Dane Cook is one lucky freakin' bastard.  lol.

Show them that this behaviour is intolerable!

(a)
Ignoring the best advice of the most prominent scientists about climate
change and pollution, what we can do about it, and what we should be
doing about it.

(d)
In flooding the Canadian public on Television, Radio, and all media
with their DISTASTEFUL AMERICAN-STYLE ATTACK ADS ENCOURAGING IGNORANCE,
even before announcing the election,
they WASTE THE HARD-EARNED AND HARD-PAYED TAX DOLLARS OF ALL CANADIANS,
ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT EXPRESSLY DISAGREE WITH THE CONSERVATIVES'
PERSPECTIVE.  The Liberals never so blatantly wasted our money for
propaganda when in power; most of their ads were civil and rather
focused on ENCOURAGING people to consider issues they supported or
causes they motivated rather than to ignore and laugh at what they do
not understand.

(e) BREAKING THEIR OWN ELECTION PROMISES by
calling an early election when THEIR ORIGINAL ELECTION PLATFORM MADE SO
MUCH OF SETTING THE INTERVALS AT WHICH ELECTIONS WOULD OCCUR.  This,
after their platform ALSO MADE SO MUCH OF HOLDING THE PREVIOUS
GOVERNMENT TO THEIR ELECTION PROMISES.  It seems that the Conservatives' strength in their convictions extends only so far as the end of your election ballot.

(f) Last but not least, using MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE POPULIST TACTICS TO VILIFY THE OTHER PARTIES THROUGH OUTRIGHT LIES REPEATED AD NAUSEUM in
television, radio, and print ads, and in interviews.  It seems I am not
the only person to have caught on to this as I recently came across an
entire article on this exact issue by Canadian Press contributor Bill
Cheadle, and backed by comments from representatives of all opposition
parties:   http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/Election_08/....

Good friends are those who will take you out to dinner when they can tell that you are feeling down, and thereupon turn your day around.

Just watched The Other Boleyn Girl, which I rented from iTunes.  Here are my thoughts:

In fact, the film seems to be very ambivalent upon how it portrays her - the dialogue and plot clearly intend on vilifying her as much as possible.  She is presented as utterly one-dimensional:  manipulative, conniving, ambitious, deceitful, and the charges of incest which led to her execution are presented to be somewhat founded (even while most historians agree it was a totally trumped-up charge).  In fact, her character is given very little in the way of redeeming character traits, if any.  However, in an odd turnabout, the filmmakers still try to put a sympathetic spin on her character by acknowledging at the very end that it was her child who would become the future Queen Elizabeth I of England. 

Next, I found the acting by most of the primary cast to be flat and uninspired: despite how her character is written, Natalie Portman does not portray Anne as the confident and manipulating character that the dialogue she speaks clearly intends her to be.  Eric Bana seems to only have one mode throughout the entire film and that is angry and mad, with brief flashes of bewilderment in scenes he shares with Scarlet Johansson.  He also bears very little similarity to the paintings we have come to know of Henry VIII; you'd think he could have at least lost a few muscles and gained a few pounds for the part.  I don't know if it was me, but I couldn't see Jim Sturgess (who plays the brother, George Boleyn) as anybody other than his character Jude from Across the Universe - which is somewhat ironic considering that Across the Universe was a film of Beatles music and his character's name is George. Of the main cast, Scarlet Johansson seems to give the only adequate performance, playing her character as both sympathetic, trapped by events, but yet still having a quiet dignity throughout the film.  In fact, I was far more impressed by the supporting cast playing the Boleyn parents and Catherine of Aragon than most of the leads.

The dialogue, I will simply say that it was forced and artificial.  The entire 'heated' exchange between Henry and Anne after Catherine is banished and leading up to Anne's rape by Henry reads as a feeble way of listing historical events that are supposed to have happened (but are not actually shown) between Catherine's marriage annulment and Anne's coronation.

The final glaring fault in the film is that if you look under the surface, it really has a low-budget feel to it.  While the costumes and the locations chosen are lush and extravagant, many cinematic choices seem jarring.  Most obvious is the one aerial shot of Henry's castle (presumably Whitehall or Hampton Court?) complete with fake-looking clouds surrounded by a protesting mob, which screams "I was done in CGI".  You will also notice the almost omnipresent sound effect drone of screaming people throughout the latter third of the film (a cheap way of making it seem like there are protesting citizens beyond the castle walls), but it seems they could not afford to pay more than twenty extras or so to film an actual mob in any particular scene.  I was left with the feeling that they could have done so much more to give the viewer a feel of the era, perhaps a more romantic sensibility of medieval England through a little bit more scenery-chewing so well done in other historical films.  Even the film's musical score was at best uninspired; one quickly tires of the ominous and plotting themes - if they may be called such - that populate the entire film like the grey fog of the British Isles.

Two Lightning Bolts out of Five.

In the beginning of August:  Stressful things included, among other things:
-Getting over losing Kiwi
-Jane asked me to take her Tuesday August 12th GS shift in return for taking my Friday August 15th. 

-Thursday August 14th, the super-stressful Teva (shoe company sponsoring the Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk IMAX
flick and its associated ecological drive here on the Fraser) event I
had to RF from about 3-midnight or so, still being sick, and having my
CS staff scheduled to leave an hour *before* the event was actually
supposed to end - and on top of that having unexpectedly to tech audio
in the Boardroom - which is not built for audio teching! - for a
soundboard and speakers that would not work and malfunctioned wildly and not having enough staff to handle things outside and up at Omni for the subsequent Grand Canyon screening while I was occupied teching.  On top of that, because Christine scheduled my CS staff to go home early, I ended up having to clean everything (tables on 1st Circs, boardroom setup, etc) all myself while still being slightly sick.  Luckily I got a good night's sleep that night and I was in pretty decent shape for the fun day I had Friday August 15th...

Neutral events (some of which have been reported already in a previous post):

-Sunday August 3rd, I had to RF the Pride rave event taking place at SW, which had booked out 1st and 2nd Circs and was going until the wee hours of the morning.  Both Daniel and I RF'ed the event, and we had a number of CS staff working that evening (Lindsay C, Andre C, and Shauna L).  The RF shifts started in the mid-afternoon, so all in all, I think we were there round about 16 hours that event.  Good thing we ordered pizza early on and I managed to score a tub of coffee loaned for the night from the kindly Maureen at White Spot.  Actually, I had an interesting experience driving down to work that day, which will hereafter be referred to as my "Muffin with a Butt-crack Story".  Here's how it goes:
        So, I was driving down Hastings to work, passing by the Playland gates in the process.  I look to my right towards playland and see the most dreadful sight I'd seen in quite a while.  You know how when the temperature starts to go up, super-tight low-rise jeans and midriff-baring clothes begin to be ever-more popular.  Well, I look over and I see this woman, and the image instantly burned into my mind is (and here I do the gestures to indicate the exact shape) a muffin (I gesture with two vertical hands going upwards, the sides of the muffin's paper cup, and then up and around where the muffin top's edges spill out and over the muffin cup) with a butt-crack (and I gesture once in a vertical movement slicing the muffin down the centre).  Not only any muffin, but it looked like one of those wrinkly oatmeal muffins (in Cellulite of course) where the edge spills over and is all dimply.  There was one of the most graphic sights in poor clothing choice I have ever seen.  (There's an epilogue as well.)  Of course, as I'm later rounding the corner of Hastings and Main, I look to my left and at the bus stop there is an older woman in very similar clothing, which gave the alternate image of a pickle or a long prune... with a butt-crack.

Anyway, continuing on with the event; the AV guy started setting up for the evening and by 9, we had the Moduloc guys pretty much sorted out with all the fencing.  Daniel went to deal with CS and Security while I went to deal with the technical issues including the BW 2nd Circs projection screens and the Centre Stage plasma screen.  Talk about technical issues!  I was running around until near 11 trying to get the right BW projector working, on the phone with Jordon Randall and with the sound guy they'd hired for the event, running down to Ops to tweak the projectors remotely via the Firefox only installed on Jeff's computer (I later learned there was also Firefox in the Staff Lounge computer) every time they did an auto-shutdown after two minutes of no signal.  Eventually, the sound guy realised he had his own VGA splitter and that solved the problem, but there was definitely several hours of me running around dealing with technical issues. 

All in all, the event went pretty well - the CS staff got to go home around 5 I think.  Lindsay C got hit on by a girl   Daniel got groped.  Andre was disappointed (sarcastically) that he didn't.  hahaha.  We had ensured that an outside cleaning company was hired to clean up during and after the event so that we wouldn't be left with the mess that we had after the New Year's party last year.  As a result, cleaning was a snap.  Y'know, thems' some clean folk - however, having seen men in their underwear dancing on the metal benches, I shall think twice about sitting upon them anytime soon.  lol.  Daniel and I ended up having stay until well past 7am because the Moduloc people showed up an hour and a half late to dismantle the fencing inside and outside of Science World.  Neither of us were very happy about that, but, meh, we were getting paid almost 8 hours of overtime and that was pretty sweet.  I gave Daniel a ride home.

I was originally supposed to work the GS on Monday August 4th, but I realised that Tina hadn't realised in scheduling me that I'd be there until the early morning of Monday anyway for the event  happening Sunday night.  This would not have been legal as I would not actually have 8 hours between my two shifts, meaning that the entire 9 hour day I would have had Monday would have been very, very Overtime (and me beyond dead tired).  Luckily, after much haggling, I got Michelle to switch my Monday shift to a Tuesday shift and all was fine; thus I worked Tues Aug 5th in the GS.  Instead, I went for Brandon's going-away party that Monday (4th) night at the brand-new Cactus Club downtown (as previously reported)... more on that below.

Wow, who would have guessed. 

After an undeniably crappy summer from March to August, the last 3/4 of a month has really turned around for me (aside from a few stressful administrative glitches/issues that need not be mentioned at this time).  For one thing, I've been having a lot of fun hanging out and seeing good friends, and doing fun things.  Happy, definitely starting to get optimistic at least   Late August and early September have had a number of memorable moments:

Sunday August 17th following, I saw Tropic Thunder with Anna and Amanda at Tinseltown.  I'd switched shifts with Amanda for work that week, so I was in the GS that Sunday instead of the Monday, but Amanda came by the GS after work to meet up with Anna and me for the movie.  It was much fun; we all had bbt before the film and it was plenty filling.

Monday August 18th, I spent at Metrotown shopping with Shari.  I decided that all the summer clothes I bought last year were unwearably out of style (much to my -and my wallet's- great dismay) and I needed some new shirts/etc for the remainder of the summer and for the future.  Funny thing is that this time, I was actually about half an hour early and she got there late, and I made sure she remembered it!  We walked about and I ended up getting a new polo shirt plus two button shirts from Esprit, as well as a white button shirt with a leaf print from A/X (waaaay too pricy!).  Along the way, we stopped at Zara where I spotted this great coat that was almost exactly what I'd been unsuccessfully looking for all of last winter:  a 3/4 length fitted coat with epaulettes.  I'd seen similar coats before but they'd all been far too flashy.  I asked them to put it on hold (which they could only do for two days), and I'd think about it.  Along the way we stopped at American Eagle, where Shari got her $20 pair of jeans (she was so happy, lol, ahh to be poor!), and she made a comment about me flirting with two of the sales girls there - who I will admit were rather cute, tho only one of which (alas not the more attractive one) was actually responsive.  She also made a similar comment about the very helpful and chatty salesgirl at A/X, whom she later suggested I should go back and talk to sometime - I laughed and noted that I couldn't be sure if she was genuinely flirting with me or whether she just wanted the commission.   We also visited a few other shops where Shari groaned about not being able to buy the tops she wanted or find this sweater-type vest she was looking for.  I will admit, she really should have splurged on at least one item she tried on... it looked damn good on her (bites knuckles).  Anyways, after Metro we decided to go for food - Shari was in the mood for Ramen so she led the way and we drove about ten minutes east of Metro along Kingsway to this quaint little ramen house for food, where we got to chat and catch up on the developments in our personal lives.  It was fun, as always.

Next, we had dinner in the food court (I avoided Arby's since I'd had that a month previous when we were there for another flick - I don't remember quite what I ordered instead), then caught the 10:30-or-so show.  The movie wasn't wonderful, but it was entertaining enough for what it was.  There was one shot in particular that I really liked, and that was when the actor playing Brendan Frasier's brother-in-law is running through the Tibetian monestary being chased by an avalanche in slow-motion; almost reminded me of an Imax movie.  I quite liked that.  Anyway, we got back down to the parking lot and I gave Jenn her "grow-your-own 1Up mushroom" and "electronic moisture meter for plants" and Steve his "Equal Measure" beaker mug and star wars pop-out ship cards, and I think they both really enjoyed the birthday presents. 

Thursday August 21st, I'd been debating whether or not to make it down to Ana Ver's "I'm quitting full-time and going only to part-time because I've got a new job" party down at the Cambie.  I wanted to go, but the locale was oh-so-sketchy.  However, it turned out earlier in the week that I found out Frani was leaving the next day on Friday and Thursday night would be my last chance to see her before she headed off to pursue her MA in Jewish Music in Israel/New York.  So, about 10:00pm, I drove out and met Frani at Tea Works (the bubbletea place on 41st and Victoria that the GS crew love to visit), and she brought her friend Grant from Queens..... who just happened to be my highschool friend from West Van!  It was a very entertaining and enjoyable evening; I got Frani a pocket notebook in which to write her novel sketchings, we chatted about the summer and spyo and whatnot, and I also got to catch up with Grant.  Apparently, after graduating WV a year after me, he did a Bachelor's in Philosophy Hons., with a minor in Psychology, of course where he ended up being friends with Frani before coming back to Vancouver.  Lately, he's also started learning Wushu with Ken Low, after doing some sort of Korean martial art at Queens.  Go figure.  It was a good chance to see Frani off before she went bright and early the next morning for up to 4 years away.  She'd better visit!  lol.

Friday August 22nd, I worked in the GS.

Saturday August 23rd, I'd made plans with the Jansens'n Co:  Patti, Norman, Hailey, and Lucy to go see Mamma Mia! for the matinee show at Metro.  I don't think Quinton went that morning because he was doing a bike marathon and Patti had to run after the movie to go pick him up.  However, first, I went back to Esprit - receipts in hand - and found the salesgirl that had helped me last time to get round about $30 back from the discounts.  Score!

After Mamma Mia, I headed home because Camille and Shari were coming over for an evening of cooking and Wii.  Camille got here first (we were planning to meet around 5:30-6:30 or so), and then Shari eventually arrived all flustered from the traffic on Hwy No.1, exclaiming that she was never driving down to my place again except once a year for my birthday.  She was a *huge* brat the entire night.  Anyway, after chatting a bit we hopped in the car, headed down to Safeway and picked up our ingredients for homemade pizza (because apparently ordered pizza was too expensive).  We decided to get the small individual pizzas, the 25cm diameter pizza shells that come six per pack.  We only really used three that night because one was enough for each of us.  On top of that, we picked up pizza sauce in a can, pineapple in a can, some small shrimp for Camille and Shari's pizzas, pepperoni, a block of mozza, a block of cheddar, some mushrooms, and a bell pepper.  Pizza baking was fun, we each made these sizable and topping-stuffed pizzas that were quite enjoyable.  After eating, we took turns on Guitar Hero alternating with helping Camille learn her lines for her new play, Shari and I passed the play back and forth as we read through Camille's scenes with her.  Haven't done anything close to acting in a while, as in since almost elementary school... haha, it was an interesting experience even just reading the lines out.  Throughout the night, Shari melted into the comfy couch in her fatigue from the day.  I got somewhat annoyed when they started twittering about my neighbour, whom Camille had apparantly seen on her way to my door, leaving his apartment in some sort of uniform and had thought was very hot.  I gave Camille a perplexed look.  The last time I saw my neighbour, he didn't strike me as having an appearance a girl would generally describe as "hot".  Who knows?  Sounds like (from a description Camille gave me recently) it was a different person than I'd seen earlier so my old neighbour must have moved.

Ok, on to Sunday August 24th, when I went over to the Jansens' new house (Quinton and Hailey, plus parents, that is, not P&Q) for Potlach and Get Smart marathon.  I'd made plans after seeing the recent Steve Carrel Get Smart remake film with them last month that I would introduce them all to the original Don Adams tv show the moment my Season One dvd collection arrived from Amazon.  It had, so we booked the evening.  I brought snacks I bought at the local supermarket near their place, plus my DVD's, and the Jansens had all manners of homemade delicatessens.  When I arrived, the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics were still on tv, so I sat down to watch the rest of those with them.  Sad that that was all I really saw of the entire Beijing Olympics - I just hadn't had the time to sit down and watch the games.  I'd kinda wanted to see Beach Volleyball and Kayaking too.  Oh well.  Two more years and Vancouver 2010 begins.  Anyway, we got through about the first 4 episodes of Get Smart, and I think they enjoyed it - granted, the best episodes come later on in the series when they'd gotten all their gags down and started to get more creative.  Don Adams will never be replaced as Maxwell Smart.  I'm just glad the original series is now coming out in affordable dvd season collections.  Now waiting for Season Two of Five!

Monday August 25th, I worked in the GS all day.  I believe in the evening that day I went for Sushi after work with Jane at that Vietnamese-run sushi place Lap introduced us to near Main and Broadway.  It was fun; we got to chat and catch up and I dropped her off at the Blockbuster on Kingsway near Nanaimo.

That week, I went kayaking again with Amanda and Kathy (Kathy's first time kayaking) on the Tuesday August 26th. 

There were little crab shell moults floating everywhere in the water.
Amanda wanted to take one home, so I managed to scoop one up with an oar, and it got to be the star of a few photos.

We met at Deep Cove, got three kayaks and bought a waterproof disposable camera, and set off at about 3:30pm.  Cost us about $34/person, plus a $27 waterproof disposable camera that was lots of fun, was fully submersable, and even floated.  We kayaked out to Grey Rock and back, took lots of photos, kayaked around Boulder Island, got close to all the seagulls on the rocks just offshore of the island.  We even saw seals!!  They were playing in the water just off the kayak rental place as we were setting off!  We had a kayak race - the three of us - from Boulder Island to the halfway point back.  Kathy won the Spirit award .  It was only about 19 degrees, but it felt really nice and warm out over the water.  I was also really happy with the kayaks they have there - the ones they have aren't the cheapo plastic ones where you just sit on top.  They're all either the traditional fibreglass ones or the fully-featured traditionally-shaped plastic ones (which are even better - they're super light, super-manouvrable, and super-fast) that you sit inside.  I want to get one of those someday.  We got back at 5:30pm, just as the rain started, so our timing was wonderful!  It was kind grey all day and we were worried about the rain; we got really lucky with the timing that day.  Afterwards, I drove back to HS Bay to my parents' house since I was down there anyway, to pick up a few items at home.  Had dinner at home, visited with Newton, the other birds, and the cats.  Drove home.

The next day, Wednesday August 27th, I drove out to Brentwood Mall first thing in the morning to buy my new iPhone at Booth communications!  So cool!  They were having server problems, so I didn't get my phone before I left - my mother met up with me at Brentwood that day and she said she'd go back later to pick it up for me and drop it off at my place.  I got some great discounts - early evenings and weekends, $25 off the $350 price of the iPhone (it's $299 + $50 for the 16 gig if your voiceplan is under $35), got $5 off the $15 Visual Voicemail value pack, and a few other perks.  Got my Oakley sunglasses fixed at a glasses repair place there (tho the lenses have since popped out *again*).  Dropped off my kayaking photos for developing/scanning - Mom also picked those up later for me, dropped them off at my apartment. 

Later that day, around 3:30 or so, rushed down after Brentwood to meet Linda at the PNE (I scored a ride off my mum).  Did my good deed for the day; as I was walking up to the Rogers Video to meet Linda (we were going to go buy cheaper tickets at 7-11) finishing the Koya lunch Mom bought me as I was waiting at the phone dealership, I ran into a man in a wheelchair trying to make it up the steep hill.  Helped him up the hill with my remaining hand, had an interesting conversation with him.  He was heading off to the doctor for his checkup.  Got to the top of the hill, parted ways with him at the intersection, met up with Linda on the other side of the road. 

Linda and I were also pretty lucky that Wednesday with the weather.... it looked all afternoon like it was threatening to rain, and there were a few droplets here and there, spatterings, but it never really ended up really raining.  We spent the entire afternoon at PNE till closing; walked through the Marketplace (didn't buy anything - tho we were going to get Fudge, which we didn't end up getting), saw Superdogs, checked out the animals in the petting zoo, bought honey sticks and assorted sucker pops at the agriculture barn, saw the pig/duck races there, I bought my requisite whale tale, and later mini donuts (mmmm!!!).  We had Bavarian sausages for dinner, ran into Jenn (Tani), who happened to be working there at the gates as well.  Jenn gave me a deep-fried oreo from her tray of them, yum!  It tasted like a tempura brownie.  We headed into Playland, I got to play a round at the shooting range with the light guns and light rifles - the one with the player piano and the pond and the cans you can shoot - I *love* that one!  Later, met up with Anna on her break, who was having dinner at the Playland White Spot, and then Linda and I headed off to watch the nightly Pyrotechnics show.  On the way, we stopped at this great little stand where the lady was selling African and world aboriginal crafts.  I bought a Kalimba (a finger piano) which I'd wanted to get for ages for $20, and a Batik cloth painting for about $10.  The pyrotechnics show was fun, after which we left and I drove Linda home.  Got to test my brand new iPhone for the first time at my place (took a Linda photo - actually Linda was photo #2, my GID Acrylic Lightbulb was photo #1) when we stopped at my place briefly on the way.

Thursday August 28th, we all went down to Science World for the annual End of Summer party.  Jane had begged me to trade my Friday shift for her Thursday one, so I was already there during the day working the GS prior to the party.

Loads of fun.  Had my Plan 8.6 from Lab D Teaser premier in Stuttering Wombat 2008.  Alas, it didn't quite turn out as I'd envisioned it, but enough remained that a few people gave me positive comments on it.  I have a feeling that in their desperation for filler to make up the rest of the movie, David & co borrowed a few things from my Plan 8.6 script to round out the latter hour or so... sad, I know.  Adam's "InCharge" skit was hilarious... if about 10 minutes waaaay too long.  Took a few photos with my brand-new iPhone during the party.  Awesome.  Party ended around 11:30, after which Amanda, Kathy, and Brian Alfonso came over to my place for a late-night Wii party until about 1:45am or so, after which I drove everyone home.  Brian mentioned wanting to do Karaoke next time.

Friday August 29th, went down to Science World to meet up with Jordon Randall, who was going to help me set up my brand new iPhone.  Headed home after that. 

Saturday August 30th, had to RF the SW "Under the Sea" PJ party where they had plenty of Disney karaoke, Elizabeth dressed up as Ariel for the kids, and there were two showings of The Little Mermaid in the Science Theatre.  Interesting evening.  Now, will I *ever* get "Under da Sea" out of my head?!

...But first, we had our road trip to pick everyone up!  Amanda drove down to my place at around 5:30, I think, and left her car there.  I drove her down and we picked up Brian Alfonso.  Brian wasn't ready when we were there, so we played Wii Fit on his Wii, Amanda got to try Wii Fit hula hooping.  It was much fun, and very amusing.

So, Brian got ready, we drove down to Richmond to pick up Kathy from doing her Science World outreach at Aberdeen.  Got lost on the way to Aberdeen b/c we forgot it's not actually on No.3, but just off it on one of the parallel side streets.  Michelle called me on the way and asked me to work the next day - with heavy heart (I was hoping to go back to the PNE the next day), I agreed.  Finally met up with Kathy, and then we got back on the road, and finally headed down to Sushi King, where we had to wait about 15 mins for seats.  Brian hopped the road to get money, and we went in.  Met up with Kathy's friends William, Queenie, and Alan there.  Roland and Anna arrived.  We got our food.  *so much*!  Amanda, Brian, and I tried to finish off a party platter plus a 1/2 order (5) of House rolls... let's just say we were unsuccessful.  We made a *valiant* attempt at it though.  After that, we headed off to Karaoke (we decided during dinner) at this place on Kingsway about ten minutes east of Metro that started with "K-".   While Brian, Kathy, and I were waiting for the rest to arrive, I got photos of them to add to my iPhone photo contacts (so much fun!). 

Anyways, wow, I never expected to see such a totally Asian karaoke bar in Vancouver.  They had individual booth rooms with couches, plasma screens, a touch-screen for song-selection and two microphones - not only that, but they had a whole two floors of these karaoke rooms.  Apparently they also served drinks, but non-alcoholic ones.  We stuck around and sung for about 2 hours, had lots of fun.  Brian is an awesome singer.  Anna had a stomachache, she didn't sing, but she had fun anyway.  I even belted out a few tunes, and attempted a few (haha... "Hotel California"... - hahaha, this is the only time you will ever get me singing Backstreet Boys, hahahaha), tried "New York, New York" with Brian.  Anyway, it got late and I drove Brian home, then Anna back downtown, and back to my place for Amanda to pick up her car.  Amanda came up to change her contact lenses and then headed home.  I think it must have been well past 1am by then.  I stayed up for a few more hours playing with my iPhone.

Monday September 1st, I worked from 10am-6:45pm.  Jane got my hopes up briefly by exclaiming that she was going to bring me to PNE after work with her new free passes and we'd meet up with Anna after she got off work.  Alas, she had some issues throughout the day and no longer felt like going by the end of the day.  I just went home.  It had been kinda cloudy in the morning but by the early afternoon it was beautiful out.  It felt like a bit of a sad waste of a beautiful evening.

Wednesday September 3rd, Science World Day!  Science World's annual Team-Building day where they shut down the building and have the staff come in for special training, games, and give out collectible Science World swag.  This year was awesome, and will be really tough to top!  We met up at 8am-8:30am in front of concession, where they'd provided us with coffee, juiceboxes, and muffins.  When we arrived and checked in, we were each given our own specially-coloured science world cap to wear; the colours denoted the teams we were assigned to for the day.  I got Team Beige, with the Science World blue logo.  We filed into the Science Theatre at 8:30, where we began the morning with fire safety training.  The first challenge was for us to break into our teams and go around hunting for all the emergency bins in the building and take photos with each of the bins - a task perfectly suited to those of us with new iPhones!  So, thus began the quests.  After that, we came back to the Science Theatre, where Cindy led us in a fire extinguisher usage quiz.  Next, we headed outside to the grass field just beyond the Grassy Knoll on the North side of the building.  They had devised this (sadly unsuccessful) exercise where we - in our teams - were each supposed to be able to test firing (expired) fire extinguishers into cans they had set up.  However, they hadn't factored in that oft-touter derailer of plans: WIND.  Hahaha, I got some great photos with my iPhone.  White smoke and powder, and coughing people everywhere!  We aborted the exercise 1/4 way through and headed back inside for a highly effective guest lecture on Global Warming given by one of Al Gore's local protege's.  It was quite dramatic, filled with lots of chilling (no pun intended) scientific facts and photos.

Disaster Outside Science world?!  People wandering confused and aimlessly in smoke?
Ahh... nope, it's just Science World Day 2008!
 

After the lecture, we had our tryout of future Science World staff orientations program, which included presentations by the staff in all the departments at Science World.  Christine and I did our skit showing what Rentals does at Events, which crossed over into Michelle's GS skit.  We got a great reception with ours . 

Next, they had us all file out the door and lead us on a walk... we were all wondering where we were going for lunch... to the Casino perhaps?  Plaza of Nations?  Christine and i and Jordan both had our guesses as we walked down there.  And then I had a thought:  harbour boat cruise!  We walked around the Plaza of Nations, turned the corner, and lo and behold:  A big beautiful boat with dining tables all set up for us!  We set sail on our lunch cruise up False Creek; I sat with the GS crew there: Zainab, Anna, Michelle, and Maggie, and I think Lisa from admissions?  After dinner, Bryan T, in his capacity as our CEO, came up and introduced our Special Guest for the evening, Paul Geyer - chair of the current Science World Board of Directors.  Paul Geyer was supposedly going to present Science World's next great big exhibit coming in 2010 when he suddenly grabbed his chest and collapsed on the floor.  Ronald sprung to his feet all ready to help when Brian Anderson walks up in a trenchcoat and introduces himself as "Detective Buckminster Fullofit", brought out Ceddy Nash decked out in his police jacket, and thus begun our Murder Mystery game for the cruise, written and crafted expertly by Brian Anderson himself.  We broke into our teams and scoured the ship for the 12 hidden clues posted on cards all around, and the little scenes acted by our primary suspects Bryan T, Cindy, Clyde, and Pauline Finn.  I had it all easily figured out - being an expert at figuring out mystery movies - but it was still very fun and extremely entertaining:  Go team Beige (and go 'Domies'?
hahaha)!  Brian did an excellent job at writing the whole thing - they should have put it in Stuttering Wombat.  Too bad...

After that, we got back to shore, came back to Science World, and they let us out for the day after giving us all collectible Science World hand-powered flashlights.  *score!*

Anna, Michelle and I all came out together and decided to go to Granville Island to walk around for a while.  It was *beautiful* weather, perfect weather to be on a little boat going down False Creek.  Absolutely stunning weather, and I was all happily enjoying the sun and the slight breeze.  Anna was tired so she decided not to go, but Michelle and I caught the False Creek Ferry over and wandered around there for a few hours.  I love wandering around there and seeing all the crafts and interesting wares they have there.  There's also so much great food there!  I got this great blueberry tart, and later I got this great buscuit at the bakery.  Michelle and I wandered through a few really interesting stores where they had all sorts of interesting postcards from around the world, and these cool Japanese pop-out diorama cards (I bought two), and another store that had these great notebooks - like the ones I carry around to jot notes and sketch in, but these were even cooler, as they had designs etched on the covers so they looked like old-time leatherbound books.  I got a few other random items down there as well.  We ran into Brian Anderson there as well; he was directing a play that was doing a gala premiere that night.  It was much fun.  After that, we found out that the last false creek ferry for Science World had left at 6:30, and it was now 7:40 or so.  We took the ferry across to the aquatic centre, walked up to the road, and caught the C-22 beach bus.  Michelle got off a few stops west before it made its turn around to head back down towards Grand Central Station across from Science World, where I got off and headed home.

Thursday September 8th, spent most of the day on e-mail with Jordon Randall.  My iPhone was having issues after suddenly having the batteries drain during Science World Day on Wednesday.  I figure it might be because the auto-lock was turned off accidentally, or some sort of program that hung and was eating the batteries that day.  Anyway, after that I had a bunch of issues with the iPod mode telling me I had no content even though iTunes showed all my media on the iPhone, and the phone mode quitting to the home menu after a few seconds.  I had to do a number of restores all day - we figured it might have something to do with cancelling syncing, but the true cause remained a culprit.  I got it working again by doing a full restore of the firmware and deleting all my apps, and then re-downloading only a few from the iTunes store to install on the phone.  It's been working fine ever since, but it was a waste of the whole day.

Friday September 5th: Amanda organized another outing for this Friday.  We met up with Anna at Science World at about 6:00pm, convinced Jane to come along, and headed downtown to Robson Street to have dinner at Moxie's there.  It was beautiful weather yet again, and it was a great night to be walking down Robson - we all chatted along the way.  Amanda walked really fast.  Anyway, the food was great, although it was a bit disappointing to hear from the waitress that they'd discontinued yam fries.  How could they?!  Shocking!  Anyway, I had a craving for steak but my wallet and my stomach didn't want a full steak, so I ordered a steak salad.  The waitress misheard and brought me a steak - luckily it wasn't that big and it was super-tasty.  I told her after.  The dish was $19.00 or so, and since I didn't remember seeing any $19 steaks, or any steaks under $25, perhaps she took off $5 from my bill?  She was nice, and I left her an extra tip.  We also shared a Med Bred appetizer and Jane ordered this great caramel cake dessert that we got to try.

We headed back to Science World after that and Jane took the skytrain all the way home - Brian (Alfonso) had been working evening Omni that night and was done by the time we got there, around 9:40 or so.  Meeting up with Brian, the four of us headed off to Bubble World on Kingsway again for bubbletea (and chicken knees for Brian).  Roland was supposed to be coming, but he didn't end up making it.  We met up with Anna's friend Karen at Bubble World and hung out there for a while.  I was planning on getting my standard default - Taro Slush with Pearls, but after seeing the picture they had on the menu of their Watermelon slush, I changed my mind (less filling anyway) to a Watermelon Slush with half grape jelly and half pearls.  It was positively ambrosiant.  Yes, I just made up that word.

We were there until well after midnight - Brian had us all playing random icebreaker games, trying to get incriminating and scandalous gossip out of everyone.  It was much fun.  After that, I drove Karen left us to drive home, and I gook Brian home, then dropped off Amanda at Science World where her car was, and dropped Anna off at home.

Saturday September 6th, spent most of the day doing household chores, bumming around at home doing this or that.  Linda called in the evening and I helped her come up with things to say about herself for her presentation for one of her courses now that she's in her Nursing program.  I texted Amanda that evening too and she called me back - wanted to see how she was doing after the fast-walking of Friday.  All was fine =)

Finally.... today, Sunday September 7th, 2008.  Wow, another really great day in what I originally expected to be a totally uneventful day.  I realized last minute that today was the last day of the Krazy! exhibition on Comics, Videogames, Anime, and Manga down at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  Determined to see it before it closed, I drove down and made it to Science World by 3:45pm, hopped on a Skytrain to Granville Station, got off there and made it to the Art Gallery by just past 4pm.  Good thing, too because they were open 'till 5:30pm.  Lucky since I thought they were only open to 5pm.  Unlucky b/c I thought because it was a special exhibition they wouldn't take my Tourism Pass so I paid student admission price ($14 or so) - sadly I found out at the end upon getting my bag at the coat check that they *were* taking the Tourism Passes!  Argh!

Anyway, I joined the guided tour they had at 4pm, followed that until about 4:45pm, walked around inside, got to see everything.  Very interesting.  Upstairs, they had a shop and a section where they had tv's of all manners of videogames from Super Mario 3 to Grand Theft Auto.  Oddly enough, one time through, I found it somewhat disturbing to see this little 8-year-old (or so) girl sitting and watching intently the screen that was showing scenes from GTA, where a car was driving around, the guy gets out, and shoots a cashier clerk (just a few minutes prior I'd been watching clips from GTA play on the same screen including some of the infamous strip club sequences).  The exhibit was pretty fun - going downstairs, I even ran into the soundtrack to my favourite anime, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in one room where they were showing CD's of Anime soundtracks.  Awesome!  Also jotted down the name of an interesting anime to check out:  "The Place Promised in Our Early Days".  Came across Lap who had just managed to get there just after 5pm with two of the volunteer girls and they were checking out the last half hour of the exhibit before it closed.  5:30pm came around and they ushered everyone out - I went out checked out the gift shop for a while after that, where Lap and crew were also.  Found these awesome little hand-crank music boxes that had great hits on them, like Pink Panther, Yellow Submarine, and Stairway to Heaven.  Almost got one too, but I ended up getting a few other little trinkets:  a tiny tiny hand-crank-powered ultralight LED for $6 (great find!), a doorstop in the shape of a high-heel that I figure I'll either give away as a present or use to enhance the Bachelor-paddedness of my apartment (perhaps with a note that says, "I'll be back to pick it up Monday!" ), a toothpick holder in the shape of a voodoo doll (from the "Fred" line so popular on Thinkgeek.com), a card-holder, and the coolest thing of all.  What is that coolest thing?  It's this awesome idea:  a spoon with a spring in the handle to enhance its ability to be used as a catapult!  Brilliant!

Anyway, I got a call from Camille while I was in the gallery since I'd left her a call earlier in the day to see if she could come.  She'd been in a rehearsal for her new play, but she wanted to meet up for dinner, and I suggested going back to Granville Island.  I skytrained back to Science World and met up with Camille there at 6:30, took the 6:45 False Creek Ferry to Granville Island, and Camille introduced me to her favourite Fish 'n Chips restaurant of all time there.  She ordered the two-piece halibut fish 'n chips for both of us *so good*!  We also shared a banana desert, which was also quite good.  Got to catch up over dinner and chat, she told me of her new show and a possible romantic interest of hers (shhhh!), and I told her of my vastly-improved late summer/early fall.  After dinner, we caught the bus back to Science World, I picked up my car and drove her home.  We dropped by Safeway on the way so she could get groceries and I got to see her brand-new apartment she's renting.  First visitor, yay.  We sung along to Ella Fitzgerald's famous rendition of Mack the Knife and other songs along the way - there's one of the many reasons Camille's my oldest friend.  She's one of the few people I can sing along with in the car to Jazz or Arrogant Worms or whatever songs we both like, and just be silly and whacky with.  There was also much mention of Shari's "Puppies!".  hahahaha....  much fun.  Anyway, we hung out for a while just catching up before she was tired and I went home.  Thanks for a great day .

There were a few other developments this past month that weren't that great.  Aside from that "administrative issues" problem that to my extreme relief was resolved by Thursday September 4th, Kirstie's health hasn't been great lately.  When I talked to her at the end of August she was in a lot of pain and her dentist was having her eating only apple puree.  It was distressing to hear that happening, because Kirstie has been really good to me as a Prof - helpful with my thesis and very encouraging, enthusiastic about all the research I uncovered, and not only that but a good friend as well.  Anyway, I talked to my dad and got her an appointment with my Dad to see if he could figure out what was up.  She went in to see my Dad a few weeks ago, and he recommended her to some specialists.  Anyway, she finally got to see the specialists and it's a relief to hear she's finally getting some real treatment for her condition.

In addition, I finally got back in touch with Kathleen and things are now moving (hopefully) in that direction as well.  Encouraging.  Let's hope this all really gets going and everything gets wrapped up in a good way soon.