I think I forgot to mention that Nick bought a Playstation 2 at a substantial reduction. Tonight, I played ICO for the first time and it's amazing. I want to produce games as fresh and captivating as this. It's unbelievable in its detail and depth. The story comes clear slowly, though the game moves quickly, and the characters become utterly compelling. Beautiful.

I dropped by Al & Carrie's earlier, too, because on Sunday night I'm going to swing by and get all, or at least most of the remainder of my junk from their place. I walked in the door and Pepper, the matching cat (with tiny stripes) to Willi, looked up, so I called her. Her response was a huge meow and she leapt down to greet me. That was sweet. I think she missed me. Heck, Al nearly did the same with his need to feed me - I guess they miss having me around. I kind of miss being around, too, but I'm really starting to like my place now, too. It's feeling a bit better, more like home.

I'm very pleased with how the living room is shaping up - a little more art on the walls and it will be almost perfect. I'll have to get up in the morning to make my windows just right, especially since Mom is coming for a visit. At least the house is pretty clean. The bathroom could use another scrub, but I'll get on that at another time. Mom's bringing me potting soil. I'm glad of that, because I really enjoyed planting flowers at Manning Ave. Flowers help make a house into a home, in my opinion. Mom always has wonderful gardens, no matter where we live.

There's an internship with MNR that I'm going to apply for. Sure, were I to get it, the money would be good, I could pay off my debts, and have a stable income, but it would mean moving back to Peterborough, at least for the duration of the job, which would be about eight months. I don't know what I would do with my place here at the house with Nick. It's not a job I'm terribly enthusiastic about, though it would definitely be interesting. It would be just long enough for many of my computer skills to become even less relevant, though the income would allow me the improved video card for Natasha and a drawing palette, among other things, but... Well, I'm going to apply, and I'll worry all about that stuff when the time comes, if I get hired.

First of all, let me provide you with LARGE SPOILER WARNINGS !

Yes, I'm about to talk about Star Wars, Episode II, Attack of the Clones.... You have been warned.

I made fun of Ep. One when it came out and still I went to see it five times... I -must- see Ep. Two again ! Soon ! It was cool. No, it was pretty damn good, with a steady momentum (though too many men with under-developed senses of maturity would say the first hour is slow, stupid, or weird) up to one Hell of a finish. All of a sudden, you're sitting in the theatre and you realise that everyone has started shifting in their seats. Why? Because suddenly, they're getting excited. Really excited... and tense.

Yes, the love story is so played up it's almost cheesy, yes, the lines are sometimes... unlikely, and yes, someone should take the writing pen out of George Lucas' hand - but that wasn't so bad, because he had a co-writer that obviously pointed Mr. Lucas to a screenplay 101 book for at least a couple of important scenes. It was amazing how many men giggled through the love scenes, which were ripe with emotional tension, and how none of the women did. No, this flick actually appealed to its female audience. Anakin was believable as a 19 year old man with no experience in love, suffering the un-controled emotional swings of a teenager trying to figure out his place. I had an old friend in highschool named Max... Anakin IS Max, seven years ago.

The acting was a whole lot looser than it was in the last film and there were no immediately noticeable bloopers, at least not on a first viewing. It's funny, and it's dark, though arguably not as dark as it might have been. I still found it pretty dark. The slaughter of innocents is ALWAYS dark, you just can't get around that. The effects are so stunning, you don't find yourself saying, "Wow, that was an awesome effect," you just find it all... believable. Sure, there were the requisite Star Wars chase/race scenes, and ya, we've seen them before, but boy did it look good. The same with the make-up and costumes - perfect (with the exception of the nipple shirt, which was actually a pretty neat shirt, except I'd like it in a fabric a little more, um, substantial). Palpatine looks older than he did in the last one, a good deal older, Obi-Wan definitely passed for a man in his late 30s, and Padme had the poise (rather than stiffness) of a woman in her mid-to-late 20s.

Okay, so, let's take a minute to talk about the action. Holy wow. Ya, I missed Darth Maul, we all knew I would, but... well, this was damn cool and no one got cheesily cut in half. And Yoda kicks some serious Sith ass. My God, he moves fast - it was awesome ! Big guns, big light sabres, big fun ! Oh, and Jar-Jar really does only have a small part, fear not. And really, everything can be blamed on him. *joy*

Am I going to see it again? Probably VERY soon. I'll probably write more in depth about it when I do, as well, because, well, that's something I do.

As for the social activity of yesterday, it was good fun. It seems that Tanya, Carrie, and myself all have major blonde days, as did the wait staff in Java, with spilling, general not-too-swiftness, and slowness. But it was nice and fun to see people. I've missed seeing Tanya, she's an excellent conversationalist and a good friend. Hopefully, Carrie and I will converge upon her in London later in June. That is the plan.

Now, I have to put on socks, wander over and get my car, gas it up, and go uptown to get the keys to A&C's appartment so I can do some cleaning out on Sunday night while they're back in the Petes.

Ack, I've said the hateful word 'blog' twice in five minutes !

Okay, so Star Wars.... Ah ! Er !! Waaaa ! Must see Ep. III NOW ! Urk ! Gah ! Breathing... *faint*

... er... more on it tomorrow.

Yesterday sucked. Not because it was a crappy day, because it was gorgeous out, or because it was slow in the store, because it wasn't, but because my mood is still in the tubes. I won't go into the details, because I've told myself that there are other things to concentrate on in the meantime (like Star Wars, which opened today !).

A very interesting man, named Gordon, came into Heretic yesterday. He'd been in Japan for the last ten years acting as an English teacher. He had wonderful stories, and interesting ideas on how to go about getting jobs, and which jobs were the best to get. For instance, the Nova school, or whatever, will hire any old schmuck, like me, with no experience at all, so long as the applicant speaks English. He told me it was better to get a certification in teaching ESL in order to get one of the more serious teaching jobs there. Pretty neat. He also said that Tokyo is a souless void and to keep away at all costs. It's perhaps not surprising since they flattened Edo, the original city on the spot, in order to build up. He was most happy working in the places that I'm most interesting in visiting, Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka. Anyway, should I be interested in teaching English in Japan, he gave me a couple websites with information and jobs.

I tried to score a ticket for Eric M. to join us at Star Wars tonight, but when I ran to the Paramount on my break, the tickets for the 10:30pm showing had sold out on Tuesday. Too bad, and a bit of a disappointment for Eric, but now that we're back in touch, we'll hopefully stay that way. He's such a good guy. I've missed his presence in my life. Anyway, it turns out, however; that Derek has a ticket for the same show as us, and so he'll be joining us, and that's a good thing, because he's a fun guy. Which is better than being a fungi, as I originally typed. I have to finish tidying up the living room this morning, in order to prepare if for Tanya's visit. I'm quite excited. She'll be joining us for Star Wars tonight. Presently, my biggest concern is which fan fiction shirt to wear. Despite my abhorance to tie-dye, I might have to wear the 'Obi-Wan Night Stand concert tour' shirt, simply for the humour value. Well, it's not my biggest concern, but at this moment, it's one of them.

Hey, last night, I ran into one of my old friends from highschool: Greg Legros ! I haven't seen him since, um, highschool, so something like six years. I was walking along Queen St W, staring into the windows longingly, heading for the Silver Snail too see their window display, when I happened to glance across the street. I saw a figure, walking in the direction I'd come from, who looked an awful lot like Greg. I immediately did an about face and startled some fellow strolling along behind me. Matching this Greg-like figure's stride, I carried on along the south side of the street, staring. My thought process went something like this: That guy looks like Greg. Could it -be- Greg? Is he even in the city? Hm, probably he is, and that guy looks like him. He walks like him. That even looks like Greg's old jacket, but would he still be wearing the old coat? Well, I'm still wearing -my- old leather - It must be him ! At this point, I darted out between parked cars and crossed the street. About ten paces behind him, I called out his name in that I-hope-it-is-you-because-otherwise-I'm-about-to-look-foolish way and lo ! He turned around !

So, I walked with Greg for about 40 minutes, talking about where our lives are at (not surprisingly, him being an actor, me an artist, they're about in the same hole) and doing some catching up. He was stunned to see me, and recognised me immediately. With a resounding and simoultaneous, "HOOOOO-leeee Sheeeet" we hugged each other like we hadn't seen each other, well, since high school. He looks good, and remarkably similar to how he used to, only a little older. He's as funny as ever, only with even a better sence of timing thanks to theatre school. For some reason, every homeless guy on the street thought we were money machines, to the point where it became silly. Anyway, he's apparently in a movie, destined, at least, for Showcase, and invited me to the screening, whenever that is, but I have no lofty ideas about continued contact, though I did give him my phone number. Do we really, ever call the people we run into on the streets? Not usually.

Anyway, I must do something artistic with the empty boxes in the living room and make other things... presentable. Tanya will be arriving around 2pm. I haven't seen her since Christmas, so this will be nice.

I'm incredibly depressed. Beyond all reason.

Today, I am having one of the singularly most boring days at the ROM in ages. The E.O. has me re-entering addresses into the database, which had originally been entered incorrectly. He told me that often they were mistakes by me, so I gather this is some sort of punishment. They're stupid mistakes - typically dyslexic. However, I've been tracking, and considering I probably enter more new members into the system than anyone else, my errors aren't so much higher in number than a few of the full-timers. Still, yet again, I feel stupid.

So, let me change the topic and write about my wonderful weekend.

I drove out to the Petes on Thursday night after Heretic. I wrote a long note for Nick about how to care for cat and plants while I was away. The following morning, after much finishing up of laundry, I took Bernadette (Mom's car), which has the joy of a tape deck, and headed out. Mom kept Scarlette and took her in for a much needed tune-up. The drive was uneventful, but pleasant, though the wind was fierce. I stopped at Silver Lake, as usual, but rather than the nice picnic I'm used to, I had to sit in the car while it was rocked by the gale force winds. I kid you not when I say there were metre-high waves on the lake.

Arriving in Calumet around dinner time, Jean made me a dinner - she just whipped it up, boom, like that. I talked with her and Mike and got new gossip, and argued about the merits of the Ottawa Senators versus the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then I headed up the Avoca Rd and landed at Kristina's. Derek wasn't back from work yet, so it gave Kris and I lots of time to bond, and time for me to meet Emma - the gurgliest baby ever.

Saturday, I slept rather later than I'd intended, missing out on a social call by Kristina's mom. Derek and I went up to the cottage, which was still boarded up for the winter, in order to check the damage. The deck is in rough shape, half rotten in several places, and the panels beneath the house have given glorious habitat for porcupines. It will be a costly affair to fix, but necessary. The beaver certainly have made a mess of the wood lot, too. We went back down to Jean's where Kris met us and we all talked about repairs and whatnot. Mike and Derek went up to cut the dead top off the oak that grows from the deck, and Jean persuaded us to stay for dinner. No surprise there.

Saturday evening was quiet, with Derek studying, Kris studying Emma, and me reading 'Akira'. Kris fell asleep on the couch with the dog, and Derek found my conversation an excellent diversion from helicopter maintanance. He's a good guy, with good values and high moral standards. Kris could certainly have done a lot worse. I like him a lot.

Sunday, I woke up a good deal earlier than the previous day, and Derek was busy making a Mothers' Day omlette for us - as thick as a quiche and just as delicious ! After lunch, Kris and I went down to the house Anna (her sister) is building. Their mother was there (much hugging and kissing) as well as Anna's two daughters. It was bloody cold, and when the freezing wind wasn't blowing, the black flies were trying to devour our faces. We helped put up the final wall (yay, I can say I helped build Anna's house !), and held it in place while the boys banged it into place. All too soon, though, the bugs and cold were getting to us, so we went back to Kris' for hot chocolate. Yum !

A few minutes later, Kristina offered to let me hold Emma - something I NEVER do. People that know me, know I do. Not. Do. Babies. Well, I made a happy exception this time, and Emma squiggled in my arms for a while and it was wonderful. Sadly, I had to relinquish her in order to hit the road. One more stop at Jean's to say goodbye, then to the Marche du Pont for some alcohol and tasties of the region, some poutine at Jos', and back home to the Petes.

About a forty minutes southwest of Ottawa, I found some die-hard Leafs fans at the side of the highway, dressed in their blue and whites, waving flags and heckling the Ottawa Valley drivers heading toward the Corel Centre. I honked enthusiastically at them, which made them whoop merrily. :)

I spent the day, yesterday, doing some more laundry, mostly to rid my clothes of the masses of pet hair I'd gathered on my trip. I talked about jobs with Mom, and how it's so disheartening to have spent so much money in order to be educated, so as to remain unemployed. It's depressing. And now, back in Toronto, I'm still doing this stupid address correction stuff, and I realise just how much dyslexia can screw a person up. I feel like saying, "I'm not this stupid, really," only no one in here would listen, anyway.

Star Wars soon, though, and that will be much fun. At least it can't possibly suck as much as Ep. I did, right? Too bad the whole gang isn't going to be there, but whatever. I'm still plenty excited.