TEN MILLIONS!
This morning I had to sprint ten blocks* to the second bus I catch to get to campus because somehow, in the infinite wisdom that is my half-awake mindset, I managed to screw up the time my second alarm goes off while I was trying to get the first one to shut up. I wouldn’t have even bothered except I had to present for my Measurement class at 9:30 AM…not something you want to miss when the presentation is worth like 30% of your grade, and something I’m damn glad I remembered when I happened to glance at my clock and see a blurry “8:50 AM” displayed.
On the upside, I broke my old record of “this is the fastest I can get to school in panic mode.”
So after that insanity this morning, I then spent all afternoon spazzing over my Regression problem set (due tomorrow) as well as the write-up for my Measurement project (due tomorrow, too). Then I somehow stumbled across the fact that Brian Regan actually does do shows in Canada, and that he was performing tonight at 7:30. So I went to see him, which was super awesome. Worth every dollar, that man is freaking hilarious.
IN OTHER NEWS: classes are over, bitches! Now I just have to turn in these two things tomorrow, invigilate exams on the 21st and 22nd, take my Regression final on the 23rd, turn in the last Measurement homework on the 26th, and grade Infancy crap. Then first year = DONE.
Yeah, that’s all I got.
*Vancouver blocks are like twice the size of Moscow ones, for whatever the hell reason. It takes 15 minutes to walk from 41st to my house on 31st, and I walk pretty damn fast. Not a problem when I don’t have anywhere to be, but in the mornings I much prefer the 2 minute ride on the #7 to get to the UBC bus.
Today’s song: 栄光の架橋 by ゆず
What today entailed:
– Canadian taxes!
– Making Matt sit and wait for me to finish Canadian taxes
– Going downtown to try and find the torch
– Noticing a FREAKING LAPTOP on the train tracks
– Trying to find a way to get said laptop
– Taking DA SKY TRAIN
– Taking DA SKY TRAIN in DA WRONG DIRECTION towards DA END OF DA TRACKS!
– Lots of walking around trying to find the torch
– Finding out the torch was now inside and going to Granville Island instead
– “So come on, come on and doooooo the locomotion with meeeee!”
– ROCK BAND
– PORTAL
– Matt getting REALLY into Burnout Paradise (seriously, this was great)
Hooray for Matt being in Vancouver!
Today’s song: I’m Gone, I’m Going by Lesley Roy
A Moscow friend in Vancouver? My head asplode
And today is a short blog because all we did was dink around.
Edit: and see little kids talk about St. Patrick’s Day puke.
Happy birthday, Aaron!
Today’s song: Yuudachi by Hiromitsu Agatsuma
Tukey is not a lunch meat
DECIET AND LIES, it doesn’t stop raining long enough to make time lapses that fail to include rain!
Unless this was taken in the summer, in which case I can’t say anything yet. The “this rain is constant and is beating your soul into the gutter” weather was slowly dying down when I left yesterday. And that rolling fog thing happens on campus every once and awhile.
Haha, I like how I get back here and then watch time-lapses of the city I just came from.
Today’s song: War by Mean Tambourines
Olympics underway!
YAY Olympics! I love the Olympics, I always have. I think it’s pretty damn awesome that I got to saw the flame/insane crowds/other Olympic-related insanity.
I ALSO ENJOY THE LOGOS BECAUSE I’M LIKE THAT.
And we can always rely on the good contributors to Wiki to keep this as up-to-date as the news.
I also like to look at the flags. I like flags.
That is all.
Today’s song: Puppy Love by Scandy
I think I just won the gold medal in Sensory Overload
There’s a sort of freakish excitement of knowing that the Olympics are going on all around you (well, on most sides, at least).
Kate and I went downtown since we’re done with grad school horribleness for a few weeks.
There are SO MANY PEOPLE HERE. Here are some pictures.
This is why Stong’s is awesome.
Cambie Street/BC Place, where a lot of the events are happening.
More downtown insanity.
GIANT MAPLE!
Flags outside of the Olympic cauldron fence. It was the bluest sky I’ve ever seen.
Olympic flame! Yes, they fenced it in. Yes, people were bitching.
ALSO: we saw part of the Swiss team. It was pretty awesome. That is all. Fun day.
Today’s song: Someone to Love by Tofer Brown (quite fitting for Valentine’s Day, isn’t it?)
The Edge: A Review
Ever been at a rave party with blasting music and flashing lights and thought, “man, this would be a great place for upscale dining?”
Apparently that’s what the owners of The Edge thought.
Back story: Meanne’s birthday was Thursday, so she invited us all to go to dinner with her tonight at a place called The Edge.
So we all show up—Ben, Kate, Alyssa, Alyssa’s husband, Khara, and some other dude who was in our psych stats class whose name escapes me (but he was cool), and myself. We all get there on time.
About an hour later, Meanne and her other Vancouver friends (the non-grad-school-tortured ones) show up.
By this point, a few of us notice that the music has been getting progressively louder. Like, to the point where regular conversation could not be heard. Ben and I were right next to each other and had to shout. Add in camera flashes going off approximately every thirty seconds and the DJ standing right behind us (I had a great eyeline shot and spent the better half of the night glaring at him evilly with hopes that he’d see me and turn the music down), we pretty much were at a rave party that happened to have tables.
I do feel a bit sorry for our waiter, though. There were like 14 of us, half of us showed up an hour late, and Ben and I, about three hours in when the decibel assault was too much to bear any longer, were actually grooving out like we were in a rave party and waving our arms around like a bunch of idiots. So I gave him like a $5 tip for a $15 salad (that sucked).
Fun times in Vancouver.
Today’s song: April Rain by Delain
Today was the Wrong Day to Wear Parachute Pants: A True Story
If I were to sum up the entire amount of rain I’ve observed over the span of my life, I’m honestly not sure if the total would be more than the amount of rain I observed tonight.
Seriously.
It was raining as usual when I left the psych building, and it was still raining as usual once I got off the #41 and crossed the street to wait for the #7. The bus wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another 7 minutes, so rather than walk home in the rain (and this was one of the best decisions I’ve made, just wait), I decided to just stand there and wait for it.
Not a minute later, the sky exploded. It literally went from an average rain storm to a FREAKING TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR in about a second. It was like god was pouring an infinite bucket of water from the sky, it was crazy. Within two minutes there were rivers of water flowing down Dunbar wide enough to paddle a canoe down them. The wind was blowing like crazy, the traffic lights were swinging, people driving didn’t quite know what to do…
It was insane. Then, just as suddenly, five minutes later, it stopped. And the bus showed up. My pants were SOAKING wet, like I had jumped in a lake or something.
Crazy times. At least I still had power this time.
What a crappy day
Well today sucked. Or rather, this evening sucked. I stay at school until about 6:30 and as soon as I get up to leave, I realize that it’s extremely windy and rainy outside—I mean, even more so than normal. And of course, as soon as I get outside the psych building, this BIG gust of wind comes down Lower Mall and takes my little pink umbrella off into the stratosphere, so I’m standing there in freaking POURING rain thinking, “awesome, it’s a 15 minute walk to the damn buses.”
So half an hour later (of course I get to Dunbar JUST AS THE BUS LEAVES THE BUS STOP, THANK YOU BUS KARMA), I’m on the #7. I get to my block and notice that it’s suspiciously dark down my street. Then I realize, “great, the power’s out.” ONLY ON MY DAMN STREET. The rest of Dunbar is still washed in blazing light. So at this point I’m motherfucking cold and finally, after getting to my house, realize that there is NO light in my apartment, as well as no source of possible light aside from my cell phone and compy (once I decided to turn it on and finish my NaNo wordcount for the day).
So I’m like, “okay, so it’s dark, no big deal. I’ll just read…nope, too dark to do that. Okay, then I’ll just play Portal…oh wait, can’t do that. Damn, it’s cold in here, at least I can turn my heater on…FUCK!”
So at the moment it’s 1 in the morning, still no power, and it’s about 45 degrees in my apartment. I’m not kidding. I can see my damn breath by the light of compy.
Fucking Canada.
NRRRRR
GOD people are rude here. I say “excuse me” in the grocery store aisle even when it is obvious that the other person is being an idiot and wandering slowly down the aisle with their huge butt and similarly huge cart, completely oblivious to the world around them. Why does everyone give me a dirty look? Wouldn’t it just be common courtesy to say “excuse me” back, or say it first, since you’re blocking the entire fucking aisle in the first place?
Seriously, I haven’t heard the words “excuse me” uttered by anyone here, and it’s really getting annoying.
The Commuter Manifesto
The Inevitable Bus Rant
I like the bus. I really do. It gives me a chance to just zone out and listen to music while not worrying about anything else before school/after school/on the way to Safeway-Walmart-wherever. However, there are a couple of things that bug the hell out of me.
“There are thirty people waiting in a line to get on this bus…hmm, I’ll just barge my way to the front and get on first.”
I think this is my biggest pet peeve. This DRIVES ME CRAZY, mainly because the bus I take to campus in the morning is usually very crowded due to the time of day. I don’t think a person waiting patiently in a line should get screwed over and have to stand when another person decides they’re more important than the rest of the world and pushes other people out of the way to get on first. It’s not the last helicopter out of Vietnam, so stop being a dick.
“I’M ON A CELL PHONE, CAN YOU HEAR MY CONVERSATION?!”
Why the hell are you yelling? Tell me why? Does the reception suck that bad? And if so, why didn’t you call your friend BEFORE you got on the bus? I don’t care that you’re holding a huge party at your house on Thursday, and I’m sure the rest of the people on the bus don’t, either. Notice those angry glares you’re getting? Of course you don’t, no one exists in your world but you.
“I HAVE AN IPOD, CAN YOU HEAR MY MUSIC?!”
I’ve ranted about this before. The reason for headphones is so that other people don’t have to suffer through your Avril Lavigne habit. Did you notice that picture near the front of the bus with the little stereo crossed out on it? Yeah. That applies to you near-deaf or soon-to-be-deaf people who don’t understand that many decibels = hearing loss, both to yourself and the poor soul that has to sit next to you and listen to an obscenely loud and tinny version of “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”
“I’m going to stand right in front of the door, even though I’m not getting off the bus until it arrives at its final station!”
This doesn’t bother me when the bus is full and there’s no place else to stand. This bothers me when there are like ten seats still open and some dude with a backpack the size of France decides to blockade the door so that people have to maneuver around him to get off the bus. I think it’s acceptable if you’re getting off at one of the early stops, but if you’re not getting off until the bus reaches the other side of Vancouver? Sit down or stand somewhere else.
“Oh my god, I totally just went shopping and all my new purchases need their own seat!”
Not a problem on non-crowded buses; a big problem on the #7. Do you see that old lady standing because there aren’t any open seats? She’s standing there because of your shopping addiction, you jerk.
/rant
Hahahaha, ohhhhh Vancouver…
Alternate title: “The Buses are Interesting”
To the guy whose music was loud enough for the whole bus to hear it:
Not all of us like Maroon 5, dude. Turn it down. Also, how can you still hear anything?
To the group of high-school kids in the front seats who were oblivious to the two elderly ladies who had to stand in the aisle:
Manners? Anyone?
To the girl who got on the bus, dressed, in her own words, “like a fucking whore:”
Good advice: don’t start telling random strangers on a bus how you’re not even eighteen yet, but that you got “totally wasted” last night and had a fight with your boyfriend and your two best friends who ditched you at the bus stop. And are you physically unable to speak without yelling? Also, last time I checked a map, Barcelona—as much of a “party capital” as it may be—is not in Mexico.
To the girl deep-throating the banana:
What the fuck?
To the guy lip-synching to “Carry On Wayward Son:”
Rock on, dude. I couldn’t hear your music (take a hint, Maroon 5 guy), but you were so obviously enjoying Kansas I almost interrupted you to ask if you wanted to play Rock Band with me later.
Adventures to WalMart
Fun fact: by bus, it takes approximately an hour and 45 minutes to get to WalMart from my house. The fact that one can drive for an hour and 45 minutes (at a relatively fast speed) and still be in the same town perplexes me. That’s like going from Moscow to Lewiston and back.
What also perplexes me is how there can only be one (edit: two) Walmart(s) in a city of 611,000 people.
And how so many of these people can ignore homeless people begging for change.
I don’t know about this place…
You can hardly see the stars here.
Until we meet again, USA…
So today my mom and I drove up to Vancouver to move my crap into my new apartment. I almost made my playlist EXACTLY as long as it needed to be…if we hadn’t gotten stuck in a traffic jam, it would have ended perfectly.
Oh well.
Pictures to come soon.
Edit: right here!
Eigenblogger 