Watching HBO's True Blood instead of going to be at a reasonable hour. Any questions?

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Coming late to the party: Summer Blockbuster Edition

So I finally got around to seeing both The Dark Knight (it's this little art house film, very underground, perhaps you've heard of it?) and Iron Man this weekend. I'm not a movie person by any means, but I've always been a big Batman fan from watching Adam West before soccer practice when I was a kid, to the comics when I was a kid with a discretionary spending account.

I loved The Dark Knight, I thought it was really well done though I could see how some people might not like it. One thing: I hated Two Face - he looked like the love child of C3PO and beef jerky.

Wasn't really feeling Iron Man. Could have been because I was crazy tired, but I was bored about 5 minutes in, and I really had to push myself to watch it.

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M.I.A.

We went to M.I.A. last night. I wasn't going to go for a variety of reasons bt I ended up changing my mind at the last miute - I'm fickle like that. I was supposed to meet up with a girl from work and some of her friends but I got really sketchy reception in the venue (a terribly cavernous place whose reverb alone should prevent it from landing all the top acts is regularly does).

I ended up bumping into my old friends Kat and Jacq, two girls I'd lived with in residence my first year living here. We just watched the concert from the right side of the stage, because we were all pretty fashionably late - but we had to move because of the extreme concentration of hiptards.

Eventually we found better standing/dancing room a little to the right of centre only to be repeatedly accosted by the e-tards dancing in front of us - seriously this one dude kept tackling/head butting us. This other tall dude behind us going into a bit of a shoving/screaming match with a girl half his size about what, we couldn't quite figure that out, but I'm just going to say there were a ton of douchebags in the crowd.

The Show itself was pretty good, although the sound quality sucked, which had more to do with the revue, than M.I.A. herself. I definitely didn't get as sweaty as I'd expected.

Survival Tactics

The Pansy: Why didn't you blog today?
Team Gingerbread: (huffily) I was busy
The Pansy: Fair enough

I think the reason I'm so obssessed with self-denial is that it's a war game I like to playu with myself, in order to prepare for the inevitable.

At some point, although when is really up in the air, I'll be cut off from my family - emotionally, spiritually, and financially. It's happened before, and it's only a matter of time before it happens again, I tell myself.

Something about setting a precedent.

So I practice, by denying myself something that I love, diligently cutting out one thing after another: tv (that's the latest one), sex (although a whole host of other factors contributed to that one, one of them being that I physically recoiled at the thought of having sex with someone else after The Engineer), the gym, coffee, shopping, meat, just to see if I could come through on the other side unscathed.

So far so good, though you never really know if you're prepared for the apocalypse until it happens.

Momentum

Yesterday was one of those really productive days where I managed to get every little thing done with just enough time to spare. I was so happy at the end of the day because I actually accomplished a lot more than I had intended to, without sacrificing anything - except for the coffee filters, which I forgot to buy for the third time!

I had a really good workout in the morning, except in doing so I totally put a cramp in this girl's style. I go to a private gym, aka. the one in my building because it's free and I don't really like interacting with people when I go to the gym - No I don't really feel like talking to you when it seems like my lungs are going to explode from sheer exertion, or when I'm pouring sweat because I forgot to bring my headband to the gym but I can't stop, rather I won't stop a workout mid-session unless there is some dire biological emergency (read: vomit and I have to do it while I'm working out or it doesn't count).

The last couple of times I've gone to the gym, I've encountered this gym rat who has a rather extensive cardio routine that amounts to speed intervals on different machine, the elliptical (aka. the grey devil) and the treadmill. The nice thing about the whole private gym, is that there really aren't any rules as to how long each person should commandeer the machines. Which is great, when say, I want to go run a marathon in the confines of my building, not so great when I'm waiting to use the machine, like I was on Saturday but she was working out with her boyfriend (I like him because I don't have to change the settings on the leg press after he uses it) leaving my the bike as my only means of cardio. I used to love the bike before I started running, but now I just can't do it - I'm addicted to the runner's high.

I figured I'd do a quick warm up on the bike and them work on my weight training, which I usually save till the end of my workout because I usually max myself out. I had nothing but time to kill so I increased both my reps and sets while I played the waiting game, casting furtive glances in her direction. I think she thought I was dying to use the elliptical, but that theory was quashed when her bf left the gym and one opened up and I remained seated, grunting, behind her. I wasn't going to be that passive-aggressive gym person who's buzzing around the machine while you work out because that's really annoying so after I couldn't lift my arms or legs anymore, I went on the bike again - for 15 minutes.

She finally finished her routine and bid me adieu (uk, ok) and I clambered onto the rubberized runway and started sprinting. My legs quickly turned to jelly, so I only lasted about 6 minutes before I headed upstairs.

Yesterday, the shoe was on the other foot as she patiently waited around, dithering around while casting sidelong glances at the countdown slowly ticking away on my treadmill's control panel. She finally left, defeated, after about 15 minutes knowing there was no way I was going to curtail my workout for her sake.

Granulated Snow

I went snowboarding yesterday, for the first time since our grade six ski trip to the mountains where me and a group of my skiing friends, all took a lesson and promptly returned our rented boards in favour of our owned skis that were resting in the back of the Jeep (just in case).

I've tired of my most recent pair of skis, so now is as good a time as any to learn, I suppose - and that fact that I've recently invested in both boots (because renting boots skeeves me out) and bindings. I've had my eye on the Roxy Envi 152 if anyone is feeling charitable but for now I'm just going to buy a board off a friend who has only really used it once.

I had a good time and I'm looking forward to our next venture out to the dinkiest ski hill know to man.

"So is there more over there?"
"Over where?"
"You know, over the hill, on the backside."
"There is no backside, this is it"

I jokingly suggested that me and another friend (who is also learning this season) should have a rail jam at the end of it to determine who's better but she politely declined my invitation last night, possibly sensing my natural aptitude on a shred stick and cowering in fear.

Under The Guise of Saving You Money

I went to go see Into The Wild. I'm not really into movies in general, as I usually find them to be boring, poorly acted/executed, and an overall waste of my time (trying to change my mind on this one is an exercise in futility).

Spoiler Alert:

I found the beginning to be overwrought and I think the movie kinda fell apart right around the scene in LA (which was only about 30 minutes in if I remember correctly). I was just left feeling angry more than anything else by the fact that this kid was so sheltered that he really felt that the only way to 'seek truth' was to isolate himself in Alaska (read: run away, and further exemplify what a spoiled brat he was).

While I can somewhat relate to the protagonist, I don't really think the average viewer would be able to. I just don't think you need to die in vain, in the wilds, to truly find yourself, and I don't know that I agree with his quest to seek truth.

In a word: Trite.


Or maybe I'm just reading far too much into this because I come from a different generation, and I'll never truly get it.

Disclosure: This post is probably going to come off as a bit uninformed given that I basically live in a gated community in a nice apartment, but I'm not just some rich kid who's never worked for anything in their life. I may come from money, but I also paid for my university degree for myself, and am completely financially independent from my familial influence (or free from the castigation - depending on how you look at it).

Deflecting Attention

It's been a whirlwind few days, sales aat the store are through the roof and I'm more tired than ever, but satisfied. I spent some much-needed time catching up with an old flame (and it's going to stay that way, thanks) and having mini-revelations that I really want to share with The Engineer, but I still need my distance from him so that will have to wait.

I didn't sleep with the ex (despite some theorizing, ahem), because I realized that the only person I was to sleep with right now is The Engineer, so I don't really know where that leaves me, other than really, really confused (read: frustrated).

So I'm doing my best to keep myself organized, being positive, and staying on top of such things as saving money for retirement (sexy) and just saving more money in general (seriously need to cut back on my water/coffee expenditures, though) to keep my mind of such things because that's when I seem to have the best breakthroughs.

The Writings on the Shag Upholstery

I don't know why I'd never seen an episode of The Transformers in my life other than the fact that I led a very sheltered childhood. I honestly believed my parents when they told me that there only existed 13 channels up until about sixth grade and I felt like a tool when I found out otherwise via a classmate.

I ended up going to see the Transformers movie after work and while it was better than expected, it wasn't the best movie either. The action sequences were fantastic, the acting - not so much. The weakest element of the movie, in my opinion, was the actors - well that and the capoiera-inspired fight sequences between the transformers.

We got out of the movie past 1 am and had to take a cab home. We were halfway there when we both realized that the cab we had elected to take was sporting shag seat coverings, both front and back. We shared a brief snicker and continued home in near silence - lethargy taking over.