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24/02/02-
Welcome...
  
24/02/02(1130pm)-it all came down to one game and in the end, the canadians left the victors. it was an amazing game, but the canadians couldnt be stopped on defence and offence. lets backtrack though.
today was the purim carnival in the morning. fun is cause i had to help. but i saw elaine and we chatted about the game for a bit. also talked to marcus on the state of the rockville usy chapter this year. its kinda similar to what elise is going through. but that was that. no one wanted to watch the game with me, so i basically watched it while my dad assembled some furniture. then we watched downstairs for the last five minutes of the game. and i was wearing my team canada cap the entire game. the game went something like this: goal us, goal canada, goal canada, goal us, goal canada, goal canada, goal canada, end of game. i was ecstatic. i wish i was joining the celebrations in canada. i should be waking up hungover tomorrow with 20 million canadians than waking up to take my dad to work and going to uconn for work (thats my unfortunate realistic plan for tomorrow). this game was everything today. 50 years to the day and we finally won the gold. brought it back to canada. went in as underdogs against the american team which was undefeated on its home soil. the coach was the same that won the us gold in 1980. the media rejected the team. scoffed at their early performances. but gretzky deflected pressure off the players- his elite squad- and pat quinn brought them to victory. and in the greatest game in hockey history, the canadians proved to the word that it was the canadian sport.
unfortunately the games are now over, but what an olympics is was. great sports, great athletes, great memories, and many good hours of hockey. so i gotta get up tomorrow am, and im still riding the wave of elation that the people up north are celebrating, but ill leave with some words from espn.com/canada.com:
From Newfoundland to British Columbia, from southern Ontario to northern Yukon, revelers counted down the last 30 seconds and then leaped and screamed for joy wherever they watched.
The General Motors Place in Vancouver was full of thousands of people who watched on big screens. Others crammed sports bars, restaurants, living rooms and any other place where there was a television to watch.
Firefighters at one Ottawa station made a celebratory lap around the block, sirens and lights blazing.
In Montreal, crowds of celebrants filled the streets, forgetting any separatist feelings that might exist to cheer the quintessential Canadian moment. Several fans climbed atop a bus on Ste-Catherine Street and sprayed the crowd with beer.
"In two golden weeks of triumph, the game that we have always called our own, that we have shared with the world, has become ours again," Prime Minister Jean Chretien said in celebrating gold not only in men's hockey but women's hockey, too.
"In the past two weeks, in homes and schools, at work and at play, Canadians have once again been united in a way that only hockey can bring us together," Chretien said. "And their victories have triggered a nationwide party of celebration."
"That was better than losing my virginity!" screamed one fan in the frenzied moments after Canada won gold.
In Ottawa, more than 1,000 people were congregating at an impromptu celebration on Parliament Hill to cheer, wave flags and sing the national anthem.
Traffic was quickly shut down on the city's trendy bar strip, where about 500 people poured onto the street, cheering and waving Canadian flags. Firefighters at one station made a celebratory lap around the block, sirens and lights blazing.
In east-end Toronto, neighbourhood children were seen streaming into a nearby playground moments after the game ended, hooting, hollering and high-fiving each other.
In Montreal, Ste-Catherine Street was shut down, awash in Team Canada togs and red and white flags - one flying on a hockey stick - in a display reminiscent of the 1995 referendum rally.
Several madly cheering fans climbed atop a bus and sprayed the crowd with beer.
and as they kept repeating in coca-cola hockey commercials leading up to the games: "if we time it just right, maybe they'll hear us in salt lake."
(510pm)- GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
23/02/02(940pm)-gretzky's got it right. tomorrow is the biggest hockey game-- ever, and im here in the states with a bunch of hockey-unappreciative americans, many of who dont get the impact and history of tomorrows game. its gonna be huge and thats the fact. meanwhile, im trying to find people to watch it with but no one wants to. coverage starts at 2-230, game starts at 3pm. i know im the only one here rooting for canada but i dont wanna watch the game alone.
so thursday was a normal thursday although there was no us politics lecture. but there was russian history and a good conference afterwards. went to get a haircut afterwards at funky tuque. that was about it. later in the evening, went to the hillel purim bash at windsor station. i didnt think it was gonna be as big as it was, but it was open bar so it ended up being huge. i found out later that the open bar was later closecause so many people were drunk and quite a few were puking. i left by 1am and i was quite drunk myself. met up with this dude ezra, who was in the jewish history class. he was like the only person i knew there, so he was introducing me to a bunch of people. lots of nice looking women. lots. theres this one girl though, allison, i met her a couple of weeks ago, shes rather good looking. she was there, but i kinda saw her afar and i was drunk by that point anyways. so maybe ill see her at ghetto shul again sometime.
woke up friday, took my french test, went to my european history conference, and that was it. so i went to shatner to watch belarus lose to canada, 7-1. great game. shatner was packed, gerts was packed. literally everyone in the country was watching the game. middle schools and high schools were watching the game in gyms- kids with hats, flags, and painted faces. govt workers watching at work, construction workers taking time out to watch the game, people skipping work to watch it. massive applause all game. it was monstrous, people here dont appreciate whats going on, but man when you're up there, its do or die. americans dont understand what gretzky is talking about when he says the pressure in canada is so great. it is. and i wish i was canada to celebrate tomorrow night. meanwhile, russia beat belarus today, 7-2, for the bronze. but as they say, the bronze winners are remembered, the gold winners are remembered, but silvers arent. which is why it sucks for the mens curling team. but as the canadian womens hockey beat the us in the gold medal, so will the men.
after the game, went to do laundry, then go to ghetto shul with david. but there wasnt anything doing, so we went to dinner at some place called amelio's. not bad italian food. then went to grano, got some awesome cakes, played some connect four, went home. kristin and debbie were over. so i went to pack. went to bed round 2. woke up this am around 6
went to the airport. 9am flight. i was almost late cause of the shuttle, but thanks to eticketing, it sped things up for me. flight was okay, got in around 10. then just chilled here most of the day. went to dinner at taco bell with elise.
and so thats it for me. im here in ct this week. anyone wanna do something sometime, lemme know. lots of work to do this week. tuesday is 24. theres also the grammys this week. and of course tomorrows big game. if anyone wants to watch the game with me, lemme know. its not as fun when you watch it yourself.
22/02/02(11pm)-happy birthday jeri ryan. dont really have time for an update tonight. got to get up at 6 tomorrow am so i can get to the airport for my 9am flight. so its gonna be an early night for me tonight, just folding up some laundry and packing. gotta talk about last nights hillel thing, etc. canadian womens hockey won the gold last night against the us, so ive got one more thing to say: us vs. canada- the north american mens finals. canada's goin for gold again...
21/02/02(2am)-started this entry at 1130 this am.
alas, im finally bringing my laptop out of my room and into the lecture hall to take notes. actually, its more like ive got to hand in that paper on communism sometime today and all i have to do is type it. so rather than go home and do it, i figured id just bring my computer, save to disk, and print in the lab. so right now im in my lecture waiting for my modern european history prof to actually show up. if she's got something relevant to say, i might add it to my paper.
in the meantime, if you see something that says your sex life will be predicted for you, i think its crush007.com, dont bother going unless you mind your friends reading about your sex life. it seems like any of those other internet quiz sites until it tells you instead, that your answers to all the questions just end up getting spit back to your friends instead. sure fooled me.
so i read the communist manifesto for my modern european history class (the topic of my short little essay). my paper had to deal with the manifesto in a historical context, but i found it hard to read without analyzing it from a political/philosophical context. like there was stuff i agreed with him on and stuff i disagreed with him on. from an economic standpoint he might be correct, but from a practical philosophical standpoint, i dont think it would work in any current conditions. not only that, but the technological revolution has phased out the industrial revolution. thus, economics has shifted from a product based society to a service based society. im not sure how the proletariat can remain existing in this kind of society.
see capitalism is inherent because of mans nature. i mean its very hobbsean where man will try and make chaos out of order. thats where capitalism thrives. and marx touches on that, but he immediately dismisses it, which pissed me off, cause you cant dismiss it. thats the reason why there will be no such thing as utopia, and thats why as quick as man evolved into oppressors/oppressed, it will take so much longer to cycle back. so this is my theory:
if you base this all on marxist theory (granted i didnt read das kapital), then communism is supposed to be a class struggle, not a national struggle. meaning the only way communism will work is if it's a worldwide revolution, not just a revolution in one country. marx himself stipulates that the colonies of new lanack and new harmony were doomed to failure because of the fact that the proletariat were raised in a capitalist mindset. as i interpret this, communism can only work as a global revolution, not a one-country revolution as was the case with russia. therefore communism will either take an extremely long time with no one big revolution, but small things like petitions, legislation lobbying, etc, or it will never happen at all because of exactly that.
the problem with there being one big global revolution is that there are too many countries that are steeped in captialism. ie, the U.S., Canada, England, etc...it would be virtually impossible for the working class in these countries to launch a revolution, simultaneous to that of the rest of the world. why? because the governments of these countries would be willing to move towards a social welfare state that addresses the grievances of the social welfare state. then take into account what i said above about the technological revolution. gone is the working class whom marx describes as existing only to do the measiliest task. even if you want to make the claim for the man at mcdonalds- strip away mcdonalds, strip away his pay- he's not the man thats pushing the wheel in the factory; he's providing a service to the customer- food. so therefore, the claim in capitalist countries that have embraced the technological revolution cant be made that communism will ever work, irrelevant of the fact that man inherently is greedy.
in creating a technological revolution that immediately succeeded the industrial revolution, the capital states have made it where the proletarian revolution can't fit into that equation because the working class that marx talks about has been phased out. there's people in the lower strata of economic status, but a marxist working class doesnt exist. that lower class doent exist, and for now, there really cant be any proletariat revolution to forge the way for communism to take hold of all nations.
so now amazingly the womens curling team was defeated and is now only in the bronze medal round. belarus wiped the swedes from the hockey tournament. and canada is into the medal round. now we're bucking for gold. and anyone who naysayed gretzky's press conferences should think twice when we bring home gold. its gonna be great. tomorrow, the womens hockey gold medal game is us vs. canada. should be good.
not much doing in the past couple of days, just standard school fare, watching some olympics, etc. not much really to report about. working some more on seths campaign which starts just after reading week. and tomorrow is the big purim party at windsor station. looks like it should be fairly big since its a joint one with the english and the french hillels. plus its basically my first night out out in a few weeks and with reading week coming up, will be my last night out for a few weeks. these papers are gonna be killers. but it'll be good since i'll get to meet some more jewish girls. first though, i gotta clean my room tomorrow cause it looks like a mess and i hate a messy room, particularly when im leaving for CT. second, i gotta get a haircut before i go home. thats bout it basically. oh and i need to do laundry too, so i dont have that hanging over when i get back. i feel stressed and i dont, im confused about whats going on over the next 3 weeks or so. anywho, im bout to head for now, maybe hit the sack.
19/02/02(250am)-the rough text from president clinton's speech (it will open in a new browser window). as i get a few more verbatium quotes/names, i will make the appropriate changes. but what ive got is about 75% correct to what he said.
18/02/02(1110pm)-from today's McGill Daily:
"Secrets of the Axis of Evil!"
Much has been made of President Bush's "Axis of Evil," which draws a hypothetical line between Iraq, Iran, and North Korea and posits that these nations pose some sort of undue threat to the citizens of the United States of America. If we take this hypothetical axis and draw it for real, starting it in Kim Jong Il's Pyongyang Palace and running it through China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, we see that it does, indeed, touch all three "Axis of Evil" nations (albeit striking Iraq in largely autonomous Kurdistan). So we see that their Pres. Bush is, in fact correct in hypothesizing an axial correlation between the three. However, mor interesting is the fact that this same line, when extrapolated, traces an intriguing path across the broad Atlantic and straight to the front door of Bush's ranch home in Crawford, Texas. Axis of Evil, indeed!"
so sunday was sunday. watched canada beat germany in hockey, 3-2. today, we tied the czechs 3-3. and the us beat belarus today 8-1. it was hairy in the first, but it became a blowout after that. that pairs us up with the finns on wednesday, and the us with germany. the simpsons were in toronto during the end of sundays episode. it was hilarious, a bunch of canadian references, like "dodgers of foreign wars outpost" and "curling for loonies." that was about it for yesterday. and today was a typical monday during the day. only french was cancelled. and i didnt cook tonight because seth, nick, and i went to see bill clinton speak. they said we couldnt bring cameras nor cassette recorders so i didnt, but it wouldnt have mattered if i did. no one would have cared cause we were in the balcony anyways. besides, we paid 50$ for 100$ seats. we got there, it was like, the catholic school kids (cause they bought a huge chunk of tickets), and upper class businessmen. guess who was sitting on the floor and who was in the balcony. anywho.
i wrote down almost every word of his that i could. as a speaker, he was excellent. the first 10 min or so, he referred to his note cards quite a bit, but as he went on and got into it, he didnt need them at all. he covered everything atleast briefly, from health care, to education to environment, but his main focus was on terrorism and creating a better future for peace for the children. his main slogan for the night was "we have to go beyond 'prevent, defend, and punish," but to also make more partners for fewer terrorists." im gonna try and transcribe my notes in a few minutes and probably post them on my site, just as a text file. but he was definitely worth listening to. it was supposed to be sponsored by ORT, an NGO that works with providing better futures for children, and also vocational training. so his main relation of all the speech was how to create a better future for all of us, for our children to live in. i agreed with a lot of what he had to say, very politician like, but then, he was the president. for example, he managed to not answer the questions at the end by answering the questions. but his responses to the question on the middle east were probably the most interesting, given his immense involvement in the peace process. so that was it. at the end, aislin presented him with a gift on behalf of montreal, but ill leave that to my notes. and thats about it til next time.
16/02/02(1050pm)-it was either me or them, but i went to the skating place at 820, i didnt see anyone who i recognised from yesterday or any other time. waited til 940, still nothing. maybe they came at 10, i dunno, but i left 940 having not skated or anything :/ couldnt write down the time last night at services, but i swore it was 8pm tonight. no matter, past history.
just found out that jeremy wotherspoon not only didnt medal in the mens 1000m speedskating, but he lost his world record. boo. and to make a correction, canada lost to the swedes and the us beat finland. no matter, i think us is playing russia tonight if im not mistaken, and canada plays germany tomorrow. mario's out for his hip and germany's been blasting through the preliminary rounds so we're in for a tough game. anywho. since im not skating, might as well eat my dinner and maybe watch the hockey game.
(530pm)-not much doing on the front here. as you can see above, we're having a bit of a warm spell. going home next week is gonna be like t-shirt weather down south. unfortunately, it means those nice ice rinks around the corner are kinda melting and you cant play hockey. which sucks, cause i want to play hockey again. yesterday we suffered an embarrassing 5-2 loss from the finns. damn curtis joseph. that will be our defeat is the goaltending. i must say, gretzky did a horrible job picking goaltending for the canadian team. and the us beat sweden 6-0. of course i was gone for the canadian game and i slept through most of the american game. despite the fact that the us won, i thought the swedes played great.
so why'd i miss the canadian game? david had told me he was going to services at this synagogue on lorne. and i was highly skeptical about going since lorne is in the ghetto and i didnt know of any synagogues that close to campus. far as i knew, you had to go to westmount with all the hoitytoities. to make a long story short, i ended up going. thought that it was gonna be like 10 people in an apartment room, but we got there and there was probably about 30-40 people. we got there and it was near the end of mincha. this british guy was leading services and it was just like something straight out of usy. a bunch of people from the jewish history class were there and a couple other people i saw at the shabbaton dinner. and the services were completely student run, just like usy. they hold services there a lot i guess. so it's neat to have a "shul" like that, relatively close to here, and its not a big temple, just 40 or so people(they said theres usually about double the number of people that were there last night) right in a little apartment room, davening. quite a few cute girls there. and thats when i realised that they must all know each other from there and get hillel info from there, etc. i was wondering how they knew about hillel events. and after services, they had dinner for everyone. it was pretty good cause nobody runs the synagogue or anything, its completely just students, not an organisation or anything, although im sure its gotta have some ties to hillel or something. anyways, so we were talking during dinner, there was one guy from panama city who's doing his masters at u of montreal. he said like, he spent 2 years undergrad at brandeis before going somewhere, i cant remember where. and then there was this guy frank from paris, some dude from brasil, and 2 parents were there from west orange, n.j. because their daughters were looking at the school to apply next year. so we were talking to them a while. it was pretty cool, although there were so many people in the room that we couldnt sit at the main table in the middle of the room, which sucked cause thats were all the people were, but oh well, maybe next week. definitely though, i have to go to more stuff there cause it also keeps me in tune with the hillel. im determined not to make the same mistake here as i did with usy- go to sporadic events in the beginning and then by the end of my stay, go to every event and regret not having done it from the beginning. its like, in the beginning, you dont know everyone, but the more you go, the more you recognize them and vice versa and then its like you wanna go all the time. which was what happened with usy- i went to one or two regional events in freshman year, then by the time senior year came around and i knew a lot of people, i wanted to go to all the events. im not gonna happen this time, so im gonna go to more events as i know about them. besides, it keeps me involved in mcgill's jewish community and in particular, gets me meeting more jewish girls, which is definitely something i need.
that said, im probably going to try and go to the hillel ice skating thing tonight at the 1000 rue de la gauchetière rink. dave's not going cause he's out, so if i go, it'll kinda be making me have to introduce myself. we were talking about it the other night, thats my main problem with people is breaking through the introductions. once someone knows me, i open up, i talk easier, etc. but i have a problem of not being able to initiate the first step to introducing myself to someone i dont know. even if its someone else doing the introductions, its not as difficult for me, but im always afraid of killing the conversation before its even happened. anywho. more psychoanalysis. probably should go, re: comments above.
and in other news, i got 2 tickets to dave matthews band at centre molson, 21/04/02. opening for him is bela fleck and the flecktones, whom i'm interested in hearing cause ive heard good things about them. its right in the middle of my finals, but since i dont have any from the 16th to the 30th, im safe. gotta get a date for it. so thats another thing cause its a sunday night in the middle of finals, so the person would have to not have a final on that monday and possibly tuesday. seats are Level PARTERRE(floor), Section NORD(north), Row MM, Seat 1-2. pretty good seats on the floor, im sure most of the seats are now sold out period. never been to a dmb concert before. and i probably wouldnt have even been as interested if i didnt have nat and jon on my floor last year, listening to mainly dmb. i tried hooking them on rane since its part of that whole jam scene, but didnt work as successfully. i think nat mentioned something once about when they get big big, he'll maybe get into it more. i dunno. i think there's too many people who like dmb, but only because he's a big name and he's good. like im looking forward to seeing him, but i also think he's overrated. in terms of the fact that there's a multitude of good jam bands out there that don't get the recognition he gets. look at bands like leftover salmon, string cheese incident, widespread panic, government mule, ekoostik hookah, moe, rane ;P .... that have been doing their thing for years and dont get the same recognition that dave gets. not saying that dave is bad, but there's other good bands. anywho, concert should be good- ive got 2 months to get myself that date. girls love dave, dont they? :)
back to the communist manifesto for european history. 5 page analysis due wed.
15/02/02(330pm)-said i would avoid saying anything and i did. and nothing new came up.
not much happened yesterday, just went to classes, did my dictee, played some guitar, more work, etc...watched catriona le may doan win canada the gold medal. the big news that just broke is that the IOC is gonna award sale and pelletier gold medals. good work. they earned it without the controversy and the hype. damn straight. tonight is team canada hockey against the swedes. so that's where ill be at 6pm- watching the game. i need a team canada jersey, thats what i need. ive also decided that im pretty set on doing an open mic on tuesday, but we'll see how that goes. maybe ill learn some quebecois song for it. what else? what else? i thought there was something else newsworthy to talk about, but i forgot it. maybe ill remember later. oh, we'll start with one thing- britney spears has a movie opening today. lord help us all.
14/02/02(1am)-i'm going to avoid saying anything about it. and unless something new comes up, that's all i have to say about that.
that colorgenics thing was pretty good. daves was pretty close too. weird. more "only in canada" news. monday night, police in one of the montreal suburbs found a million dollars of weed when they were informing a homeowner that a car accidentially skidded offroad and hit his mailbox. then there was the decision by the Canadian Supreme Court yesterday, that a 2 foot long dildo used in a sexual assault case can be deemed as a weapon. only here. salé and pelletier were robbed of their gold medal. im not sure whats gonna come out of it with the new admission from the french judge that she was pressured by the russians to vote for the russians, but it'll be interesting. there's appeals being lodged and im not sure what the deal is if a dual gold can be awarded due to faulty and improper judging, but i hope that salé and pelletier are able to get what they deserve. definitely speed skating tomorrow should be good, and friday gets into the meat of the hockey when canada and the us finally join the fray. i hear the germans are going to be a good contender, having gone undefeated in the qualifying rounds.
so yesterday was a same ol, same ol day. went to us govt conference, made a point about the ABA not being an early arbiter of supreme court nominations, the ta didnt know what i was talking about, i went between conference and class, looked it up, told him after class, and the prof said i was right. then went to russian history. cant remember what i didnt after that, probably lunch at shatner, 3 games of pool with david, met nick at hmv and got bjork's vespertine and that was that. 24 last night was starting to get a little iffy until around midway through the episode. oh, and also, oscar nominations came out early tuesday, but since im more of a music person than a movie person, i'm namely routing for lord of the rings and amelie. i need to get both those movies when they come out on dvd. i wish amelie would already, i want to see it again.
today, woke up, i looked out the window, it was a beautiful day. walked downstairs, opened up the door to leave, it was about -16(3F) with a windchill of about -29(-17F). certainly beautiful, particularly when you're trying to recooperate from the rest of your cold. :P so to top it off, jamie and i had to give the french presentation i missed on monday. it went so so. still sometimes dont understand the teacher. not the french, but the craziness. that lady is like mrs. cipollini from grade 11, only no english speaking whatsoever in class (or basically outside of it either). like i told her i was out with the flu and she said something about how being sick makes you lose weight. and it was like a joking manner and i didnt get the joke. then was european history, talked about industrialisation in england. lunch. jewish history was talking about the beginning of the spanish inquisition. tonight was a meeting for seth's ssmu campaign. im feelin a little wiped now so im gonna hit the sack. more later.
12/02/02(830pm)-
"Enough is enough". Nothing seems to be working out as you would like it to...and it has got to the stage where you feel as if you can't be bothered anymore. The way you feel is that it would be great if you could cut off from everything and take it easy - be it only for a short time..
For some time now it would seem that you are frustrated and emotionally inhibited. The circumstances which appear to be beyond your control are making it very difficult for you to develop a detached emotional attitude that you seek...
You are frustrated and stressful .. You appreciate the finer things in life but at all times you appear to stay aloof, critical of everything and everyone about you. You will not be carried away by your emotions and you refuse to trust anyone or any situation unless genuineness and integrity can be absolutely vouched for.Therefore, you keep a strict and watchful control on your feelings as you must know exactly where you stand at all times . You demand complete sincerity as a protection against your own tendency to be too trusting.
Matters are not all that they would appear to be and you are critical of the existing conditions which you feel are confused and disorganised. You are therefore looking for a modus operendi which will simplify the situation so that you will be able to see the "trees in the woods".
www.colorgenics.com
amazing. (thanks margaret.) more later.
11/02/02(11pm)-phew. im feeling a lot better today. i went to bed last night at 11 and i had a rough night of sleep, mainly cause i left my computer on and the sound on with it, so when a couple people immed me, it woke me up. weird. cause i sleep through anything and everything. case in point, there was a 3.9 earthquake in joliette, about 45 miles away, around 640 this morning. we might have gotten some aftershocks, but i wouldnt have felt a thing. i slept til 2pm today. 15 hours of continuous sleep. thats a record for me. but i sure needed it. yesterday was the worst i think id ever felt because i hadnt had the flu in about 10 years, and compounded with my cough, i felt miserable. but i took my dayquil and my echinacea, drank lots of oj, and with the sleep, i was a lot better today. or atleast im not breaking from shivers into sweats like yesterday.
slowly but surely, my site is continuing to be revamped. like, i slightly redid the section on my life (i was feeling driveless near the end because of being sick and left a bunch of the end the same.), and i redid some of the links page. granted, theres a bunch more pages to be done, including all of the reflections pages before january 2002, plus all the literary pages, and all the reviews pages. but its getting there...slowly but surely.
meanwhile, there's a couple people from places like canisius college and sacred heart who've been checkin the place out. i assume they're rane fans, but i have no idea who they are. hit me up with an email sometime so i can meet you at the next rane show im at
so my habs are going into the olympic break with a two game losing streak. first, a saturday loss to toronto, 4-1 (i slept through most of that game even though it was a 3pm game, but i was sick then too). then tonight they lost 3-2 to detroit with 13.2 seconds left in the 3rd. and jeremy wotherspoon lost the 500m speed skating today in the olympics. brutal. his left skate just dug into the ice after about 5m after the start and he tripped and that was it. he was canada's favourite to win the event. ah well, there's always hockey. although, ive still got problems with the squad that gretzky picked. and the first problem is goaltending. and if not that, there's always curling. no one can possibly beat canada at curling.
i guess since i didnt really do anything in the past couple of days other than sleep and go grocery shopping, dont have too much to say here. so thats the end of that chapter. oh, and im definitely going to see bill clinton next monday at place-des-arts. and then im going home for reading week on feb 23-mar 2. ill probably be going to uconn a lot, as ive got a 30 page us politics paper due in the middle of march. thats about it.
10/02/02(515pm)-im fuckin sick. no drive or anything. at 245, my temp was 100.2 and now its 101.4. maybe i have the flu. boooooooooooooooo. so here's a little lewis black bit to cheer me up:
Flu season’s back again. Every year, apparently a guy gets on a boat in Formosa, forgets to wipe himself, and we get the flu. [Laughter] He gets off the boat, “How you doing, how you doing, how you doing?” [Laughter] Whatever you do, don’t get a flu shot. Every year, it’s scarier and scarier. Last year, my doctor scared me into one. He said, “You know what people are doing, they’re shittin out their mouths.” I don’t like to brush that much. Gimme a shot. It’s the worst thing you can do. A flu shot gives you a cold for 365 days. Everyday you wake up, you’ve got a cold. You never get the flu cause you always have a cold. [Laughter]
I like a cold cause I get to do my favourite drug, which is NyQuil. I love that stuff. What do you-wha-what do the rest of you use, Robitussin? Robitussin, why do you bother? Non-narcotic sissy pansy bullshit. [Laughter] NyQuil’s got the best thing I’ve ever read on a medicine package: “180 proof.” [Laughter] It’s the moonshine of medicine. You can buy it on a holiday. [Laughter] See, cause when I got a cold, I want something that’s gonna fffuck me up. [Laughter] Cause that way the blur seems interesting.
There’s a daytime NyQuil, theres a nighttime NyQuil. Drink either one you want, cause your cold doesn’t give a shit what time it is. [Laughter] NyQuil comes in two colours: red and green. It’s the only thing on the planet that tastes like red and green. And red and green are what? Christmas colours. That’s right, NyQuil makes a dandy eggnog. [Laughter] Aw yeah, my friends bitched through the whole party, “This tastes like shit.” But at the end of it, we had a fun sleepover. [Laughter]
First time I did NyQuil was 1977. It came on the market and I was there. I said, “Gimme that!” Had a, nurse’s cap on it. That’s bullshit. If I was a nurse, I would need the medicine. So I proceeded to drink the whole thing. Well, back then they didn’t have the warning about operating farm equipment. [Laughter] Obviously, you’re not supposed to drink it. I woke up three days later. I was in Rockville, Maryland- a city I’d never been in- I was standing in front of a courthouse, and I was married to a woman I’d never met. [Laughter] But goddamn it, I could breathe again.
09/02/02(7pm)-i lied. i started workin on the update and then i crashed. im sick and im not sure what it is- if its just my cough or what. but im freezing in my room and usually im not. i took another 3 hour nap around 230. my throat is sore, it feels like theres shit in the back of it, i got dizzy in bed twice, and ive got a headache. im a fuckin mess. i just wish i could go to a hospital, lie down, and say "you're the doctor, assess me." of course, up here, it'll take 3 weeks to be seen by that doctor. but i dont even feel like leaving the house. i want OJ but i dont want to leave to walk a block to the dep. its freezing out. i need food- i havent eaten all day. like i say, time and time again- sickness will be my eventual death.
yesterday morning, woke up earlier, headed out to shatner and did more studying for european history. had a map/id test in class. went interestingly. the ids werent so bad, the maps werent that bad, it the question that had us write 3 countries' boundaries that were changed between 1648 and 1800, what they were before, who took it over, what its new name was, and what decade it was taken over. that sucked. particularly cause i dont think most of napoleons' stuff counted. and the map we had made it visually confusing. but it wasnt worth that much of the grade. after that, went to shatner for lunch and then waited around for nick, we shot pool at gerts for 2 hrs.
that was about it for the rest of the day. opening ceremonies of the olympics started last night. since the summer games were held last winter, its the second olympics ive watched here. was pretty cool. one thing i noticed: all the american athletes were wearing roots clothing. and roots is a canadian brand. who said canada wasnt good for anything. anyways, i was gonna stay and watch the torch lighting ceremony, but i happened to notice that jon was going to play hockey. so i asked him where, and they stopped by on the way. apparently, there's an outdoor rink, literally right around my block. but ive been wanting to actually get on the ice and pass the puck around since ive gotten to montreal, i had bought a stick, skates, and gloves, but i didnt know anyone who would play at my beginner level. so last night, i decided to play. it was really fun. there was 4 of us. we got to the rink and a shinny game was going on, so we hopped in jeff's car and went to parc. there was another game going on there, but a rink next to the game was free so we were skating around and dropping passes. around 11, the lights on the rink went off, and the guys left their game, but we decided there was enough city lights, so we went to the rink, and played a little 3 on 2 with nets. lots of fun (though my back is sore now from skating). i got 2 goals and an assist. around 1230, the guys from the city came in with the water truck. the city puts up these rinks all around montreal, and they also maintain them. so they were driving around with hot water trucks (not real zambonis) to roughly resurface the ice. went back to jons with the guys for hot chocolate and came back here round 2ish.
and here i am, i feel like shit. kristin and jess and debbie want us to go clubbin with then tonight but, im gonna quit now while im ahead because i dont plan on leaving the house til monday- and hopefully ill feel better by then.
(2pm)-just surfin around a few sites, hit up on another one of those surveys. and while im waiting for the habs-leafs game at 3pm, i figure i'll do the survey and update.
Five CDs from your collection that you will never get tired of:
1. Parachutes-Coldplay
2. Any of my Rane cds
3. The Invisible Band-Travis
4. Amnesiac-Radiohead
5. Tourist-St. Germain
Four vacations you have taken:
1. France
2. Israel
3. Barbados
4. Seattle/Vancouver (and more...)
Four Places you just have to go:
1. London
2. Back to France
3. Back to Israel
4. Backpacking through Europe
Four things you'd like to learn:
1. A martial art.
2. How to be a virtuoso guitarist- something like Slash
3. Fluent French Speaking
4. Any other instrument- preferably drums first, then bass, turntables...
Four beverages you drink frequently:
1. Coke
2. Iced Tea
3. Coffee
4. A Canadian beer, but it depends what we're getting when we're out. Generally I find I drink less in the house and this year. We seem to go out less, plus generally no one drinks if we're not going out.
Four tv shows that were on when you were a kid:
1. He-Man
2. Transformers
3. Thundercats
4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Four tv shows you watch now:
1. Everybody Loves Raymond
2. Will & Grace
3. The Simpsons
4. Montreal Canadiens Hockey
Four places to go in your area:
1. Frappé
2. Bifteck
3. Molson Centre
4. Pizza Exquise- the 99cent pizza place across the street
Four things to do when you're bored:
1. Play my guitar
2. Television
3. Bitch online
4. Tinker around the web
Four things that never fail to cheer you up:
1. My guitar
2. My computer
3. Hanging with the roomies
4. This year's Canadiens hockey team
Four things you regret:
1. Not developing a sage work ethic
2.
3. Not filling in number 2
4. Not having taken guitar lessons
Two DREAM guys and two DREAM girls)
1. Jeri Ryan
2. Estella Warren
3. Natalie Portman
4. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
About 20 years ago...
1. I was almost born
2. ET was the craze
3. Ronald Regan was president and conservatism was alive and kicking
About 10 years ago...
1. MC Hammer was cool
2. So was Kris Kross
3. The European Union was coming into play and the Montreal Canadiens were gearing up to win the Stanley Cup
About 5 years ago...
1. I got my first guitar
2. I was a big Hootie fan and ended up seeing them as my first concert
3. I first learned how to create a basic web page
About 2 years ago...
1. I wanted to get out of South Windsor
2. Got into McGill
3. My friends and I slowly broke apart and its still that way today with most of them
About 1 year ago...
1. I was still trying to find myself here in montreal
2. I preoccupied myself with the wrong people
3. The Smalrus Web Site was on some random nbci.com place
Today...
1. Still trying to find myself in montreal
2. Wanting to write more songs and perform here a few times
3. The Smalrus Website is at the user-friendly Smalrus.com
(215am)-more in the morning on european history, pool, olympics, and park hockey. in the meantime, entertain yourself with the website of the day.
06/02/02(345pm)-not much to say as of now. fixed the page with the rane AIM buddy icon since i hadnt had a php page of it and my link on the rane page was to an old html page. also, i updated my cd catalogue. im almost positive that i havent left any albums out. right now the count's at 175, and yes, there are 23 different live rane shows, spanning well over 41 hours of live rane. i also did approximate ratings for all the full length LPs. i didnt go back to my reviews to look at the ones i had, so some of the new ratings may be inconsistent with the reviews. check out the updated cd list. im gonna go do my laundry now. working on a new song. got some good lyrics started. perhaps when i talk to people/a person tonight, ill have more to say later...
05/02/02(1045pm)-another day, another donut. class was fun. yay. got the new chemical brothers cd. not bad at all. i concur. as rolling stone wrote "its not so much as they reinvent the wheel, as much as they turn the tires." we beat the devils tonight 1-0. credit to théodore for the shutout that put us back into playoff contention. i fixed the background on the rane page to make it look a little easier to read. got some more work to do. laundry probably tomorrow. jenny, hope the picture above cheers you up more. good 24 tonight. thats about it. just a bunch of randomness tonight. thats how updates have been feeling lately- first thing that pops into mind. might be going to see bill clinton speak here in montreal on 18 feb. i like him more than bush. and finally, mr. potato head is 50. happy birthday, move to phoenix ;) thats it for now, more later.
(925am)-for the record, if you'll take note of the montreal weather, it is great this morning. it's -2°F with a windchill of -18°F. happy winter.
04/02/02(1155pm)-dont really have time to update. busy. but i must say. in recap, cant talk much about saturdays meeting other than thigs should be cool with the whole deal. saturday night saw memento. good movie. but plot was nothing if the "going backwards" concept wasnt involved. and since i knew that going in, i kept consciously trying to fit the pieces together. it was a good movie, and i liked it because of the concept, but not one of my favourites i think. yesterday went to a car show with david. a ton of pictures- i dunno if im gonna put them all up, but theres a cool one of me pimpin it in a cadillac escalade ;) also me in a miata, next to the corvette, a few concept cars, my passat cause im not getting one for quite a while, and a ton of other pics including some lamborghinis and ferraris. my favourite car of the show though (besides the passat)- the Nissan Z. cool car. superbowl- pats won. woo. i guess i routed for them as my hometown team. but im not a pro football fan, so it didnt matter that much. and canadian law stops us from seeing american commercials, so i cant find them. plus, i cant find mario lemieux's campbells chunky soup ad anywhere on the net either :/ today was cool. classes were fine. tonights dinner bombed. i made a carbonara, but the creme curdled and it sucked- looked like puke and tasted like nothing. hands down my worst meal of the year. raymond was funny tonight. i booked my plane tix home and back (22 feb- 2 mar). thats about it. tomorrow is the new chemical brothers cd. u2's elevation dvd is cool. i wish radiohead had one. same with rane. tomorrow is habs @ devils. huge game since they're 1 point ahead of us for the playoff race. and last but not least, i finally got some good rane pictures for my rane page. they came from the rehearsal i was at on 3 jan 2002. and since it was at the space, it was more cozy and i didnt have people and equipment all in the way. check them out on the rane page. thats it for now. i got dishes to do. :P
02/02/02(145pm)-groundhog day. yay whoopee. if you were up here, you wouldnt be fooled by the "six weeks of winter left" deal. last night it was about -10 with a windchill of about -20. yeah, good luck with that. weather was shitty all day. first it was snowing, then freezing ice. then rain, then it stopped. it started raining again later. and of course once it stopped, the freezing weather completely iced over the sidewalks. classes were okay. the hillel dinner was alright as well. a lot of people. i dont think ive seen as many jews on campus as i did last night. the only downside was that it was hard for the 3 of us to mingle with so many people when we really didnt know anybody. so we ended up leaving a little bit earlier. but we met a few people. im thinking i need to do some more hillel events though this semester. and so right now, im a little unfocused because im sitting in the living room with the roomies and yin and jen from AUS. we're waiting for more people to start showing up around 2 to talk about ideas for seth's campaign. we cant start campaigning til after reading week, but we're now getting feedback, ideas, etc for the campaign.
thursday was alright too although i cant remember much about what happened during the evening. i might have been just jamming or whatever. oh, yesterday i came home, and john and i were working with his sampler. we took a clip from the requiem for a dream soundtrack (track 12 if you know the soundtrack). and so he was running it through the sampler and playing improv on the computer. and i was playing on the guitar with it. it was a pretty wicked jam.
anyways. after this meeting, im probably gonna do laundry and work. then its i dunno what. there's memento playing at parc. and also, there's the nhl all-star game. and then tomorrow is the superbowl. not that interested in pro football at all, so i guess ill just rout for the pats cause they're hometown *sorta* team. and also the montreal international car show or something like that ends tomorrow at olympic stadium. more later.
01/02/02(530pm)- ive got a new link of the day, but im holding off for a few more on it. eventually i should also have a graphic for it. but in efforts to do some more php conversion, i redid the reflections page so that its in php (although all but last month which was in php, are still linked to the old html pages. im gonna have to deal with those old html reflections.) i also took off those html pages that ive already uploaded in php (ie rane, ranelyrics, etc). not much time to talk right now. me and dave are meeting seth at the office to head over to this big hillel shabbat dinner. supposedly its gonna be pretty big. more later.
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