Has it really been six months since my last post? Crap.

Time flies by here...
I have a big pile of video games that I've never played. I don't know why I keep buying them.
I have a big pile of junk to sort that keeps getting bigger (I'm not 'Hoarders' material yet, no worries).
Stuff breaks around the place faster than I can fix them.

But...
Lots of interesting things at work, just finishing up "Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands" right now.
My (new) cat and (old) dog are getting along pretty well after a few unfortunate weeks of the cat screeching and slapping the dog in the face. They're cute when they cuddle together!
I've finally had time to shave and cut my hair today.... I was seriously beginning to look like a hermit. People at work were poking fun at me, and rightly so!
The world of derby is still sipping my lifeforce away... in a good way.
Received my WFTDA referee Level 2 certification in October... first Canadian certified ref... woohoo!

Speaking of roller derby...
Montreal's playing a load of travel games in the next three months against some great teams (Arizona, Tucson, Suburbia, DC, CT, Carolina, Toronto), including a triple-game weekend on the east coast (Fri, Sat and Sun). Today, they just won the lottery to participate at ECE-2010 near Philadelphia! And they have some great home games lined up against Charm City, Boston, Long Island, Dutchland.

It's going to be one hell of a season, and lots of great games to ref. Not to mention that Eastern Regionals are going to be only 5 hours away from Montreal, in Suburbia NY! Yes, I'm already talking about things that'll happen in the fall...

Rollercon in Vegas...

I'm not sleeping enough, I'm drinking too much, it's too hot outside, the elevators take forever at the imperial palace, there's too much people on the streets, the sports center is too far, the track is too slippery, but it's still A LOT OF FUN.

I dread going back to real life on Tuesday.

Good luck, Obama. I hope you'll be what they're hoping you'll be.
I'm eager to see what the future brings.

Thurso. I had not been there in ages, and it seemed only fitting that I return there to bury my grandmother which was the only reason I even knew about this small village. The fact that she left behind six children, including my mother, was promising us an overall rather grim day.

As usual, not for me. Ever since losing my father during my teen years, it seems that sadness is not something that death triggers in me anymore. I contemplate the loss, I miss them, feel bad about them not being able to achieve anything anymore. Still, no sadness.

The church kept me busy that day. Busy concentrating on not bursting in flames from acute atheism, busy not laughing when the priest would do his dishes or have a little nappy nap, while we were all there waiting. Or when he mentionned the Zombies. You know, the dead taking flesh again with Jesus' return. Despite being "the hippie at the NRA rally", I managed well.

Goodbye Grandma, you were awesome for what I knew of you.

I gave a ride back to civilization to my cousin, since his parents had left early. Going back to his new apartment, which is ridiculously close to mine, I came in for a quick tour. A beer later, he told me he was having a houseparty that night and that I was welcomed to hang out.

That's were I went odd and accepted. Not even reluctantly. 'Odd', yes. I usually don't have that much of a great time when I'm mostly with people I don't know, but my schedule was empty on a Saturday night. Well it wasn't the only reason, really. Inexplicably, I've been overwhelmed with sexual drive these last months. Conveniently, social activities seem to help me partially dissipate it through simple things like getting a little eye contact with a cute girl, giving a cute guy an ambiguous smile... You could say my motives were health-related.

In the end, most of the surprise came from the fact that I had an awesome time while still being my semi-generic version. I do not remember the last time I had such a good laugh. Surely the drinks helped a lot, but still - it was something. I hope I'll get to see them again, or perhaps go to some other party where unknown people are hilariously fun.

...

Didn't you almost think I was going to let that "semi-generic version" undefined? I feel like you were going to say something, but didn't dare. Let me explain.

I don't care what people think of me. At all. On the other hand, I deeply care about what I think of me. You might say I have principles and even perhaps expect too much of myself. Problem. When I am not in semi-generic mode, people get offended. Guys get offended when I think they're cute. Smokers get offended when I find their smoke lame. Believers get offended when they ask me what I think of their religion. I can sugar-coat with the best, yet I don't lie.

My self-protection mechanism is 'semi-generic mode'. It can be used at work, with people I don't know or when I'm at those dreaded places where what people think of me is essential in realizing certain important goals. The point of this mode is to navigate around the touchy subjects without the others realizing it. It's quite the art. There's no need to lie, because the conversation never goes where a lie is required. And if I get trapped, well, they get to meet the real me. Hi!

Don't you know I'm loco?

I'm seriously going mad. If someone ever tells you that the best thing ever to start off the Roller Derby season would be to organize a 16-team tournament, please tell them that they're crazy. Fucking crazy. Still, still, I said "hells yeah" to the project. And I don't regret it.... but for perhaps the first time in my life, I wish I could go to sleep earlier. Just a little.

There's such a huge difference in organizing something big on work time at the office versus in your spare time at home. I had never really experienced it first hand, but now I think it's safe to say that I have. I mean, I'd just love to be able to take my derby buddies and sit them in a meeting room for an hour or two every now and then, and discuss stuff that needs immediate resolution. Instead, it's done by email over a couple of days.... bah!

But but but but... I'm planning to party (after the tournament) in function of the work put into the project. Watch out Montreal, shit's about to hit the fan.

I still have a difficult time believing how some people are so gullible.

Like anyone, I have my moments when I'll temporarily somewhat believe an outrageously ridiculous story just because my interlocutor is convincing. I did say somewhat. I keep my doubts alive. Sometimes they are burried deep, ready to be brought back to life if some additional information surfaces... sometimes they are so intense, they become intrinsic to the story....

I was on the pastefarian website today, refreshing my memory about the finer points of their hilarious religion. Curious, I read through a bit of their hate-mail. I guess I shouldn't expect anything less of hate-mail found on the intertubes, but this was especially sad.

There were different types of people. Some clueless, firmly convinced that the pastafarians actually believe in a flying spaghetti monster. Some fanatic, convinced they had to fight "the lies" of this religion for the greater good of their own religion. Some sounded smart, others quite the contrary. I expected most of it, but one thing struck me.

Most of them sound completely brainwashed, incapable of any further judgement on the issue. They believe everything they say so whole-heartedly, it's shocking. I honestly feel like I'm reading the thoughts of 5-year olds about Santa Claus ...only they are lacking in the cuteness factor.

One particular person seemed to think it would be appropriate to go briefly over the complete creationist story. It had been a while since I read through a complete summary of that particular story. I somewhat enjoyed that, because it highlights how similarly lacking in common-sense it is compared to stories from other cultures.

As the nationalist will be blind to the errors of his country, the religious fanatic will ignore the non-sense of his dogmas? Probably. As for me, I'll keep rolling my eyes at patriotism and faith, and keep the doubt alive. Shit, I should have said "keep rocking in the free world". Well, I missed my chance at sounding cool.

By the way... there was something interesting I wanted to say about the whole story, I swear.... not just blab randomly... but I'm dead tired. It'll be for another time.

Christmas just makes me spend money... too much if you ask me. I once again got more games than I'll be able to finish all year round, for sure. The main offender isn't only the number of actual games purchased this year though, but rather one specific title that is sure to steal my precious play time again and again.

At first, I thought I'd never get to play it. Postponed release date in Canada, sold out almost everywhere... the future was bleak. Most of my friends had pre-ordered it back in August. August! Oh well. I was just winging it; hoping to find a lost copy somewhere.... and I guess I did!

For no apparent reason other than stupidity, I left the (relative) comfort of the 30+ relative-filled chalet my family rents every year around Christmas time and went shopping on December 26th. This chalet is way out there in nowhere land, so I couldn't just head back to my beloved metropolis. Instead, I just found the closest gathering of buildings that remotely looked like a town. Or the second one... the first one being utterly uninteresting besides from the facts that 1- its streets were parking lots and 2- I had to go through them to get anywhere.

So, still fueling off my stupidity (or so I thought), I hit the closest Futureshop (US readers: Best Buy) for some deals on whatever Futureshop thinks I need. Turns out December 26th shopping ain't that crazy when you're close to nowhere. Good deal. And there it was... being used as a pedestal for other products! Pretending to be uninteresting. The big bulky box of ROCK. Not rocks, ROCK. ROCK N' ROLL.

3 hours later I'm back in the chalet with my box, explaining to everyone that this is not playable on the PS2 that's hooked up downstairs... nor that Gamecube. "On the Xbox? We have a 360 here? COOL!! Wait, no, not that one. That's an original Xbox. There's a new one that came out. No, it's not compatible." (My relatives aren't really well-versed in the intricacies of the console world...) "Why did I buy this game, then? Maybe because I want it? Like... I want to play it once I get back home?" 24 hours I was back home.

Assemble the accessories, connect everything, power up the 360, sit a friend down, load the disc.... Rock Band is truly everything it needed to be.

(I'm not even sure why I'm not playing it right n

Been a while since I did this... bloggage on the internoyd webber.

Well it's back to (Roller) Derby practice tomorrow; I can't wait! I'd say that between the girls and my fellow staffers, it's a cool group. I don't know why we stop for the summer though, I need the exercise

The point of this year is to bring up all the referees up to speed on most of the rules. I guess that'd make the game more enjoyable... especially for the players, since there's less ground for debate around calls, less room to think they lost because of the refs... (*shivers*) There's so many holes in the rules though, it's a bit scary if you plan on doing everything by the book, which is the only bulletproof way to go. I'm just glad none of the girls are especially interested in finding those holes and exploiting them until I break a fuse Don't tell them, though, eh!

Not that I'd do a better job at writing a ruleset though, the people who do this do an amazing job. And they must put up with a lot of crap from other people. I guess it's like being a lawmaker, except that everyone in your country is loud and angry... I kid I kid... wait.... unless they like being referred to as such? I don't know anymore.

eot

Game Night!

Last night was the last game of the 2007 season for the Montreal Roller Derby League. I'm just glad to say the place was packed and that, I think, everyone had a good time. As a plus, no one got seriously hurt! That's a first.... although I'm seriously surprised; you could really feel the unhealthy tension looming over the track!

From the referee and organizer front, I must say the game felt like a blade thrust in my brain and stuck there for 3 hours. I mean I never had to throw cones at the rowdy spectators before!

I want to apologize to the world for:
-The constant referee timeouts
-The drunken spectators that were fucking out of control
-The length of the intermissions (too long!)
-Some elements of disorganization

Check us out next time, that ship will run steady (well steadier at least)! Cheers!