Category: IRL

Boomba latty

Things are going swimmingly for me right now. Work is great, the wedding is coming along, and I love my house. On that last note, we did a phenomenal job of getting everything moved into the house. Thanks to the help of a handful of incredibly dedicated family members, we got everything we own moved in in just two days. Of course, anything that isn’t furniture is still stuffed away in boxes (aside from the Wii), but I think that the wife-to-be and I are going to have a lot of fun getting everything unpacked. I enjoyed the process of getting all my crap boxed away, so I can only imagine that getting it back out is going to be just as fun, if not more.

The only facet of my life that isn’t perfect right now is my weight, and considering how everything else is working out, I really shouldn’t be complaining about it. But my health is important!

It’s not really that I’m terribly unhealthy. I’m in fairly good shape for someone with a gut the size of mine, and it’s that gut specifically that’s the problem. Try as I might, I just cannot drop the weight. I’ve been doing really good lately too! I’ve slowed my sugar intake significantly, and have been making a solid effort at getting more fruit and veggies into my diet.

I’ve been getting regular exercise too, which I hear is important. I walk up and down four floors worth of stairs several times a day, and walk back and forth three blocks to and from my bus stop. I try to go out for a walk two or three times a week, as long as the weather is decent. I’ve even been spending about half an hour a day playing Just Dance 3, at least five days a week. It works up quite a sweat, and it’s the closest thing I’ve found yet to a truly fun way to exercise.

There’s a barely visible Cadbury Creme Egg under my monitor stand at work, and it’s been there for almost a month now. There was a time, not too long ago, where that thing wouldn’t have even lasted a day. But it’s there. Partly as a testament to self-control, and partly because I’m often too busy to remember it’s there.

All of this effort is for naught though, because since the last time I weighed myself I have actually put on weight. And it’s not muscle either, because I’ve just been doing cardio and aerobics as far as exercise goes. Sometimes I play with the 10-pound dumbbells, but not in any way that would build any serious muscle mass. So I don’t know what to do. Maybe the fat is just waiting to drop off after a while, but I’ve been doing this thing for well over a month now. I would like to see at least some small results.

And all this work because 70% of my wardrobe looks awful when stretched around my belly. I don’t even care about being trim for the wedding; I just want to be able to wear my Goonies t-shirt without being embarrassed.

/venting

Separation anxiety

It’s hard to think that in less than a week I will no longer live in the room that I’ve lived in for roughly twenty years. I’m not going to lie; I think I may be more anxious about leaving my home behind than I am excited to be moving into my very own house. I am excited, mind you, it’s just that I have an old soul. An old soul that’s afraid of change.

I spent the majority of my Sunday afternoon last weekend tearing apart the room that I worked so long and hard to build. Given, that just means taking down posters and stuffing all my crap into boxes (and boy howdy do I have a lot of crap!), and I’m still not done yet. I keep hesitating to start packing my clothes because I keep trying to tell myself that I have more time and that I’ll still need them. I know that once my wardrobe is boxed away that it’s just going to get that much more real.

It… it looks so alien to me without all the posters and CD racks and all my other stuff. Those bare walls may not look like much, but they cleave through my soul like a gunblade through Squall’s face.

I know it’s a necessary step, but it’s a scary one. I love the comfortable safety of my parents’ house. I love not having to worry about bills. I love being able to walk upstairs and know that there will be food in the fridge. A month ago I was really confident that I was ready to grow up, and now it’s way too real.

I suppose that if there’s a silver lining in this, something that quells my fear and keeps me from running away and hiding in my room, it’s the knowledge that I’m going to get to live every day from now on with the woman I love. She’s the reason I do everything I do, and this is certainly no exception to the rule. I know that without her that I’d probably be a deadbeat living in my parents’ basement for the rest of the forseeable future. I will never take for granted how good it feels to have someone there who motivates you to be the best person you can be, who brings out all your best qualities. I love knowing that no matter what hardships I face, she will be there supporting me all the way, and that I have the opportunity to do the same for her.

I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again: I’m lucky to have her.

I may be anxious about moving out, but I have nothing but excitement for my pending marriage.

4 (four)

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of my first date with Stephanie. Between house and wedding expenses, we were too poor to make it one of those stereotypical anniversary date nights, but I got to spend it with her and that’s all I need to be happy. It was a great night, and I’m lucky to be with someone as perfect as her.

Back in January we splurged on tickets for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, the corresponding concert having been a couple Fridays ago. They were a little more expensive than I’d have liked, but we agreed to claim that the purchase was our anniversary gift to each other. We went to see TSO a couple years ago for one of their Christmas shows, and I guess I don’t really need to mention that they left a good enough impression on us that we went back for a second round. To date, TSO is the only act we’ve seen twice.

The concert’s theme was Beethoven’s Last Night, and I don’t feel like trying to explain it, so here’s a link to the Wikipedia page. All you need to know up front is that TSO is a group that highly values both metal and classical music, and plays a stunning combination of the two. Despite my hipsterish nature when it comes to music, I really love it when rock acts cover classical music, so this kind of stuff is right up my alley.

The show, as I’d expected, was amazing from start to finish. Having a narrative in your concert might seem like something that just increases the delay between songs, but I find it extremely captivating. Musicals and traditional opera, I have a lot of trouble swallowing, but rock operas are one of my favourite things in the whole wide world. It was also nice that after the story was over, the band just kept playing. I think the total length of the concert was two and a half hours? Something around there, anyway.

I don’t really have any strong opinions left, so here’s a really low-quality YouTube video of a couple songs:

Here I go a-counting

Oh my goodness you guys, accounting.

So I do that now. Professionally. Semi-professionally. Training to be able to work in the field with an air of professionalism. It is my position title. It’s repetitive, and tedious, and really, really not at all exciting. I love it. I’m the kind of person who can while away hours days grinding experience in old-school RPGs, so this really is a good fit for me.

I only recently realized a possible subconscious reason I’ve been so gung-ho to get into accounting. And I am taking that knowledge to the grave. Let’s say it’s an “unfinished business” kind of thing.

And that’s awesome and all but there’s nothing really interesting to say about my days at work: I plug in some numbers and then plug in some more numbers. Rinse and repeat. Once in a while I stop to pay some bills, which results in more number-pluggage. Anything I do think would be type-worthy information is Top Secret. I suppose it’s notable that riding the bus to and fro again has been considerably more pleasant than I’d expected, aside from occasional bouts with light motion sickness. I’m a little disappointed that it’s been a dry well for StreetPasses so far. But I’ve only been bussing for a week, so maybe everyone who rides with their 3DS was on vacation over the last week.

In other news, I’m doing something completely crazy: I’m writing an article. Yeah, you know, those silly things this website used to be built on? Maybe you don’t know. It’s not a thing I really do much anymore. Anywho, it’s a classic-style article. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that it is not about video games. SHOCKER! The only problem left is that I seem to have completely forgotten how to write at length about silly things that are not projected onto my television/computer screen. This could be a terrible idea.

Now you’re in my house

So I got this “house” thing during the week.

I don’t actually get to use it for almost two months, but damn am I glad the hunt is over. All the lawyer and banking stuff that I’m wrapped up in at this point is a little annoying, but our realtor is making life really easy for us, and it’s not nearly as stressful as the process of looking for and bidding on a house.

I’ve been working on a budget for us, and at this point it looks like we may have to choose between internet and food. So my blogging time is probably going to be limited to work hours.

J/ks, we’re not really that poor. We’re definitely going to need to make every penny count for the first little while, though. Why didn’t anyone tell me that being a grown-up would be so expensive? But uor parents keep telling me that we’ve got a big score to look forward to in the way of wedding presentation, which should help make ends meet for a while.

All financial worries aside, I’m very excited to finally have my own place! I just wish we could move in a little sooner. It’s going to be amazing to not have all of my stuff crammed into one room 🙂

What? I have a blog?

You know what sucks? Finding a house. It’s not really a terrible process but it sucks up so much of your free time… Actually it’s not that bad, but between that and wedding stuff and work it’s very hard to make time for stupid things like maintaining a blog. I don’t even really have that much on my mind lately, so it’s not like I have a need to blog that is going unsatisfied.

Anyway. You ever heard of Lana Del Rey? I hadn’t, but for the duration of January, my Xbox decided that I really needed to know about her and what a great singer she is. Generally I don’t listen to my Xbox’s music recommendations, but worst case scenario, I’d be GISing a pretty girl. It was from that subsequent Google search that I learned she had a song called “Video Games” so okay. This is going well, might as well look into it. Also the word “sexpot” comes up a lot, but that is irrelevant.

I also learned from the Google search that she had recently “bombed” on SNL, and that the internet was making a really big deal of it. So while I’d never heard of her, she was known to people who hate comedy.

I continued to take my curiosity to YouTube, because it seemed like the quickest way to get the deal on this chick. The first song that came up was “Blue Jeans” and I listened about halfway through the song before I clicked back and loaded up the “Video Games” video. That one lasted until about the two-thirds mark before I closed the browser window.

Lana Del Rey’s music strategy is apparently to make it as unbearably boring as she possibly can. Adele, despite all the hype around her, is boring as fuck, but at least she sounds like she’s interested in the songs she’s singing. Lana, on the other hand, seems to be boring herself to death and sounds like she’d rather be stuffing her arm in a meat grinder than recording a song. I don’t know if she’s just purposely trying to act aloof, if that’s going to be her thing, but it certainly doesn’t make me care about her music. I suppose it beats being another Gaga. Don’t misunderstand me here, because I don’t think slower, more somber songs are bad. I like dark, artsy stuff, but it has to be done right. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is one of my favourite Beatles songs. Matthew Good’s Hospital Music is an amazingly deep album. Lana Del Rey just fails to interest me at all.

Normally I would just brush an artist like this aside and completely forget they exist, but the fact that that she called a song “Video Games” makes me semi-involved. Actually, it doesn’t involve me at all, but it’s something I want to ramble on about. So this song is dreary and boring and just not fun at all. Unless this is a song about Tom Clancy video games, that’s really the opposite of how it should be. Actually it’s not really about video games at all, it’s just a word she ends a few verses with. And an easy way to bait nerds like me into paying attention.

Regardless of whether the song is actually about video games though, I feel like a song called “Video Games” should be fun.  You know, like video games. It’s a legitimate reason to use chiptunes. Though it would be unfair to blame the actual music here. It’s not bad, and I probably wouldn’t mind listening to it if it weren’t overshadowed by the insufferable vocal track. Video games are fun, they are there to entertain, to help people forget their woes for a while and have a good time. This song is exactly the opposite of that. Yeah, I guess there are boring and depressing games, but they generally are not good games.

Speaking of YouTube, the video is pretty stupid too. Actually, so is the video for “Blue Jeans.” They’re both dumb viral/hipster mash-ups of other people’s home videos, with little bits of Lana making pouty faces spliced in. I mean, I’m not sure if they’re actually real people’s video bits that have been collaged together. They could absolutely be staged. But the fact of the matter is that the videos are completely unrelated to anything and only serve to bore me even harder.

Her Wikipedia page makes it sound like Del Rey put the videos together on her own. Given the amateurish quality (and blatant egotism), I could believe that. The only times collages aren’t stupid are when children make them (because it’s cute) and when somebody makes one that’s actually meaningful. These videos aren’t meaningful: they’re just random clips hastily slapped together. No relation, no progression, no reasonable deeper meaning. It’s just stupid hipster garbage.

So the music and videos are all absolute hipster fodder (except now that she’s getting popular, the hipsters won’t have anything to do with her), but Lana herself… not at all. She’s still a far cry from trash like Britney, but she’s got a fairly mainstream popstar look to her. And that’s just not acceptable. If you’re going to act like a hipster, look like a hipster. Get you some thick black glasses, a bad haircut, and a goofy hat at least. Probably a year-round scarf would be a good idea too. Or, better yet, just stop making lame-ass hipster songs.

So yeah, if this thing seems detached and poorly written, it’s because I was trying to stretch my thoughts too thin. I really just wanted to complain about a couple boring songs. And hipsters. I’ve been reading too many long, thoughtful blogs, and have forgottent that my sweet spot is more in concise, to-the-point writing. Also I haven’t blogged in like forever. Give me a damn break.

I am ego

Last week, there was a big celebration for work. Part of that was having a team of two from each branch compete in “Minute to Win it” challenges. Somehow I managed to convince everyone from my branch that naming our team “Team Ryan” was a good idea. It was that or “Team Jacob.”

All in all it’s just a…

…nother dent in my car.

You can’t see it very well in photograph, but most of my driver’s side door is crushed ever-so-slightly inward. Some old lady backed into me as I was heading back to work with my lunch, and even a delicious Subway sandwich couldn’t assuage the sadness caused by having to spend the next 40 minutes on the phone with some MPI monkey.

TE @ C4

It’s gotta be… weeks now since I went to Central Canadian Comic Con. It was cool, I must say. Though I guess I’m not as much of a nerd as I thought it was because it was (local) Nerd Mecca and I wasn’t super-psyched about it. Oh well. I took a few (blurry) pictures while I was there. Everything from Minecraft to papercraft, and even one ass that did not belong in that costume. Actually I took a few pictures of those, but I figured one is enough to prove my point and deleted the rest. Be thankful. There’s an alternate universe where this post is all pictures of asses that shouldn’t be seen by human eyes.