Small Talk

My hobbies at the moment have caused me to regularly meet new people. Like every week. And I'm at a lost at what to talk about. Small talk, in random social situations, has never come easily to me, which seems to be a common problem with people. When it's work related, and I've got a set range of things I can talk about. But in social situations, it's difficult. My go to conversations are local history, hockey, and TV because most of the things I find really interesting (comics, for example) aren't shared by many people. Also it's my "fault" since I want to talk about these things in a very specific fashion. Like when I talk about comics, I don't want to argue specific story points (like "who would win in a fight?"). I'd rather talk about the storytelling choices, pacing, and design. Maybe throw in some history of comics, meta-commentary, and politics (how does this story fit into the large context?) I'd be a happy camper. There are very few people who find these things interesting. I've come to accept this fact, but it means that the first topics of conversations that come to my mind aren't interesting to most people.

So I'm letting other people do the talk, starting the conversations. I'm not being anti-social, just friendly and quiet. I hope this doesn't offend anyone. I just don't want to start a conversation and bore someone else. They can bore me with random conversations.

New Disclaimer

I added a disclaimer. I doubt it'll stand up in court or anything but it's better to have it than not. I assume the Creative Commons would also offer some help. It's not that I believe someone is going to steal me work.

Honestly, I saw it someone else's blog and decided I'd add it to mine.

So you've all been warned.

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

This cigarette vending machine has been sitting, exposed to the elements, the small alleyway behind the store for two years. Yesterday I posted this picture on craigslist to see if someone would buy this old, non-functioning (most likely illegal) item. I've gotten two responses already. People want the strangest shit.

Puppets explaining world politics

Right now I'm watching the Japanese language channel and well... the current show is explaining the Russian subway bombing to children using puppets. I just watched a puppet show explaining the Russian government's treatment of Muslims. It seemed very educational but I didn't understand any of it because it was in Japanese. It seems this is part of larger kids news program that features animated monkey with glasses.

Why do I have the Japanese language channel? UFC wanted to try it out. It's expensive but she watches it fairly regularly. The sumo wrestling was pretty interesting.

Disconnect

I had every intention of posting a couple of thoughts earlier but I didn't have the time or I forgot. Either way, Sunday morning is here and now I've got some time to think, reflect, and write. The week hasn't been eventful except that I deactivated my Facebook account. Why did I do this? Well, I wanted to see if I could go a week without checking or needing to use the social networking site. Yes, I could have simply not logged on but this didn't seem drastic enough, even if this measure is only temporary. I wanted to disconnect myself. For a couple of days it worked, and then I tried something even more radical - I tired avoiding using the computer except for essential tasks. That was a little more difficult but I tired. It was just a little test and I didn't go too far. I still checked my email, still read the news online at work but at home I spent less time online. It was a nice change of pace. So now the week is basically over. I didn't blog, use Facebook, or spend lots of time online at home. I'll probably go back to my old ways tomorrow... or maybe even later today.

Blank

Times like these ain't nothing like they used to be.

I've written this sentence four times now. Seems I can't find the right way to say what I'm trying to say. I've been tired all month and I think that it has affected all my interaction with other people. People are messy, difficult to understand, and generally a pain in the ass. I know I fit into all these categories on regular basis. My biases and imperfections are obvious and yet I have friends. People who accept my accidental social faux pas and inability to filter thoughts from words. I guess I feel like I've pushed everyone's patience and I want to apologize.

I apologize. All Apologies - Nirvana

All the Single Babies

All the Single Babies - watch more funny videos

Roller Derby!

Went to a roller derby. Apparently it was the first international match in Toronto. It was pretty awesome. Had a hard time figuring out exactly what was going on but it was a good time. Took some photos but most of them didn't turn out well. Oh well...

AllMediocre

A while back I decided I should join this group, AllMediocre. I sent in my email waited. Little did I realize that I had been added! I can now proudly proclaim that this blog is mediocre. I've got my name on a list to prove it! So I'd invite people to check it out 'cause you never know what you'll find when mining the depths of the mediocre.

Would you like fries with that?

If anything was going to convince me to stop eating fast food, this isn't it.

It's a race to the Finnish

I know that race is just a social construct. People often have a great deal of difficulty deciding my ethnic heritage. This is anecdotal evidence, of course, but it's pretty solid for me.

Just for the record I'm not Mexican, Inuit, Native Canadian, Chinese, Korean, Pakistani, or Hawaiian.

Late Anniversary

Soy Candles! Is there anything they can't do?

Once again December 6th has passed and I missed the chance to celebrate my blogiversary. Eight years! Crazy! While I don't post as often as I did in previous years, I'm still trying to find things to talk about on a semi-regular schedule.

I'm still waiting for the day I crack the 1,000th post mark. Should be happening soon.

Check out the 6 year anniversary post.

We all make mistakes.

Just don't ask me what I've done this week

Real or Fake? It doesn't matter 'cause hopefully it'll be true.

Still educating the children

Tonight THC (formerly UFC but changed her name 'cause she loves Tim Horton's Coffee) and I went to see Run Fatboy Run which was nothing special. As we were leaving the theatre, we walked by a large group of teenage boys. I had forgot that teenagers spend the weekends at the local multiplexes because they're underage. ANYWAY, like I was saying, we were walking out the exit doors, when one of the young boys brushed by us to talk to the young teenage girls who were standing outside (not smoking, mind you, just standing outside). He said to them (and basically to me 'cause I was walking right by him at that exact moment), "Scott wants to know if you want a golden shower," to which the blond girl to whom the question was directed to said, "I don't what that is." This made the young man laugh. As I was walking away, I decided to take it upon myself to educate the young girl. So, walking away, I explained, "Say no. He wants to pee on you." While I didn't hear her response directly, I believe she said something like, "Eww..." but I don't know what else 'cause THC was laughing at me.

That's how I educate the children these days.

Take another little piece of my heart

I will be doing this on Sunday afternoon. Anyone else wanna join me?

Kill or be killed

I had all the kids in my English class this afternoon use "Bob" as the noun in their classwork. Every time they said "Bob" I thought about Twin Peaks. It was awesome.

I missed the bus

God love public transportation... and so do I. I've always wanted to know how to read transfers.

Go straight to hell, boy

Me and my girl are having some very odd fun with facebook right. We've listed ourselves as married on the website to see what would happened and I am in awe of the power that facebook has. First, my sister messaged me asking me if it was serious and was about three seconds away from asking my mother before I talked to her, which have have meant that several members of my family would have killed me very quickly. Hell, I'd say that all my female relatives would have killed me. Second, I even fooled Mac (even if only very briefly) which was worth it alone. There have been numerous wall postings and at least FOUR personal messages asking me if it's true... and one person asking me about it all night at poker. I'm not sure if it's gotten out of hand yet and if I've hurt some people's feelings but... oh man, I think I'm going to crack and change it back tonight 'cause I don't think I can handle it.

and I know I told my girl not to tell anyone BUT everyone who reads this blog either A) isn't on facebook or B) doesn't really care.

EDIT: I couldn't handle it so I changed it. I cracked under the pressure

(what's so funny 'bout) peace, love, and understanding?

Over the winter break, I bought a book that analyses Elvis Costello's classic album, Armed Forces. I got about fifteen pages into the book when I realized that I would have to listen to the album again before I read the book 'cause the author assumes that I, the reader, knows the album as well as he does. So, here I am, two weeks later, listening to the album and realizing that I have little to no desire to read the damn book anymore. At one point in my life, this was my favourite album and that's that.

I bring this up because over the weekend I had an interesting discussion I had with Mac. She stated that questions like, "what are your desert island, top five favourite albums?" are useless and uninformative as topics for idle conversation with strangers. She had a strong argument stating that music is fluid and that what you like at one point in time varies from another point. She thought (and she'll probably correct me if I'm wrong) that a more interesting question was asking what kind of music you liked to listen to in different times, moments, and with different people. Essentially, asking someone for their favourite music tells you little about them, and this is true, but I believe that knowing the associations and personal annotations that people make to their lives with music DOES tell us a lot about people. I'm starting to believe that Mac just likes to argue with me and therefore picks the topics of conversation in order to get a reaction out of me because she knows that I'd think a question like that is a very interesting question, but I agree with her that if you've just met someone that it's not something that you'd open with. It's, like, a second or third date questions for me. Hell, I'm still not entirely sure what my girl's favourite music is... except for Death Cab For Cutie, which she loves with all of her emo heart.

THEREFORE, in honour of this question and others like it I'm going to start a list ('cause that's what I love to do). I have, in fact, been cataloging my favourite records for years... since high school at least. The list is always changing and my reasons for keeping certain records on and taking them off changes from list to list. I wrote down my reasons for what made and what didn't and this was all for my personal benefit. I'm being totally serious. I am, surprisingly enough, not terribly embrassed by these lists. Hell, even their existence doesn't really bug me. Am I going to post them? Nope. Not now at least. So what list am I going to make? Haven't decided yet. That's for tomorrow's entry...