to reason with Sark, but Sark isn't having it. You see, he's still pissed about his father killing his brother, and this is his way of getting even. Some kids refuse to clean their room, but Sark evidently thinks selling nuclear weapons behind his dad's back is the way to rebel. Also, Sark can't believe the government would roll over like that, and that makes two of us. Sark does a quick 180 and ultimately agrees to the deal, but Little Bro has snipers on him. Once Sark starts to leave, he gets shot and dies. And no, he does not get a silent clock, so that means he'll be back.

They get a match on Little Bro's voice, so at least something at CTU works. Chloe asks Jack how he's doing, but he just wants to know about Renee. Renee wants to know what Jack meant by her having him, and Jack plays it cool. Renee actually looks somewhat happy, and little hearts are forming over her head. Weiss, the ultimate armchair quarterback, gives Bubba crap about CTU's incompetence because, apparently, he didn't watch Seasons 1 through 6, and he tells Bubba to find a scapegoat. Weiss wants to hang Renee out to dry, and Bubba starts to stand up for her before realizing that his ass is on the line. Hey, you guys know that there are still fuel rods out there, right?

Another acting clinic with Cole and Arlo, and the Emmy voters are really going to have a tough choice here. Cole gets Dana's coordinates from Arlo, and Cole decides to go follow her because, once again, it's not like there are nuclear weapons on the loose or anything. Cole is showing his intense face throughout this whole exchange. Or maybe it's his angry face. Or maybe it's his "I need to go to the bathroom" face – I mean, no one ever goes on this show, right? Dana follows Hillbilly Jim and Uncle Elmer's van, which pulled off to the side of the road. She pulls out her gun, and screws on the silencer. This may be overkill, but I'm really glad that our federal government has their priorities in order here.

The Justice Dept. is at CTU already. It's shocking how fast the government can work when you least expect them to. Bubba objects to hanging her out to dry, but ultimately decides to comply. Chloe wants to sit in on the interview with Renee, but Bubba pulls the "we have nuclear materials" card, and orders her back to her station. Yeah, because that's clearly the priority right now. Little Bro and his accomplice pull into – you guessed it – an abandoned warehouse. Little Bro's accomplice has an idea about what to do with the rods – namely, use them on America. Little Bro freaks out because he knows America would retaliate against Kamistan, but it looks like he's outnumbered here, so he ultimately complies. Who didn't see that coming? Same thing happened with the nerve gas.

Renee is being interrogated, and to say it's not going well for her is like saying Tiger Woods' marriage is on shaky ground. Prosecutor lady brings up Alan Wilson, and Renee looks like she's ready to crack. You know, I don't think they ever Mirandized her. Jack is back, and Chloe gives him the 411 on Renee. Of course, Jack realizes immediately what's going on. He uses his own pass to get into the secured room, and chokes prosecutor lady while trying to escort Renee out of the room. He tells the CTU guard to back off, and he does. Evidently, he knows better than to mess with Jack. Except that there are guards behind Jack, and they manage to subdue him with a taser! Wow! I can't believe it! The stupid CTU guards actually manage to get the drop on Jack?! This is a bigger upset than USA over Russia at Lake Placid. Do you believe in miracles?

Little Bro is suddenly gung-ho about the plan, and he volunteers to call on a professor to build a detonator for them. He goes to make the phone call, and brags about all the targets they can hit. Man, is he coming on too strong or what? I smell a double-cross here. Sure enough, he attacks one of the men and runs away. Jack and Bubba have a face-off, and Jack calls him on his BS. Jack threatens to call the President, but Bubba scoffs at him. "She put her own daughter in jail," he says, and Jack has no comeback to that. Man, Jack's having a bad hour, isn't he? Chloe says Little Bro is on the line, and Bubba is like "I don't care about that anymore!" Ultimately, he decides to take the call, and Little Bro wants a deal. What a shocker! I haven't done anything, but I feel like I should get in on this, too. Bubba tells Jack to leave, and I guess they're not going to charge him with assault on the guard and prosecutor. Every year, Jack beats up on some poor extras. And every year, he gets away with it. Is that justice?

Jed and Jethro are still partying it up in their van. Dana walks towards them with the gun in her hand, but heeeere's Cole. Dana finally comes clean and tells him about her past. Unfortunately, we won't get to hear about it because it's commercial time. Fine with me. The sooner they wrap this up, the better. Little Bro and his old accomplice (apparently his name is Samir) are still hiding. Bubba can't find Cole, so he taps Agent Owen for the mission, and he looks like he's barely out of college. Owen is surprisingly confident, and draws a scoff from Jack. Bubba, however, has his doubts about Owen, and asks Jack for his input. Jack agrees to lead the mission in exchange for Renee's freedom. Bubba hesitates because he doesn't want to go against the White House. Jack tells him he has more power than he thinks, and encourages him to do the right thing. He even tells Bubba that he has the juice, so I guess we know what was the last movie Jack watched. Bubba agrees, and Jack is back in the saddle.

Cole and Dana are still talking, and, man, she's really taking her time, isn't she? Apparently, one set of commercials wasn't enough to finish this conversation. Finally, Cole takes Dana's gun, and he's being all judgmental. You know, Cole, a real man would go and torture them until they agreed to leave her alone. Maybe there's hope for Cole yet. He starts to approach the van with intent on his face. Or maybe it's confusion. Or hunger – he hasn't eaten all season. Rather than torture them, Cole tries out his diplomatic skills. You know, if diplomats threatened each other with guns. Well actually, that's not far from the truth…

Kevin agrees to leave Dana alone, but Thing 2 wants to kill Cole. Kevin objects, and gets stabbed for his troubles. Thing 2 takes a gun and goes after Cole, but Kevin actually manages to warn them. Cole turns around and shoots Thing 2 dead. Dana then runs to Kevin as he dies, and that's not going to sit well with Cole. Cole and Dana are freaking out, but really, what's the big deal? Just throw them in the river. Will anyone really miss them?

Cadbury eggs and pot pies galore!

Went to Save-On Foods earlier to see if I could get some pot pies, bananas, Easter candy for myself (or the teens if I get tired of it), a flat notebook, peanut butter, and Kleenex. Experienced bus luck on the way there, since the bus waited for me to get to the stop, and the traffic lights were working in my favor for once. Got all the aforementioned items - chicken / beef pot pies are pretty good! I saw a $18.99 package of Cadbury mini-eggs (almost a kilogram), but figured I didn't need THAT much! Chose two 200g packages instead, plus four little packages of Cadbury Popping Mini-Eggs. Couldn't resist two packages of marshmallow eggs - one Hershey's, and one Oh! Henry. The flat notebook is purple with a dog on it, and it was only $4! As I got the Kleenex, I got a coupon for it as well - $1 off a bundle of things I was going to get anyway works for me! Decided to use the "15 items or fewer" checkout lane since my items were relatively small, and I also got two more Mr. Big bars for myself or Corey - I haven't decided yet, haha.

I also experienced bus luck on the way home, because the bus driver waited for me till I got to the stop - the traffic light wasn't quite in my favor. He said it was fine if I didn't show him my pass, but I believe in general honesty, especially on the transit system! (although I did once take the West Coast Express for free on the way to Billie's, quite inadvertently) Got home in PLENTY of time to watch JACK BAUER, since I heard HOUSE on my TV, and checked the microwave time which is half an hour off... it was about 8:15 or so! Talked to Billie about stuff, too - YAY! (although also figured that I should have gotten another pair of scissors, since one I have now is apparently designed for kids, and it KILLS my fingers!)

McIntyre people as in-laws?! (dream) / Developers and patches / Sexy time!

Woke up from a fractured dream of the McIntyres being my father's in-laws, but Mom was still Mom... I don't want to know how that worked! We ate soy sauce chicken drumsticks while having a somewhat rational discussion over why he felt Sheila and John (Scott's parents' names in the dream) were being very bad for him. Jon said that he wanted to renew books at the library, and I wished to go with him. Mom said I had to do dishes - NO DICE! I left anyway, haha... and that's where it ended. Hmm, what a dream...

Support: I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. It's quite likely that the same problem that affected your journal on the production servers is now present on Omega - that is, that the information on the tags is now kind of overloading the server calls when loading. Our development team has a patch that they feel optimistic will restore access to your journal, and we hope to have that deployed today or tomorrow. I'll update you again when it's tested and released. HA, WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!

Mel and Frances now have a new son, born just today. The baby looks cute - I did say hi to Micah yesterday as well. No name yet, though.

You Are Skinny Dipping

You are a fairly conservative, down to earth person. You aren't known for making trouble. That being said, you can be a little mischievous at times. You have a bit of a wild streak! You have probably been accused of being a flirt or a tease - and you're guilty as charged. You are naturally quite playful and coy. You're mostly sugar, but you're also a little spice.

Are You Skinny Dipping or Streaking?

Blogthings: Waste Time at Work!

Grammar Nazi Cat / Streaker arcade games and Taiwanese fruit

Janina sent me an article on food expiry dates, and a whole bunch of DRAMA CRITTERS - some LOLcats remind me of my mother! SO TRUE!

Got these images from a punctuation group on Facebook:





HAHAHAHA! I had to upload them, of course. :D


More Taiwan conversation:

[00:44:49] mrptptpt: well, hopefully Jane comes back soon... a little under an hour of her normal work day left, but generally she stays many hours beyond that.... she claims she'll go home on time while I'm here...
[00:47:24] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha... has she?
[00:52:01] mrptptpt: I'll find out in an hour, I guess
[00:52:27] mrptptpt: she absolutely never does when she says she wants to go home early though, normally. she says that since I'm here, she can
[00:54:04] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha, I guess you can be her excuse to go home "early" then... how's the scouting out English classes coming along?
[01:09:03] mrptptpt: haven't heard anything at all about that
[01:09:16] mrptptpt: the agency I've been dealing with hasn't sent me anything new since before I left
[01:09:47] mrptptpt: I guess some other people with connections to schools will get me interviews though, so I think something will happen no matter what
[01:10:40] AlenaBrolxFlami: well, that'll be good when it happens then
[01:27:04] mrptptpt: well, it's time for her to come home, but she's still doing things :P
[01:39:11] AlenaBrolxFlami: somehow, I'm not surprised
[01:39:35] mrptptpt: now I got in trouble for using the computer too long since it's bad for my eyes :P
[01:42:39] AlenaBrolxFlami: from Jane?
[01:42:51] AlenaBrolxFlami: I'm sure you probably use it just as long at home
[01:44:50] mrptptpt: no, her dad :P he brought in a big plate of these uh... apple things... though, and those are really good, so I'll take some worrying about my eyes in trade. Jane looked them up, and the name translates to "dates" online, but I'm pretty sure dates are something different.. these look like apples. they're not, but pretty similar
[01:50:42] mrptptpt: probably "ballet" or "silage" there. I think it's the first one, though.. also, the "wax apple" is very good... it's like an apple, but the seeds and stuff are all at the end with the folded-over things... there's no core
[01:58:16] AlenaBrolxFlami: the "pears" look like a cross between a peach / apricot and an orange
[02:01:04] mrptptpt: I've had some oranges here that they say are a special Taiwanese type... not sure if that's what that really is
[02:03:31] AlenaBrolxFlami: do they taste like oranges back home?
[02:04:17] mrptptpt: I don't know if it's the thing in that link, but it pretty much tasted like an orange, yes
[02:04:38] mrptptpt: they said one kind was a tangerine, not an orange..
[02:05:24] AlenaBrolxFlami: have you had a Chinese pear?

[02:06:33] mrptptpt: I don't know :P I don't like pears, though
[02:06:53] mrptptpt: I don't really get names for much of what I have here... they know it in Chinese of course, but not how to tell me
[02:09:26] mrptptpt: okay, I finally got her to leave :P so she should be back soon
[02:10:01] mrptptpt: that's crazy, it's after 6 PM and she's just leaving work, when she went there in the early morning :P and this is extremely early for her
[02:11:12] AlenaBrolxFlami: yeah... my mom will usually say the thing doesn't have an English name, or whatever :P that definitely sounds crazy, yeah :P
[02:12:47] mrptptpt: well, I'm sure most things have some type of English name...
[02:14:18] mrptptpt:
[02:14:45] mrptptpt: I just found that article.. I didn't see any streakers, but maybe I didn't play that level :P we played that game yesterday with Jane's niece
[02:16:10] AlenaBrolxFlami: HAHAHA, oh man
[02:16:30] mrptptpt: I thought that game was expensive (4 tokens... most were 2-3), but I just did the math and it was actually only 62 cents to play it
[02:17:43] mrptptpt: and we got tickets from it! woo hoo! our $100 earned us enough tickets to get her a little book... which is full of blank paper! she also could have chosen a Budweiser pen... not sure why prizes for kids are beer-themed, but that's what they had
[02:19:21] mrptptpt: that game is kind of cool, though... it's like that says, it's like a light gun game, but with balls. it releases a bunch of plastic balls when the game starts, and you throw them at what you want to hit :P it also wants you to pay double for two players, but it releases balls across the whole thing, so all three of us played at the same time.... I guess if you pay twice, there's multiple scores? not sure how it knows who threw what ball though, unless you're limited to half of the screen or something
[02:22:47] mrptptpt: you get two levels per play.. we threw balls at floating hearts (some kind of love theme) ... both times. the first time... then the second, we did the snowball fight that has a boss battle with a big bear, and the second stage was mice that dive at the screen and bite you, taking points away
[02:24:25] mrptptpt: I guess it uses some kind of touchscreen.. a cross of dots appears on the screen where you throw it. this game is everywhere here... it probably replaced the ones I want to play :P
[02:27:13] AlenaBrolxFlami: Streakers?! The kid is... five, did you say?! SO INAPPROPRIATE! and BEER-THEMED prizes?! yikes.
[02:28:56] mrptptpt: we didn't play the streaker level! :P I don't know which one has that.. everything I saw was bright and colorful, and lots of little kids played it with their parents
[02:32:41] mrptptpt: well, she finally came back!
[02:35:15] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha, that's good then - I need to get to bed soon anyway (2:35 AM here)
[02:36:51] mrptptpt: 3:30 AM at my house
[02:39:02] mrptptpt: my laptop is still set for my time
[02:39:31] AlenaBrolxFlami: hahaha, nice! anyway - good night? I dunno :P
[02:39:53] AlenaBrolxFlami: never know what to say when you're in Taiwan :P
[02:48:51] mrptptpt: okay, goodnight then :P dinner time for us
[02:48:59] mrptptpt: and apparently interview time later?
[02:50:54] AlenaBrolxFlami: hey, nice... best of luck then
[02:51:12] AlenaBrolxFlami: later?! well, I guess it works :P tell me how it went some other time

Taiwanese gambling rooms / George Washington

Corey, on poop stuff and gambling rooms in Taiwan:

[21:09:25] mrptptpt: yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
[21:10:09] AlenaBrolxFlami: we LOST the hockey game! stupid Brodeur :(
[21:10:36] mrptptpt: oh yeah, I'm always complaining about Bao-Dur
[21:10:39] AlenaBrolxFlami: and yes, I realize you care almost nothing about hockey, even if it's Olympic hockey... so... I have no rum
[21:11:16] AlenaBrolxFlami: luckily, there's an angel emoticon in the middle of that, so I don't know what you're trying to say :P
[21:11:56] mrptptpt: I'm home alone... well, as in Jane is at work, and I am at her house :P her parents are here... we just ate lunch, which was interesting since her mom kept trying to tell me things and I could pretty much just sit there and smile :P
[21:12:04] mrptptpt: Bao - Dur
[21:12:32] mrptptpt: a character from a game :P only name I could come up with that sounded close
[21:15:26] mrptptpt: so if it's lunchtime here, it's probably night there.... 11-12?
[21:19:17] AlenaBrolxFlami: ah, got it... it's 9:20 here
[21:21:40] mrptptpt: I've been keeping my eye open for poop-related souvenirs, but nothing so far
[21:24:15] AlenaBrolxFlami: hahaha, very funny
[21:27:22] mrptptpt: there was some sort of seafood at the market that looked kind of like poop. I don't think they'll let me take that through customs though, since it's the actual full animal I'm talking about :P not something packaged
{snip of irrelevant stuff}
[22:43:01] mrptptpt: I can't find any information about arcades here......... I thought I'd find all kinds of music games I wanted to play, but all they have here is drum games from what I've seen. yesterday, I found an old Beatmania machine (Beatmania 1, not IIDX... pretty old), but that's it...
[22:44:35] mrptptpt: I want to find Pop'n Music mainly... they have plenty of Japanese games here, and I thought I'd find that... I'd like to play that before I spend $80-100 making an arcade controller for it so I can play that at home (it's like Beatmania, but probably harder, despite being designed as a children's version of music games)
[22:45:01] AlenaBrolxFlami: OH, THAT GAME! You told me about it once or twice...
[22:45:25] AlenaBrolxFlami: as for Beatmania, I guess you don't need to play the really old game
[22:45:31] mrptptpt: I've been to 3-4 arcades now, but they're mostly games to win tickets.. the video game section is pretty crappy. these places look massive, but really don't have much in them
[22:47:00] mrptptpt: some of them have gambling rooms too, which I just read somewhere is illegal... not sure how that works since they're pretty damn open and obvious... there's no door to them from outside I guess, but it's like half the arcade in a separate room when you go in.. and they require ID at the door for that, so that much seems legit.. I don't know
[22:49:36] AlenaBrolxFlami: so I gather you haven't been inside a gambling room
[22:50:57] mrptptpt: sure I have. I didn't spend any money there, but I looked around
[22:51:11] mrptptpt: mostly slot machines and stuff where you're pretty much guaranteed to lose
[22:52:26] AlenaBrolxFlami: oh, okay... probably not your scene, then
[22:57:12] mrptptpt: there was a blackjack game I was tempted to try out, but we couldn't figure out how much you needed to put in to start it... she was going to go ask someone, but I don't need extra help to probably just lose money playing that, so that's okay :P just went somewhere else instead
[23:06:58] mrptptpt: I didn't have ID on me, but they didn't ask for it. apparently, I look over 18 now
[23:55:01] AlenaBrolxFlami: so what else have you discovered?
[00:01:40] mrptptpt: well, I found two places for dip bars and pullups :P they have all these little exercise stations around, but you can't really do any normal exercises on them, just whatever incredibly easy exercise you're supposed to do on them... most of those places have little playgrounds nearby where I can use the monkey bars or something to do stuff
[00:04:44] AlenaBrolxFlami: just don't injure yourself
[00:06:31] mrptptpt: why would I do that?
[00:09:52] AlenaBrolxFlami: I'm just remembering how you did that on your birthday last year or something :P


Trivia fact for Monday, Feb. 22: When it comes to U.S. currency, which state's quarter features George Washington on both sides? New Jersey's. Heads on the quarter, issued in 1999, is the same as all other state quarters, with Washington shown in profile. On the reverse side, the first president is shown crossing the Delaware River with members of the Colonial army.

True self, commitment, and more / Strippers on FRIENDS

I took a personality test on Facebook, taken from Adam and Kaitlin:

Who is your true self: You are mature, reasonable, honest, and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes, you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.
Your view on yourself: You are intelligent, honest, and sweet. You are friendly to everybody, and don't like conflict. Because you're so cheerful, fun people are naturally attracted to you, and like to talk to you.
The type of girlfriend / boyfriend you are looking for: You are a true romantic. When you are in love, you will do anything and everything to keep your love true.
Your readiness to commit to a relationship: You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person, and you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you meet that person.
The seriousness of your love: You are very serious about relationships, and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply, beautifully in love.
Your views on education: Education is very important in life. You want to study hard. Learn as much as you can.
The right job for you: You have plenty of dream jobs, but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something. Go for it to be happy. Achieve success.
How you view success: You are confident that you will be successful in your chosen career. Nothing will stop you from trying.
What are you most afraid of: You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel.


Trivia fact for Sunday, Feb. 21: Who guest-starred on the TV sitcom Friends, playing an ungainly male stripper in a policeman's uniform? Danny DeVito, in a 2004 episode titled "The One Where The Stripper Cries."

Thank goodness we had a SHORT meeting! / STUPID GLASSES AND MOM!

THIS THING JUST RESTARTED! I took a quiz on Alice in Wonderland characters from Darren L., and got this result: Mad Hatter? You're pretty insane, and only your friends have a hope of understanding what you say. Sometimes you do things that are wrong, but it sounded like a good idea in your head.... HAHAHAHAHA! NICE!

Eric called me at 9:15 - yay for good friends! Discussed recent events, what I'd do if I had any encounters with certain people today (ignore them!), the hockey game, how Steph's sink could have overflowed (neighbors and water?), and more on the way over. He still thinks I'm a tomato-chicken, so I was presumably a pseudo-cannibal last night - whatever! Of course, I thanked him for the ride - and he said I was welcome. At church, I saw that Harmony had been pressed into service as an emergency usher - that works! Eric and I sat in the same section as Mr. Creep - UGH UGH UGH. Still, at least we were a few rows up from him, AND were late enough to have totally missed handshaking time!

Told Melia what she had missed when she and Angus had left early yesterday - "OH NO!" is right! Later, I went into the fellowship hall to see if I could have a little coffee... talked to Mike, Chrystal, Ivan, and others. Saw Helen with Nicholas and Cory, who seemed to like Emily's Quatchi backpack - SO CUTE! Talked to Cindy and Megan - CHEERIOS and CONNOR! Went upstairs after a while to find Amanda, Esther, Conor, and birthday boy Harrison. I told them to share the Etch-A-Sketch with each other, and admired their drawings. Angels offering food to Jesus? Scary angels or scary Jesus? Popcorn and happy sunshine? Cool and funny! Auntie Ying gave me $20 back, promised $20 next week, and said that I shouldn't buy any more gifts for the kids since she was thinking of yearly subscriptions to FOCUS ON THE FAMILY. I'm unsure if they do kiddy stuff, heh - but at least the kids will enjoy their birthdays! (and I've already bought birthday cards plus gifts, and Christmas / Valentine's Day / Easter stuff - that should cover the entire year till next Christmas!)

I gave Harrison his crayons, cards, and stickers - he wasn't impressed that his mom wanted to take our picture and then enter it in the photo contest for the anniversary, haha. Amanda and Conor both left their drawings behind (I said hi to Rachel and Sean), but I'll return them on Saturday. Went downstairs and noticed Mr. Creep sitting at a table by himself (of course) - I decided to say hi to Grandma, and then sat by Joanna / Jonathan (Grade 9 already?) / Priscilla / Natalie outside. When I went outside, Mr. Creep greeted me - JUST GO AWAY!!!!

I said hi to Jeremy when he came outside (it was WARM!), and he sat with me - Randal, Jen, Kevin, Martin, Deb, and Dylan joined us soon afterwards. Told Jeremy that my sister had seen him yesterday, and then felt bad that she'd left him out of the housewarming! He'd heard about that, but he'd been busy with work anyway. Priscilla was saying that they'd sit on chairs next time, so I wondered if the concrete was too cold for her butt... nope, it was too DUSTY instead! Steph came outside later, and told Deb that the sink had vomited, heh. Kevin said we should NEVER dump grease down the sink because the pipes were only a certain circumference, and I added that it was why our mother had yogurt tubs to freeze the grease instead! (Steph wanted me to hug her, but there is NO WAY that I am rewarding her behavior!)

Before the meeting, I talked to Ian and Sean for a little bit - I'm sure Auntie Susan treats Sean like anyone else, heh. Asked Eric if he were going home afterwards: I didn't care if he were leaving by 3:30 regardless! He said I had to hug my sister - yeah, that isn't happening! I had no problems sitting near Randal, since he'd taken a seat by me at lunch - it was fine. As I was reading the annual report, I noticed the name of KRAFT YIP in there - WTF! Eric drew a blood elf on his report, and said that I ate up at least $2000 of the church food expenditures in 2009... SO NOT TRUE!

Since the meeting ended at 3, we'd be home in plenty of time to watch the Canada-USA game! Talked briefly to Martin, Sheena, Jen, Dianne, and Cindy before going home. Not having to tell my parents where I'm going is definitely stress-reducing! Eric and I discussed WORLD OF WARCRAFT, the warm weather, sunglasses / Fit-Overs, Dave not being at church on Friday or Sunday, the lich king, severing my soul from my body, and more. Canada ended up LOSING the game 5-3, and I wish Kesler would save his goals for the Canucks instead of Team USA! My glasses also decided to fall apart - SO MUCH HATE! At least all I have to do is take the Canada Line to the Olympic Village, then walk to Factory Direct. I bet it'll be CROWDED, but it'll only take half an hour!

You Are the Dragon

Like a dragon, you are fiery and short-tempered. When you need to get something off your chest, you really roar. You are a very unique creature, and you don't relate to anyone. You feel a little lonely in your life. If someone takes the time to get to know you, they realize you are brave, strong, and even sensitive. You are a much better creature than anyone ever gives you credit for. You could destroy the world if you wanted to... but you don't.

What's Your Chinese Zodiac Animal?

Blogthings: Cheaper Than a Therapist

OH YEAH, BABY! I AM A FIRE DRAGON IN REALITY! :D

Overflowing water will make your housewarming memorable!

Henry picked me up a little later than I thought, but he was complaining about the Olympic traffic, so it was okay. Complained about the giant Lenin head, as well - I thought Richmond was known for its Asian population, not its Russian folks! ("TAXPAYERS' MONEY WAS SPENT ON THIS?!") Awana was all right - talked to Chrystal about recent events (my mom sounds like her dad with the "I never want to see you again!" stuff), Melia (she was going to Steph's later because of a family dinner with Mike's parents), Golden (whose birthday was today!), Joshua, and more people. (gave Esther her Valentine's Day candy, but didn't see Harrison) The kids seemed to like the "Olympics" games - very modified versions of speedskating, luge, and skeleton? The "luge" made Benedict joke that the leaders demonstrating the game shouldn't crash into any metal beams or anything like that, heh.

After Awana, I said hi to Sean and Conor (YAY, HAPPY KID!), who wanted to know why the other Sean (Sean L.) was crying. He did look upset, but I didn't know why, either. Asked Ada, who said that he was upset because his color team didn't get any Awana dollars - poor kid! I asked Melia to call Steph so she could give Ada some directions, since my sense of direction is SCREWED UP! On the way to Steph's, Ian said that Sean wasn't buckled in - Sean needs to tell his mom these things, and preferably not ten minutes after we leave the parkade! Said bye as they dropped me off - the gate isn't the door, Steph said. (I know, but the gate is bigger)

Luckily, it didn't seem awkward between my sister and me as we were the only two in there till a bunch of people showed up at once. She mentioned seeing Jeremy bike by as she picked up the sushi - now she feels bad that she left out White Guy #2! Guacamole chips were fine, and Steph gave me my lunch ticket for tomorrow. Talked to Eric, Jon, Steph's friend Mel, Citrus, Jen, Melia, Angus, Harmony, Karen, Lincoln, Randal, Isabel, Vivian, and Christon about a bunch of stuff. Harmony wondered why I had stuffed a bunch of cards inside one of Jon's books (of prayers) - they're for my parents and grandma for later in the year, and I don't feel like dealing with it right now. No, of course I haven't talked to Mom since Monday night - for good reasons!

Watched speedskating, Germany-Belarus hockey, and curling along with other Olympic events while eating chocolate cheesecake ice cream (BREYER'S - Randal's apparently never had it before), sushi, chicken drumsticks, Deep and Delicious chocolate cake, vegetables, and other things. Discussed the BUSY downtown core (Henry's heard it'll be like that NORMALLY in a few years!), Olympics events and merchandise, the various houses, the AGM tomorrow and the fundraiser (hockey game conflict!), signing in and leaving, voting, DO IT YOURSELF home repair, Lent, Jon Lenting alcohol (and whether his feast day should start / end at midnight or when he gets up and goes to bed), Mom's "interesting" pronunciation of "Slovakia" ("Souvlaki? I cannot..."), Our Lady Peace ("it sounds peaceful, so get your mom to go!"), Saskatchewan GOLD beer, and more. Got everyone to sign the guestbook, too.

Vivian had brought Dutch Blitz, so some people played that. After a while, Steph went into the kitchen to deal with her garbage disposal in the sink. (AFTER she reads "don't dump a bunch of garbage in there" in a repair book!) She figured that she COULD use the plunger to deal with it, since that hadn't been used yet for the intended purpose. So we thought it would be fine - then we heard a noise like someone was taking a shower, but dismissed that. After ten minutes or so, Steph went into the kitchen to check something... we heard "OH MY GOD! W T F!" from there.

We all crowded around the kitchen entrance to find that the sink had OVERFLOWED! Christon did something with the pipes to ensure that the water was turned OFF, while we wondered if Steph had a mop - nope! Someone did some quick thinking, and placed a towel at the entrance to soak up the greasy water. Filled up the pots with water, and then dumped it on the outside plants. We even used Steph's barracks box for such a purpose, after the recycling was all soaked! Steph said that I should go home with Eric since she had to deal with the kitchen - no problem, since I wasn't fully decided on sleeping over anyway. It was a mostly silent ride home, which was fine - thinking time for us, haha. Eric said that my mom didn't seem that dangerous - well, you're not me! I can deal with 9:15 or so in the parking lot, for sure! On that note, I should go to bed since it's almost 2:15! Yay for good friends!