Tuesday, February 15, 2005, 03:34 p.m.
Hmm, long time no blog, truth is, I've been sick over the last week, and ended up reffing with a small fever, and writing two midterms while coughing. It never really got bad though, I'm practically over it completely. Now I can look forward to a nice break, especially since I'm going to Whistler tomorrow. I don't care if I'm not skiing and there is no snow, it's still Whistler, damnit. Guess I'm not going to Sushi this evening. Partly because if the costs (don't forget, some of us work for our money and don't even get to keep all of it), but also it just seems to me a very large group. I'm a very private person myself and I prefer groups that are small, you know, just *the* group. So when there's a bunch of people I don't really know I'm not too comfortable so I will just rather skip out and do some house chores today. Speaking of which, my fish tank grew some odd organisms which I have decided to eradicate (no, not my fish), so I will spend a good portion of today cleaning that mess up. Otherwise, nothing else really happened except my email conversation with crazy anti-flower woman in Sunday's Province. Pisses me off that the new editor of the Province refuses to publish my letters. Not to worry, I'll get to that bastard eventually

Friday, February 4, 2005, 08:07 p.m.
This week has made me tired and sleepy, and I didn't even have that much to do, other than Sociology mid-term and a French test, both of which I have thoroughly fucked up. I have a streak to maintain, dammit! I think the climax was on Tuesday, when I spent just over 12 hours at UBC. I came for Psychology at 9, then ate, then skipped French, then studied at Koerner for four hours, then reffed for three, and then finally left UBC at 9:30, therefore being away from my house for 15.5 hours. At least reffing is fun. I am getting the hang of it, although last Thursday the ball did nail me inappropriately.

Today I snuck into the top of Buchanan E and fouind the home of the Creative Writing department and Prism Magazine. Other than my two lonely manuscripts they had a shitload of envelopes stacked in a box, so if you think I thought before my chances of getting published aren't great, now I'm feeling small and insignificant. Not to worry, I shall crush them by sheer statistical probability. You know, if I send a million manuscripts, one of them is bound to be accepted. The CW department wasn't much help, since I have to go back at the end of February to get any actual information for next year. Not much left to say other than it seems to finally chill down at Whistler, so odds have it it will start snowing there real soon. YAY!

Oh, and thank you to Cat for a lovely birthday picture frame. She is so cool!

Wednesday, January 26, 2005, 10:58 p.m.
I have found myself uncharacteristically busy in the last week or so. Behind in readings in most of my courses I have spent most of my time trying to cacth up, while also occasionally referring, clearing out Lego debris, and reading books at my leisure before bedtime, which has caused me to get little sleep on weekdays. Hopefully I can curb that trend today by falling asleep before noon, considering I only slept 4.5 hours today. Yesterday I decided to swallow the last 100 pages of the Da Vinci Code and all I can say right now is "wow". The twists kept messing with my head and I SO did not see the last one coming. I can't wait untill the movie in 2006 which is hopefull because it stars Tom Hanks. Speaking of movies coming out. I should finally finish War of the Worlds before the movie comes out, and this one I also can't wait for. Oh, and there was a balckout around my neighbourhood this morning, so the emergency vents came on in the buildings at around 6:30, so not only did I stay up late, I woke up early too, and was thoroughly pissed during the day. I was still surprisingly upbeat albeit slightly disoriented.

Monday, January 24, 2005, 08:27 p.m.
I'm not sure how long this is going to take me so bare with me. Just to make it slightly more interesting, I will also bold some half-truths, with accompanying explanations. Enjoy.

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula. Well, I poked it.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said �gI love you�h and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise. Well, I saw it through a window
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables. It was a lonely tomato
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars

21. Changed a baby�fs diaper
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
28. Had a food fight
29. Bet on a winning horse
30. Taken a sick day when you�fre not ill
31. Asked out a stranger
32. Had a snowball fight
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. Held a lamb. No, but I did chase some sheep witha shovel
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. Taken an ice cold bath
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. Seen a total eclipse

41. Ridden a roller coaster
42. Hit a home run
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
48. Had two hard drives for your computer
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts. So far, after two days working.
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. Had amazing friends
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
55. Watched wild whales. Dolphins are whales.
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe. More like, wore a backpack in Europe. Close enough.
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government�fs official in that country to avoid notice

61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger�fs table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow. I saw it, so it's closer than most people come to it
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. Lounged around in bed all day
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to �gLet�fs Get It On�h by Marvin Gaye
76. Kissed in the rain
77. Played in the mud
78. Played in the rain
79. Gone to a drive-in theater
80. Done something you should regret, but don�ft regret it

81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who�fs not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better
84. Started a business
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
86. Toured ancient sites. Turkey is awesome
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman. They were sticks, but the rest is true
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. Gotten married
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. Loved someone you shouldn�ft have. This needs no introduction
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy. I dunno, I really don't think *I* should be the one answering this
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. Made cookies from scratch
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice

101. Gotten a tattoo
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on
103. Rafted the Snake River> I rafted *a* river.
104. Been on television news programs as an �gexpert�h
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place
107. Got so drunk you don�ft remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. Performed on stage. *shudder*
110. Been to Las Vegas
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. Had a one-night stand
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. Bought a house
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Made a movie. THis one is tricky
120. Been on a cruise ship

121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. Read - and understood - your credit report
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
132. Called or written your Congress person
132a. Had them write back
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. �c more than once?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn�ft stop when you knew someone was looking
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn�ft have survived
140. Wrote articles for a large publication. THe Province is large enough

141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. Petted a stingray
145. Broken someone�fs heart
146. Helped an animal give birth fish count�c
147. Been fired or laid off from a job. Fucking Subway
148. Won money on a TV game show
149. Broken a bone
150. Killed a human being. David Li is NOT a human being
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. Ridden a motorcycle
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. Ridden a horse. It ate my pants! Don't ask ...
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet

161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than US states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. Had your picture in the newspaper. Youthink has news, and it's printed on paper :-P
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime
173. Changed someone�fs mind about something you care deeply about
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name. I've been a Misha, a Mikhail, a MIke, and a Michael
178. Petted a cockroach. Avec un slipper
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad

181. Selected one �gimportant�h author who you missed in school, and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them
183. �c and gotten 86��ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. Taught yourself art from scratch
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. Skipped all your school reunions
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you�fre living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn�ft know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196. Dyed your hair
197. Been a DJ
198. Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199. Written your own role playing game
200. Been arrested

Monday, January 24, 2005, 06:53 p.m.
This entry is only being used to test if I can bold. Please ignore it. The obscenely long list itself will soon follow

Monday, January 24, 2005, 12:10 a.m.
Although this weekend seems wasted, it actually isn't, since I spent most of my waking hours on activities that could be stated concretely. Three hours were spent doing something that I cannot tell one person, but all the others know, so *sticks tongue* at other person. Don't worry, you'll know soon enough. I also went through 200 pages of Jane Eyre, upwards of 200 pages of the Da Vinci Code, some Psychology reading, and some pointless French studying. I also spent several hours rearanging several tonnes of lego pieces into organized piles. Trust me, there is reason to my madness. I was also reviewing Sarah's list, my own story of which should be appearing soon on this very blog. Oh, and lest we forget the backpack that I was forced to wash over the weekend. I don't know what the hell happened, but after the rainfall, the stench it emitted became unbarable, so I was forced to soak it, and then hope it didn't explode in the dryer, which, by the way, it didn't. Okay, there was something I wanted to say a second ago, but now I forgot. Ah well, I'm sure it'll be on here soon.

Friday, January 21, 2005, 12:09 a.m.
Reffed my first two games of women's ball hockey today. It wasn't so bad, but with the lack of physical contact, minor rule breaking, and goals, there wasn't much a ref like me could do, so it was pretty damn boring. But nevertheless, the girls are more fun to listen to than the guys, because they take the game much less seriously and try to have fun out there. There is an upside to no calls though -- I go home, and I don't have ringing in my ears from all the whistling. Oh, and a funny for today: Brian, the game supervisor, has to ask all the players for their jersey numbers. However, since this is the beggining of the season, most people don't know the procedures yet, so most of the girls thought he was asking for their phone numbers, and the reactions that followed were hilarious. This also rubbed off on me since I was scared to ask for their numbers during the game, but they're not idiots, so no awkward "I got lucky" moments for me.,

Tuesday, January 18, 2005, 09:52 p.m.
I actually thought of reviving my blog after a billion years of idleness ... hopefully somewhere out there still reads it, but spread the word that I'm updating again anyway. Many many things have transpired within the last half a year, none of which I am going to go into, because you've probably heard it all before. At some point in the past I was promised a new layout, *tap* *tap* that's possibly coming sometime soon, but I know someone is busy so I will not put a rush on things, considering they are already doing me three simultaneous favors right now. Thank you Cat. Not much more in the musings column for the day, but I have a feeling I may wake up on the shores of Richmond tomorrow. I dunno, but something about living next to a river when so much rain is coming down makes me uneasy.

Thursday, July 29, 2004, 10:18 p.m.
I have seen the replay of the final intramural hockey game and one thing still puzzles me, my public humiliation and yelling at by the end of the epic match up. Now I�ve waited to see the replays and this is what happened. TJ with the bad knee gets murdered twice, and bench players call for vengeance. The game is winding down and we need a little kick to carry us on. So I�m set out against Nick Pei and check him from behind into the bench (honestly, I thought the shot was cheaper than it looked). There�s a bit of commotion and people begin to stir. The penalty shot doesn�t get scored. Under a minute later Sabbuh tangles with me in our zone and ends up punching me, causing a penalty shot which we end up scoring on. Now, my question is how come I got called off the floor after that play in the most unpleasant manner? Seems like my plays ended up in a plus one advantage, and I�ve missed the part about hockey where it�s so shameful to retaliate against players to stir the team. Now to you this may not seem like that big a deal, but I am puzzled, disappointed, and a little angry at the reaction my work for the team had caused. I would either welcome a good explanation to what was so terribly wrong about my actions (which I would accept, granted circumstances), or an apology for my public humiliation. I don�t know who fucked up, but whoever did, we need to sort this out.

Monday, July 26, 2004, 10:13 a.m.
9 points! I was 9 stupid little points away from $1000. That's 3 points per exam, 1 right question per exam! 9 fricking points! *sobs*

Wednesday, July 21, 2004, 01:42 p.m.
Wednesday July 14th: Olivia McCormack, aka Faith, of YT, posts a request for scripts which she needs for her independent film company based in Vancouver. I send a private message to inquire whether I could send a couple of short stories or just help them out in production.

Thursday July 15th: She approves of my short story idea, so I post four summaries: Tannenbaum�d, Calendar Leaves, Poison Darts and Last Ride In. She asks me to send all of them save Tannenbaum�d. Upon first read she loves Calendar Leaves and sends it to the director, �Dudzik�. Dudzik ends up loving it and tells Olivia to start making it into a script. I end up looking this Dudzik guy up, and he is Martin Dudzik, eighteen year old film producer who was born in Poland. He runs an independent film company and his films have won various awards at local film festivals including the Canadian International Film Festival. Things are looking quite optimistic.

Friday July 16th: No news about the script, and more research into Dudzik�s website. For an eighteen year old, he seems determined.

Saturday July 17th: Olivia is having busy day so is hard to contact. I�m thinking about how the scripting is going, and wandering what they�re going to change.

Sunday July 18th: Olivia apologizes for long silence, and says she�s been busy. Script is about half way underway, and though Martin�s reading other ones, she says the script has 90% chance of success. I download two of Martin�s films available on the internet, and am very impressed by the 13 minute shorts. The directing and cinematography are great � superb movies for an eighteen-year-old, now I will only feel proud to have my story made into a movie by him. btw, movies are available for download at www.dudzikfilms.com .

Monday July 19th: 11:11:11 pm, email arrives from Olivia saying there is �great news about the script�, tells me to contact her on MSN next time I�m on.

Tuesday July 20th: Contact Olivia via MSN and learn that scripting has finished and Martin approved CL for filming on Monday. Olivia says my job is pretty done except interview for the DVD and I have to talk to Martin and the producer �Anthony�. Calendar Leaves should be finished by the end of the year.

Well, talk about an interesting turn of events. This underdog story is actually going to be a movie now, *my* story is going to be filmed! Wheeeeeeee!

Saturday, June 5, 2004, 09:14 p.m.
Mmm ... first rejection letter.

Saturday, June 5, 2004, 01:14 p.m.
Well, Grad dinner/dance is over, and the empty feeling of two weeks ago had returned, worse than ever. Now I really can�t quite think and function the way I�m supposed to. Yesterday was fun though. The music was a little loud but was nothing two Excedrin pills couldn�t handle. The food was okay I guess, but the desert was awesome, especially the brown goo. If it was up to me, I would just eat desert. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and by the end a lot had fallen into place. The last song of the night was a perfect fit, I�ll tell you that much. Fortunately, our trip to 2nd beach didn�t get rained out this time, and we had a pleasant sit on the log, and then again at Blenz coffee. I did end up forgetting my camera in Anthony�s car though. So, the next morning the memories are fresh and the emotions are raw, but that incessant feeling is there, and it just won�t go away. Grr.

Sunday, May 30, 2004, 12:18 p.m.
Well, it took a while, but I'm finally done, and the result isn't as dissapointing as last time, albeit also slightly predictable.


You are Casualty. You are serious to such a point
that people wish to follow your wake. You are
logical and focused, and yet unconventional.
You try to pass your ideas on subtely, and when
you talk, people listen.

Which of Michael's stories are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sunday, May 23, 2004, 09:03 p.m.
In the last few days it has come to my attention that I need to fight the war in which every conceivable chance is pinned against me. I�ve been thrown into a lose/lose situation where I must evaluate what I value most and make an according decision sometime within the next ten years. I am faced against powerful brainwashing techniques. I am the rock that is chipped away by a steady stream of water. I don�t know how well or how long I will last, but you will not see me give up. My priorities are on the line, and there is absolutely no way around it. I�m locked in a battle of psychology where my opponent is much more experienced than me. It has definitely not been easy, and neither will it be at any point. I wish for all the help I can get in these troubled times. I know the odds against me are harsh, and I know the things said to me are weighing me down, but I will resist with the last firing brain cell. I am the underdog, but let�s not underestimate me.

Saturday, May 22, 2004, 01:39 p.m.
That, my friends, was another step into oblivion. Having just woken up after the events of last night I feel strangely empty, like I usually feel after times like these. It was all fine and good yesterday, but after a night�s sleep, there is a void I can never succeed in filling. It�s a funny worrisome feeling � I try to escape it but it just lingers above me like a dark cloud. That being said yesterday was more fun that I had expected. Usually things like that go terribly wrong for me at one point or another, but despite the pacing and tree eating, the evening concluded in a sensible manner. Now I don�t know whether I should count this morning�s feeling as something going wrong, but I�m just desperately waiting for it to go away. Either way yesterday went great: some very memorable moments, some ups and some downs, some usual Michael crap, and some interesting weirdness. Just to prove how odd I feel right now, I can�t even write a decent blog entry about yesterday, but as my closing comment I�d like say something that started as a petty joke, but turned into a profound wake up call. Now that we lost the first American Pie bet, let�s swear to keep the second one.

Saturday, May 8, 2004, 02:13 p.m.
Let's see what the next round does with my prediction record. Right now I'm tied with Indy for second behind Sam.

San Jose in 6
Tampa in 5

Saturday, May 8, 2004, 02:09 p.m.
IWell needless to say I improved my playoff record in the last round and bumped myself up to a cool .500

Calgary in 6 [Calgary in 6]Bang on! No one had faith but me
Colorado in 7 [San Jose in 6] The Avelanche were the most unpredictable team this year, and I'm glag they're gone
Tampa in 6 [Tampa in 4] I really thought the Habs would put up a bigger fight
Philly in 6 [Philly in 6] Bang on! The Leafs are golfing

Saturday, May 1, 2004, 11:41 a.m.
Oh well, might as well do some procrastinating before I have to study. Grr, half of my Saturday is taken away from me � long story.

//10 bands/people you like
1. Green Day
2. Sugar Ray
3. Bare naked ladies
4. Treble Charger
5. Sting
6. Foo Fighters
7. Matchbox 20
8. Tarkan
9. Sum 41
10. Eve 6

//09 things that annoy you:
1. some members of a certain family
2. 80�s fashion
3. particularly leg warmers
4. the Maple Leafs
5. Jason Wu � period
6. Gordon Cambell
7. Darryl Sutter
8. People who think they�re smart but are, in fact, quite sad
9. the heat when I have to study for exams

//08 things you like to wear:
1. khakis
2. shorts
3. Canucks Jersey #1
4. Canucks Jersey #2
5. cargo pants
6. t shirts
7. almost any form of footwear other than sandals
8. ice skates

//07 things you�re looking forward to:
1. The end of the beginning.
2. the Cuban dance! The Cuban dance!
3. UBC
4. The IB Dinner/Dance
5. summer
6. potentially winning the hockey pool
7. 10.5 and The Day After Tomorrow

//06 things you say most everyday:
1. What the fuck?
2. What?
3. Oy
4. Only you
5. Oh dear fucking goodness!
6. grr, going to hurt him
//05 things you do everyday:
1. Watch hockey updates
2. brush my teeth
3. read
4. attempt to advance money making schemes
5. procrastinate

//04 people you want to spend more time with:
1. no comment
2. Sarah
3. Catherine
4. Chen

//03 movies you could watch over and over again:
1. Matrix (the FIRST one)
2. Jurassic Park (cute little lizards)
3. MIB

//02 of your favorite songs at the moment:
1. Foo Fighters � Fly
2. Green Day � Poprocks and Coke

//01 thing you would wish for:
1. To prove my prophecies

Wednesday, April 21, 2004, 07:00 p.m.
I have found myself in desperate need to improve my playoff record. So here goes nothing.

Calgary in 6
Colorado in 7
Tampa in 6
Philly in 6

I am so going to lose now.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004, 10:16 p.m.
I have made a terrible discovery. Turns out my intuition when it comes to hockey is brutal:

Detroit in 7 [Detroit in 6] Not bad, not bad at all
St. Louis in 6 [San Jose in 6] Well I *thought* the veterans had a chance
Vancouver in 6 [Calgary in 7] I'm going to cry now
Dallas in 5 [Colorado in 5] Could I be more far off, I guess I keep underestimating these bastards, and Turco was terrible
Tampa in 6 [Tampa in 5] Whoever bet on New York is a fool
Boston in 7 [Montreal in 7] Too tough to call, besides, rooting for the habs
Philly in 7 [Philly in 5] NJ always chokes
Ottawa in 7 [Toronto in 7] Also too close to call, but the Sens have died, once again

This leaves me at 3/8, which is terrible, to say the least

Tuesday, April 6, 2004, 06:54 p.m.
I've neglected my blog for a while, and it seems I owe a real entry, but sorry kiddies, it's not coming. Here are my, for once not late, playoff predictions:

Detroit in 7
St. Louis in 6
Vancouver in 6
Dallas in 5
Tampa in 6
Boston in 7
Philly in 7
Ottawa in 7

Monday, March 8, 2004, 10:18 p.m.
I would like to start with a disclaimer to my previous entry which most deffinetly a frustration, fatigue and concussion induced rant.

Anyhoo, what has happened since the day I almost died? Well, landmines sleepover was a hilarious event interspersed with some unpleasentness, but that's not important anymore. I really liked the staged pics we got on Eric's camera, and some interesting reactions from Antonia the following Monday. It was also an interesting feeling waking up at 3 in the afternoon after only four hours of sleep. Deffinetly won't do that for a while.

Ah yes, got published in Youthink magazines this month. So my goal is technically complete, but I wanna see if I can get published next month too. It'll be a stretch but certainly a wrothy challenge. Anyhoo, YAY for me!

Wednesday, February 25, 2004, 10:38 p.m.
I don�t want to get a fat head, nor I want to be arrogant and condescending, but you know the Warhawks are playing like a bunch of losers when I end up being one of the best looking players out there. Yes, we were whooped by the Young Stars, even though the score was only off by one goal. But we were sad to look at.

Here�s a bit of a reality check for our superstar goal scorers; I�m not pointing fingers but you know who you are. Hockey is not about the goals, or the fancy moves, it is about WORK. And that was the one thing that was missing today from our game. 2 on 0? 3 on 1? What the hell is that? You try explaining to me how I have +3. I can�t run. I have a frickin heart murmur and can taste blood ten minutes into the game. And somehow I manage to pull off a few extra steps to hit the ball out of the stick, to tie the person down, or to push them out of a playing position. Me! Okay, let�s get the facts straight � I have no stick handling, I have no endurance, and I have no physical strength to speak of, and yet I manage to pull it off. The reason is teamwork. Anthony is right, there is no teamwork, but it�s not even that, it�s team mentality. The reason I play till I die is because there is a team behind me � my one mistake burns the entire squad. If I hit a stick, and the ball doesn�t fly, I don�t give up, I chase after the person until I have exhausted every possible option. And exhaust them I do.

Don�t take this as a hockey lesson � I should be the last person instructing how to play. But take this as a general league lesson. We aren�t an elite team; we might not even be a really strong team. So we need to go into each game thinking we�re Pittsburgh, and that we have got to give up our lives for the game. I�m not good and get frustrated at crapiness, but I try till I die and I�m frustrated by the attitude. If the Warhawks want to win, the Warhawks need to play the win, not the goals.

On the brighter side of the game I provided several comical moments one of which resulted in severe pain � that is all.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004, 08:30 p.m.
Die tagboard!

Sunday, February 1, 2004, 12:22 a.m.
Figuratively speaking, today I went off to war. And I have no idea when I'll be back.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004, 09:55 p.m.
I would like to take a moment to look back at 2003 and look at the theme songs of the year and give their significant lines:

January� �Hang� by Matchbox 20. �And we always say, it would be good to go away, someday. But if there's nothing there to make things change, if it's the same to you then I'll just hang�

February & March � �Back 2 Good� by Matchbox 20. �Well it�s over now, and I don�t know how; there�s no getting back to good�

April � �Shed a Tear� by Wet Wet Wet. �I�m gonna shed a tear for you today. For love, love I gave away, Oh I gave away�

May � �Drops of Jupiter� by Train. �And tell me did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there�

June � �Heroes� by Wallflowers. �We could be heroes, just for one day�

July � �Adam�s Song� by Blink 182. �I never thought I�d die alone; I laughed the loudest who�d have known?�

August � �Stay With Me Heartache� by Wet Wet Wet. �Stay with me heartache so I can keep it right. Another day with the heartache. You know I can�t stand the night�

September � �Goodnight Girl� by Wet Wet Wet. �And I won�t tell a soul, I won�t tell at all. And do they have to know? And do they have to know? About my goodnight girl?�

October & November � �Times Like These� by Foo Fighters. �It�s times like these we learn to love again. It�s times like these and time and time again.�

December � �Hanging by a Moment� by Lifehouse. �I�m falling even more in love with you. I�m letting go of all I held on to�

Monday, January 19, 2004, 07:26 p.m.
Since nothing much happened since, other than a boring weekend willed with homework and no fun due to some unforeseen circumstances, I will complain a little about Friday, which was clearly a Shatterday.

I must say that day absolutely sucked. I woke up feeling moody, as I realized that my one-and-a-half hours of sleep were going to be broken up, so no resting was to be expected. Then stuff at school piled on from Thursday, and then came some minor events that seemed major due to circumstances. It seemed most of the people around me were out to tick me off, despite being asked politely (and then even not politely) to go easy. Badminton was full of injuries and more grumpiness, and my Sushi dinner didn�t have much Sushi in it (honestly, that *was* my fault). Then came the plays, where I had the unfortunate displeasure of bumping into two people I hope I could avoid for the rest of my sane life. And if just seeing them wasn�t bad enough, they were obviously laughing at me. Ha-ha, very funny, it�s Mike. You know, eventually those smug smiles will be wiped off your faces, especially you Vickers, and even though I probably won�t be the one to cause, I sure hope I�ll be around to witness it. Then trouble at home pushed me to the verge of nervous breakdown during the plays, and after listening a to a fifteen minute lecture once I got home, I finally went to bed and woke up on Saturday. Ugh, thank God that day is behind me.

Thursday, January 1, 2004, 12:38 a.m.
Happy New Year!!!

Wednesday, December 31, 2003, 02:54 p.m.
�Go take your soul make an ode to the lonely hearted�

2003 and I didn�t start off on the best terms. I was running into the year, just to escape the fiasco that was 2002, when 2003, a big burly man three times my size, stuck out his arm and floored me yelling, �And stay down, bitch!� You can see how the relationship was fairly shaky from the start. I had to recover from the shock of the previous year. My growing obsession with someone was on the rise, and my relationship with one of my best friends was idle, at best. Ignoring everything that happened to me I marched into January, at the end of which I was hit with a major slapper of my own stupidity. Genuinely scared at how far I can go, and at how close I was to completely putting an iron lid on two very important friendships, something snapped in my brain, and the road to recovery had begun. By April, the recovery had been finalized, and a year�s pathetic journey came to a happy conclusion. However, one other major timeline was going nowhere; well, it was going somewhere I didn�t like � acceptance. One person stuck by me all the way, tried to be optimistic as possible, and helped me out when I was down. To them I am eternally grateful and I don�t know what I would�ve done without them. What helped me keep my mind off things was intramurals. And even though I was far from the best on the team, and our team record wasn�t so hot either, we still managed to keep together, and I still managed to enjoy myself and maintain my sanity. In April Bobby and I organized a new hockey pool, bigger and better. With a cool winning pot of $40 bucks I had fun keeping up with who was in the lead. The playoffs gave a few surprises, like the Ducks. And, seeing the Canucks advance past the first round for the first time in my fan life was pretty damn swell. Speaking of playoffs, right around the time of the beginning of second round we started working on the French Project, though the help of which we acquired an irreplaceable member of the group, good �ol Anthony. Indy, Anth, you guys remember watching that playoffs game on the floor of LD, damn good times! Anyway, I took a whole lot of physical punishment during the filming of that video, but, it was so worth it. Soon after came the year-breaker � Newcastle Island. Dr. G. in his repertoire scared us all into thinking that it was going to be all work and no play, but he lied, again. It was some work, can�t say it was grueling work, but most of it ended up being play. Being introduced to Spit was great, as I had that 40 minute game with Will Cho while listening to the Canucks beat the damn Wild in OT, unfortunately the last win of the playoffs. I will always remember that, Spit in the twilight, and Arash celebrating the wrong team�s goal. And despite all this greatness, the second day outdid the first one by a million. The day itself was crappy, but, who would think the words �Which team are you on?� could be life changing? Well they proved to be. My optimistic, yet skeptical, ally told me to look both ways, and with their help, my life went on to the mend. A week later, 2002�s damage was undone, and 2003 could then work its magic. Canucks got knocked out in a dismal display what was �supposed� to be playoff hockey, but our intramural team managed to win one game in the playoffs, so the season wasn�t that big of a downer. Group 4 put a little strain on things once again, but as resilient as we are, and despite how whiny some of us are, we managed to stick together through the hard times and come up with a decent project. With some IB stress the school year was behind us, and a new era had begun. Anthony, Catherine and I discovered that walking around pointless has its own rewards, opening up a lot of room to loiter in the proceeding months. Around this time I had also realized 2002 was taking revenge from beyond the grave. Quickly placing the issue in the back of my mind, I decided to enjoy the summer. Bard was much more fun than I had expected, even that one day when I had to stand under the pouring rain. Our endless walks continued, with trips around False Creek, downtown, and Stanley Park. Early July Vancouver won the Olympic Bid, for which I woke up nice and early in the morning. I don�t think I�ve ever been this nervous and succeed. I was damn happy about the decision; it�s just so � exciting. Somewhere mid-July I took up that job at Subway. Annoying work, yes, but I needed the money. Fortunately I had quit by mid-August, so I still had time to enjoy the rest of my summer. Some good times at the PNE, I enjoyed myself thoroughly and I didn�t waste too much money unlike the year before. However, I did come to realize that the issue no longer wanted to remain in the back of my head, and that it had spilled out; well, I was going to live with it regardless. With an awesome lazy summer of Bard, Subway, pointless walks, Jackpot, Bullshit, Fireworks, and doing nothing, we were ready to face our Grad year in style. Early September I was ready to brace for a similar situation that I had experienced last year, and although I had promised myself to keep it bottled up under any circumstances whatsoever, other promises I made to other people made it rather � difficult. So that�s how early September, trapped, I was forced to spill � and in the immortal words of the great Wray, what ensued was �fucking hysterical�. Unfortunately other circumstances resulted in my lying to my friends, which was � painful to say the least, and this carried into the great IB retreat. The retreat, under the iron fist rule of the Dictators � I mean Directors, was all work and very little play. Due to some piling up circumstances I was led to a nervous breakdown by the end of the second day, but the next day, I was fresh as a cucumber � almost. Conversations on that retreat were of utter importance, some more than others, others just hilarious, all in all, the good outweighed the bad. With October began a new age, an improved age, a better age, but with that age, came side-effects. Seems that any behavioral change on my part from the on was blamed on that one sole thing � which did not make the going easier. I had completely given up on Sexsmith hockey, as the experience I felt took too much time out of my day, I was too cold, my heart can�t handle it, heckling is not fun, being benched is not fun, and not improving is not fun. So, in order to weasel my way out of practices I found excuses such as hurt hand, sickness, weather, and homework. And even though these excuses are perfectly truthful and legitimate, people, who I assumed were my friends, made assumptions. Somewhere there we went on that Toronto trip for Smartask. That was another one of this year�s greatest moments. I really did like Toronto, and got to spend my time with some of my best friends. Good job guys, one win and no humiliating loss is something to be proud of! That whole experience could be summed up with me chasing pigeons on Yonge Street at four in the morning. And, no, I will never get tired of that line. EE was an experience not nearly as painful as I had expected, even though the end result was crap. The Warhawks started their new season, and even though I am taking a backseat to the organization, I�m still enjoying the season. The winter holidays have been a blast, with skating and general outings, although nothing can beat summer 2003. The end of the year has been powdered up a little with some rare snow, so good old 2003 is going out with a blast. So what legacy has 2003 left? A fix to two of the biggest problems I had, the problems that were tearing me up inside. The present it really made was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me, something that keeps me alive, sustained, happy, eternally happy. A great summer, a great, and a great year altogether. But 2003 hasn�t left yet, and there are already clouds brewing on the horizon, as no year can be without its flaws. Something is going on that eludes my grasp � it�s where one thing comes together, and in another strands are loosed. So, 2004 decided to show itself a challenge early on. But I will take it, because nothing will fall apart as long as I care. Nothing

2003, you gave me too much, and for that I thank you. I hope 2004 will follow in your wake, and bring with it life and prosperity.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003, 11:12 a.m.
I really do have to hand it to Vancouver weather, it's actually snowing more than one day a year this year. And since it's actually sticking at my place, this is real snow, and not fluke snow. Granted, it's a little late, but if this lasts untill New year's I'll have my first white New Year's eve in ... five years, i think.

Thursday, December 25, 2003, 12:36 p.m.
Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 24, 2003, 10:33 p.m.
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, I�m lost. Looking back at the entry from last year�s Christmas Eve, I can�t help but be amazed how far I went in the last year. To me, Christmas now means so much more, as all my one true Christmas miracle came true. Last year I wrote: �I can't believe it actually snowed today. I think, it's a great omen for the coming year,� well it actually was quite a good omen, as 2003 has got to be one of the best year�s of my life, but more on that later.

Once again I am quietly celebrating Christmas at home with my small family, but unlike last year, I have reasons to live through this day. Life doesn�t seem as bleak anymore. And even though it�s raining outside, it�s no longer raining in my heart. Thanks to everyone who make it possible. Life may not be perfect, but if the following year learnt anything from this past one, things can only turn for the better.

Guys, anyone who is reading this blog and actually cares, thanks for being there for me when I needed it, and thanks for being there at any other time. This may very well be our last Christmas, and let me take this opportunity to say, may all your Christmases be as great as the one I�m having now. You deserve it, because you made my life possible.

Tuesday, December 2, 2003, 06:43 p.m.
And now that there is no way for you to reply to my statements, I would like to say i think you are the most pathetic people I have ever met. I hope your lives improve in the future and if they do, you can appreciate it.

Tuesday, December 2, 2003, 06:42 p.m.
Like the new tagboard?

Owned!

Saturday, November 29, 2003, 11:58 a.m.
7.44 is a magical number, as in 7.44 dollars.

So. my cell phone bill arrived for the time including Monday of my Toronto trip. Let�s see, good news number one � you don�t get charged for incoming long-distance calls, good news number two � 25 minutes of out coming long-distance adds up to a cool 7.44 bucks. So that means my next bill will probably have $10 on it, so Indy and the like � I owned you!

Saturday, November 22, 2003, 11:55 a.m.
*cough*SARS*cough*. Bah, I am still very much sick: the stuffy nose from yesterday has improved drastically, but the cough and the fatigue are not going away, even though I have slept eleven hours today, HALF of what I slept in the five nights in Toronto. Anyway, if that�s not bad enough I�ve got two essays to do, read Running in the Family, and figure out which Heaney poem I want to do for my commentary. Also, my mom is forcing me to go to work today � WORK! I am sick and I need to vacuum the entire house and take out a week�s worth of trash anyway, and she wants me to go to work? Even though I probably won�t get stuff done there anyway? Grr, this makes me mad, anyway, I�ll go wander off and be sick some more.

Thursday, November 20, 2003, 06:07 p.m.
After such a long absence on my blog I suddenly make an entry. Why? you might ask. Is it because I had just returned from Toronto and wish to discuss my trip? You�d think so wouldn�t you? But you�d be wrong. The main reason behind this entry is a monument to stupidity

Eh? you say. Well tell you what, if you want to refresh your memory just check out my archives and figure out what happened between entry of the 19th and the 21st. Yes, this is the one year anniversary of stupidity�s greatest hour, of its triumph over humanity, in particular one guy. And though I really do not want to dwell too much on this day, and the resulting five months, I would like to point out that in the lightest terms they were not fun. In harshest terms that single period of my life was the hardest one I lived through. Anyway, the message I am trying to pass on here is that stupidity is a lethal weapon of mass destruction. Not only does it immediately bite the people around you, very soon it comes back and takes a chunk out of your ass so big it�ll be a miracle you get it back. Fortunately I believe in miracles and one such miracle happened to me, thus saving my life as I know it. However, others may not be so lucky. So, please, people, for God�s sakes learn from someone who has been down that road: think EVERYTHING through, you live in a world of people, and your actions affect that world. If you wish to do something out of the ordinary think of the implications of your act on EVERYONE around you five steps ahead. Just, please, think before you do, think really really really hard.

And in other news, got back from Toronto, that was pretty sweet. Needless to say the jewel of the east coast has blown Budapest out of the water as my second favorite city in the world. Honestly, I don�t see what�s so bad about the place. I mean, it�s so much like Vancouver, except it�s a little more American, a little more European, and it has that big city feel to it. It really reminds of Moscow, but in a good way, since I think it�s the improved Canadized version. Anyway, that was my biggest impression of the city. As for the SmartAsk games themselves, those were pretty fun. The hotel we stayed at was absolutely awesome, and our first experience of it was the guy opening our taxi doors for us. Nice! And later we realized there was a business room with an MSN equipped computer. Seen all the good things in Toronto like the Hall of Fame, CN tower, Skydome, Gretzky�s restaurant (where we bumped into Walter himself, and the nice guy let us take some pictures with him). Hmm, I�m sure there will be other smaller stories I�ll tell you all in person (and some of you know them anyway, so what�s the point?). I am not disappointed in our loss, since we fulfilled my expectation of winning one game and not getting killed in our loss, whenever it may come. Well, all in all it was fun, but I am a tad tired (20 hours of sleep in 5 nights can do that to ya).

Wednesday, October 29, 2003, 05:43 p.m.
I don�t know where you people got the fact that I had quit the team, and I do distinctly remember it being in a conversation and not random. Anyway, not only have I not quit the team, I will NOT be quitting the team in the future either. Sorry if this was a �chore� for you and that it �wasn�t worth it�, I already said it would be completely my decision. And about self-pity; I don�t know about you guys, but sometimes I get tired for being bashed on in EVERY single sport I participate, save for curling, but then I get bashed from the outside. I get tired of trying and failing, and I get tired of being the laughing stock of the league. But you know what? Fuck people, that�s what. Fuck PC with their Rays and their Nicks. Yes, they get on my nerves a lot, but so what? Quitting the team is less respectable than clinging on to your last sense of self-esteem and pushing through the season, no matter where it takes us. And if we win, all the better. After all, I did help make this team what it is today, and even if I�m not much on the court, I am a little more off the court. I owe it to my friends, my team, and myself, because if I accept defeat, I will just be telling the current hecklers, and many before them that they were right. Courage is not being unafraid, it�s being afraid and pushing forward, and cowardice is turning back. Well, no matter how hard and futile it will be, I will be there until the end, maybe not in the limelight, but definitely behind the scenes. And even though this may not apply to me, I still have to say: when you step out onto the ice, remember; it doesn't matter how many times you light the lamp behind the net, what matters is how many times you light the flame in the hearts of those who are watching you.

Saturday, October 25, 2003, 10:37 a.m.
Yay! Blogs are working again! Tood bad I've got nothing to say ... well, more on this at a later date.

Sunday, October 5, 2003, 10:17 p.m.
Let�s see, things to blog about � I�m sure interesting stuff happened to me on the weekend, although I can�t remember it right now, all I can remember is that it was a tres bon weekend.

Oh yes, things I do remember happened on Friday though � my first game in about two months. I should say this was a much better performance for me. I didn�t die in the first twenty minutes and survived for the full three hours, I gave a pretty nifty pass to Ray on a goal, I actually scored a goal, and I did some successful checking. Okay, so maybe, just maybe, I�m not hopeless, so there is still a chance I might do something this season.

First day at the flower shop Saturday, which is at Kingsway and Clark, a block away from the house I helped renovate in Grade 10, and, I think just mere blocks away from Sarah and Cat. Anyway, my next Saturday there will be much longer and interesting. And speaking of interesting, I think that�s what this week is going be.

Monday, September 29, 2003, 06:15 p.m.
I hereby present to you an MC Mike-e original smash hit. I think this is the first song I wrote without ripping the music off somewhere. It�s called �Goodnight Par�s�. Not the accent on the �i� denoting the fact that this is a French pronunciation (emphasis on second syllable and silent �s�). I could also call this �ode to twenty minutes walking alone on Kerr after dark�, but the other title is classier. Anyway, don�t judge too harshly/


�Goodnight Par�s�

Everyone�s got someone waiting for them
Everywhere a girl is crying for her guy
Every village�s praying for a lost son
Every street corner has its guy on the run

I�m ten thousand miles away from my home
It�s been three years now that I have been alone
It�s been a thousand towns since I�ve seen her face
Three oceans ago I�ve spat on the human race

But tomorrow I�ll be headed home
And tomorrow, I�ll be headed home, home, home

Goodnight New York
It�ll all be okay
Goodnight Milan
I was lost there yesterday

Goodnight Bombay
You got that certain lure
Goodnight Par�s
Our love, it was so pure

Goodnight Hong Kong
The phone had made me fly
Goodnight Detroit
Her voice had made me cry

Goodnight Berlin
You made me feel secure
Goodnight Par�s
Our love, it was so pure

There�s a sad face decorating each bus
There are boots that will never tread familiar floors
Memories imprinted on the snow banks
Torn up lives lying dead in the forbidden dunes

So many long winters I spent alone
So many hot summers wasted night by night
Every spring I would set out on my way
Every fall the leaves had whispered her sweet name

But tomorrow I�ll be headed home
And tomorrow, I�ll be headed home, home, home

Chorus

From the Rockies to the Andes, the wind had called her name
From Sao Paulo to Sri Lanka, I couldn�t feel the same
From the Danube to the Nile, her light guided my way
From Osaka to Jamaica, her love, always, made my day

Chorus


Fine, it�s crap, so sue me!

Sunday, September 28, 2003, 05:33 p.m.
I'm on a sentimental journey into sight and sound
Of no return and no looking back or down
A conscientious objector to the was that's in my mind
Well leaving in the lurch and I'm taking back what's mine

yes, I�ve been reading through my blog archives and old entries and let�s just say I found them � interesting. I�m so glad that old Michael is dead and would never return to bother us again *phew*.

And on a brighter note, we went to the Canucks preseason game versus Calgary yesterday. I�d say it was a quality exciting game, and the short of it was that the Canucks won and Bert kicked ass. I�m seriously starting to worry about Reid, too much potential for such a small package. yeah, although, I think, even more exciting than the game was my death match against Bobby on Playstation 2 during the second intermission. Sure, we were late for the period, but it was worth it with me snatching the win with only 22 seconds to go in the game. So I�d say Saturday met the standard for the week, as apposed to this boring Sunday that I�m sitting through right now.

Saturday, September 27, 2003, 03:19 p.m.
How can a week that hasn�t even ended yet drown my head in so many thoughts that I can barely concentrate on being bored? Well, what I didn�t think is possible, is so very much so.

Starting with the retreat, or as I like to call it, a prison with rainbow wallpaper. I suppose the activities and some other things were fun, but it�s still all lost in the rigid structure of the retreat and the iron fist rule of the directors. I knew it couldn�t spell good things when you are forced to do a poster while waiting for the blasted ferry. Speaking of activities, here is my breakdown of them :
Kayaking: the re-entry was surprisingly fun, since I had actually done it properly without drowning or hurting myself. Crashing is fun
Group Games: Useless hike, useless games, at least I had people to talk to. Yes, and Chen gave me rope burns.
High ropes: An hour and twenty minutes of wasted time for ten minutes of activity. Being up there with someone who is afraid of heights wasn�t fun. The actual bridge was enjoyable, the rest was like getting your eyeball removed with a spoon
Archery: thank you Sarah from saving me, as I had actually someone to talk to during the rests. I finally figured out how to shoot properly, so I actually enjoyed parts of it.
Canoeing: ugh, so so so many annoying people on that canoe. Especially bothersome was the Jerry and the rocking. Oh well, at least I snuck out of the less interesting activities for that block.
I suppose the food was just like any other camp food. It sure wasn�t great but it was at least edible. The general gist for the first day was good. The presentations were so much easier to watch and they were also funnier because we didn�t have the dork grade above us. The talent shows were � interesting, so I actually think they were an important part of the presentations. I fell asleep after 4 that night, since our cabin participated in various interesting conversations. Very interesting conversations. The second day, for lack of better words, sucked monkey ass. No day can go well when it starts with 2.5 hours of sleep and being woken up to the words �wherever you go, whatever you do�. I have nothing against that song, but not when Jerry plays it full blasts at seven in the morning. Damn bastard. Anyway, as much as quite time tried to relieve this day in all its greatness, unfortunately didn�t lost long enough. Two cups of coffee, being late for lunch, canoeing, and various other things just kept piling on and on and on. At the dance, after the �technical difficulties� decided to cut my song, I flipped. That wasn�t even the worst of it. After sitting it off for 30 minutes at the beach I decided to come back, only, five minutes later, to be hit with another thing that sent me into my first nervous breakdown in about half a year. After returning to my cabin and splashing myself with some severely cold water, and realizing I had a shooting pain in my chest, I cooled down, and returned for the mug up. Only the time preceding the camp fire, and somewhat the campfire itself, sent me back into my groove again, and then some. So, after a rejuvenating half hour or so, I was ready to tackle our night walk on all cylinders. Blast, the teachers saw us � oh well. Wasn�t much talking that night, as everyone had collapsed in the anticipation of a slow, unproductive Wednesday. Not much happened that Wednesday. Quiet time was cancelled, buddy revelations were nothing special, EE session was a bore, and the actual trip home wasn�t much. So I just lived the rest of the day off with memories of the preceding nights.

Now with the retreat behind us, I�d think that would be it, no? Nay, only 1.5 classes that day, since we were going to play SmartAsk at CBC radio (thanks, Anthony, for taping it). Man, I have not been so nervous in my life AND succeed at the same time. So, probably a more grand event for me than for my teammates, but still, we were awesome and smoked. I don�t care that we pretty much didn�t have to do anything to go to Toronto, but for me it means finally going anywhere East of Edmonton in Canada. Congratulations to us again and let�s hope we actually do something in Toronto.

Friday was fun, to put it simply. Pro-D finally means something. Anyway, it�s been a quality streak of Fridays.

The weekend has been proving itself to be painfully slow, but the Canucks game is on soon, so I can only assume that today could try to meet the standard set by the rest of the week. Anyway, it seems like you stuck around for all of this entry, and for that, I thank you.

Saturday, September 20, 2003, 03:28 p.m.
Well another blastastic Friday is behind us. As far as the actual school day went, it was somewhat uneventful. Big Bang has now definitely turned commie, because there is no word for Will other than dictator, unless that word is plastic-bag-candidate. English was a snooze fest, and Bio � well, let�s just say it�s bio.

After school I went with Anthony to downtown to pickup the Giants tickets. Another smooth transaction, I might say. Then we went to our favorite London Drugs (yes, the watching hockey on floor LD). There I found myself a wireless router and a wireless network adaptor. They cost me a nice round sum of $250, so those bitches better work. I believe I installed the adapter successfully because it says �device working properly�, but before that, when restarting the computer, it said it couldn�t find the drivers for it. Anyway, the only way to know for sure whether it works is when I install the wireless router after my dad gets home.

After eating dinner at Anthony�s house we went to pick up the other little pukes, and had some interesting conversations. Fast fact for Anthony: red means STOP YOU FOOL!!!

The Giants game was a whole different story. The place was relatively empty, so we moved up to the glass to have a nice ice-level view of the game. Fun is fun, but I actually got hurt by a body-heck. Sounds impossible, but hear me out: The boards we were sitting next to were lined with nice thick bars of metal. The body check was right in front us, and the wave back of the boards caused the metal to attack my knee. So as Anthony and Bobby (the smart ones) were cheering on the check, me and Indy were swearing from the pain.

Then came the saga with Ref Man Chris. After a few stupid penalties and an allowed goal that should�ve been disallowed, I flipped. Every time he would skate by us I�d yell something at him. Things like �The ref sucks� (well duh!), �Read the rulebook, jerk!�, �Pay attention�, �Chill out, let loose� and my personal favorite �C�mon you striped ballerina�. Of course I did screw up once when my throat was going I said �Don�t quit your jay job�; although I�m sure he knew what I meant. The highlight of that game was when Chris, after being insulted once again, was skating towards the face-off circle and gave me a short glance. I believe my heckling got to the poor schmoe.

In the aftermath, I actually feel a little sorry for him. But it was his fault and he should get used to it if he wants to be a ref.

Anyway, not sure What I�ll be doing next Friday, which is Pro-D Day, but I hope it turns out to be no less grand and eventful.

Thursday, September 18, 2003, 06:13 p.m.
Well I should say that today�s CCBC inaugural meeting went better than flawlessly. I�m really proud of our members and not concerned with their faith to the Canucks. I mean, they ACTUALLY read my article on the bandwagon last year, and they managed to recognize me. I�d say that�s a pretty big accomplishment already. I also almost got a round of applause, but that failed coz many people weren�t paying attention. ooh, I also got to yell �Shut up!� today to a group of people, I always wanted to do that. I�m glad everyone agreed on the fee for the pool, and we might actually make some money off of it if all goes well. Anyway, the point is that Thursdays are going to be more fun than I expected.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003, 06:37 p.m.
The only real words to describe this are: fucking hilarious

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How ASIAN are you?
Brought to you by the good folks at sacwriters.com.


Not really much to blog about, as nothing will ever top my last entry. I still wish you good luck with that, btw. Anticipating the innagural meeting of the CCBC tomorrow, which would most likely include just a discussion about the pool. Nothing much really happened lately, well, nothing I want to talk about anyway. Oh yeah, in Tofino, I completely mutilated the corps of a giant Dungeness crab ... by eating it. I took its head home as a trophy.

Friday, September 12, 2003, 07:18 p.m.
I don't really feel like talking, but I feel as though I owe the people a blog entry. So I'm going to make this short and sweet, and something most of you, well, some of you anyway, won't understand.

Well, on Tuesday it happened again, and I can't believe Bobby was right (Bobbiatch, the death threat still stands), and reality, I think, hasn't quite sunk in yet. I mean, it happened so suddenly and quietly I couldn't respond to it at first. Now I'm in that funk again, just waiting untill I flip out. Well, enjoy.

Saturday, September 6, 2003, 08:19 p.m.
Well I survived the first non-week of school, even though it felt like a month, and whenever you hear things like �IB exams� and �graduation� it feels like an eternity. And in two of my classes (History and Biology) the teachers picked on me first, ME! Let�s just say I handled Homie G much better than I did Ms. Matthews, but at least with her I managed to pull off a comeback. I will neglect to discuss all the scary thing we have to face this year, because, frankly, they scare the shyte of me. Clubs day next week, where I have to do the CCBC, and I have no idea what the club does except try to make money. I just hope that by some miracle it manages to survive into next year. So, after dealing with all the scar-dun-wanna-think-about things, let�s go onto something a little more pleasing. The pool! I had a fun time diving for the key and such. Despite the various pool injuries it was still fun since I got to surf Anthony. BWAHAHA! We have got to do it again sometime, and make sure Bobby goes from the beginning. Sorta kinda looking forward to Bubble Tea on Monday.

Friday, August 29, 2003, 04:52 p.m.
I don't really have much to write about, so I'll just devote this page to the Dream Wars

Okay, so picture this: I am, supposedly, playing laser tag, with people I don't know, with guns that look real, and helmets that allow me to see allies and enemies (allies depicted with green squares and enemies with red circles), and there are like ten allies and two enemies. Anthony's selling ammunition at night on oak st, whilst I play during the day in the Russian contryside. So I play, shoot a bunch of people, one of them tries to trick me with a hologram but I realize it just in time and shoot him, instead. Then, after we won, we put all the equipment back near a beat-up barn, and I apparently borrowed mine from Will Smith, and when I take it off, the helmet looks five times the size of my head.

So there, Cat, you're not the only one who went completely mad.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003, 03:24 p.m.
So, yes what happened Thursday? Oh yeah, the PNE. Went there early in the morning, caught james on the bus, then went to McDonald's (I only bought coffeee, but let me tell you, it's as bad as the rest of the food, save for the sundaes). Starting the outing, as usual, with some mini-golf, where, as usual, I sucked (though I did help Bobby nail a hole in one, but the jackass never paid me back!). Was surprised and dissapointed to see they now force you to pay for Hellavator (even though it improved the ride it's still not worth it unless you're going up at night *awesome* view). Didn't waste as much money this year, although the crossbow game eluded me again. Spent a fair tiem playing airhockey. Bobby may be crowned champion but that last series was something spectacular. All in all I'd say the day was well wasted.

it was Bard Saturday once again, and needless to say we didn't do much. I went to subway to pick up my check, and eat. Then we played cards, then Sarah and Catherine left, then we played more cards, then everyone else left, and I had 30 minutes to just walk around doing nothing before my parents picked me up.

Sunday was painfull, as my uncle, brother and I climbed up to the peak of Mt Seymour, but at l;east this time I had my camera (although the pictures won't be processed for a while). And I'll also teel you this: if you want a good view of the city get up to the first pump, if you want the mountains, climb Seymour.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003, 04:51 p.m.


which pleasure are you?

That was so stupid it was funny

Wednesday, August 20, 2003, 04:23 p.m.
Wow, what just a few months without hockey could do. yesterday was my first game after finishing up that intramural hockey season back in June. And boy do I suck some extra now. Sure I managed to score a goal but the goalie thought I'd go for the pass and wasn't paying attention. Let's see, my shot is now horendously off, since I could barely hit the net yesterday. For some reason I just couldn't get back into my shooting. Oh yes, and pass recepetion is just ugly, but I do have an excuse -- it was pretty dark and whenever the ball went under a shadow I lost all sight of it. Oh well, I need much more practice if I hope to be instrumental in our season, which we're not even sure would happen anyway.

So, PNE trip tomorrow, I'll be sending out emails momentarily.

Sunday, August 17, 2003, 11:06 p.m.
Nas izvlikut iz pod ablomkov
Padnimut na ruki karkas
E zal prigloshennih, mimohodom, v posledniy put� provodiat nas
E zal prigloshennih, mimohodom, v posledniy put� provodiat nas

E paletiat tut telegrammi
Rodnih e blizkih izvestit�
Shto sin ih bolshe ne verniotsia, e ne priyedet pogostit�
Shto sin ih bolshe ne verniotsia, e ne priyedet pogostit�

E tut zaplachit mat� starushka
Slezu rukoy smahniot otets
A daragaya ne uznayet kakov tankistu bil kanets
A daragaya ne uznayet kakov tankistu bil kanets

E budet kartacka pilitsia
Na polke pazheltevshih knig
V tanskistkoy forme, pri pagonah, e yey on bolshe ne zhenih
V tanskistkoy forme, pri pagonah, e yey on bolshe ne zhenih



They�ll pull our bodies from the debris
Place the coffins on their shoulders
And a hall full of invitees will casually walk us to our final journey
And a hall full of invitees will casually walk us to our final journey

And the telegrams will fly out
To inform the families and close ones
That their son will return no more, and won�t come home for a visit
That their son will return no more, and won�t come home for a visit

And now the elderly mother will start crying
The father will wipe away a tear
And the dear will never know how the tank-man met his end
And the dear will never know how the tank-man met his end
And the card will collect dust
On a shelf full of yellowish books
In the tank-man uniform, with the shoulder straps, and he is no longer her fianc�
In the tank-man uniform, with the shoulder straps, and he is no longer her fianc�



Well this is what I was forced to sing on Thursday thanks to a Mahjong bet I lost a while back. Well serves me right for making bets, but it�s as if I had learnt my lesson. NO! I made another bet, lost, and now I have to sing in English. Here, let me strike a bargain for you � let me sing at my house (where I hope we will have another outing before *shudder* school) but I will not only sing the planned English song, but another Russian song, how is that for a fair trade? Anyway, MC Bobby-Ya also performed an interesting rendition of �Oh Canada� and then fought poorly and surrendered readily while playing Poker. Even though I predicted a game session closely resembling that in Friends, I was sadly disappointed, as Anthony pretty much took the pile home. That day was fun, and it included plenty of Jackpot, where *someone* socked me in the jaw. Well, apparently, she got hurt too, and now I feel guilty.

Speaking of Jackpot and brutality; we played yesterday after Bard, which was also interesting since the only person who noticed my new haircut was Anita and her comment was �Nice hair!� At least I was stuck doing the absolutely pointless Satellite, where I had plenty of time to swap Subway stories with Sarah. Now, back to jackpot, Chen and Anthony are obviously crowned champions (Hey! I still have my Bullshit empire, miarharharhar), but at least I got back at Anthony. Let�s just say that he and the ground had a very interesting meeting, courtesy of moi, but then Sam attacked me in the kidney and I wasn�t laughing anymore.

Outing to PNE planned sometime soon, I hope that�ll meet all possible expectations with minimal financial losses (let�s not forget my $90 escapade last year).

Oh yes, and on a final note, good job for the Mariners on winning against Boston and not shitting up the guys� road trip

Friday, August 8, 2003, 01:08 a.m.
Shit, I've sunk to a brand new low.

Monday, August 4, 2003, 11:11 p.m.
Today sucked ... deeply, like no other day off sucked before, but I don't really feel like discussing it.

Yesterday was a Subway Sunday except that Steve wasn't it and Adam filled in for him, and that guy has a magic ability to dissapear when lots of customers come in. He was missing a total of one hour yesterday!

So, onto Saturday. Woke up too early, so why is it that i live for away from downtown only when we have outings in the area every week, eh!? Anyhoo, met at Central, went to Plaza of Nations. Scary bird lady kept singing and took away all my desire to pay any money, so we decided to walk to Bard. At Granville island I was coerced into eating lunch, even though I couldn't finish it so we left it for a bum (I'm sure they will be thrilled out of their panties). We made it to Bard only to realize were were just a tad early, so we crossed Burrard to visit Subway, where I didn't have to work that day!!!!!! Miarharharhar. Anyhoo, then we played Bullshit under my appartment building for God knows how long. Long story short, I rule at that game, or is it just sam is poor at lying, and Bobby is *knock* *knock*, not all there. Getting home was a total bitch, and I'm not talking about getting sam to the bus stop she needed, I'm talking up the brief hell that occured afterwards. I'm talking about busses that refused to show up, lost money, expired transfers, and all that shit ended up getting me home at 10:10. That's almost 1.5 hours after leaving Sam on Broadway. Ugh, I hate busses.

Anyway back to Subway tomorrow, something I won't enjoy.

Friday, July 25, 2003, 07:59 p.m.
so much work and effort I put on this quiz, and THIS is the outcome I get? That is just ridiculous!


You are the Vancouver
Canucks

You
Well, youve made it in the West, but with your
consistency thats about as far as youre going
to get. Heres a hockey lesson for you: there
are 3(!) periods in hockey, so maybe you should
play that much. You like close calls, and
living life on the wild side in general. Coming
back from any deficit, or almost losing after
being in the lead, or losing after being in the
lead all seem to give you some sort of cheap
thrill. Remember, having a good surrounding
doesnt make you a good team, so you have to
work for the money you lazy bum.

Which Canadian hockey team are you?
brought to you by Quizilla



Ahahahahaahha .... oh man ...


You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You
display a perfect fusion of heroism and
compassion.

What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla



I swear this fucking thing is rigged


Click here to take the test!

Sunday, July 20, 2003, 11:11 p.m.

Threat rating: Medium. Your total lack of decent
family values makes you dangerous, but we can
count on some right wing nutter blowing you up
if you become too high profile.

What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Damn straight!

Wednesday, July 2, 2003, 01:03 p.m.
Well it's officialy over. The 2010 Olympic bid commitee is now disbanding ... how sad. No, are you kidding me!? That's awesome! Because where the Olympic Bid Commitee disbands, an Olympic Games Commitee forms! yeah, I woke up at 7 today and stayed all the way untill the anouncement. When Salzburg got eliminated I was simply shocked. Then I thought that's a good thing for vancouver, but then I realized that PC porbably has a whole lot more votes than expected. And I was right, because in the first round PC was just 3 votes away from winning, and in the end Vancouver only had three more votes than them. Now that's a scary thought. I don't think I was ever this excited and actually got the outcome I wanted, it was grrrreat! After the "is" and before "Vancouver" I'm pretty sure my heart was doing 200 bpm. And now I'm super duper trippy happy!

The last few days were too productive for my taste. I mean, it's the summer vacation and I haven't been wasting time much. Almost everyday it's fitness, some days I go to the pool, Monday was golf at Central park (81 is a score I'm proud of for a season opener), then every evening it's an hour driving lesson. It's insane! Anyway, I predict a little more goofing off in the future, such as Friday's Lions' game.

Friday, June 27, 2003, 03:45 p.m.
Well my congestion is a little better, or tolerable enough to catch some decent sleep without the nasal drops. Although I don't understand how it could be any worse than yesterday, because while I was at Chapters I thought I was going to die; Catherine and Anthony can voutch for that. However, now I have a sore throat, and sickness weakness; that's ... that's just great.

Yesterday was fun, and we should do it again, although next time have more people who want *cough*ditch*cough*. Yeah, we got to cool off in downtown, where there is WATER and SHADE and BREEZE. Yes anyway. A scary thouhgt: I bought three books yesterday: Tretiak, The Game, and what i thought was Sole Survivor, but I was too clammy and grabbed the wrong book, oh well, might as well read Phantoms and then bring it back later.

Today I went to school for what I hope to be the last time this year, to hand in a few things. And now I'm dying from the heat.

Wednesday, June 11, 2003, 10:33 p.m.
And, you guessed it ... Ray won the 40 bucks

Monday, June 9, 2003, 08:34 p.m.
I�m in an odd whimsicalish mood right now, so I�ll use this blog entry either to confuse people, or to piss them off.

During our life, we are all forced to leave something behind. At first, the detachment is a pain, until the months and years heal the wounds, and eventually you stop realizing how much you missed what you left behind. Years tick by, your new life forms, old connections in your memories are regrouped, and all that you left behind is but a dot on the horizon. You start living your new life, day in and day out, in a good old-fashioned routine that you feel will last forever. So it�s almost funny to think, how a present so concrete, can be turned upside down by a simple Saturday morning email.

Sunday, June 8, 2003, 12:16 a.m.
Indy, Bobby ... let the freaktertainment begin!

Friday, June 6, 2003, 11:32 p.m.
Well it certainly has been an entertaining week for intramural hockey. As the playoffs kicked off we were forced to play the 3rd seed in the first road, that being Dim Sum Boys, a team heavily favoring Grade 12. We were certainly the underdogs going into that game, and we managed to pull it off a whopping 11:2 -- our first (and only) legitimate win of the season. The next day we had to square off in the semis with the Blazers, also a team heavily favored to win. They may have won, but sertainly not living up to expectations, as the only NHL score game ended with us losing 2:3. I want to congradulate everyone on the team especially our invaluable golatender (about whom I've been getting positive feedback from across the league).If we play like we played the end of this season next year, the title will be ours. Good job!

Monday, May 19, 2003, 10:04 p.m.
I ... am bored. So this beats doing French, Englihs, and TOK


your... x. name? Michael Alexander Serebriakov II.
x. nicknames? Mike, Mikka, Yaakov, Jack-ov, Mishka, Clmishka, Clmeershkov, sounds about right.
x. birthday? November 1
x. piercings? nay, zilch, nada
x. tattoos? see above, but having a giant orca across the chest would be neat. Just kidding, they'd change their logo the next day!
x. height? between 5' 9" and 5' 10".
x. hair color? I'd say brown
x. siblings? Dima, 14
x. pets? two cats
x. ethnic background? Russian, primarily,1/8 Ukranian, 1/8 Kosak, (who btw, came from the Tatars, close relatives of the Chinese!)

last...
x. movie you rented? Two Kill a Mockingbird for school, Two Weeks Notice for enjoyment (I know officialy love Hugh Grant ... no not THAT way you idiots!)
x. movie you bought? Never bought movies
x. movie you watched? ET
x. song you listened to? Lip Service is going end in about half a minute.
x. song you've had stuck in your head?
try anything on the Wet Wet Wet CD right now
x. song you've downloaded? Eve 6 -- Here's to the Night
x. cd you bought? Wet Wet Wet -- End of Part One
x. person you've called? Mom
x. person that's called you? Rebecca
x. tv show you've watched? American Idol
x. person you were thinking of? How last are we talking here?

do you... x. have a bf or gf? Nope
x. have a crush on someone? Not that I know of (I know, SHOCKING!)
x. wish you could live somewhere else? Oi, Whistler
x. believe in online dating? now that's just not right
x. think others find you attractive? Not by the sings I'm getting
x. want more piercings? what the hell for?
x. want more tattoos? Umm ... redundant
x. drink? Yes, I need water to survive. Seriously though, I sift of red wine now and them can't do harm. And the very rare vodka shot to prevent pneumonia.
x. do drugs? Yes, I'm a heroin adict. I also do occasional coke and dope ... morons.
x. like cleaning? Only when drunk ... so never
x. like roller coasters? Abso-fuckin-lutely
x. write in cursive or print? Print is the way to go
x. write lefty or righty? Right.
x. have an innie or an outtie? Innie.

for or against... x. long distance relationships? If it has to be done, then so be it
x. using someone? who are we talking here?
x. suicide? I've prevented people from doing too many times to be for it. Okay, it was three times.
x. killing people? I prefer maiming
x. doing drugs? No comment
x. driving drunk? how can one be 'for' this?
x. gay/lesbian relationships? It's their right

favorite... x. food? SUSHI!
x. song? I can't chose!
x. thing to do? hockey and much more hockey
x. thing to talk about? things that'll keep my attention
x. sport? ICE HOCKEY!!!
x. drinks? virgin margaritas
x. clothes? what feels and looks right
x. movies? Memento and K-Pax
x. holiday? New Years
x. car? The new dealy from Hummer

number... x. of times I have had my heart broken? Oh so subjective. I'm a drama queen, so my guess is ... a shitload
x. of hearts I have broken? Zero
x. of boys I have kissed? Damn, ran out of sarcastic comments
x. of girls I have kissed? ONE, that's right, one!
x. of people I would classify as true, could trust with my life type friends? Deffinetly not Inderbir, that man will sell me for a Leafs Jersey! So, not that many.
x. of cd's that I own? II'll guesstimate at 30
x. of times my name has appeared in the newspaper? Chronicle count?
x. of scars on my body? You want me to count?
x. of things in my past that I regret? You want a list!?

Monday, May 12, 2003, 08:27 p.m.
So much stuff happened since I last properly blogged. So let's start with Newcastle.

Waking up at 4 in the morning wasn't as bad as I had expected, but carrying my huge backpack around was. Of course, after carrying so much heavy ass shit all weekend made me feel like the backpack was as light as a feather. I mean, I don't know WHAT Homie G. was thinking when he picked me for loading crew. On Friday I also realized that there wouldn't be as much work as I had expected, so I spent the time being introduced to spit, and schooling Bobby at it (Don't worry Bobby, I can sense your time is coming), and that 40 minute game against Will attracted quite a few spectators, which makes me twice more glad that I had won it. Oh yes, and celbrating the last Canucks win of the playoffs on that island was pretty funky. The night was pretty cold, but the next one was even worse so I shouldn't complain. The next day I picked my SDS so that i can only do it at a certain time (low tide, I'm evil), but then realized crabs are stupid. I say, time well wasted playing cards! But the cards or the SDS or entertainment pale in comparison to what happened at approximently 7:30 during the capture the flag game. My life changed ... again. Anyhoo, I'm sure anyone who needs to know knows already. So I pretty much enjoyed Newcastle, and wish it would last longer.

Yes, yes, i did eat a fresh oyster and it was nasty. Worth the 15 minutes and 5 bucks!!!

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 11:14 p.m.
Congradulations and thanks to the Canucks for giving us a season to remember! You'll get 'em next year boys.

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 06:50 p.m.
T minus 20 minutes

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 06:32 p.m.
T minus 30 min

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 06:13 p.m.
T minus 1 hour

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 05:46 p.m.
T minus 1 hour 20 min

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 05:05 p.m.
T minus 2 hours

Thursday, May 8, 2003, 04:15 p.m.
T minus 3 hours.

Monday, April 28, 2003, 05:10 p.m.
My ridiculously late predictions -- NJ in 6, Phi in 7, and Ana in 6.

Tuesday, April 22, 2003, 10:39 p.m.
AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

'nuff said!

Saturday, April 12, 2003, 04:46 p.m.
So IS anyone reading this? Yay we won our first game, although it still felt like a loss; I mean 9:2 over the girls team, who are we kidding (although they had a guy on offense and a guy in net, well, three guys in net). Me and Indy are now tied for first with 5 goals (I netted a hat trick with a sweet pass from Anthony and an unintentianoal pass from Indy). Anthony is bringing up the rear with three goals (also a hat trick on Friday), with TJ and Dennis tying at 2 for thrid. I guess that's it for Intramural hockey, now onto NHl hockey. These were my predictions before the start of the playoffs, although, just like Indies, some are void now: Dallas in 6; Detroit in 5 (WHAT HAPPENED???); Colorado in 7; Toronto in 6; Ottawa in 4; NJ in 5; Tampa in 6. Note there is no Vancouver prediction. Oh yeah, and Bobby took an early strong lead in the pool. Bastard :-P.

Sunday, March 30, 2003, 02:52 p.m.
Sit around kids and I will tell you a little story; a little story involving a thing called TOK.


Friday, March 28th, Socrates Cafe, Block C

A very unsuspecting me enters the room, ready for a normal run-of-the-mill Socrates Cafe, in which I was planning to start improving my oral participation, which was down because I'm afraid to accidentally say something stupid. Upon my trying to reach a chair to drop my bag in, I was intercepted by Ciara, who wished to instruct me on how I could help their presentation. She told me how during their Cafe they were going to call me up to write a few questions on the board, and how this didn't make sense now but was going to later on. Sounds like nothing unusual, right? Sorry, no cookies for you, that is wrong. While she was telling me this her face was literally, and I do underline literally, no more than an inch away from mine. Being of the shy, normal human individual, and easily-being-scared, nature, I backed away. That didn't work, so I back away again, after that failed to accomplish anything I just stood there trying to pay attention to the instructions. Naturally, or naturally for me and not any other guy in my place, I actually paid attention to everything, although I was in a bit of a disarray for the next five or ten minutes. Seemed like the worst part of it was over. Or so I thought ...

Near the end of this forsaken Socrates Cafe, the presenting group addressed the class with this message "Okay, at the beginning of our Cafe, we talked to four of you about some instructions. Did any of you notice anything weird about that?" Being the smart (yeah, bullshit) person that I am, I immediately clicked and understood that it was all part of the act, probably something about body language and shyte. I was right, of course, and the group interviewed us four to see how we felt. Anya specifically said how she was backed into a corner, and Sanja and Florina had a similar experience. To add a fresh perspective I decided to mention how I was lucky enough to be in the middle of the room, so I wasn't backed in anywhere. Sounds all fair and nice, unfortunately that is not what I said. The next cursed words to come out of my mouth were: "Yeah, I experienced that whole face closeness too, and I got lucky ..." note the word choice, ladies and gentlemen. I recognized my mistake all too late, about a split second after the class went off like a Hydrogen bomb. I have seriously never heard an enclosed space blow up like that in a wave of laughter. Ms. Patton was practically sprawled over her desk in hysteria. Of course, about a minute later, when the class almost quieted down, I had a chance to explain myself, but it was a little too late for that. If I'm not careful "Lucky Mike" will be my nickname.

And the moral of the story is? Word choice is very important, especially if twenty people are listening to you choose your words.

Wednesday, March 5, 2003, 06:07 p.m.
I just watched an episode of SmartAsk today, and the questions are HARD! Not the stupid-ass ones they provide on their site and "claim" that they're taken from tournaments. This causes me great worry.

Monday, February 24, 2003, 06:14 p.m.
"A toast to the coffin lid of Canadian Prime Minister, Trudeau. A lid that will be made from a hundred year old oak, which I will personnaly plant upon my return from this bussiness trip" <=== Best quote EVER!

Friday, February 21, 2003, 03:59 p.m.
This is probably one of the most hilarious things I ever heard, albeit even *I* was slightly offended by some parts of it:


I recently had the pleasure of visiting a place called Vancouver, which is apparently located in Canada. I debated quite a bit over writing about my trip; more or less because the only thing people care less about than my vacation stories is Canada itself. Besides, everybody has already made fun of our maple clad neighbor more than enough. Although justified, I'm not eager to jump on the bandwagon, especially when the bandwagon is being pulled by dead horses that have been beaten to such extremes that the only way to beat them further is through the aid of special molecular beating equipment developed by scientists. With better judgment and common sense dangling a serrated knife at my conscience's throat I would be a fool to write about my trip! So without further ado, I am now pleased to write about my trip to the land so far north of the Mexican border that it's actually above the US border. Rather than bore you with the details about my own personal adventures, I will instead fill you in on what I learned from my odyssey. Now keep in mind I haven't explored Canada in full Technicolor glory. I've pretty much just been to one rainy corner of it, so I have no right to judge the entire country in the way I'm about to. Frankly, I just don't care. It's not like anybody can do anything about it. Send your Mounties and I'll dispel them as easily as I dispel the damsels I kidnap and tie to train tracks for jollies! You don't scare me.

Canadian Culture
I remember Lowtax mentioning that Vancouver was full of Asians, but I just assumed it was his usual racist insights and conspiracy potpourri. The truth is that Vancouver really is full of Asians. I guess if you already live there the truth isn't all that shocking, but then again, maybe the part of your immune system that handles the shock of learning the obvious isn't operating at peak efficiency. If the rest of the country is anything like this one area, and I can only assume it is, then holy crap, that's a lot of Asian people! I don't know how many Asian teens in oversized hip hop clothes I saw, but probably more than any man should ever have to see. There are more Asians in baggy clothes in Canada than in a samurai liposuction clinic. I have long argued and petitioned for the governments of the world to provide all Asian people with a free T-shirt that has "Asian" written on it, mostly because I think it would make things easier for everyone. After visiting Vancouver, I think it would be more practical and economical for the Canadian government to issue everyone who isn't Asian a T-shirt that proclaims "Not Asian!" No, I'm not trying to single Asians out, but if you're going to inexplicably force everyone to wear a shit with their race printed on it, you have to start somewhere. The rest of the population seems to be a hodgepodge of rapscallions who all speak different languages. In fact Canada doesn't seem to have any language standards, probably because Yahweh or another rapping genie twisted their tongues so they cannot understand each other.

Canadian Hobos
My encounters with the homeless populations were very limited, but they reinforced what I already knew: my pocket change isn't going to eliminate poverty, especially not when I spend it on junk food for myself. Still, I have to give the Canadian bums some credit. They took no for an answer, and that's more than can be said for many of the homeless denizens of Chicago or some of the major cities of the United States. At least in Canada I never had to endure a homeless man hounding me for four blocks desperately trying to get me to wager the price of a hot dog that he can guess how many siblings I have.

Canadian Food
I'm convinced Canadians live off of raw squid and anything they can dredge up from the sea and pour gravy and/or vinegar on. That and all the same stuff we eat in America, albeit with goofy mispronounced product names to give the false allure of suave European sophistication. Elegant accent marks can make any typical product name sound like a shimmering diamond mined from the fertile bowls of the finest dragon filled cave.

Canadian Comedy
I guess growing up on the Kids in the Hall left me with the false impression that Canada was some kind of primordial spawning ground for good comedy. After ten minutes of the Sean Cullen's Show I wanted to drill holes in my skull and then fill them full of firecrackers. Why? Well, I've always kind of wanted to look like that one moon-headed McDonald's mascot guy. Adding artificial firecracker craters to my head would just be my way of expressing who I am on the inside, and you can't take that away from me you fascist bastard!

Canadian Politics
After taking in a considerable amount of Canadian TV I think I can safely say that nobody has any idea what the hell is going on with Canadian politics. There are a whole bunch of these one guys who I guess kind of do stuff on occasion, then there is this one guy who just kind of emits semi-intelligible noises that may or may not be a rudimentary form of oral communication. I'm pretty sure that guy is running Canada. In spite of a total lack of real government Canada does pretty well for itself. I suspect this is purely because every Canadian citizen lives under a blanket of fear knowing that if they give up the ruse the whole circus will collapse and they'll have to go back to America where things run like a finely tuned broken clockwork. After looking at the pictures on Canadian money, I'm convinced they also elected several ducks and hockey players into positions of political power. After all, only political leaders and historical landmarks get put on money.

Ultimately I did enjoy Vancouver. It's like living in a crappy city, but with the added benefit of scenery. I may even return to Canada, but probably only to stage a coup d'etat and overthrow Prime Minister Duck's oppressive quack regime.

Thursday, February 20, 2003, 08:03 p.m.
I urgently need two more Grade 11 who want to sign up for the SmartAsk team with me.

Thursday, February 20, 2003, 08:01 p.m.
I urgently need two more Grade 11 who want to sign up for the SmartAsk team with me.

Tuesday, February 18, 2003, 06:54 p.m.
Yes, I'm blogging again, but it's not like a lot of people are reading this.

First off I would like to say that these are the times of poetic justice, or vigilante justice, whichever one you prefer. The procedure of the first one is: culrprits are accidental sawed in half by a falling chainsaw. The procedure of the second one is: we form a good old fashioned mod, you know, the one with torches and pitchforks and all the other wonderfull stuff; we find the culprits, and non-accidentally saw them in half. But seriously though, I'm really pissed that someone cut down the tree. I mean, why the heck would anyone do that in the firstplace. I think we should have a tree memorial. Take one of the slices, polish it off, put a little plaque and ther eyou go. Hopefully no one has stolen all the firewood yet, but I think they have. *sob*

I don't have much to talk about, really, well I do, I'm just too lazy.

Monday, February 3, 2003, 06:20 p.m.
I would like to take these first few moments to remember the 7 lives lost on space shuttle Columbia that desintigrated on re-entry this Saturday. I wihs full-strength to their families and may they rest in peace. A creepy fact is that Challenger blew up 17 years and one day before this tragedy

On a lighter but not so much lighter note. I went to the Monster Trucks on Saturday. I'd like to say generally 'meh' but there were a couple of parts that were pretty cool. Although standing in line for an hour -- not fun. Witnessing three seperate brawls in the stands -- not fun. Having to smell car and pot fumes all night -- not fun. Seeing a drunk guy run across the track and fall inside a van with no windows -- priceless.

. My character was so messed up.

And finnaly I have realized today that ... I AM CURED!!!

Thursday, January 30, 2003, 02:12 p.m.
Yeah, I'm not at school today; not sure whther that sucks or is a good thing. The fact is I woke up with an extremely soar throat today, which proves that that trip to the pool yesterday was NOT a good idea.

Yesterday was a slow day other than the fact that I finnaly got my L. 40/44, although I'm not sure what I'm gonna do now.

Saturday, January 25, 2003, 08:46 p.m.
Well I have evidently missed the OLP concert. Darn, but where am I going to get $40? And it seems I took a liking to Josh Grobin ... I'd never thought I'd get into opera. Wierd.

Saturday, January 25, 2003, 01:12 p.m.
I think I might be getting sick, and in more ways than one.

Thursday, January 23, 2003, 06:20 p.m.
Handing out newspapers is fun, especially when you can talk to someone, like Daniel. Unlike last time when i was all alone *sniff*. I somehow pulled my leg muscle while handing those out ... I'm not sure how tho. I was late for TOK and showed Patton the note, but she was a prick about it and told me the newspapers should be handed out so that we're in time for class. So next time I should tell Lattimer that his newspapers can wait coz Patton wants me in on time? Thank God I don't have her first block after this week. The contest was a really big hit. The bulk of the entries came in at the beggining of lunch and we had to have the Curling photos and I was torn apart. At the end there were 135 entries and 60 people are eligible for prizes. Draw SHOULD be tomorrow at the announcements. AND I got to talk to Mr. Wightman while I was walking around my spare which should have been journalism. He was substituting Mr. Best, and he's the guy who co-hosts Journalism so Mr. Wightman wasn't doing anything. It was really fun chatting with him. You know he's married now? The rest of the day was pretty much slow.

Tuesday, January 21, 2003, 06:17 p.m.
I'm in constant conflict with my fellings, thoughts and emotions, and I fear that the battle will soon be over.

FINNALY the Chronicle comes out tomorrow, I thought this day would never come. The last three weeks were absolutely horrible coz of ... well, a lot of stuff happened in Journalism class. Now let's see what the turnout for my Canuck contest will be.

Yesterday was okay, although nothing really happened. Except for the fact that I went skiing up at Cypress again. It's really fun but the snow up there is crap because there hasn't be snowfall there for so long. Oh well, I hope it snows. And I registered the hokcey team, so w00t!

Well I finnaly got out of Computer Science and into CS. I'm helping Mr. Ross. He's nice coz he let me off twenty minutes early today and I got to study for a Math test which I SHOULD have done well on. Putting marks into the computer may sound boring, but I can actually enjoy it. I know, I'm wierd. So, what else happened? Ah yes, seeing Sarah's car almost get into an accident right before my eyes ... yeah, not the highlight of my day. Oi, tomorrow should be something not to look forward to.

Monday, January 20, 2003, 01:13 p.m.
Notice how I'm supposed to be at school right now? Yeah, well I'm not.

Sunday, January 19, 2003, 07:55 p.m.
Well I'm thinking and worrying again ... what fun.

Saturday, January 18, 2003, 05:05 p.m.
I have a dream ... or I had a dream ... I'm still not certain. I dunno, it kinda dawned on me going back from Whistler a month ago. I was kinda thinking to myself, and I warn you, this just might sound a little stupid. I was thinking how cool it would be if all of us spent a few days there, like maybe three or four ... camp length in other words. I thought it'd be cool to spend a few days alone, in the 'wilderness', the cabin is so cool, and there are many things to do. And this could be done at any old time, summer vacation or winter or spring brake if we want to catch the snow. I thought it'd be pretty neat, but that's just me. I mean, I had the whole crazy Europe or Turkey idea, but this is actually atainable ... somewhat. It'd be Bobby, Indy, Sarah, Cat and maybe even Sam if fate permits it. Yeah so ... and no money has to be saved. I thought it was a funky idea. Well think about, please.

Friday, January 17, 2003, 08:11 p.m.
Journalism is destructive. You wouldn't believe how many times the Canucks contest was either scratched, or shortened, or lengthened again. And the Simpsons contest has been on and off for the past few days (record for shortest time on -- 30 seconds!)> We should be able to finish by printing time on Monday, I HOPE. and the Canucks contest is no longer advertised on the first page, but backpage. GAH!

On a lighter note, floor hockey seems to be taking shape. We've got 6 forms in so far, which leaves us with four minimum to make a team. I'm working on playing strategies right now. But before I complete finish, could Bobby tell me if penalties result in actual power plays. Yeah, busy weekend ahead, with the history seminar and all.

Thursday, January 16, 2003, 04:19 p.m.
If I were a physical entity seperate from myself I would have seriously kicked my ass for what i did after school today. It's little obssesions like thess for which I truly hate myself. Well, all I hafta do is start conditioning my mind not to believe. Wow, sounds stuff ... and it is.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003, 09:12 p.m.
Yesterday Reach was fuuun. We only had three seniors so I got to answer a lot of questions. I mean, how lucky was I to get 6 sports questions? Hey, did you know Ottawa now has a CFL team? I didn't, but Cat did. We swept them three games, I hope the actual tournament is as kind to us as the exhibition games are.

Today was ... yargh! I mean, the actual day was okay, except for me again not finding Ms Willard because of the orals and all. Crap, that means I'll still be in Computer Science for a while. Hey, Bobby, thanx again for helping out with my photos today. Boy, that was quite a wild 45 minutes. Seems like I ran out of money on my account ... that is BAD! Bobby, your Ottawa thing was really convincing, but for some oddball reason the Canucks photo went out all blurry. Now that WOULD have been bad news if we actually finished everything today like we were supposed to ... but there were so many things wrong that we had to cram everything for tomorrow. I don't think I'll go to Cyclone Taylor's for the pic, but I'll probably need help at lunch. And the Canucks contest was almost cut from this issue because we had 44(!) pages instead of an absolute maximum of 40. So Now the thingy is going to be half a page, which means that I will need A LOT of tweaking and probably cut the number of question. Well, at least now it�s gonna be featured on front page instead of the now non-existent Simpsons contest. As you can see, it's been wild today and it's gonna be the same tomorrow.

Hey, I heard Chen got a gold dealy in the Math Olympiad. Congrats!

Sunday, January 12, 2003, 01:40 p.m.
Friday was just a little hectic. I had to go buy new bearings from Cyclone Taylor's because I busted my old ones rollerblading home when it started to snow. THe only thing I didn't count on was that they didn't carry pins, which I had conveniently left at home. So I had to rush to bus to my house, grab a snack and then rush back. I actually made it back to the rink before five, which means that it took me less than 1.5 hours to get fron Cyclone to the rink. That's pretty good timing concidering where I live. Damn it, Bobby I have to stop saving your ass when you're in net, this was the third time in three games! For all of you who don't know Bobby had trouble covering the puck as it jumped around beside his pads so I fell down to get the ball trapped between his pads and my leg. Although, I do feel sorry for you concidering the state of our defence ... WHAT defence!? The other team laughed at me! They're like "haha, he fell down!" Ha! The jokes on you, you stupid idiots. Man what I wouldn't give to sock one of those guys, it's because of their nasty 'caffinated' playing style that I've got a bruised shin. And Bobby, that Cloutieresque goal you almost missed ... you gotsta stay on top of your game, man, we still want to get you into the big leagues some day.

I actually found myself doinf work yesterday. French work! What happened to procrastination. Although, I'm sure I'll procrastinate on my Math quiz which is tomorrow. Ah! I hate myself!

Saturday, January 11, 2003, 03:40 p.m.
I would like to take a moment to look back at 2002 and look at the theme songs of the year and give their significant lines:

January & February � �Warning� by Green Day. �Warning, live without Warning�

March & April � �Come Around� by Green Day. �No time to search the world around, coz you know where I�ll be found when I came around�

May & June � �Falls Apart� by Sugar Ray. �She falls apart, by herself. No one there to talk or understand�

July � �Baby Seat� by BNL. �You can�t live your life in the baby seat. You�ve got to stand on your own, don�t admit defeat.�

August & September � �Off the Hook� by BNL. �All around the room your things are placed, and next to you he fills the space�

October � �Walking Alone� by Green Day. �Come together like a foot and a shoe, only this time I think I stuck my foot in my mouth�

November � �Mad About You� by Sting. The whole song is important.

December � �Kody� by Matchbox 20. �Please hand me the bottle, I think I�m lonely now. Lonely, you�re lonely now�

Wednesday, January 8, 2003, 08:08 p.m.
This is a little late, I know, but here are my New Year's Resolutions:

5) Not to procrastinate on my Extended Essay.

4) Stop being so gosh darned lazy and start writing my stories at a quicker pace.

3) Cut down on the Nationalistic US bashing and strive for a better tomorrow between the two Nations

2) Abandon 2002's motto "live without warning" and start thinking about everything I do.

PRIMARY: To sing more often and louder so it doesn't sound like whispering

Monday, January 6, 2003, 03:55 p.m.
I'm not going to write much, because if I write anything other than this it will either be a long string of profanities or just one long swear word. So, enjoy your lives; as for me, mine just became a whole lot more pissier than usual.

Saturday, January 4, 2003, 11:16 p.m.
Miarharaharharhar! Photoshop is fuuuuuuuuun! It only takes 30 min to create an image that is so ... haunting, for lack of better words.

Russia and Canada are playing in the final World Junior Hokcey match tomorrow! Go Russia! No ... go Canada! No wait ... go Russia. On the other hand ... go Canada. BAH! Well, mt money's on the vodka guzzlers, so my intentions are clear.

This has been THE laziest winter break, and it's over so soon *sniff*. Oh well, there's always SPRING BREAK. Can't wait to see y'all. (Oh great, I know have some sort of hick accent)

Thursday, January 2, 2003, 04:45 p.m.
Yah, I actually did last just a little past 6 AM, then I slept in untill after two o'clock. I know, I'm bad. This NEw Year I actually spent the way I wanted it. with an ACTUAL countdown and everything. And the presents I got were pretty neat, the highlights of which are Canucks slippers and two filters for my camera. Woo-hoo! Yesterday was so mellow. Spent most of it playing games and stoof. Ya know, I really need to do some homework, all I did so far was one French entry and the foreword for Lost Steps. I'm such a slacker.

Well, it's final. 2002 is officially in the history books and it's time for us to take on a brand new year. I wish all of you all the best of luck in the upcoming 365 days. May all your wishes come true, and let's hope that 2002 will only be one of the many many years we spend togehter.

Wednesday, January 1, 2003, 05:37 a.m.
You see the time of this entry? Do you think I slept? Heck no.

Wednesday, January 1, 2003, 12:04 a.m.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Tuesday, December 31, 2002, 09:02 p.m.
�Some people change, your life will rearrange, even when you�re so far from home�

I started off 2002 in the stuffy basement of my Church at a New Years party. In fact, we rang in the New Year about five minutes after it actually came over to Vancouver. So, let�s just say it hadn�t started as well as I had hoped. Back then I was finishing off Xmas break and worried about what I will get back to in school. On the last day of school I told Rachel that I liked her, well, Ryan told her, and I was worried about how that thing was going. Well, it wasn�t. The first school days of 2002 were as boring as I had ever experienced. The teachers� strike was in full blast and the only thing that could ever comfort us was table hockey. Although the Winter Olympics provided plenty of relief as I had watched many of the events including the infamous skating debacle. I still remember myself rolling on the floor as Russia lost to the USA in hockey, but oh how I remember celebrating myself silly when Canada took that gold. Valentines Day 2K2 announced itself with sending a gram to Rachel, the process that certainly did not work well for my nervous system, as I could have beaten myself to death with the lock that I was twirling in my hands as the grams were delivered. I was the talk of our guy circle, a position I was already used to, but it all faded away by March. I quietly celebrated my 1-year anniversary of my very first date and decided to top that week off with asking Rachel out. Three hours before the big moment my hopes were dashed by Ryan who told that there is no way she�s gonna agree, so I, a shattered person, went into a week long depression. The Canucks were meanwhile tearing their way into the playoffs and had actually made it. It actually managed to snow heavy on Spring break, which I spent delivering brochures for World Vision. By the end of April they were knocked out by Detroit, but, hey, we knocked the door down in Detroit. When Sarah�s birthday came around I realized that I was in deep. �Dude � let�s hope this is temporary,� I told myself and rushed into May. May and June of this year were something to remember. An exciting playoffs was well underway, and I was the co-leader of a no-less-exciting hockey pool. I decided to make the first step in renewing my friendship with Vickers, and we even went out again, briefly, very briefly. In the hectic school year�s end I forgot my growing problems as I spent time doing various projects including the final English thing. The hot days of early summer were marked with playing hockey at Ideal and being at Vivek�s house for an odd amount of time. We all got our acceptance (or otherwise) letters from IB, which brought us new IBers closer together, and as a bonus I knew that I never had to work with people like Dima, Vlad and Alvin again. Even the World Cup in soccer seemed to bring everyone together, unlike the Olympics which just tore everyone apart. Everything was going great. By yearbook signing I kept my little secret to myself, and was ready to take on anything summer might have brought. My parents left for two weeks to Moscow so we had to live with our uncle, and I had to cook all the time. Summer was all about getting out there and living it in the evenings. I remember rollerblading all the way down to UBC, smashing up my knee elbow and hands on the way back and scaring a whole lot of people as I was dripping with blood. It wasn�t about the pain, it was about the experience. And speaking of experience, I had that interview at Aunthentix, and although I was eventually rejected, I was so close to working for the Canucks organization. Our old apartment was finally sold and that meant that a new house was somewhere in the future. The ;lazy days of July slowly dripped away, as every night we would go for a rollerblading trip or walk around the park or False Creek. August was a whole new story. As I walked into Subway I just had to tell myself �Dude, your life will never be the same again�. And that month decided to prove it. It was a quick way to end the summer. The Fireworks were stuck in there somewhere as Canada won and I had some pretty neat experiences with crowd control. There were two trips to the PNE where I spent oodles of money and got pretty much reacquainted with all my friends. And in between those two trips was a vacation to the US. A two week ordeal which was filled was amazement at the crappiness of the US and the amazement at the seriousness of my situation. The time just before school ended with the Molson Indy and a bunch of other hectic events, and then there was me constantly thinking about my problems, so I was really quite glad that the school year finally started. School started fairly well. On September 11th the world marked the first anniversary of 9/11, which was mostly felt in Journalism class, as we watched the news; Journalism was soon to become one of my favorite classes. I like most of my classes, except for Math, where I was transferred away from the Grade 11s. Fighting with Ms. Morgan was to an extent fun, coz she�s so crazy, but my biggest problem was my classes with Sarah shrinking from 3 to 2, bastards. The IB camp was actually enjoyable, with that one-nighter I almost pulled off and the general being at Whistler was pretty good. I, of course, made a slip up on the way back which caused my little secret to be revealed by the end of the month. The beginning of the month marked the start of a new hockey season. Canucks started with a bang, and that was good. My rejection finally arrived and I thought I could settle in with myself � NOT! Although the biggest thorn in the side of October was that whole hostage thing in Moscow *shudder*. My bout with jealousy began by the end of the month, where new names popped up in my head due to a severe case of paranoia (mind you I still am doing this and hate myself for it). We moved into the townhouse, leaving that great old apartment behind *sob*. My 16th birthday went well for the most part, although maybe leaving a light negative feeling. By that time I had already done many stupid things *coughAlvincough*, and I did my stupidest by far. The whole locker heart thing led me to losing a friend, something that took three weeks to be moved to the back of my mind as no longer searing pain but something that occasionally calls out �Hey, guess what you did!?� I made a few quick promises to myself which I am still keeping � I guess I�m not as hopeless as I thought. The Xmas outing made me feel good in that I had finally sung and just the whole day was positive. The last week of school went extremely well and I was ready for a lazy Winter Break. That is exactly what I had. No work, all play, mostly SLH, finally went skiing. And now I am spending New Year�s Eve, watching Canucks, at home, nice and mellow.

2002, we hardly knew ye, but you brought us so many things to remember. The year of the palindrome changed my life forever, somewhere for the better, somewhere for the worse, but it wasn�t, in any way, a boring year. Thank you 2K2, thank you, and goodbye.

Monday, December 30, 2002, 09:01 p.m.
Well today we have done something we should have done a LONG time ago. We bought all our ski equipment over the last year and now we finally bought some passes to Cypress Mountain. So � today we went SKIING! Yay! I was HORRIBLE the first time I came down, but in three tries, I was okay. I hope we can mange to make this a weekly thing, coz I am loving it.