Gangstas don't ask questions

Things I never really bothered to mention to most people

-my mom got laid off a few weeks ago. It was nice having her around at first; but these days, I can barely bring myself to speak to her.

-I did end up getting myself that ukulele I wanted. And now I'm selling it to Michelle.

-I've actually befriended The Twins this semester; a feat made all the more impressive when you consider how incredibly awkward and uncomfortable I am when left to make my own damn friends instead of having my friends do it for me. Sadly, it's not my animal magnetism, my wit or charm, dashing good looks, numerous talents or ridiculous package that got them to talk to me. It's because of my genetic predisposition to math, since they need help with the physics homework. I get the feeling like I'm being used but I'm just glad I can actually use the stereotype to my advantage for once.

-after two fantastic weeks of catching up on the sleep I missed out two weeks before that, insomnia has returned. I cut out a lot caffeine from my diet even before the insomnia came back and yet I'm still sleep deprived. I lose.

Because this is probably more interesting than Beirut to you

I've been wanting to see 'Ip Man' for a while since I saw the trailer. I finally got to see it today. It was highly enjoyable. I probably would have enjoyed it more if there were English subtitles, though. Since no one's going to go rent it, here's probably the best fight in the movie, even though it's short.

La Fete

Toronto Gossip

Go check out Toronto Gossip. Because I have nothing to say these days and it's funnier than anything I'll ever write.

And for the record, that rumor that Sernoskie hates Asians? It's true.

Actin' a fool

Holy hell, I didn't realize just how many pictures there are of me on Facebook where I'm making an ass of myself in one form or another. Alcohol is involved in most of those instances, but even then, I'm nowhere near drunk enough to be able to blame it on intoxication.
But the more I think about it, I can't tell if those pictures collectively are a misrepresentation or if they represent me perfectly.

I really gotta stop making stupid faces in photos.

Darren #2

So how much of a mindfuck would it be if I revealed that I'm nowhere near as forgetful as I let on, but instead, it was like 'The Prestige' and I just had a twin brother*? We take turns being Darren every other day, and at the end of the day, the one who was Darren tells the other twin everything that happened that day. He forgets to mention a few details, resulting in the other twin that plays Darren the next day looking like an utter dolt when he doesn't remember a conversation he had with a friend.
I'd feel sorry for my twin, because he'd have to go through quite a bit of pain just to resemble me, including 3 tattoos, tons of scars on my shins and misshaped ring finger. He'd also have to suffer through a month of mustache growing.
The only thing that wouldn't really make sense is why the hell my twin would agree to such a thing to begin with.

Anyway, this is the kind of weird stuff I think about when I try to sleep at night.

*If you haven't seen 'The Prestige', I just ruined the movie for you. Serves you right for not watching such a great movie sooner.

In the end

After being told that dinner wouldn't be ready until some time after 8, I went out for a smoke in the hopes that it would kill my hunger a bit. As I stood outside, I heard singing in the distance. And even in the distance, it was kind of loud. I thought maybe it was just music blaring from someone's car.
The source of the singing came closer and closer.
Then I realized it was actually someone singing. I could see a girl walking on the opposite side of the street walking, disappearing behind the giant piles of snow on the lawns every few seconds. She was just belting it out, with no shame.
Why is this of any importance? Because despite her sheer confidence in her singing and not caring who heard it, her singing was absolutely godawful. The nearer she got, the more awful I realized it was. In fact, the singing was so bad, I didn't even recognize the song she was singing until I started listening to the words.

"I TRIED SO HARRRRRRRRRD AND GOT SO FAR BUT IN THE ENNNNNND, IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTERRRRRRRRRRR"

She was singing Linkin Park. Turns out she lives 2 houses down from me; I'm sure she's the same girl Matt shamelessly calls out to whenever we hang out on my front porch. I have no idea if she saw me smoking, but even if she did, it didn't matter to her. By the time she got to the front steps of her house, it was loud enough to sound like she was yelling in my ear.
She must have really been feeling that song.

More

From the second roll. I forgot to ask them for a CD of the photos, so I had to scan them, hence the difference in quality.

Pretentious alert

A few years back, my friends all chipped in for a partition/picture frame thing for my birthday and a document that entitled me one day to take their portraits to fill up the frames. Long story short, I never got around to it. As the years went by, it became my goal to fill up the 15 frames.

The original project was to let my friends direct their own portrait: where I took it, color or black and white picture, the way they dressed, their actions, the angle, etc. They had total creative control. Most of them didn't really know where to begin, so I told some of them "How would you want to be remembered?". It didn't work; there were too many variables that they were in control of and required more resources than were really available.

The pretentious part: I realized it was better if I took away all the variables. Have one setting; a blank wall with one light set the same position for every photo. They were to dress how they normally would dress. The camera position was to remain the same. The only thing they could really control were their actions and facial expressions. I figured their expressions and body language would say more about their character and personality than fancy things like costumes and fancy backgrounds. If I was to remember my friends, I'd want an honest representation of them.

So this is it. There weren't supposed to be props in the pictures, but that's what happens when I let them drink before I take their portraits.



Then I realized the outlet was in the frame and moved Lenny over.






















I need your help choosing which photos of who I should put in the frame. Suggestions/votes?

I forget

The other night, I ate dinner with my entire family. My dad sat to my left. I had to stop and ask him "Dad, do you usually sit to my left?" just because this time, it felt strange. He seemed out of place. I could have sworn my mom sat to my left, then my dad, then Gene. He gave me this look like I'd suddenly gone retarded. Yes, he does indeed usually sit to my left.

Furthermore, my parents discovered my newest tattoo this morning because I forgot to wear a long sleeve. Oh well. It's not like I could have kept wearing long sleeves forever. My mom didn't get pissed surprisingly.

Polaroids of polar bears

One nice (if not slightly sad) thing about having a really poor memory is that when you come across something pleasant that you've forgotten completely, you're pretty much discovering it all over again. In my case, it was a box of Polaroids, which I foolishly wasted because I didn't think they would ever stop making them.
I can barely remember when some of them were taken. There are some, like I said, that were wasted just taking pictures of nothing, and yet they still look great. There are some that were taken with a broken Polaroid camera that I bought at Value Village that I still have.
I dunno, they made me smile.

I'm too lazy to scan them, so here's my favorite one. It's of Ramy at the old jam space. I took it with the broken Polaroid camera, so that's why it turned out green.


That is all.

Sleep

It's been something like 2 weeks and within that time, I've only had one night where I actually slept. Every other night, I've tossed and turned with my eyes closed until it was morning. Surprisingly, I'm not tired or falling asleep at random, but it feels like something is missing.
Today, I spent $30 at Shoppers Drug Mart on stuff to either make me sleep or feel less sick. Or both. NyQuil was kind of a crock last time I tried it, but I'm willing to give it another chance tonight. And another. And another. Whatever amount makes me sleep.

Speaking of sleeping, my mom saw the raggedy, blown out track pants I wear as pajamas. So she went to Wal-Mart and grabbed some pajama pants. At random. These are the most embarrassing ones:

Maybe one day I'll take a picture of each of my friends in their sleep attire.

And further more on the whole sleeping thing, I would like to bid farewell to my "crybaby" shirt (which I wore to sleep pretty often). Everyone has that one article of clothing that they like for one reason or another; they like it so much they'll continue to wear it even though it's filled with holes and falling apart. I think it's time to give mine up (the pit stains aren't that flattering either). Farewell, crybaby shirt. You made for a terrible Conor Oberst Halloween costume, but you definitely were comfortable.

Real ick

Fuck. I'm sick.

Video Days

Back when I still did lame podcasts, one idea I had but never put into action was to have an entire podcast about skateboarding. Which is stupid because it would be of no interest to anyone and I don't know how to talk about skateboarding for that long anyway.
But I had the music part covered. Thanks to skate videos, I've discovered a lot of really good music. So instead of putting them on a lame podcast that will never be made, here is a list (complete with Yousendit links) of songs/bands I discovered through skate videos. Don't worry, they're not all punk rock.

Tom Waits - Step Right Up

Pulp - Like A Friend

Patti Smith - Free Money

New Order - Age Of Consent

Jet Black Crayon - Life Vest

Pinback - Crutch

Tortoise - TNT

The Album Leaf - The MP

Black Flag - My War

The Make-Up - Make Up Is Lies

Samhain - Archangel

Modest Mouse - Shit Luck

There's more but I'm tired of uploading shit on Yousendit. Enjoy. Or don't. I don't really care. I just wanted to kill time.

No photos, no sleep

I was hoping I could post the portraits I took over the Christmas break, but they're still not ready. Even though I dropped them off at Black's nearly a month ago. I understand that it was a special order (I requested 5x7s instead of 4x6s and a CD of the pictures as well), and that it has to be sent out to a separate lab, but a month to develop them? It's pretty ridiculous. And they're probably not even going to turn out that great anyway.

I haven't really slept in a week. It's the kind where I'm always on the verge of sleeping, but I can't fall asleep completely. Nytol doesn't even work anymore. I'm dying here.

Filler

My other resolution for this year is to start carrying a little notebook in my back pocket and to get into the habit of using it. I'm hoping that if I get into the habit of writing/checking it often, I'll forget less.
Maybe when I fill the notebook up, I'll scan a few pages and you guys can see the kind of retarded shit that goes on in my mind.

Stop having a boring life.

This made me seriously lose my shit for a solid 10 minutes. They need to get Vince to do each and every single infomercial from now on.

2009

Like Sernoskie, I had a great night and the day after was pretty nice as well. Thanks to Kevin, Sam and John for having the party at their place.









Thanks to Jocelyn for letting me crash at her place and letting me use her boxers as sleeping attire. Check out those toothpick legs.

My resolutions for 2009:
-stop saying "That's what she said"
-stop saying "Ohhhhhhhhhh niiiiiiiiiiice"
-stop making stupid faces every time a camera is pointed my way

Happy New Year!