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ShadowsBlagArchiveFeb2004You are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. My Life - ShadowsLight (February 2004 Archive)A study of an Urban Middle Aged Male Homo Sapien, in his Natural enviroment and the trials and tribulations he encounters in daily life<small> Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or firms is purely coincidental</small> 28 February 2004 It started at Maynardville. I went there with a friend of mine, and we met up with a whole host of people that used to go to school with me. There were even some people down from London as one of the guys is getting married in a week's time. In fact, most of them are either married, with kids or both. Made me feel old. After a few hours, I decided to venture out by myself and have a look to see what Maynardville had to offer. It's been years since I last went to a Community Chest Carnival, and it is kind of comforting to know that they never change. I raided one second hand store, and picked up 3 books (The Unwilling Warlord by Lawrence Watt-Evans, Cemetary World by Clifford D Simak and Falcons of Narabedla by Marrion Zimmer Bradley) for R4. Then, I went to the big book tent, and picked up another 7 books (Inconceivable and Stark by Ben Elton, Someone like You by Roald Dahl, Nightshades by Tanith Lee, Virtual Light by William Gibson, Q Clearance by Peter Benchley and Paradox by John Meaney) for just R37. Man, what a cool haul. And, while I was walking around the book tent with a million books under my arm, I started chatting with some people, and one of the people turned out to be Lawrence Steele (he used to have long blonde hair, and now has short spikey dyed red hair... so he was not easy to recognise at first). He is brother to Anthony Steele, Claws' first ClawThing?, and was the original holder of the AllNightMovieFest! So I gave him my cell number, and if he SMS's me, I'll invite him to come join us. Once I had my book booty, I decided to call my Maynardville expidition over. But, the night was still young, so I decided to go to all my old hang outs. At the first place, I met a guy I used to play pool with every week. We had a quick game and he beat me easily (yes, it happens). Then I went to Long Street, and sat at Pickwicks talking to Brian, the manager. We were old aquaintences (how we met and became aquaintences is a long, involved story... surffice it to say, we talk about shared interests whenever we meet). I sat there for a couple of hours just watching the street theater go by. We chatted, and talked to some of the other customers, told jokes, played games, did mind puzzles and generally passed the time away rather pleasantly. And tonight, I will be going back to Maynardville (thereby doubling the number of times I have gone to Maynardville in this century) with a host of new friends, and so hopefully this will be a night of new beginnings, and new memories. 25 February 2004 I have just finished watching American Splendor. It is a bizarre little movie. It is about a comic writer named Harvey Pekar, who writes a comic based upon his dead-end life. So it's very stark, bland, gritty and, well... real. Watching it so soon after Lost in Translation made it hard to watch, but easy to enjoy. One of the characters from Harvey's life is a guy that the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons was based on. It was wierd hearing that Comic Book Guy's speech pattern actually being spoken by a real guy. Also, you get to see both the actor playing Harvey and the real Harvey in the movie. In fact, in one scene, you see the actor playing Harvey ending a scene, and then go sit down as the real Harvey takes over for a while. The bonus about doing it this way, was that when Harvey was interviewed on TV, they just used the original interview, and did not have to "re-enact" it with the actor. I have the AVI if anyone wants to watch it... 23 February 2004 Not much has happened... This was sooo me yesterday:http://www.xperts.co.za/reuel/procrastination.gif ... and this is sooo me today:http://www.xperts.co.za/reuel/allnighter.gif When will I learn? 18 February 2004 OK... my funk is over and I have stopped pouting. I had a conversation with someone today and was told truthfully how some of you feel about me. And for that I am thankful. I do have a few bits of my personality and attitude that I need to dial back. I need to stop trying to monopolise a conversation with my stories, and I need to stop making them seem like they are a sooo much better version of someone else's story. And, obviously, I am never going to correct anyone ever again. But I can't promise to change instantly overnight. Most of the time, I do not even realise that I am doing it. And tonight, I was in a conversation with Conrad and Yancke and realised (when I noticed myself doing the things I mentioned above) that, when I stopped talking and just listened, both of them were doing it as well... maybe it's a trait of roleplayers to want to share their stories... So what did I do today? After work I went past a friend of my mother's who is in town to take care of her sickly parents. She needed a program installed on her PC, which I was happy to do. And, as luck would have it, she is an English teacher. So I had a long conversation with her, and she gave me a few tips on my little English grammar problem. Hopefully, I now understand the difference properly, and can get it right from now on. On my way home, I noticed Nick walking down the road in the opposite direction. So, I found a moment to do a U-turn (not easy in home time traffic, it took me almost 10 minutes to wait for a gap) and went back to see if I could give him a lift. He was on the way to roleplay at Dave and Lara's. So, since I had nothing else to do, I went there and hung out for a while until they started roleplaying. When they started, Yancke and I went to Ian, et al's flat to see what they were up to. Only Conrad and Erica were home, and Erica was working. So we pfaffed ( a Yiddish word... it means to futsker without purpose ;-) ) around for a while, went to get food and then we just went home (to our respective houses). During the trip for food, I bought some contact glue because my R25 sunglasses had a broken arm. So I get home and proceed to fix the glasses. I poke the protective covering over the entrance to the tube open and then try to slowly pour the glue out onto the sunglasses. However, the glue shoots out, and soon I have it all over my fingers, the sunglasses, the table and my clothes. AAARRRGGHHH!!! It's hot, and drying FAST. I had visions of me in the emergency room stuck to every surface that could get ripped out of my apartment. So I quickly got all my fingers free and waited for the glue to harden on them. So now I am typing this with hard contact glue all over my hands. It feels really wierd. Hopefully, when the skin dies, the glue will come off my hands. But the good news is that the glasses look like they are fixed. 17 February 2004 I give up. I officially take myself off the grammar/spelling correction committee. In the future, I will be using the spelling of "thun" for both "then" and "than" because I can not be fucked to get the shit right. Now thun, fuck off ALL of you, and leave the grammar/spelling of my posts alone... if you have any comments about the CONTENT, feel free to add them...
Damn... I think I just use the word "then" way too much. I need to come up with a new way of saying that one action followed on from another action... anyway... Yeasterday I tried to help Hendri out at one of his clients. They have an exchange server that just does not want to download mail. But everything looked right, so I was not able to do much. Had a late lunch with him at the Newlands Spur... damn, it was a good meal. I heartily recommend going there. Went home, and watched TV til sleep time... slept on and off due to blocked sinuses... I hate Summer colds <sniff>. 16 February 2004 (4:15am) Argh. Can't sleep due to blocked nose. In my boredom, I went to Amazon.com and bought: Beware a bored sick person with more credit thun sense And I think I know what I am going to be getting with my next set of MiB? points: Chez Goth (you can collect Slack... or Gloom) p.s. The Arcana Unearthed game was not as fun as I had hoped. D20 rules really suck. I am thinking of quitting because I just can not stand the game system. The game is ok, it's just the system that sucks. Man, I really need to play in an Ars Magica game again... 15 February 2004 (4am) What an amazing day. ok... let me quickly catch you up... Tuesday : Kill Bill vol. 1 with a whole CLAW contingent. And thun came Saturday. The day started on the weird side. The Amy that I have stopped chasing called me up (or rather, sent me a please call me from a number I did not know). Now... for 4 years, every time my phone has rung, in the back of my mind I have always hoped it was her calling. But, for the first time, I have stopped having those feelings. So it came as a real shock to me to hear her voice on the other end of the phone line. Sometimes, I feel like I must be the punch line in one of <insert deity of your choice>’s jokes. I spend 4 years wishing she would call, and once I stop wishing she would call, she calls. So this is what she wanted. When we went out, I had the decent job, so I basically paid for everything... nights out to restaurants, movies, pool, etc. ONE night, we were at a 7-11 getting some coke and ice creams and I had forgotten to take my wallet, so I asked her if she could pay, which she did. And so, to pay her back, I took her for a really nice supper the next night. Well, today she called asking for that money back… Yeah, I think she is on drugs (she would have to be to think I would give her any more money). She is now finally, in my past. And so, with a brave new outlook on life, I went to the CLAW party at "The One Ring". I almost did not go, as I am feeling a cold coming on (and I can not take off work... my dad came back one week after getting his kidney out, he is not going to let me take off for a little cold). So, runny nose notwithstanding, I headed out. And I am really glad that I did. I met (or at least saw) a bunch of people that I have only known through the stories that other people have told me, that may have featured them. Which was cool. I played a few games of pool where I had some amazing shots. With one shot against Shelagh, I jumped one of her balls, and potted one of mine... but no-one besides Shelagh saw it (I did it again against Garrick, but the one against Shelagh was more impressive); thun in another game, I broke and sunk a ball, and thun proceeded to pot 5 more in a row... afterwards, someone I did not know would not play against me, as he had been warned not to... cool, I have a reputation "Good Pool Player +1" at The One Ring... now if only I could get the reputation "Amazing Lover +2" I would be set. And I need the help, as I tried out my Pick up skillz on some of the lovely ladies that were there and managed to get absolutely nowhere with the first girl I met. It was liking talking to a conversation Black Hole. So I gave up and went looking for more enjoyable conversation. I had a great talk with Phleep about what and where the Methuselah CLAW members are doing... Well done to Andy for finally popping the question to Renee. After that (man, it is tough to right^H^H^H^H^H write (I should stop posting these things at stupid O'clock in the morning - ShadowsLight) these blog entries and try to avoid the whole then/than thing), I went back upstairs where I met and chatted to a really amazing girl. We seemed to connect on more thun a few levels and I thought she was just lovely. Of course, so did a few other guys, so I kind of felt like Bachelor Number Three on "Cupid". But I believe in fate, and I believe that you can influence your fate... that if you are positive, thun positive things will happen to you. Let's just hope she believes in fate too. After that, the evening just felt good. I chatted with foks about everything important, and nothing of consequence, just like one is wont to do at these kinds of parties. My cold has gotten a lot worse due to all the smoke, but I would not have changed the night one bit (well, I may have had less smoke...) And now I am home, slowly winding down after a great night, reading the wiki, updating my page and bemoaning the fact that NOTHING is downloading from my Kazaa queue... not even the pr0n ;-) Oh well, tomorrow is my second session of my Arcana Unearthed game... that should be some hack 'n slash fun. 09 February 2004 (at almost midnight) Today has been a life changing day. If this post gets a little self-involved or self indulgent, just ignore it and go onto something else more interesting... like this. OK... where to start...
And now I realise that I used the word "realise" way too much in this blag... oh well, it's been that kind of day. Not much else to say except... "Damn, I am in a great need of sleep" See some of you at "Kill Bill" tomorrow. _Hey, well closure seems to be really important. there are two ways to get it: 1 is what just happened to you, 2 is meeting someone better. That is a kak one, but you seem to have seen the positive side of it. Live and learn. well I hope you're feeling somewhat better. At least you got your rocks off. Twice.
1: see how things really are 09 February 2004 (early morning) Ok... so I had no idea who Steve was when he called me up out of the blue and told me he was given my number by Garrick since I had expressed an interest in In Nomine. So I get the phone call, and he offers to let me borrow his books. And to get the books, I tell him about TNM. So he arrives (only an hour late), and we get to chatting after the movie. He plays in the Munchkin game, and thun leaves. he thun comes back, as he has been parked in. Um... yeah, no shit sherlock, you parked in a parking space reserved for a person living in the complex. So we try and move that person's car, but since the shocks on it are really old, and no-one could get the co-ordination right to get all 4 tires bouncing up and down at the same time, Steve decides its time to go knock on a door and wake the person up. So I look at SynKronos and Marc, and say "No need for us to be there", and in the most Munchkin move of the night, we all fucked off while Steve has to go wake some-one up at 3am in the morning... hehehe... I really hope he had forgotten my name, and never told my neighbour about me. I can only hope. It must have come right, because he eventually knocked on my glass bricks to be let out... from his car window. I tried to yell at him that the gate would just open when his car goes over the control, but he obviously could not hear me... so to save time, I just open the gate from inside the house. But by that time, he had gotten out of his car and had come around to get me to open (the now open) gate. Eventually, he got out. Friday I was a Zombie... completely dead on my feet. I got home from supper with the family and just crashed. And this was while I had new toys to play with. The following things had arrived (2 weeks early as well) from SJ Games : Ninja Burger (the card game(, the Dork tower game, Strange Synergy, Hacker, Spooks, Chez Geek 2: Slack Attack and my Munchkin Fu T-shirt. I can't wait to play (see SaturdayGamesDay) them all. Saturday went by quite quietly... watched TV, read, etc. Sunday I was supposed to go out with a friend from JHB, but something had come up and she had had to get an early flight the night before. I wish she had told me earlier, so that I could have gone to the cricket match at Newlands... but since I have started playing a girl similar to her in my Wednesday Witchcraft game, I realise she was so self-invloved that it would just not have occured to her that I would have had any other plans... So I called up a few people to come help me crack open a few of the new games... MoonFlake, ZenStar and ArchAngel came over, but we ended up watching Eliza Dushku for an hour and a half... oh yeah... there were other people in the movie too... um... but they were irritating and were eventually killed before the end... the movie was Wrong Turn, a formulaic horror/slasher movie but anything with Eliza in it r0><><0R$, which it did... and we all agreed that her eventual nude scene is long overdue. Anyway... it's now 3:30 am, and it's just too damn hot to sleep... another zombie day when I wake up... crap, I used to be able to pull all-nighters all the time... I am getting old.. 04 February 2004 Monday was cool cos a good friend of mine came over to make me Spaghetti Bolognaise while a really old friend of mine came over to chat. In fact, the three of us used to always watch TV on Mondays together way back in the day (when Dawson's Creek was still cool), so it was like old times. Thun on Tuesday, MoonFlake came over to watch TV. We went for supper first, and stopped past an Exclusive Books that was having a sale. Lucky for me, I had a Sale voucher, a R20 off voucher from past purchases AND a R50 birthday voucher to spend. I managed to get 5 books for the cost of R65. Wheee... Even MoonFlake got a book. She cleverly distracted me when were looking through the kids books by showing me a Buffy novelisation with Faith on the cover... hmmmm... Faith... while she managed to snag a copy of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I was about to call foul, when she found me a copy as well. yay me... Thun during supper the manager of the Spur comes up while I am making a throw away comment about how my Dad's favourite music is Reggae, and now he wants to have a whole conversation about it... Um... like my food is getting cold, dude, fuck off. The best moment of the night was when we were walking out of the centre... a six foot blonde Amazonian super model walks out next to MoonFlake, and starts checking her out. The super model even doubles back after we are outside to "throw something away" just to get a second look. Damn... so close to some real HLA, but yet so far... Anyway... watched TV and thun went to sleep... woke up with a serious Sinus headache that I have still not been able to gt rid of... I need more sleep. And my dad gets back from JHB tonight, so no more sleeping at the office from tomorrow... damn! 02 February 2004Ok... now I am depressed... no Firefly tonight... seems there are no more to be seen as no more were made... Americans suck. What did I do this last week?
Yep... not much to say... dull weekend... I am debating on whether to actually stay up for the Super Bowl tonight. It's the Carolina Panthers versus the New England Patriots... yeah, I also said "Who the fuck are they?"... but I have been doing nothing but sleeping this weekend, so I might be able to watch it and not be a zombie at work... |
