December 28-29, 2000 — ...and worth fighting for

When lethargy takes over like this, the best I can do is try to plan ahead for when I have the energy to work again. And try to fill my lethargic hours with reading and movies and assessments of CGI forum software. I'm just proud that I can be a nerd even in my least motivated of times.

So. 48 hours. Four movies, not too much Internet, a little bit of reading. And a rather non-existant social life.

Although I'd like to interject here. It's no one's fault but my own, this whole lack-of-social-life business. The problem is, you see, that I have no friends where I live, and that I don't trust myself to drive in the snow to where they live. This stems from last winter, when I racked up repair bills totalling more than the value of the car over two separate incidents involving ditches. So basically I totalled the ol' Honda in separate increments and ended up getting it repaired each time. With insurance and my parents contributing, it ended up costing me in between $1500 and $2000. And when this economic concern is combined with the fact that I now practically shake when behind the wheel (or even as a passenger) on vaguely slippery roads, the odds of me driving in the winter are pretty eff-in' slim. So in conclusion, I have no friends within walking distance and I can't drive so I don't do anything with people. Now you know.

Moving on, then. I say "rather" non-existant because I did talk to Laura on the phone for awhile last night, and there was at least a hint of chance to leave the house. And I visited Andrew at Living Colour (a tattoo and piercing place) when my parents gave me a couple of hours downtown today. So you see, it's not a complete void. While at Living Colour, I finally picked up my new septum retainer, and Joanne, who pierced my ears, offered to pierce one of my nipples for free if I had them both pierced to 10 gauge. If not for the fact that I had to meet my parents in an hour (and perhaps the fact that I would scream like a girl if I had my nipples pierced at 10 gauge), I might've considered it.

The true goal of my trip downtown, mind you, was to get a copy of "Princess Mononoke." The DVD was released on December 19, and I was still in Nova Scotia. I'd asked for it for Christmas, but my parents put little effort into getting a copy and so I was SOL. Upon going downtown today, I learned from the cheerful fellow at Record Runner that all of their copies had sold out before Christmas, that they wouldn't have more until a few weeks from now, and that everyone else was sold out too. I wanted to cry. I hadn't seen the movie since September, and that was a long time, really, since I saw it during exams in June before that. (The night before the Algebra exam that dropped my final mark by 15%, actually.) But luckily for your crestfallen protagonist, a second trip to MusicWorld was in order, and a bit of searching yielded... a French copy of "Princess Mononoke." Or "La Princesse Mononoké," if I remember correctly.

At this point, I was willing to buy this, the last copy in all of Ottawa (or so I assume), even if it meant brushing up on my French skills a bit. Hell, I could throw on the French subtitles and listen to the Japanese audio track and be confused by two languages at once; it'd be fantastic. But then I flipped it over, and found hidden in the credits a mention of an English audio track. Who'd've thought a cartoon could brighten my day so thoroughly?

I greedily rushed it to the cash register, bought it, unsealed it, and flipped the cover photo over revealing the English version underneath. It undoubtedly would've sold had it been sealed with the English side up, so I can only be thankful that I live in a bilingual country. Vivre la Québec libre and all that.

To review, before I slide into complete incoherency: I haven't spoken to my girlfriend all day, I've watched two movies, and one of them was a cartoon, the sight of which made my eyes light up. And I'm spending my Friday night looking into forum scripts for antigreg. This life thing is going well.

I am at least talking to Gillian on ICQ now, which is something. I'd prefer to hear her voice, but there's that 800-minute limit on "free" long-distance from Bell to worry about. And I'm starting to realize now how terrible a wallowing-in-self-pity journal entry this is. Just when I was getting good at mostly staying away from these.

I'll try to slip back into self-deprecation territory tomorrow. And since this journal is pretty pathetic, I can guarantee I'll write a journal tomorrow. I'd hate for this to be the most recent journal for more than 18 hours or so...