Rockland Wonderland - Canada's Trusted Source Since 2006. -

The neighbours have sparked up the barbeque on their balcony and I can smell it from inside my apartment. The smell is absolutely delicious. From what I can gather, there are some hamburgers cooking on that there barbeque, and I am terribly jealous.

Right now I am scheming some sort of contraption that would open their barbeque and steal a couple patties. Unfortunately, my mind is a little wiped and all I can come up with is an oversized pair of tweezers.

Oh, well.

Right now, I am listening to Duran Duran's, "Hungry Like The Wolf". I am wearing no shirt or pants, only a finely crafted pair of gitch. So fucking hot. Meanwhile, I am eating a homemade spicy rice concoction. It is delightful. And the song is so good that I don't know quite what to do with myself.

Sounds like I have the right to get up and dance.

Fuckin' rights!

(And can I please slow-dance with someone to Mr. Mister's, "Broken Wings"?)

"So take these broken wings and learn to fly again, learn to live so free. When we hear the voices sing, the book of love will open up and let us in."

I went out for Canada Day tonight. Here is what happened:

- First, I woke up at 5:30pm, had a shower, cleaned myself up. As you would expect, I called my only two friends here in Winnipeg (whose numbers' I know), and would you know it, neither of them answered the phone. Which means, of course, that I have absolutely no friends. (No surprise there.)

After realising I had no friends (and upon the recommendation of a great acquaintance), I caught the bus that took me down to the Osborne Street Festival. I had no idea such a Festival existed and upon my arrival I was delightfully surprised! I walked from Confusion Corner to River Ave. and as I walked past multiple generic rock bands, I realised that the electronic/dance show at The Academy was the place to be. 

Let me tell you, it was fucking awesome. Like, totally reminded me of Prague, which is straight the fuck up my alley. People outside, drinkin', dancin', fuckin' around. And best of all, talkin' about people. Needless to say, I fit right the fuck in.. I totally danced the night away and received plenty of friendly smiles.

Eventually, the party was moved inside of The Academy. No problem there. The dance tunes never quit and I never stopped. In fact, I was feeling so good that I went and danced with some girl that I ended up telling was a great dancer. It's true, she was, I wasn't going to lie. I never had any goals beyond dancing, so telling her she was great and a lot of fun to dance with was more than enough for me. Good times.

After this, I went down to the Toad In The Hole. It is always a good time there and I have never run into any problems there - until tonight. Near the end, I asked this group of people a question, a harmless, everyday-kind-of question, and they were all about to answer it until some prick, their friend apparently, came along and rudely told me to fuck off. Like, honestly, completely embarassed and humiliated me infront of these people until I walked away with my head down.

Now, it wasn't that I was so embarassed, but rather that I had to contain myself as much as to not club the guy in the fucking face. I have not been a fighter in many years, but anyone who knows me well knows that I have it in me. And tonight was the night where my patience was tested so much that I was seriously considering it.

I don't think anyone knows how much I had to contain myself tonight. I tend to be, perhaps, detrimentally proud and tonight my pride was challenged. Instead of resorting to violence, I walked away, held my head down, and went on with life.

In the end I feel that I should have dished out Sweet Chin Music but, really, I had to swallow my pride. A realization, which, I think, is a huge step for me.

Maybe I am better because of it?

Either way, at the time, my pride was shot. I felt like shit. Until...

I met a group of three people, two girls, one guy, that I somehow ended up talking to. They were all very nice and I felt, in essence, they were what Canada Day was all about. I walked with them to Confusion Corner and split ways, but prior to that, I exchanged numbers and I am continuing to talk to one of them as we speak.

And isn`t that what Canada Day is all about...

Non-egotisitical bullsit. The willingness to make friends, talk, laugh, drink.

I think so.



Happy Canada Day, folks.

(From after Osborne to McGillivray, I walked with someone who said he was going to kill the main guy of both the Indian Posse and Manitoba Warriors for, allegedly, raping his sister.

If it's true, all the power to you, brother.)


<Queue Prince's "Kiss".>


*** I just remembered that at one point, I walked up to a cop car that was sitting, flashing it's lights for no reason other than to look intimidating. When I approached, the cop in the passenger seat rolled down his window to see what was up. I began asking questions. It ended up being that I had asked too many valid questions that the cop simply could not answer. Upon this discovery, the cop decided to roll up his window in my face as I was asking the next question.

How about that for tax dollars well spent?

Happy Canada Day, brothers and sisters!

 

Good times back then.

- I guess I fell asleep with my glasses on last night, because when I woke up today, my glasses were underneath me and absolutely fucked. Like, fucked. No matter how much I tried to bend them back into shape, they fully resisted sitting normally on my face. In fact, it was so bad that I could not wear them without getting a headache. Brutal. So, shortly after I woke up, I had to head down to the nearest eye glasses store to have the damn things adjusted. Luckily, I was helped by a very pretty girl who was, apparently, an expert at bending glasses back into shape. She did a great job and I love her for it. Thank you, mystery glasses fixer who is pretty.

- Earlier, I tried hopping over a fence that was easily, ummm... hoppable. Unfortunately, I completely fucked up my jump and landed on one of my elbows. Needless to say, my elbow is fucked and sore. I would say that the botched jump knocked my confidence level down a bit, but no, I still think I'm better than you. (Ooh! What an asshole!)

- I received one of my Subway Scrabble prizes in the mail today. Sweet. It was the $5 card that I won. I will be going to Subway tomorrow to buy a sub that takes care of that $5. And you can damn well bet that I will be smug as shit when I do it, like, "Yeah, I won this. Make my sandy." You can only fuckin imagine how smug I will be when the $10 card arrives.



- When I look at a map that shows the three cities in Europe that I have visited, and I draw a line from each one to the other, the line ends up making a perfect triangle. The triangle is, of course, the perfect shape, and generally, the triangle protects something valuable within it. If I look at what the middle of my European triangle holds, it protects the country of France. Which means, of course, that I am totally meant to go to France. I will definitely be successful there. Mark my worrddsssss-uh.



- I bought my iPod Touch the first weekend it was available in Canada. When I did, I paid over $500 for it. As ridiculous as that may seem, I do not in any way believe that I overpaid. When I think that I have, without any doubt, used the thing for thousands of hours, I know that I got my money's worth. Even if I have only used it for a thousand hours (which is far less than what I have actually used it for), I basically have paid two dollars an hour to enjoy it. A deal? You absolutely fuckin' rights it's a deal.



*I decided the hamboner was too much.

OMG. Yes. You don't even have to ask.

  

(Annie is Swedish. MSTRKRFT is Canadian.)

Hi folks,

Didn't think the suits would have me back, perhaps?


- A guy at work is retiring tomorrow, so today was the last time I was going to see him. Obviously, I went and congratulated him and all that, which was nice. Even nicer, was that he told me, in his opinion, I am the best new hire that they've had in years. How about that, eh?

- One thing that I don't do anymore is go to the theatre to watch movies. As for why, I think it's the previews. For some reason which I cannot explain, sitting through the previews at the start of a movie makes me feel uncomfortably gay. Honestly.

- This week: Ed McMahon is dead. Farrah Fawcet is dead. Michael Jackson is dead. But more importantly, Billy Mays is dead. Rest in peace, bearded brother.

- There is a family of birds that lives in one of the rooms at work, and I love them dearly. They are so cute. They love to fly in and out to collect food for their little chickadees. Sometimes, they want out, but the garage door is not open, so they will fly around in circles and tweet. Of course, I have to help, so I go and open the garage door for them and they get so excited! They fly around me and tweet even louder! Oh, how I love them!

- I hate the fact that I can rarely bring out a sweet Pete Jackson downtown without some half-wit coming over and asking for one. Like, fuck you, get a job, I'm already paying for your cousin's fucking Elan.



- So, in another eight weeks I will have nowhere to live. Nice. I'm actually quite stressed out about it. With any luck, my international departure will take place shortly after, but if there is a slight delay, I will have to figure something out quickly. What, I'm not sure. Options are limited, after all. Whatever does happen, though, I know that when it is all said and done and I am far away, I will be a much happier person. And isn't that what matters in life? Fuckin' rights.

I actually have come to suspect that Samuel du Champlain went through this exact situation and came to this exact conclusion. At crossroads in his life, he went far away and became the man we all know and love, Father Canada.

- There are a lot of people out there that wonder why we, as a collective society, don't care more about what is happening to other people around the world. Well, let me tell you why; because we have our own bullshit to worry about. I don't entirely agree with it, but it's true. And let me tell you now, if the tables were turned, those people would be acting towards us the same we we're acting towards them. It's a fact. The majority of people, no matter where, are concerned only with themselves. That's the world we live in.

- When my parents went to Quebec City, they brought me back some authentic, Quebec maple syrup. I desperately want to try it, but I really want to wait to use it until I can have a huge pancake breakfast with a bunch of friends. That will not likely happen, because I have no friends, but you could imagine what it would be like it I did.

- There are four plants in my apartment that have sort have become my children. Though this may be due to extended periods of isolation, I still enjoy it. I make sure they are healthy and happy and they love me for it. I can tell when they are not feeling so well, and so far, I have been able to give them the remedy they need. How's that for Big Poppa?



- I am so into the dance and electronic music right now that it is quite nearly disgusting. Am I embarassed? Shit no. I grew up on this stuff (Dance Mix, anyone?). And you know, I have to say, that I really feel that the next "big thing" in music is going to be electronic. Unlike other genres of music, electronica has no bounds, no formulas to follow. It's blessed with absolute creative freedom and I love that. Don't get me wrong, rock music still kicks ass, but it's stagnant right now and has been for a long time. Give me some beats and let me dance.

- Tragically, I have cut both pizza and burgers from my diet, which is deeply saddening considering they are a couple of my favourite things. I will admit, though, that the cut has really helped with the whole "healthy" thing I'm going for. Well, as long as "healthy" means no pizza and burgers, but lots of beer and cigarettes.

- The other night I had a dream that, when interpreted, let me know that I really need to be more aggressive. Like, aggressive to the point where I need to be a dick sometimes. I think the dream was right. I've spent all my life being passive, the middle-man, nice to everyone, etc. And where has it gotten me? Arguably, nowhere. I will be spending the next while concocting a plan on how to be more aggressive without burning bridges. It should be a good challenge. And if that doesn't work out, I'll start selling sausages outside the Regal Beagle.

- I don't care what anyone says, soccer is the world's poor man's sport. All you need is a ball. Fuck, you don't even need a ball. All you need is a sphere of some kind. Third-world sport? Absolutely.


Ok, that's enough for me.

Later!

Hi everybody,

Being that it was absolutely gorgeous yesterday, I decided to take a walk during the afternoon to Assiniboine Park. In all my years that I have either lived in or visited Winnipeg, I had never actually crossed that walking bridge from the Portage Ave. side into the Park, so I decided that it was finally time to do so. My plan was just to walk around aimlessly, enjoying the trees and such. Fortunately, my plan for aimless wandering was changed when I stumbled upon The Leo Mol Sculpture Garden.

If you have not visited this area yet, I highly suggest doing so. It is, without any doubt, one of Winnipeg's most beautiful areas. It was so beautiful, in fact, that at times I felt as if I was not even in Winnipeg, but on a trip to a place somewhere entirely different. If you are interested in learning more, you can do so here.

I figured that since I had such a nice time in and around the Park, I would share some pictures.







































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A beautiful place, indeed.

Check it out, I highly recommend it.

Later!