At my final improv class, the teacher recommended that we see the movie The Party, starring Peter Sellers. So I decided that I would buy the movie and have a movie night for any of my classmates that wanted to come. I went to Best Buy and picked up a copy of the DVD for about $10. I’m presently getting ready for it. However, I have developed a slightly cranky mood.
Yesterday, I saw in the London Drugs flyer that they are selling the camera I recently got from Best Buy for $70 cheaper than what I purchased it for, 29 days ago. I figured price protection would still be on so I went in today with the receipt and the flyer.
Price protection at Best Buy apparently only lasts for 14 days for digital cameras.
So now I’ve got a bad relationship with my new camera. It’s been fine, but whenever I look at it now, I’m going to think that I could have gotten it for 14% cheaper if I had waited two weeks. And it isn’t like I’ve taken any important pictures since I got it.
It didn’t help that after I was shown the door at Best Buy, I went to Superstore for groceries and saw “The Party” for only $8.66.
My timing sucks.

I read an article today that just hammers home how out of touch the record companies are with the average person.
Apparently someone wrote a song-lyric search program. That’s a great idea. So often I hear a song on the radio and decide I want to purchase it. The radio stations are loath to tell you the artist or song that was played, so frequently I will try and remember the words, then pump them into Google with the keyword “Lyrics”. That will often tell me the song in question. It has backfired occasionally where I get the song, but with the wrong band. A song-lyrics search program sounds like a good way to cut out the middleman.
Now I find that a record company is suing the creator of the program. They claim that it “enables people to copy and download lyrics. Inevitably this will enable people to download lyrics owned or controlled by this company, Warner/Chappell Music Ltd.” Of course, it also acts as a nice gateway for people looking to purchase the music.

Morons.

I haven’t updated in awhile and for that I apologize. Life became busy.
I had thought that after my final improv class on Tuesday I would be able to write something. But there was an after class party that lasted until midnight. I wasn’t that able to think coherently enough to biograph after that.
And really, nothing interesting has happened. My parents have gone home. They left Monday, despite a large snowstorm that almost shut down the QE2 highway that connects Calgary to Edmonton. That snowstorm did cause me problems. I slipped on the ice a bit in my car which caused me to nudge the curb. With the temperature below -20, that caused, well let’s just say that hubcap plastic doesn’t bend when it is that cold.
It’s not a lot of damage, but it does annoy me. There has been a vague thought on my part to look into getting a new car soon. My car is functional, and in fairly good condition. It is a 1998 Honda Civic, and it has less than 35,000km on it. (No typo there. I really don’t drive very much.) I saw a new Civic a few months ago and they are sweet. And after my mortgage is paid off, I will need to reward myself somehow.

So I had the improv show today. It went well. It was a short gig, so I was only in three scenes. The first one was rather bad and I would like to forget about it.
The next one was better. It was a game of chapters. Basically the MC calls out the random chapters of a story. The name of the story was, according to the audience, “Antler surprise”. It went quite well, telling the story of how a man in Millwoods hates the antelopes that keep going through his garbage. He makes the community board enact a law of no antlered animals. Then another couple finds a dead antelope. It is baked into a cake and served to the antelope hating man. It even has bone marrow in it for his son with cancer. Unfortunately, after eating it, it was found out to be poisoned because they wanted to put the son out of his misery.
Of course the synopsis was in order. The actual play bounced around.
The final set was a bunch of plays about Christmas. We discovered:

1. If you are giving your son a rifle as a Christmas present, don’t tell him you killed Santa with it.
2. Rudolph is a complete jerk to the elves.
3. Don’t feed giant cakes to people with anorexia.

I would like to point out that improv is very rarely politically correct.

My parents are here now. Their arrival gave me an opportunity to do something I’ve wanted to do for awhile.
I ran to work.
Work is about ten to eleven kilometers away. I’ve never done it before because I only ever wanted to go one way. So while I could get to work, I didn’t want to try running back home again. Since my parents were here, and picking me up from work, I got my wish.
Of course I arrived at my company rather smelly. It was minus fourteen, with bit of a wind chill, but I still sweated. I had a plan for this too. Last year the Club Fit in the building tried to convince the new tenants to become members. A bunch of us went on the tour. Generally, I figured out it wouldn’t be worth the money. I get more than enough exercise with my regular running routine. But the benefit of the sales pitch was that they gave me a business card. On the back of which was a free pass to the gym.
So I used the card, took a shower and then left. Never even touched an exercise machine.
Normally such an act would cost $10.

Is that all I talk about these days? Improv. This is twice in a row.
Previously, I have had improv classes on Monday. I don’t like them then. I seem to have gotten less sleep and I’m cranky. Snarky even. I stay up too late on Sunday, because it’s a day off and I figure I can, then I have to jump right into the weekday schedule and I’m shot.
So, Tuesdays good. Except today I screwed up. My parents are visiting this Friday, so I was up late trying to get the place in order. Still not done, and lots to do. The main area looks nice though.
I thought the improv class would be bad. I was out of it almost all day, and I was dreading the class tonight. But I zoned out for fifteen minutes and accepted that I hadn’t had enough sleep. It wasn’t blissful unconsciousness, but I guess it was good enough. I perked up and I was pretty functional for the rest of the day.
And the class tonight was awesome. I felt I was doing good scenes. Now I don’t feel bad that I missed the annual general meeting for my condo. In fact there was one I was dreading that I did okay on. We were tasked to do an improvised scene completely by ourself, with no input from anyone. When an audience member doesn’t like what they are seeing, they get up and leave, until you are left with no one. The problem is that you have a tendency to think up a scene beforehand. I was getting an entire play coming through before I went up.
Then I was honest, and ditched it and tried something else. The teacher had inspired me by saying it was okay to fail. So I made my attempt. People left, but I was told what they didn’t like. Now I want to try that scene again but with the improvements suggested to me. I believe I’m going to be on stage this Sunday, so I think I might be able to work it in. Unfortunately, there would be a good chance my aforementioned parents would be in the audience.

I went to an Improv jam session today at 7:00. If I was a good Edmontonian I would have watched the Grey Cup. But I have never watched or participated in an organized sport, so why should I start now. I do enjoy listening to people discuss sports, and I can keep up part of a debate by regurgitating what I have heard from others.
The jam ended at 9:00. I asked if anyone knew the score while we were leaving. Someone said that when he had left his car to come, there were four minutes left in the game and Montreal was ahead by five points. Oh well, I guess Edmonton lost.
While driving home along Whyte avenue I heard car horns honking. My first reaction was that an ambulance I couldn’t see was trying to get through. Then I noticed that there were a lot more police patrolling the strip than usual. That’s when I started to suspect something else. When I got to the Gateway Boulevard crossing and saw people waving flags, I figured that Edmonton came from behind to win.
But I still don’t know the final score.

At dinner we had a political discussion. The following conclusion was made.
“The Bloc Quebecois should go national. They are a conservative party that isn’t run by Stephen Harper. I’d vote for them. And they want to get rid of Quebec.”

I have no need to write now. I just feel the need to keep updating the journal.
After the previous weeks, I’m not interesting right now. My major excitement has been going to a doctor’s appointment, where he wants me to have “nerve induction testing”, and he set up an appointment at some other doctor for February 14th. So at least on Valentine’s day coming up I have a chance to be groped by someone.
I got a call today from a gril trying to get me to come to a seminar tomorrow for their travel agency with a free draw. It’s supposedly 90 minutes. I’m very tempted to cancel. I’ve got enough deficits in my time budget that I shouldn’t go. Still, it gets me out of the house.

Today was painful.
Yesterday I ran 23km. Actually running for the first time in three weeks. I was out of practice, but I kept up and even led. This morning my legs informed me that they were protesting the workout by leaving me with a dull pain every time they moved.
It didn’t help that I seem to have blisters on the outside of my ankle, in the same spot on both feet. I guess I should have used better socks.
And yesterday, I didn’t have dinner. I attended a brunch, so I wasn’t hungry. I sated myself with a small piece of cake from a Chinese bakery, but it wasn’t nutritional in any respect. So I’m assuming that was why I was out of it today. Sleepy. Headache. Lack of concentration.
To ease my pain, everyone at work got new Aeron chairs. Comfy, but I can’t move as much in them. I like to put myself in a new posture defining position every so often, and with these I’m confined to sitting up straight and attentive.

I had the MRI today. I had originally thought there would be an arthogram too, but after talking to me, the physician decided my doctor didn’t know what he was talking about. An arthogram is only needed if you have a dislocated shoulder problem. I do not.
I divested myself of all my clothes and metal and was shoved in the pleasant plastic tube. I concentrated on keeping as still as possible. I really focused on my breathing, trying to keep it minimal. Good thing they weren’t scanning my stomach.
I was out quickly enough. I could have headed home, since I had told work I would be there all afternoon. That would have been true if I had had the arthogram. Still, I’m a good worker drone and I went back to work.

I’m 32 today. It’s been fairly low key. I invited some friends to join me for dinner at the Sawmill. They have a nice prime rib there, and a fantastic complimentary salad bar. So right now I have a large weight in my stomach making me sleepy.
I wanted to buy myself a birthday present, but there really isn’t anything that I want/need. I just got a replacement camera, and maybe that is my present. I thought of an iPod, but there isn’t a pressing need for one, and I really should wait for the next generation of the video. The XBOX 360 isn’t out yet, and it won’t have any good games either. Besides, the last one I only got because of peer pressure.
I guess today is just another day.
Tomorrow I look forward to getting stuck in a high priced medical machine that will hopefully reveal what is going on with my shoulder.

I did some camera swapping yesterday. I went to BestBuy to return my CompactFlash card I had bought. They took it back without any problems. But I also saw that if I buy a camera through them, I get a free printer. So I bought one, got the free printer and on the way home, returned the old camera to Future Shop.
I’m feeling a bit bad. I have a perfectly good printer at home. It is a bit lower on ink than when I purchased it. I’ve never replaced the ink cartridges which shows how much I print. It was easier to get a completely new printer than to think about replacing them.
What a waste.

Ah the sweet addiction of having a watch again. I went to London Drugs last night and picked up one. It is still in the same Ironman series I always buy, but it is slightly upgraded. The water resistance is the same, and I will be abusing it at the same level as before. It does have an interesting watchband that I’m worried will be a headache to replace when it wears out.
It’s nice being able to see the date and time whenever I want. It just gives me that moment of peace that I need.
I also bought a camera yesterday. I didn’t really need one except for a project I’m working on. The one of taking a picture of the building across the street being built. It’s getting harder though because it is fairly dark when I leave for work, and completely dark when I get back. I probably should have just given up and saved my money for other things.
A problem with the camera is that it, like all cameras these days, uses SD memory, instead of CompactFlash. So my old media is worthless to me now. However, I did buy one less than 14 days ago from BestBuy. I’m going to see if I can return it. But first I have to get the data off of it. I’ll try and do that at work today. A co-worker has a CompactFlash reader I can probably borrow.
As an aside, I started working in Edmonton on November 13th, 1995. So I’ve been gainfully employed in this town for ten years.
I’m thinking of re-evaluating my priorities that have been keeping me here.

At the resort they were handing out rum like candy. When I left I had three 1L bottles. I purchase what I’m told was 1L of good rum from the duty free store.

Canada customs only allows 1.5L. Based off of parental example, I hid the free bottles and declared only 1L. They searched and found them. I got fined $32.68. The customs guy was friendly about it and did tell me I did indeed have good rum.

Afterwards he said if I had admitted I was over, they would have just waved me through.

My gut instinct is usually that honesty is the best policy. Wish I had listened to it.

I’m waiting an hour for my flight to Edmonton. I’m still fairly alert, even though I didn’t sleep. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was more interesting.

I’m in my nice big spacious Air Canada jet with many empty seats waiting to go to Toronto. There I will connect to another flight that will get me to Edmonton after 1:00 AM.

I was happy with that plan. I had a small concern that it would be too late to catch a shuttle bus home, but I can always pay a bit more and take a taxi.

That happiness is in question now. As I look out my window seat, I see a WestJet plane sitting on the tarmac, two gates down. The airline that prides itself on serving western Canada. I have no idea where its going, but I suspect that that flight would have been much more efficient. Probably passing through Calgary.

Meh. I’ve got lots of space here to try and sleep, and the Toronto stopover is short. I’ll check with WestJet and find out what plane 201 was doing in Montego Bay later.

No worries, Mon.

I napped on the bus to the airport. I don’t know exactly how long it took to get here. I think it was over two hours.

Part of me is hoping there is a bad inflight movie that I actively don’t want to see. Last year, both flights had interesting movies so I stayed awake all day. An almost total lack of sleep meant I was unconscious for most of Sunday.

Tomorrow, if I’m conscious I want to do a morning run and then attend a brunch at a friend’s place. I did however RSVP with an escape clause of being awake.

I checked out of my room an hour before the bus left. I asked the receptionist if I could fill out a report on the theft of the camera. They called security and the chief met me.

One of the first questions was “Why didn’t you report this two days ago?”

…

What the hell have I been doing for the past two days everytime I go to reception asking about it!

The laid back Jamaican attitude is totally incompatible with my lifestyle choice. That I have to adopt it since my watch broke is infuriating.

I don’t know what it is, but my improv skill set is starting to surface. A worker here made a comment about being my girl when I said I didn’t have one. I took that and ran with it. The truth was out, I always wanted her. In improv terms, I accepted her offer.

A few seconds later a beautiful German girl asked me if I was involved in the show tonight. I was only a teamster, but I showed her the schedule I had. She didn’t like it. She needed to go at a different time. Nothing I could do about it, but she started up in German with what I believe was swearing. So I joined in and also sounded upset in German. Since I don’t know the language, let me emphasize “sounded.”

I’ve gotten from Tom a CD of all the pictures I lost. I checked them on Sophie’s iBook. They are there. Now I just need to stop locking myself out of my room.

I did more juggling too.

I was stiff this morning. I guess I had too much fun yesterday.

I still don’t have a camera, but I’m having a nice time sitting in the shade updating my journal. My time estimates are getting very vague now, because I was using my camera as a back up watch.

I found my PADI card, which means I don’t need to replace it, but might have been the only identification in the camera in case the thief got a conscious.

I brought two pairs of sunglasses and I can’t find either.

I’m going to buy some personalized shell souvenirs. I just need to figure out who I like enough to give them to.