I miss my old friend Juliane. It's not that I don't enjoy going to the Royal Winter Fair with Rick, it's just different. With Juli, we could get so ... female. God ! What shit we could get into. Getting rides on the golf carts because we were dressed nicely for the evening show, or making eyes at various wealthy boys with horses. I miss Juli. Period. I think, perhaps, I'll call her tomorrow after I get back home.

Anyway, the Royal was good fun. Rick and I had a tiff of sorts at the Greenhawk tack booth, but it was just me being overly sensitive, I guess, and I said, but he thought I called him insensitive, which he is definitely not. If there were ever a man sensitive to my feelings, it's Rick. Anyway, I don't know why I was so on edge, but it passed. I bought Kerri a present (hopefully she'll like it) and then Rick bought me a little goat. Not a real one, sadly, but a little toy one that had lovely detail on it. It's from a German company, but made in China, and then sold in Canada. See? Globalisation isn't just about multi-national corporations anymore.

We ate in the farm produce area, of course, eating, between us, lamb on a bun, chicken breast on a bun, cabbage rolls, and a baked potato. Of course, as tradition dictates, I had to have beer nuts, too. Beer nuts ! Yum ! I got my fill of petting horses, mostly the big-bear draught horses: belgians, clydesdales, percherons, etc. Even enormous beasts like the 18 hand percheron I visited like a good love-spot tickle. It's almost embarrassing the way they melt. We visited the goats too. Last year we attended the fair early in the week and there were sheep, but the goats come in for the second half of the event and so, today, being the second-last day, there were goats galore. I love goats ! Even Rick gave in and tickled a goat.

Finally, as the evening was wearing down, we sat by the warm-up ring (is it the hitching ring? It's the one inside the horse palace) and watched the people warming up and practicing. It's nice to see the grand prix jumpers riding along beside the junior dressage girls and the welsh ponies running amok all over the place. I took what I hope turn out to be good photographs of some show jumpers putting their animals over fences before their competition. None of the people in my photos are Canadian, Ian Millar and Jill Henselwood had already left the ring. I managed to catch a Columbian rider on a big, white mare, an American woman on a gorgeous bay gelding, and some other fellow whose flag I missed, also on a nice bay. Anyway, the Columbian's horse was being lazy and kept taking rails, and the rider looked to nervous to be able to rationalise his way out of the pattern. I wish I'd seen them ride their actual courses. Next year I will.

Anyway, tomorrow (today?), Rick and I are off to the 'Journey to Middle Earth' exhibit at Casa Loma, so that should be nice, if likely crowded. We'll also be getting up at a *reasonable* hour in order to attend a Remembrance Day ceremony going on at UofT. Part of me is feeling lazy and thinking about just listening to it on the radio, but I don't think so. This year, more importantly than in the last couple of years, I think we as a society must pay our respects and remember what ills drive nations to war. We must remember the past, so as not to ignore the present.

I have a headache and it's making me feel bleh, but what can you do? Class today has been about lighting and texturing. I rather like playing with lights. They seem to come easily to me, though I tend to use ambient lighting in most of my artwork, maybe with a point or spotlight faintly to one side. I remember my mom talking about when she was in film school and how lighting projects used to excite her... I understand why. It's what makes everything come alive ! Daniele came to help me with something, the fuzziness of my shadows, I think, and he sort of looked at me in this strange way, almost surprised, and said, "You have a very good sense for lights. It's very good." Maybe there's a future in it for me.

At lunch, a bunch of us went to the mall (Sherway Mall?) and it sort of sucked, but we didn't want the usual lunch fare. Brian and I went for the Edo Japan stall in the food court and Nelson, Daniele and Kishor hit the Manchu Wok. It was a nice break from the other stuff we eat, and pretty affordable. I'd better buy some bread, though, because I'd like to start bringing my lunch to school again. On the way out, we were distracted by the Music World store. I wandered over to see if it had the latest Depeche Mode single (hah, it had no more than two albums in total - yeesh), and finding disappointment, I moved over to the oft ignored Classical section. *minirant* Andrea Boccelli (sp?) is not classical music, the term for him is sentimental crap. *end minirant* Anyway, they had some ridiculously cheap no-name CDs for sale and for 5.99$ how could I resist? I picked up some Mahler, Dvorak, and some organ music. Subtract the redeemed Music World card and, all told, I spent 10 bucks and change, including tax. Sweet deal.

Good morning ! I thought I'd take this opportunity, as I am in less than a conversational mood (it's early for me still), to offer a link to a dandy download. Oh yes. MmMMmm hmmm. It's the trailer from the Ep. I: The Phantom Menace DVD that you're not supposed to be able to access yet. Well, here it is. YUM. I don't recommend you go if you're terrified of spoilers.

http://drkhwk.net/ep2/attack_of_the_clones_-_mystery.mpg

(No, I don't know how to give it tags to turn it into an active link. I'm dumb that way.)

Enjoy it.

Curry. The stuff that dreams are made of. And my dinner ! I just came back from Red Rose with Rick and Techknight. I had been trying to get a hold of TK all day to see if he wanted to go for curry when I was done work, but he'd left his phone at home and so I called Rick and left a message for him. His plans had fallen through so we opted to do curry together, kind of date-like. When I got on the street car to head up to the restaurant to meet Rick, a lovely baritone voice greeted me and I looked down to see TK sitting in one of the single seats. I invited him to join Rick and I and of course he said yes. No date, but twice the good company.

It was GRAND. I must remember to take my mom there next time we do dinner in the city. They do a perfect curry and they can adjust the spice level to taste. Thanks to my heartburn, I opted out of the super spicy curry tonight, but I lived vicariously through TK as he perspired and turned beet red. I tasted his too, and boy was it awesome. Rick had the chicken vindaloo, which I've never had there, and I tasted it as well. Delicious. I, naturally, had the lamb curry and it was divine.

One day when I'm hideously rich, I'm going to round up a whole lot of strangers that look unhappy and I'm going to take them to Red Rose so that the curry can make them warm and fuzzy. It's impossible to leave that place in a bad frame of mind.

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow, too. Even more excited than I was for the curry. I'm going to leave school a bit early so that I can get home and meet Rick. We're going to pick up our Journey To Middle Earth tickets and then head over to the Exhibition grounds for the Royal Winter Fair. I can survive not having seats for the horse shows just because I'll be spending two hours surrounded by horses and eating beer nuts. Hopefully this year we won't see the 4H kids showing their sheep. You have not heard an unhappy sound until you've heard fifteen sheep together in a ring doing things they don't want to do. Anyway, it's going to be good wholesome (in a farmy sort of way) fun and I can barely wait !

It happened while I was at work. What happened? Oh, just a little something I like to call an eviction notice.

Glen phoned me at work to give me the wonderful news. Joy. Despite me having expected it, certainly for a month, it hit me like a ton of bricks. A heavy ton of bricks. Maybe something more like two tons. Are metric tonnes heavier? Whichever one is heavier is the one that hit me. Is there good news in all of this? I suppose, if anything, it's that we were given more than 60 days. We have to be out by January 31, 2002. Well, I'm sure I'll think of something before then.

I phoned Nick and he collected me at Heretic in order to distract me. At my house, I heated up some barbequed chicken and made a salad into which I chopped an apple. It wasn't exactly gourmet, but it did the job. He stayed and watched 'West Wing' with me, and he liked it (what's not to like, it's awesome), and we sort of watched 'Law and Order' too. He remarked something along the lines of, "Are shows better now, or have I just been watching crap?" Heh, no Nick, they're not better, but at my house, I try to make my viewing time worthwhile.

While I was making dinner for Nick and I, Glen dropped in (he really is like the sitcom wacky neighbour) to ask me about what I wanted to do about future living arrangements. I explained that ultimately, I'd rather find my own place, but that I was open to the roommate option. I also told him that I didn't want to talk about it right then because we had a little time before it required attention. So much for me taking time after school ends to take a holiday. I'll be figuring out where my stuff goes. I need to talk to my mom about the whole thing. That's what Moms are for. I miss her sometimes. A lot.

Well, I've come up with a final project/portfolio piece for my class. I've got a little under two months to complete it and it isn't going to be easy at all. I've already done a very rough storyboard for it, but I'm going to redo it at home in a much more careful sort of way. Maybe I'll even try redoing it in Photoshop. Hey, that would be neat.

Anyway, it's a project that will handily combine my art history (and to a lesser extent, archaeology) background with my art/3D skills. It will require careful attention to lighting/shading needs and no doubt will nearly kill me on the modeling front. I'm going to have to study the way people move very carefully, and I might even borrow someone's camera (my own?) and do a few rolls of film in sequence to see exactly how a person moves. When it's all done, the whole thing can become a portfolio... the entire process. From the original images that spawned the idea to the photos that will act as reference, to the storyboard(s), and finally a finished piece that hopefully won't suck. It will make me concentrate on every aspect of computer animation from the model to the animation itself.

I'm being positive today, persuading myself that I can, indeed, do this project. I have the time, and hopefully I have the drive as well. Luck !

Uhg, it's been three days since I last updated this thing. Bad Maya. *flogs self* Sorry, sorry. I suppose it's testamony of my busy weekend, right? Sure. I'm not sure where to start, though. I'll just glance over how things have progressed. Prepare yourself for a loooooong entry.

On Friday, there was much good fun had at Monsters Inc. ! Nick arrived at my work before everyone else, by a good hour and a half. He was fun and frolicksome as usual, AND he gave me a desperately needed back rub. He was impressed by my shoulders of steel. He can have them if he wants them, tension and all. Rick arrived shortly after I closed the store, as did Tracy and her friend (who has NO direction sense whatsoever), Tammy. We packed Tammy off to the Danforth to have dinner with her friends and the rest of us moseyed over to Java for cheap and tasty dins, which were both cheap and tasty. Suprise !

We went to the Uptown (YAY !) and it's been so long since I've seen a movie there that I have to wax on about how great a theatre it is. Sure, it's not some space-age surround-sound digital-chairs and virtual-fun mecca of entertainment, but it's a massive theatre with a huge screen, great sound system, AND a stage (in case any one wanted to try a kickline). Also, it's got great old Art Deco mouldings on the ceiling and exquisite use of neon lighting. Who could ask for more? They just don't make theatres the way they used to, you know? The worst is, yet again, there's a movement to close it (and the wonderful Eglinton Theatre) down because it isn't wheelchair accessable. Now, I realise people are going to be horrified at what I'm about to say, but you know, just about every damn theatre in the city is wheelchair accessable, and around both the Uptown and Eglinton there are other theatres that have all sorts of wonderful ammenities. The renovations both locales would require would do a lot to damage the integrity of two beautiful historic moviehouses. With all the choice out there for movie watching, why worry about these two places? Leave them alone. Lobby other things, like restaurants and office buildings where there aren't tons of alternative locations. Lobby the city for wheelchair ramps on every curb, etc., but these two theatres out of dozens don't count for all that much. It would be a shame to close them. *steps down off of her soapbox*

At the Uptown, we met up with Paul (Tracy's long-time boyfriend), Al and Carrie, and a couple of Tammy's friends (and Tammy, too). Monsters Inc ROCKED. It was... wow ! The lighting and the... funny... and the... love ! It was so wonderful, and magical even. Oh yes, please go see it if you ever wanted to feel divine. Gah, I can't express how lovely it was. And, as a bonus, it had a teaser for Episode II *swoon* and a short film by Pixar called 'For the birds' if I'm not mistaken. Yay for Pixar. Nick said, "I want to work for Pixar." I replied, "Me too." He grinned and said, "Ya, but I -will- work for them." I hit Nick.

**As an aside, there is the most phenomenal sunset right now, glowing its pink and orange way in through the ROM windows. Spectacular.**

Saturday, there was a field trip to see the very same movie at school, so I ducked out, having just seen it the night before, to go see the new Jet Li flick, The One, with Rick. It was mildly entertaining, but you know what? Watching Jet Li fight Jet Li isn't as cool as it sounds. As the viewer, you know it's all fake and it really kills any tension you might have felt. It was really short, too. Bleh. I was in a bad headspace that evening, and even going for sushi with Rick after the movie didn't help that much. I got home and cancelled on Nick, who was going to come over and tutor me. Tracy cancelled on me, since we were going to do our very late birthday gift swap, and so, Rick spent the night, not that having him spend the night is a bad thing. He's a good egg.

Sunday, Tracy came over at quarter past ten in the morning bearing a coffee and muffin as appology for the night before, and we did gift swapping and had a bit of a visit before I had to get ready for work and she had to get home. She got me a huge, heavy pewter goblet straight out of Lord of the Rings. It's even got runes inscised into it. It's gorgeous. We both gave magical presents to each other. It was nice.

Heretic was dead slow, that day, though, leaving me to brood on my depression. It gets dark so early these days. I hate it. I can hardly wait for snow. Anyway, Nick came to the store with sandwiches to help cheer me up, but he could not partake because he had to leave for the Stereolab show. It was okay, though, because this fellow named Wayne had dropped in and I gave half of a sandwich to him. Nick makes gooooood sandwiches, even if they make breath all stinky-like. *grin* It's not as though I had customers to talk to, yeesh. After that, I walked home and headed to the computer lab to do school stuff. Fabian gave me some help with modeling. I'm going to have to cut down my ROM hours substantially, I can see, just because my free time at home in the evenings is going to be spent doing school stuff at school. I was so tired last night that I could only stay for about an hour.

Today, Deanna and I were going to go to the Royal Winter Fair, but she was poopy and didn't wake up to phone me. I woke up at a quarter to noon and phoned my supervisor at the ROM and asked if I could come in today, afterall, instead of skipping class tomorrow to work. She agreed, and naturally, as soon as I got off the phone with her, Dee called. So, I came to work regardless and Dee met me here for lunch. It was a fly-by visit spent in a cheap Chinese restaurant across Bloor St from the ROM. It was nice to see her, though, I suppose. She gave me an excellent key chain that says: "I don't need to point out my best qualities... they stick out on their own". I gave her the soundtrack I made earlier in the year to all the RP stuff we did on RoD. I forgot to take photos of us, though. Duh. Oh well. Another time, perhaps.

Now I really should get back to the excitement that is data entry here at the museum. Oh yes. The sun has now set so that not even the underside of the observation decks on the CN Tower remains illuminated. When I leave, it will be completely dark. But I'm going for a drink with Stacey so that she can show me her photos from her Asia trip. That will be excellent. I don't plan to do any work tonight at home, with the exception of scanning some referrence images for my school project. Just me, the computer, the Sopranos, and sleep, nice and early. Joy.