December 3–4, 2001 — Singing dogs and Lieutenant Worf

Strange dream last night. But we needn’t get into that.

Anyway. As you might’ve expected, my promises to myself from my last entry (to finish the Cuff The Duke Web site and to read the rest of Pulp) both fell through on Monday. Even with nothing but free time I can’t seem to get anything done.

I made some buttons during the afternoon. Then Jeff invited Johnston and me for a visit, so we caught a streetcar and were on our way. I brought along the buttons, planning to meet up with Matt (of m@b and mattbcomic.com) to drop them off.

The streetcar was completely empty when it arrived and it stayed that way the entire way to the station. (For some reason they send streetcars one after the other sometimes, and the first’ll be full while the second remains mostly empty.) Johnston seemed to enjoy the experience of having a private chauffeur on public transportation quite a bit. It had happened to me on buses in Ottawa often enough that it was hard to get all that excited about, but it was definitely a first as far as Toronto streetcars are concerned. Good times.

I called Matt from Jeff’s house and we arranged to meet to swap buttons and money for t-shirts and back issues. It made me conscious of how little I know about Toronto as he ran through landmarks where we could meet up: I hadn’t heard of any of them.

He eventually gave me directions to a place on Bloor Street (as Jeff yelled at me for pronouncing it “Blur Street,” which I refuse to acknowledge as being incorrect), and I found it without incident. I realized that the route I’d taken on the way there involved around ten minutes of walking in the wrong direction, but I made it nonetheless, and I’ll know better for next time.

We eventually went home, disappointed at not having the streetcar all to ourselves on the way back. I worked on the Cuff The Duke Web site for awhile, but didn’t finish. I couldn’t sleep, but I couldn’t work, either.

And just for the record, I tried to pay my rent on Monday, but no one was home. That I’m making an effort this month is all that counts.

I ran into my landlord while checking to see if it was hoodie weather or jacket weather outside. I paid my rent and ended up getting a rather lengthy lecture in the process.

Johnston got a much more lenient version of the rules that I received in my lecture. (Johnston figures that this is because she sees me as the lazy one that causes all the trouble while sitting around, not working, and not going to school.) From what she told me, we’re no longer allowed to have visitors after 11:00 pm, much less for the entire night. And I was told to work on making my sleeping habits a bit less eccentric. (Even Johnston got to hear about my sleep habits: “You know that he sometimes wakes up just as you’re returning from school? It’s not healthy!”)

At least she gave receipts this month. I was getting a little bit nervous about giving $400 cash to an increasingly senile landlord and not receiving anything that I could use to prove that I had paid.

And I got a lengthy update on the health of her and her husband. What I would do to be able to pay by postdated cheque...

I uploaded the Cuff The Duke Web site at dinner time. It’s not completely finished, but it’s far enough along that I’m not embarrassed to have it online. Go take a look. They’re playing in Ottawa this weekend, too, so take note if you’re in the area.

With the Cuff The Duke site finished, I decided to obsess over insignificant details on this site. I’m working to make every page validate as HTML 4.01 without even minor warnings. And I’m going to set things up so that the message board is a bit more legible in non-CSS browsers. Gotta look out for those Lynx users, I figure.

And you’ve no idea how badly I need to clean my room. But I’m not going to. I’ve finally accepted that I never do anything that I promise to do in journal entries. So what’s the point?

Still no callbacks, by the way. But I got an email from the SXSW people saying that I was in the Web site competition. Now it’s just a matter of waiting until January to find that I wasn’t nominated as a finalist...