Ah, Office Space

I watched Office Space again this weekend because I was at a friend’s house and she hadn’t seen it yet. Appalling, I know, but friends help friends out and show them Office Space, which, I’m sure I’ve mentioned many times before, is a superlatively awesome movie. Cult classic type deal. Most people like it because its similar to some grey space they used to work in, familiarity breeds affection or something.

“PC load letter? What the @#!$ does that mean?”

My office isn’t really that bad, it’s a good job in a location easy for me to get to, its air conditioned by environmentally friendly means (using the cold water at the bottom of Lake Ontario), nice people (even though usually not as funny as they think they are) and free coffee/hot chocolate. It’s really just not me, not for longer periods of time anyway.

My favourite is Milton (in Office Space, or O.S. if you will, tee hee, O.S., that’s my high school). He’s this squirrelly guy with thick glasses and a red Swingline stapler. He keeps mumurring, “I could burn this whole place down… last time I did not get a piece of cake.” The whole movie is laced with gansta type hip-hop rap music (from the mid 90’s) even though its all pasty white nerd people and one brown guy.

That’s pretty much it, I could throw out random quotes, but if you haven’t seen it you won’t get it. If you have I’m sure you’d chuckle to yourself. Maybe I’ll just list a few:

“Yeah, Peter, if you could just go ahead and put the new cover sheets on the TPS reports, that would be great… we’ll get you a copy of that memo.”

1: “I’ve decided not to go to work anymore, I just don’t like it.”
2: “So you’re going to quit?”
1: “No, I’m just not going to go.”

"I can't believe we're looking up money laundering in a dictionary."

Anyway, you probably don’t think its funny, you non O.S. watching person you. I have no use for you then. Good day.

A Real Robert Frost

I wrote this at the end of the WORST semester of my LIFE, no lie. This is actually how I felt, sitting in Pratt, going to bed at 3 every night and getting up at 7. Torture I tell you, you should have seen me at the end of it all, I honestly did not know where I was:

The nuances of group theory are tormenting my dreams,
Coming in with shifty eyes, seeping through the seams
Of my semi-conscious mind -- attacking sleeping hour.
But even in my waking life I am in its power.
I must study all today, I've only me to blame.
Improbability will find me here, and then you'll see a flame.
The sparks are yet collecting on this kindled head --
The fire will break out and I'll soon be dead.

For I am going to burst into flames
At some point this day.
Yes, I will burst into flames
Flaring up like hay.
And when I do burst into flames
You will see me teary.
After I have burst into flames,
Studying group theory.

I'm old

Last night I went with my friend Danny to this thing at his dad’s church. I didn’t know anyone but him, but hey, I can be personable. So his friend Karen shows up and she talked to me for a while. And you always ask people what you do, so I said, “I go to U of T…. actually I just graduated.” That got a face, not a bad one, just a slightly surprised one. She just finished high school, so I’m probably 3 years older than her… but I feel old. Nevertheless, she was really nice.

I also get faces when I tell people that I double majored in math and linguistics. I usually follow that with, “I know, I’m a nerd.” To which I either get the, “Yeah, you are,” response or, “No, that’s really interesting, I wish I could do math.” Almost invariably there’s the comment about how math and linguistics are so different, to which I sometimes explain that they’re not that different, its how my mind works, they’re logical, yada yada yada.

But I decided that you’re way better off in life in general if you’re a nerd. I’m not claiming this as an original thought or anything, just making it my own now. Smart people can figure things out and go places if they so choose. I say this to justify my supreme uncoolness in high school and beyond, but I’m ok with that. As long as you find other people who appreciate the nerd factor or your eccentricities as well.

At least now my clothes are slightly better and the hair is a bit more tamed. Still haven’t caught on to the everyday makeup thing, I like to sleep as much as possible. But I’ll always be a nerd, I think partly because I just get really excited about things. Like syntax and logic puzzles and I write poems about group theory (I should find that again). I like to think it makes me a passionate person, but more likely I’m just very sensitive to blood sugar levels.

Hangover Cure

Last night I went with my current roomie for a little bike ride down Bloor. We ended up, past supper time and hugry, in The Korean Business District where we wanted to be daring and eat some ethnic food. So we stopped at Sin Sun and I had the only vegetarian thing on the menu (which you can get with beef if you like, the waitress offered the seafood dishes as veggie as well).

Anyway, my roommate chose this soup called something like “Soup for the morning after drinking to relieve a hangover,” actually, I think that’s exactly what it was called. How could you resist just seeing what this concontion was? Well, it took a while for the food to come, but they gave us salad. But when her soup came it was actually bubbling, boiling AT the table. Honest. Scared me a little bit.

Meanwhile there were some people who knew what they were doing frying stuff up on the grill with a massive flame being sucked into the vent dealie. So, I tell Lila to taste her soup and she gives it a stir only to find about 5 of the 8 tentacles of a whole baby octopus breach the surface. She started a pile of seafood in her empty salad bowl. She came up with several king shrimp that still had their shells, legs, and oh yes their eyes. There was also a whole baby squid, a few clams and part of a crab shell and all. I was killing myself laughing as each new discovery emerged from the self boiling bowl of mystery.

When she actually got up the courage to eat these delicacies I was mostly unable to watch. She ate 5 or 6 of the octopus’s tentacles and ripped the untasties off the shrimp. She actually convinced me to try the broth, which I did, and it was fine. I was just having trouble thinking about all the entire creatures that were cooked in it.

We still have no idea why this is good for a hangover, I don’t think eating semi-grossness the morning after will make you feel better. Maybe the logic is that you will puke out all the crap in your system thereby purging your system of toxins.

I’ve had Korean food several times before, so I was expecting rice noodles and seaweed, but maybe there are different subcategories. There was a poster on the wall advertising beef tripe soup that we couldn’t decipher, even though it was in English, sort of. It reminded me of reading the English Indian newspapers.

Anyway, fun times. Then we had ice cream with oreo crumbs and melted peanut butter since we earned it, somehow.

New Post

I went home for the weekend, its good to get out of the city. I live across the street from construction which is not a very pleasant morning bird. Somehow these construction workers have managed to find the tools with the most penetrating and awful sounds known to man. At least now I have to get up at 7 anyway, during the year it really put a damper on trying to sleep till at least 9.

So yes, back to the country, where I grew up – what I realized is that its a big part of who I am, the country and the lack of people and specialty stores. I went to the movies with my mom and it cost considerably less than $13.50 per person, I went to the beach and swam and played Frisbee. Roz and I did a little stargazing because its dark out there in the boonies and there actually happens to be a lot of stars.

I saw my friends who just got back from England, with their new chic London hairstyles and knowledge of many thing British. I also managed to sit in the midday sun for a considerable amount of time with only partial sun protection. Now I have white lines beside my eyes were the sunglasses arms were and a thumb shaped smear of white on my forehead of where the sunscreen actually made it. The rest of my face is a lovely sheen of fire engine red. Thus is the pasty life.

Back in the T dot, enjoying the lack of heat wave. That is me currently.