Strange 24 Hours...

No idea if some planetary alignment or something is going on, but I've had an interesting 24 hours. Started around this time last night when we went out to dinner at Palomino's in Calgary. I heard about the place from a girl in my fiction writing class. Something about a performer that goes there a lot to do a trick where she takes special shots and breathes fire. That and the walls of the girls washroom is covered in graffiti...but it's cool because at least fifty different people have gone in there and written and replied to messages on the wall. Despite being in one of the shadiest parts of Calgary, the Palomino has awesome food and a cool atmosphere. I am definately going back.

Afterwards our little group went to go see the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra perform many of the tracks from the Star Trek movies and TV series. The show was amazing even though I don't know much about Star Trek at all. I knew enough to be interested of course, but overall I just enjoyed the music. The guys who play the holographic doctor and Q were hosting. During the intermission I randomly decided to sign up as a volunteer for the Calgary Comic Con. I hardly ever sign up for volunteers stuff. I usually just join in on other people's volunteer work. Then during the final piece of the night (the theme from Star Trek 2009) I came up with the an answer to 1 of about 15 questions that I have about my book and the plot. This was the first of many "epiphanies" I have had over the past day.

On the way home we saw something...strange. In two different rooms there was a series of flashing lights. They weren't in any sort of pattern, just random flashing over and over, pausing at different times and speeding up at others. The strange part was the rooms were in two separate buildings, and they were completely synchronized. They were both office buildings, both rooms had the lights off, and it was 10 in the evening. We guessed it might be two televisions on set to the same channels, but that didn't make any sense; no one would be up that late watching the same television show at the same time in two dark offices. Another suggestion was that it could be a screen saver, but the two computers would have to have the exact same flashy design. The computers also would have needed to go into screen saver mode at the EXACT same time. We ruled out electrical problems because they were in separate buildings. We finally decided that they were an elaborate string of flashing signals sent between buildings a pair of techno ninja assassins could communicate with each other.

Then the train was all weird today. In the morning my bus pass was checked three times. In Calgary we don't have ticket machines like in New York or London where you can't get onto the platform unless you run your ticket through it. Here the officers make random checks on the trains, so half the time you don't even need a ticket. It's still safe to have one, however, since the checks they make are REALLY random. If you want to get away with having no ticket you go at rush hour, and I personally think it's not worth it. Especially when random dudes start talking to you.

Which brings me to the random two old dudes that started talking to me on the train today. I was on the train working on some notes for my book while listening to music when this old guy sits beside me and starts talking to me. I can't remember what he asked me to start the conversation, but somehow we ended up talking about his book and how he was going to make a movie out of it. He seemed like a nice enough guy, but it figures that one time I'm actually busy on the train I get bothered. The moment that old dude leaves ANOTHER old guy comes and takes his place. I went back to work, and after a few minutes he starts complaining about the doors and how the train driver should be able to figure out which one is closing etc etc. He then talks to me about how boring Saskatoon is and when he moved to Calgary and his business and the weather in Calgary and mosquitoes in Manitoba. Then he left and I was finally able to figure out the rest of my stuff for WMRR.

The WMRR questions I have are all coming to me all of a sudden. Like a series of epiphanies. I don't know what it is, but questions I haven't been able to answer for five years are all being answered in the span of 24 hours. It's a little scary.

Getting Back Into Business

I haven't written here in a long time, mostly because I haven't had a reason to with my new Deviant Art account and how busy I've been. I haven't even had time to make any new videos. Instead I have been focusing on my education and writing, which certainly need the attention. This brings me to the new blog I have created which is solely dedicated to my current project: Where Mighty Rivers Run. It's a science fiction novel that I first devised in grade 11 as a joke. I basically sat down one night and thought up about half the characters and factions used in the story and gave what I typed up to my friend the next day. She said something along the lines of me being "extremely random and strange", which I take as the highest compliment. To learn more about the story and my progress, head over to: http://wmrrproject.blogspot.com/

Now I'm not sure what other people's holidays are like, but I'm one of those poor souls that celebrates Christmas. Every year it seems less and less like a holiday and more like a headache. I am, to be honest, sick of it. The only part I actually like about December is the actual day: Christmas. That day we sit around, open presents, eat tons of good food and see family. Before and after it's like a giant swirling vortex of agony. I was working full time in a mall that was puked on by Christmas in a store that played horrible, HORRIBLE, Christmas music and had to put up with frustrated customers and their screaming children (I worked in a kid's clothing store over the holidays...and I say "worked" because I'm technically "on call" now). So overall not the most enjoyable season.

Now I only have 4 days of holidays left and I am swamped with school work. Thank you full year English courses for giving me such a lovely holiday with your papers, research and mountains of reading material! Three cheers for university. Thankfully I got a few video games for Christmas which is a savior to my sanity. I just completed Assassin's Creed 2 last night, which is a spectacular game in many senses. The graphics are decent with it's colourful environments and extra care in detail (though the map and interface DID spaz out a few times...I think this was my fault however for playing 6 hours straight). The music was some of the best video game music I have ever encountered, created by Jesper Kyd, who in my mind now is a genius. Much like the first game, I am in awe of the character movements. The main character "Ezio Auditore de Firenze" was the best part of the entire game. His movements and actions were refined down to the smallest details, he had an excellent costume and he is honestly one of the best looking video game characters I have ever encountered (honestly he'd be a sexy, sexy man if he were real). The story was better than a lot of video games, though I'll admit I liked the story of the first game better. The ending was a surprise and though I promise not to ruin it, I'll say that it was quite the twist. I enjoyed it quite a bit...except for this one part involving an end of the world conspiracy theory which I thought was stupid...but hey, it's a video game, who cares? It's stupid to nit pick when it comes to those subjects.

The other game I was pleasantly surprised with is probably one you wouldn't expect, or maybe even have heard of: Rabbids Go Home. Yes, a spin-off game from the original Rayman: Raving Rabbids video game. This game is a stupid, random, brain-numbing, IQ dropping, mess...and it is FANTASTIC. I have never played a game so idiotic as this, and it is honestly some of the most mindless fun I have had in ages. No complex plots, no challenging puzzles, no clear antagonist, no special music or graphics...it's just you, a couple of bunnies and a shopping cart. Essentially, a group of "Rabbids", who have apparently taken to living in a landfill after the Rayman game, notice a giant glowy ball in the sky: THE MOON. Being the intellegent little critters they are, they decide to build a giant pile of STUFF to reach the moon so that they may sleep on it (or something like that I'm not entirely sure). A team of three Rabbids are sent to the city to collect items for the pile: a driver, a collecter and a cannon ball (you shoot Rabbids at various points in the game to help you through the levels). The stuff consists of XL and XS (why there is none in between I have no idea...better not to ask questions in this game), and include anything including table, bottles, jet engines, infectious patients, cows, the clothes you strip off of the humans and nuclear reactors. You can also find all the hidden "Santa Clauses", who for some reason hide in air ducts and nuclear cores and carry garbage cans around on their backs. They also drop hamburgers when you scare them. You also have the option of participating in unique challenges, including one where you have to shake around a Rabbid that has been sucked into your Wii remote in the right directions. One last feature that adds to the inanity is that wou may spray paint, tattoo and give your bunnies items to put on their heads (some examples are a cement block, a chicken and a saw). An extremely strange game, but if you have a morbid sense of humour and you havce the ability to turn your brain off at will, you'll have a great time playing it.