Oops [ Sunday, March 31, 2002 | 04:04 p.m. ] I left my keys in the door (on the outside) all night. In other news, the Easter Bunny was good to me. Too good to me.

Horoscopes III [ Sunday, March 31, 2002 | 08:06 a.m. ] Thursday: You may not notice (duh!), but your sweetie is trying to get something off their chest. Try to be more available to them today, or they might just chicken out! After work on Thursday, I went out and saw Beauty & the Beast in IMAX. It was good, though I didn't think that the new song was really necessary. I mean, it wasn't bad, but it didn't do anything for me. I laughed to myself every time Lumiere came on screen; all I could think was, He's Lennie! I'll have to go see it again, though. I was a few minutes late, and I missed my absolute favourite part, the prologue with the stained-glass windows. Still, enjoyable experience--I'll have to bring ChiQ next time. When I got home, mom and I watched one of my absolute favourite movies, The Shawshank Redemption. It was wonderful. It's all about hope, man. Friday: If you're too scared to bring something up, do it anyway. It won't be easy, but you'll just drive yourself crazy if you don't say anything. You'll probably totally blow up later and get irrational, too. Not fun. I did have some stuff to get off my chest yesterday; luckily ChiQui called me. Dad took me out for bagels and coffee at Second Cup/Great Canadian Bagel, after which I went over to Chi's. We spent the afternoon at Shopper's and Second Cup (not the same Second Cup as I went to with dad) with the boy. Then we went back to ChiQ's and watched Newsradio and Law & Order. Excellent. Soon she will bow to the dark will of A&E. I walked home in the pouring rain, listening to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack number two, which I picked up last week. It's got "The Pitch (Spectacular, Spectacular)" and "Like a Virgin", two glaring omissions from the first. I also bought System of a Down's Toxicity, and a DVD that Jacq might want to come over and watch one day. Anyhow, after I got home, my mom and I watched Toy Story. Lots of fun. After mom went to bed, I watched the whole thing again with the audio commentary. More fun. Movies, ahoy! Saturday: You have a ton of energy today, Archer. Unfortunately, you're trapped indoors most of the day. Suffer through – you'll have a chance to go out and burn off all that steam tonight. Not quite. Today I went to Buffalo with my dad. We stopped off in Lewiston and had lunch at McDonald's, for old times' sake, then went straight to Walden Galleria. I must admit, I had a specific reason for going along with him this time, and it's a somewhat embarrassing one... Neopets. They've got merchandise on sale now in Limited Too stores across the U.S. I bought a necklace and some stickers. I felt weird standing around in a store obviously for twelve year old girls, but it was worth it. *tee-hee* I love my necklace. I also bought a guy's t-shirt at Abercrombie. It's blue, with cut-off sleeves, and it's not sparkly or girly. Then we turned around and came back. Dinner was a sour cream donut and an Iced Cappuccino at Timmie's. At home again, I watched L & O on NBC, then returned to my friend the computer. Gotta feed my Neopets... See ya. I sit here locked inside my head, Remembering everything you said Green You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature. Find out your color at Stvlive.com!

I Got A New TV [ Saturday, March 30, 2002 | 11:42 p.m. ] Two weeks ago, my mom and I went to Bay Bloor Radio. We bought a TV. A fairly sweet TV, if I do say so myself. It was supposed to be delivered last Saturday. Actually, it was delivered last Saturday. The problem was, the movers said they couldn't get it into our basement. At first they said we could cut off a railing and it would work, but then they declared that there was another place where it was just impossible. No matter what we did, it would never work. My mother was distraught. I was distraught. We'd gotten ourselves quite worked up about it. The other co-worker had leant me thirteen DVD's to christen the new system; we were going to spend the whole weekend in the basement. Then, our dreams were shattered. I was not convinced, mind you, that the TV wouldn't fit. In fact, I was convinced that it would fit. I just had to prove it. So I built a box. Mom and I went to Home Depot, where we picked up foam insulation and packing tape. I got the exact dimensions for the TV off the Sony website. I built a box, out of styrofoam, to the exact dimensions of the TV. It was kinda fun. (The box is still in the basement. It's cool. Pictures are coming soon.) Anyhow, I finished the box on Sunday night, and--surprise, surprise--it fit. It was close, but totally possible. The next day, mom made phone calls. Tuesday morning, she called me at work to tell me that the railing was coming off. A while later, she called me from home, and said that the TV itself was coming in forty-five minutes. Apparently harassing the manager paid off. By noon on Tuesday the TV was in the basement. That night, after walking out to Harvey's at ten p.m., in the middle of a snow storm, for dinner, we watched Unbreakable as our official first movie. It was sweet. Good film. I also stayed up afterward, and watched A Bug's Life, which looked absolutely frickin' amazing. To sum things up, I was really out of it from Saturday morning until Tuesday night, at which point I was sucked into the new TV thing, so I haven't been on the computer that much lately. Hence the lack of posting. Hence my seeming to have dropped off the face of the Earth. As usual.

My Meaning of Life [ Saturday, March 23, 2002 | 11:36 p.m. ]

Horoscopes II [ Friday, March 22, 2002 | 03:00 a.m. ] In fact, no one wanted to hang out with me on Monday. I had almost as much of an anti-social day at work as I'd had on Friday. But that certainly doesn't mean that I'm abandoning this horoscope thing. Tuesday: There are so many pesky little details that need to be taken care of today, Archer. It's annoying, but once you get them out of the way, you'll be able to focus on the big-picture stuff. Tuesday I continued chipping away at my work report. I know it seems like I'm taking an awfully long time, but that's just 'cause I've done the body of it, but I'm too lazy to bother with all the pesky little details. The co-worker to be known henceforth as that co-worker did not completely ignore me as he did Friday & Monday; he waved and smiled when I came in in the morning. Near the end of the day, my boss was wandering around, looking for a way to kill the last ten minutes. He found me. I told him about my plans for the afternoon, and he was disturbed. (We also had a really, really sketchy conversation in his office earlier. For those I talked to last Friday, think kinda like that, only a lot worse and more bizarre.) You see, I was on a mission. On Saturday, on my long walk, I walked past this store on Yonge called hipbaby. In the window I saw a rubber duck. It was just like the classic yellow rubber duck, only it was red, and it had horns. It was a devil duck. Of course when I saw it, I knew I needed one. I desperately needed one. I was going pick one up on Monday, but it was just too damn cold to tack an extra forty-five minute walk onto my trip home. So I went the next day. I went, I asked, and... they were bloody sold out! Can you believe it? I couldn't get the duck. I did see Koenks in passing on Yonge, though. Not that that makes up for the duck or anything. Far from it. Wednesday: You rarely want something that's readily available to you, Archer. Just because that cutie obviously has the hots for you doesn’t mean you should brush them aside to chase someone less interested. You could be missing out on something great. I definitely agree with the first sentence. As for the rest, well, if I took the most obvious interpretation, well, I'd be really disturbed. Anyhow, I don't much remember Wednesday. It was pretty much more of the same, I guess. The boss called me into his office around the end of day. Usually it's actually about something, even if it's only something small, but this time it was really just to chat. Which was cool with me. I wasn't working, and he obviously wasn't working, so why not sit and chill for a while? Next thing I knew, it was time to go home. Mom and I went to Harvey's for dinner. It marked our third straight night of eating out. (Monday - Ikea, Tuesday - Swiss Chalet.) When we got back I watched West Wing and Law & Order, and then promptly fell asleep. Thursday: The universe is full of signs today, Archer. Open your eyes, and you'll find direction no matter where you are. A solution to a nagging problem will be right in plain view. Okay. Maybe. Let me see. It was a strange morning, in that I was actually able to drag myself from bed without much effort, owing to my excessive sleep in the past few days. That co-worker told me that I looked well-rested. It was weird because, maybe seconds before, I'd been thinking about how much sleep I'd been getting, but how exhausted I felt. My boss commented on my hair being down. Apparently he hadn't noticed that I wear it down once or twice every week. It was definitely a good day, though. I was given some brainless task to do--I had to delete old stuff from this print queue. It had to be done in small, manageable chunks, and after you deleted it took a while for the window to refresh. There were 25,000 entries when I began, and 7,000 when I finished. It was great. Select five or six screens of files, hit Cancel, play games on my Palm while waiting for the window to refresh. This lasted three or four hours, during which time I played PilotMines, Snood, Battle Fleet and DopeWars (final score: $2,105,064). Then I did a few more pointless jobs, and, before I knew it, it was four. Mind you, I got caught up in a conversation about movies with another co-worker, and I left over an hour later. It was snowing. That was not cool. I'd decided on Friday that, as far as I was concerned, it was spring. Right. That shows me. There was an amusing incident at dinner. I felt like we were in a sitcom. Waitress: So, you'll have a coffee? Dad: No, thanks. Waitress: Okay, one coffee. Dad: No-- Waitress: Two coffees, then? Me: No, thanks. Dad: No coffee, please. Waitress: Okay, one coffee. She brought a coffee, which my dad and I ended up splitting. Anyhow, it was hilarious. We were barely keeping it together. Especially when she came back and, seeing the mug half-empty, asked, "Would you like some more coffee?" We were almost falling out of our seats. Friday: You hate having to do work when it's a weekend night, Archer. Tonight, though, you don't have a choice. If you get the important stuff done early enough, you can meet up with everyone later. Don't put things off, or you'll have a wretched weekend. Yes, indeed. Words to take to heart. I keep meaning to pull an all-nighter, or at least a near-all-nighter, but I fall asleep so bloody early these days. That's actually what I'd planned on doing tonight, though, in that case, it's certainly shaping up to be a classic "Terri" night. Here it is, twenty to three, and I'm still writing a blog post. Not a sliver of work done yet. I just remembered that my co-op coordinator is coming for his visit tomorrow. Not that that means anything? I mean, what's the point? Maybe it'll be less annoying if I'm in a slightly catatonic state. Anyhow, I'd better go do that work I'd planned to do tonight. The stars certainly seem to be telling me to. Note: this staying up is so not working for me tonight, even with coffee and Coke and headphones and loud music. Damn.

Horoscopes [ Monday, March 18, 2002 | 06:32 a.m. ] Friday: You've been beaten badly, Sag. You almost never lose, so this comes as quite a shock. Think of it as character-building -- and think about how to win the next one. I suppose that could apply, in some odd way, to the events at work that day. But then, the evening was great. We eventually went to Hart House for a free jazz show. It was funny. A bunch of Viv & Adri's (Artsie?) friends showed up, all guys, and they all looked the same. They all had that brown sweaters, hair painstakingly styled to look messy, I-sit-around-in-coffee-shops-all-day-discussing-existential-philosophy kind of style. Duncan was a welcome change from the rest of them, and it was nice to see a familiar face. Anyhow, I had a wonderful time. I hope I can hang out with the U of T gang more often. Saturday: You're not the best person for this job, Sag, despite what everyone says. You can either refuse it and do what you want to do, or you can take it and get in over your head. You decide. Well, that's not very positive. And I don't really see how it applies to Saturday's events. Of course, if I look at it in a broader context.. Yes, it all makes sense now. I am in over my head, in a number of things. Right, about Saturday. I didn't do that much, I guess. Mom and I went downtown and browsed around at Bay Bloor Radio. We bought ourselves a little something, but I'm going to wait until it gets here to talk about it. We also sat down at an outside table at Timothy's and soaked up the sunlight for a while. It was wonderful. The weather was just beautiful. Later in the afternoon, I took a walk. A fairly long walk. In two and a half hours I walked from my house to Yonge & St. Clair and back. I was trying to clear my head, and work through some stuff. I think I was worse at the end than when I started, though. At night, I wanted to see Men with Brooms, but my mom was violently against it due to a "bad" review in the Globe, so I ended up turning in early. Sunday: You win big today, Sag. Looks like your recent bout of bad luck is finally turning around. Make sure you buy yourself a lotto ticket while it lasts. Really? Too bad. Maybe I should've actually done something today. I woke up around eight this morning, but stayed in bed until noon, listening to the Breakfast and daydreaming. My mom dragged me out for an hour or so in the afternoon (for a U of T bookstore medical book shopping spree) and once I got home, I was on the internet all afternoon. I did stop for The X-Files at nine. I thought it was a pretty good episode. It had that old-school creepy feel to it. I did laugh out loud at that last shot in the teaser, though, when they pull away from Monica standing in the hospital doorway. It was just too cheesy. They're really cranking up the Doggett/Reyes thing, eh? Of course, that's cool, 'cause I'm a pretty big fan of the idea. I'm almost starting to prefer them to Mulder/Scully, and I was once a pretty hardcore shipper. The thing is, those two are just too angsty. They're both so messed up, with so many problems. John and Monica are less complicated. Anyhow, I sure am lovin' these last few episodes. Finally, around ten thirty I got this sudden, uncontrollable urge to clean. So I started madly sorting through my junk in the basement, and managed to throw out quite a bit. I stopped just after one. It was intense. I tend to do crazy shit like that when I need to get my mind off of other things. I've been insane these last few days. Monday: Everyone wants to hang out with you today, Archer. Frankly, it's a little bit tiring. Suffer through it, though. You'll meet some new people who could be very important to you later on. I sincerely hope everyone wants to hang out with me today. We'll see, I suppose.

[ Friday, March 15, 2002 | 07:43 p.m. ] Ehh. Sketchy day. I worked some more on my "work report". The other co-op I work with is, like, done his. I think that's just insane. Anyhow, I'm damn glad it's Friday. Today was pretty bad. Not that anything particularly awful happened; it just sucked. I didn't even enjoy my White Hot Chocolate at lunch. In the afternoon I just wandered around the room, still trying to look busy. I opened up Word and stared at the screen and pretended to type. Yeah. Then I walked over to Viv & Adri's res at U of T. On the way, I ran into Tountas, whose calls I haven't returned in ages. Anyhow, Pange, Jacq & El were all there, and we had dinner at their caf, fung. Now I'm in their room, enjoying myself a fair bit, but wondering how the hell I'm going to get home. Doesn't it suck when something completely normal and expected happens, but it hits you like a punch in the gut?

[ Friday, March 15, 2002 | 01:19 a.m. ] Monday was a be-careful-what-you-wish-for day. I've pretty much done all I can do on the database, and all weekend I'd been hoping for something to kill some time and make it a non-issue. Well, I got it in spades. At nine, my boss called me into his office and gave me a couple of little things to do for him. When I went back, he asked me to make some photocopies. I got off for lunch at two. (I had coffee, as opposed to my usual hot chocolate, because I got less than an hour of sleep the night before.) Then, then, he asks if I could just make one more copy of everything. One more copy? Like he couldn’t have told me that in the morning so I could have made two copies of everything then? Argh. Of course, it really did keep me nicely distracted all day, all the way until quarter after four. I hung out for a while, then got an apple cider at Timothy’s and headed home. Tuesday I did very little. Lunch was noteworthy. A few of us ordered Chinese and I walked out with someone to pick it up, which was a nice change from my normal routine. I had hot & sour soup and Shanghai noodles, and they were extremely filling. The rest of the day, I made an Excel spreadsheet to plan my classes for next term, played numerous games of PilotMines, and zoned out pretending to read a book on building applications in Access. The “reading” was the worst. Despite my barely having slept on Sunday night, I didn’t exactly go to bed early on Monday. By the afternoon, I was fading, and, worse, I was getting colder by the minute. First I put on my sweater, then I draped my coat over my shoulders, and finally I was sitting in my chair with my down-filled coat zipped up. Needless to say, my co-workers were quite disturbed to see me like that, especially those who had been complaining about how hot it was in the room. Getting up and walking around did me a world of good, though, and by the time I reached Timothy’s for my espresso I felt almost normal. Yesterday... I have no idea what happened yesterday. More pretending to work, I suppose. Keep in mind, though, gentle readers, that it’s not like I’ve got all this work and I’m not doing it. The problem is that I don’t really have work to do, but I still have to look busy somehow. Today I finally remembered to bring in the work report guidelines, and I started making some notes on a possible topic. I’m not sure if it’s what I’m going to do in the end, but I killed a day working on it. I also got to take a little trip to Chinatown at lunch in a police vehicle. Not a cruiser, but still, a car owned by the police, complete with a radio and a flashing light. Most importantly, it gave me some time to chat with the person whom I had the most issues with, and I think I might’ve got her to see me in a better light. Anyhow, she was picking up some Chinese food for a couple of people, and I came along for the ride. I didn’t get anything because I was still full from the noodles. See, the portion was so huge that I couldn’t come close to finishing it at lunch on Tuesday. I ended up eating the rest (most of it, at least) last night. Kim came over and ordered Thai, and we watched The West Wing and Law & Order. I ate for the whole first hour. I still couldn’t finish all the noodles. They were the Devil’s noodles. I still felt full at dinner time tonight. In fact, I was all ready to go without dinner, but my mom offered my absolute favourite meal, the BigMac meal. And that’s my week to date, mostly. When the guys are in charge at work, we listen to decent radio stations like Mix 99.9 or even The Edge. When the chicks are in charge we listen to Ez-Rock or CHFI. Today it was CHFI, and so I’ve got cheesy country songs stuck in my head. Should I say it, Should I tell you how I feel? Oh, I want you to know, But then again I don’t, It’s so complicated.

Saturday Night's Alright [ Monday, March 11, 2002 | 03:13 a.m. ] Let me tell you, my Saturday night absolutely rocked. Today (Sunday) was Krystal's nineteenth birthday, so she had a little dinner the night before to celebrate. In attendance were Adri, Viv, Sonia, Pange, and myself. It was great. Sonia talked for, like, two or three hours straight, filling us in on all the latest gossip and goings on from HC. There were all sorts of scandal discussed. We ate at this Greek place on the Danforth, and then went to a little "café" for dessert. Afterwards, we went back to Viv & Adri's room in res and hung out for a while. And for a few hours, I felt like a real university student. I also realised that, hey, I've got all these friends, and maybe if I hung out with them more I'd feel much less isolated. I had similar thoughts tonight as I was emailing back and forth with Jacq and El. I need to get out more, as everyone tells me. Tonight I watched the Due South pilot on Showcase, as part of their Paul Gross tribute. Leslie Nielsen had little bits sometimes when they came back from commercials, since this is all to promote Men with Brooms. Anyhow, it reminded me of when I was sick two weeks ago. There was this cartoon on the Family Channel that I started watching every day called Katie and Orbie, about a little girl and her best friend, who's a purple alien. It's aimed at quite young children, and in every minute of every story they're trying to teach some lesson. Anyhow, I think it came on after The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and I had no intention of watching it, but then I saw that it was narrated by Leslie Nielsen. I was intrigued; I had to watch. As it turned out, I find his voice incredibly soothing, and I watched the show every day for the rest of the time I was sick, just to listen to him tell the stories. Isn't that fascinating? The other thing I watched tonight was The X-Files. I can't help it, I still adore it, but it's getting kind of weird. It was very heavy on the God theme. Also, Reyes and Doggett are getting very shippy. Not that I mind--I'm all for it--but it's odd. Still, kick ass show. All right. It's three a.m. and I've got work tomorrow. I'm off to sleep. Goodnight. You are Kermit! Though you're technically the star, you're pretty mellow and don't mind letting others share the spotlight. You are also something of a dreamer. Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

Robbins' Basic Pathology [ Monday, March 11, 2002 | 12:29 a.m. ] "Of books as well as men it may be observed that fat ones contain thin ones struggling to get out." "Begging the forgiveness of the clergy and the poets, we may begin this consideration of pathology with the observation that man is ultimately a complex aggregation of very clever cells." "Indeed, aplasia or agenesis may occur, with consequent total failure of the structure to develop. Obviously, aplasia can only occur with nonvital structures, despite a common belief that some automobile drivers have aplasia of the brain."

[ Saturday, March 9, 2002 | 05:06 a.m. ] I guess you could say that on Monday I was on one of the down-swings of my manic-depressive roller coaster of a life. Now it's Friday night, or Saturday morning, really, and I'm on an up-swing. Things are going better, for at least a few hours. Work's been okay for the last couple of days. On Wednesday, I got to touch the Stanley Cup. I got my picture taken with my arm around it. That was pretty damn cool. I also did some actual work on the database. I played Snood on my Palm when I couldn't think of anything else to do. Today Sean noticed and mocked my Winnie the Pooh day planner, but that's understandable. I'm glad he's back on afternoon shift, 'cause when he comes in I can stop working and just sit and chat for the next hour/hour and a half. Anyhow, we'll see how long this latest "not bad" period lasts. In other news, I went on a mad downloading binge tonight, mostly Palm software. The thing is, I went to bed quite early last night, around nine thirty, as I lacked anything better to do, and tonight I passed out early on the couch, again around nine thirty, while my mom was showing me this new pathology CD-ROM she got and telling me about various cells and such. When I woke up around twelve thirty, I assumed it was about two hours earlier. I immediately thought of catching the eleven o'clock Law & Order. I guess my internal clock got messed up, and I've just had too much sleep lately, because now it's five a.m. and I'm still up. I think I'm going to go to bed, though. I really just wanted to reassure everyone that I hadn't totally succumbed to despair and clichéd teen angst. I'm fine, happy even, at the moment. So I'm going to "sleep", i.e. lie in bed and play Minesweeper. Goodnight.

To Do List [ Monday, March 4, 2002 | 2:49 p.m. ] This isn't about self-confidence or self-doubt--it's about realism. I think I have a pretty good grasp of what I can and cannot do. Filing and stapling are things I can do. Modifying indecipherable Access databases and dealing with people are things I cannot do. My week-long absence from work has stripped me of any slight feelings of comfort I may've had. Now I just feel awkward and conspicuous. I'm just waiting for someone to ask, why is this child here? Being at home, in bed, has got me feeling very young. The other co-op I work with is only in second year, but, due to fast-tracking & where dates fall on the calendar, he's twenty one to my eighteen. I feel that way at school, too, though I'm far from the youngest person there. For goodness' sake, I'm writing this in a Winnie the Pooh day planner. I think I've finally accepted that I'm no longer in high school, but I don't feel like I belong here at work, so I feel very placeless right now. I don't really fit in with my friends who are still in high school, nor do I fit in with my friends in university. No place feels like home. I could drop out of co-op after this term. That would feel like quitting, though, and I'm no quitter. Still, I'm not sure what I'm doing in it. I'm at UW to learn computer stuff, then to move on to more school of some sort. I don't need co-op for that. It just, you know--it seems like the thing to do. Seemed like the thing to do. Maybe still seems. I don't know. But I know myself, and I won't stop after one work term. Maybe if the second one is equally useless, then I might decide to do something about it. I'm giving up a whole year of my life for this. Maybe it's not worth it. There's a guy a few tables over from me. Pinned to his coat is a cardboard nametag on which is written "COMMANDER LATIN AMERICA". Below that is a gold paper star, like a sheriff's. I finished my White Hot Chocolate, and now I'm sitting, watching the sun outside, listening to the music and the Commander whistle. I need Minesweeper for my Palm. That would make me happier. At least I can take comfort in the fact that I'll be in my dad's car, on the way home, in two hours. That's not so bad. I can handle that.

Kung-Flu: The Legend Continues [ Monday, March 4, 2002 | 12:00 a.m. ] 12 Extra Strength Tylenol 5 Extra Strength Tylenol Flu 230 mL of NyQuil 4 DayQuil LiquiCaps 39 ° fever 5 days off work 8 days in bed 0 time on the computer ------------------------------ 1 killer case of the flu