So Cybernaughtyka was a bust. The music was the standard goth industrial that doesn’t tickle my fancy. The fashion shows were poor compared to what I’ve seen in Jamaica. The venue was fairly cold. The live band could have literally phoned the performance in. They, Noisex (“In noise we trust”) spent the entire time looking at their computers, which as near as I can tell were their only instruments. And I don’t want to call it music, when it was, well… noise.
The high point was the beautiful bartender Colleen. I hanged around the bar most of the night (wallflower, er… barflower) and talked to her. I bought her a drink, and gave her my number. I think that’s the way I’ll do things now. If she isn’t interested, she doesn’t phone, instead of stringing me along. She didn’t give me her number, so I’m not expecting anything to happen.

I have got to get the lactic acid out of my legs. Best solution: take a walk.
I took that walk this morning to the Rowena store. I didn’t need to go, but it was a conveniently far distance away. I have a hard time taking trips with no purpose. I need a destination.
We’ll gloss over the 19km run I did on Sunday that took me back where I started.
There was nothing at the store that I wanted. I really am not in the market for celtic crafts. (Cute clerk though.) But I thought they might have something appropriate for the social gathering I’m going to tonight. It started twenty minutes ago, but I know that I shouldn’t be there right when it opens.
The temperature has dropped here. Yesterday it was a high of +9. Today I think our high was -11. There was a bit of snow this morning, but it didn’t feel like it wanted to be there. It’s friends are coming this evening with a heavy snowfall warning.
In other news I finally found the book “Dragon Venom”. Too late for my caribbean trip. I’ve already sucked down a large chunk of it.
But now I’m going to go off to the event.

It’s a matter of public record that I hate Christmas carols. I guess I’m too cynical, but around Christmas time they just sound like advertisements, and no one seems to play them in August when they feel much more appropriate.
The one carol I do like is Carol of the Bells. It doesn’t sound like it is trying to be cheerful. As I’ve said before, “Doom is coming… for Christmas!” I thought I was original when I spoke that attitude, but I bought the script to TJ Dawe’s “The Slipknot” and he voices a similar opinion.

Everybody knows the Carol of the Bells…
The version they play on the Shopper’s Radio Network is a choral
And it sounds like someone slipped the choir something–they are wild-eyed and intense
…
Scariest Christmas Carol in the World!
And it’s made even worse by the fact that I think it’s really similar to the theme music from The Exorcist

So then, yesterday I poked around the iTunes store looking for a good version. Most are sung by chipper pop stars. I found the irony of The Canadian Brass version amusing (Let’s do the Carol of the Bells without bells!) The best seems to be The Mormon Tabernacle Choir version. Still they don’t have the fear of god in their voice while singing it, which defeats the point.
My point is that I listened to it a lot yesterday and it is now stuck in my head. So I found myself whistling a christmas carol this morning.
Bitter irony.

Finally!
The iTunes music store has finally come to Canada. Apparently at the lowest prices in the entire world. $0.99 Canadian for each song. I just bought myself one.
I’m not particularly proud of my choice, but it is a song I want, from a group that I don’t want the entire album.
In my head I’m planning on allowing myself to buy one song a week. But I know I’ll run out of songs quickly. I don’t listen to that much music.

For the first time, the music I’m listening to is relevant to the journal entry.

I filled out a lot of free contests at the taboo show. I’m now on the phone with someone who says I have a free vacation. It sounds wonderful. Orlando, Daytona Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, then a cruise to Nassau. There are a few fees involved, but nothing major.
He wants my credit card expiration date.
None of your business.
He makes a nice spiel how this is totally safe, but I’m not about to let him put $698 US on my credit card for a two person vacation which I just have his word on.

But there is that small part of me that wonders if I’ve just passed on a fabulous vacation.

I’ve been planning on taking a vacation to Europe next summer. I’ve been thinking of it for over a year, but I fear it is about to fall through. I was planning on going with but he has gone on gotten himself engaged. So I doubt he is still going to do the Europe thing. And I really don’t want to go by myself.
I suppose that there is still a chance he will go, but it won’t be the exciting debauchery he has described happening in the past. (He’s clinically dead now.) I need more debauchery in my life. I can’t seem to find it on my own, so I was hoping to get direction from someone more experienced.
I better plan a different vacation.

I don’t like KFC. I know this. It’s been true for years. But it seems that every year or so I need to remind myself. There is a KFC right next door to the Running Room. And today, after the run, I got a good whiff of grease and started craving. Dinner was just supposed to be leftovers, so why not. In I went, and ordered a meal.
Yep. Stay the course. KFC is still bad. Anemic chicken. No special taste that I can remember. That’ll learn me.
The run itself: They keep making me the group leader for the “5 minutes per kilometer” group. Being a power made dictator I took a detour through the legislature. They had just put up some lights, so it looked very nice.
My legs were killing me. I apparently haven’t been properly recovering from my longer runs and have a build up of lactic acid to deal with. So I need to take a walk.
Speaking of pain, my back is hurting. At first I thought my posture was bad, but I think its because I’m trying to do some exercises first thing in the morning. Literally roll out of bed and strain the body. No warm up or anything. So I think I’ll hold back on it for awhile.
I haven’t been sleeping that well lately either. I seem to wake up at around 5:30 and then can’t get to sleep. I pretend, but it’s not the same. Hopefully tonight will be better.

I haven’t updated in awhile and I apologize. I don’t really have any excuse. I’ve been playing Halo 2, which means I don’t have anything interesting to write about.
On Friday I had a D&D game. I think I’m losing interest. We are starting to play so irregularly that it is hard to keep paying attention to it. But the last game was easy because the players had finally gotten to town and wanted to spend their money. I even gave them interesting NPCs to deal with.
My friend Jake, and his girlfriend run Nightshade Corsets. I’m not in the market for one, so I’ve never purchased from them. However, they were having an exhibit at the Taboo sex show that is happening this weekend. So, to show my support (yeah, that’s it) I went down to see them. (The irony of me going to the event is not lost on me.) The show itself wasn’t that great. There seemed to be some exhibits there that weren’t really in the spirit of the theme. Really, dear steaks?
This morning I ran 19km. We were supposed to go on the winter route, but I am so sick of that, that I convinced my small group to go someplace else. So we ran into a totally new place for me. It really helps keep your interest to see new sites. Afterwards I went to brunch.

Today there was the annual general meeting of the condo board. It’s the one where the peons get invited to have our say. Unfortunately, the condo board is bleeding and is looking for new blood to sustain it. Through no fault of my own, I got volunteered to join. I’m not especially happy about this because I seem to have enough time management problems as is.
Still, I should revel in the power.

I did my civic duty today and voted in the provincial election. There were a number of hurdles. Foremost is that everyone knows Ralph Klein is going to be elected premier. He’s been practically daring people not to vote for him. Second, I really don’t know any of the candidates in my new riding. None of them have done anything noteworthy for me. So I’m going to vote Green party. You get a nice feeling when you vote for them. That, and they appreciate your votes so much more. With Conservative you are a face in the crowd. With Green, they will probably celebrate every vote. Third, it took forever to vote. With the municipal and federal elections it was a five minute deal. For this provincial election, the voter lists didn’t have anyone in my building on it (I met two other groups of my neighbors at the polls) and there was a long line just to get into this place. The media kept predicting low voter turnout because the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Didn’t seem to happen.
In other news I finally got the last check for my stock sale a year and a half ago. When my old company got bought out, they kept 18% of the money to protect against unforeseen expenses. There were practically none, so I’ve finally gotten the remaining money. The bad news (considering the good news of a large influx of capital) is that it is all in U.S. currency. And those stupid Americans keep ruining their economy by electing dumb presidents, meaning my check is worth less and less. I love that the Canadian economy is firing on all cylinders, but I keep getting American money that is turning into monopoly money.
Still I have a nice chunk of change. I’m hoping that the Americans can get their act together so I can make a good deposit towards my mortgage.

I went to New City tonight. I really didn’t want to. I still feel tired. But I have this $50 tab that I feel I should use. So off I went. I bought drinks for all the people I know, but I stayed with the non-alcoholic beverages. My vacation taught me that alcohol has no benefits, so I see no reason to change my standard pattern.
The night was also disappointing in another respect. In Jamaica, everyone dressed up beautifully. Now New City isn’t my vacation, and the people really don’t dress up. It takes a bit of acclimating to lower my expectations.

I phoned my sister this morning. When I wished her happy birthday, it was a surprise. She had forgotten that it was today. On a similar note, my parents had forgotten my birthday yesterday. It was only through a third party that they realized it today.
Today has been a fairly good day. For the first time since working at Shana/FileNet I have gotten birthday cake. When I first started there, they ended the birthday celebrations in October. Last year they started it up again in December. I had to share the celebration with the other two people who have it in November.
Of course I brought the Erik method of thinking to the whole affair. The people are there for the cake, not the singing of the songs. I got approval from the other birthday celebrants, and as soon as I got to the kitchen with the cake, before everyone had arrived, I started the cutting. Let’s get this cake out to the people as soon as possible.
I noticed that the sign next to my office had had a modification. Previously I was just a “Developer”. But it had been modified, probably stolen from someone who had left, to say “Senior Developer”. I was hoping this meant some promotion I was unaware of, but neither my manager nor his boss had any idea. I took the modification down.
The run this evening was good. For some reason I was feeling exhilarated. It was only three degrees out, so it was good enough for shorts and a t-shirt. I always get a thrill when I’m dressed like that and I pass someone bundled up in a large coat for winter. Invariably they look oriental. You can draw your own conclusions.

So this was my birthday. Pretty pathetic. No one phoned me. I had to organize my own party. Well, it suits my mood. At least the people who joined me for dinner are saying that there will be cake for the Random Acts of Gaming we’re going to have this Friday.
In other news, I finally tried out Halo 2. It’s weird. I’m unused to the levels, so I’m exploring anew. I’m finding the weapon system slightly confusing, and I seem to just be sticking with plasma rifles. I did try out XBox live and I was very impressed with that. Previously, with MechAssault, it took forever to get a game going. You had to join someone’s game, hope they didn’t kick you out, wait for others to join, then hope the game doesn’t get cut out in the middle.
I just clicked XBox Live with Halo 2 just to see what my options were, and before I knew it, it had found several other players for me, set up a game, and away I went. Total time, less than thirty seconds. Cool.

All I did today was sleep, There was a brief interlude of browsing the web and eating breakfast at one o’clock in the afternoon, but really, I needed sleep. At around seven, I really started getting hungry. No food here, so I went out to Funky Pickle and got a slice of pizza.
It’s my birthday on Tuesday. The vacation was good, but not awesome. Technically I’m supposed to do something rash. To too tired to plan that though.

I just arrived home. Quite traumatic really. I left Jamaica at +30 degrees. Toronto was +3 degrees. Edmonton is -3 degrees.
I kept journal entries of my trip and I’ll see about putting them in here, backdated.
Feeling really tired now. I’ve noticed the occasional hallucination. The timezone change and the only sleeping three hours last night seems to be catching up to me.