Scott Blog

California, here I come

2005-03-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

Given the recent snow, it seemed only fitting to make a road trip down to the LA area just before exams. I'm guessing the total distance travelled will be around 5700 km with about 850 L of diesel consumed. Fortunately I'm expecting to have to do less driving than the last time I went down, when I managed to sleep about two hours in two nights, while we drove straight through leaving from Calgary after I had worked a full day in Leduc. Hallucinating things (like giant cowboy hats! Yes, it happened!) on interstates in LA is not likely a good thing.

This should be fun, I'm expecting to have a couple beach days. I will likely have a couple friends come down with me.

It looks like a good start to the summer! Now, to rotate my tires amongst other routine maintenance items.

Just to prove I'm no drama whore

2005-03-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

I reecently realized I went on a date with a girl in the fall. I had never realized it at the time, then she went all weird after. This confused me, but I just forgot about it, then it never really popped up again.

I ran into her in Van Vliet, which reminded me of this. I said hi, and received the not-unexpected twist of a head away from me in reply. Granted, I have absolutely no clue why she went weird on me. It might be because I'm decent friends with an ex of a guy who wanted to date her (and was an ass to my friend) or something - far too confusing to care.

Anyway, I maintain that regardless of circumstances, I will always try to make something better and ignore stupid dramatic crap. Saying hello seems like a small investment to me. Taking the effort to disclude or create tension amongst people seems like a really bad investment.

Meh, when my friends get dramatic, I generally just tell them I don't want to get involved. It's pretty awesome, although I sometimes wonder why people have a tendancy to get emotional/dramatic on MSN at 2 am.

Next post, maybe: Apparently I intimidate some people, or something.

Back from the bar...

2005-03-04T02:36:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of an enlightening experience tonight.

My friends made some gay jokes which, while normal, drew the attention of a middle aged gay man. He immediately took an interest in me (while holding his penis and urinating no less), and paid no attention to my correction that I was not gay. Having left the bathroom, he returned to the bar and asked me, very creepily to come to him several times. I was trying to grab my friend, who I had to drive home, and leave, as it was nearing 2 am, and I have class at 8 am. The gay man held his hand out and asked me to come to him several times, not saying what he wanted.

It was pretty creepy, and more than a bit disturbing. I'm not really creeped out by much, I really don't care if gay men hit on me (although they won't get anywhere), but this one persisted and left me wondering if he was going to make a physical move at me.

Anyway, it probably helps me understand the perspective of a lot of women, who are probably hit on by creepy men more than me and probably feel more vulnerable than I do.

Reading Week Recap

2005-02-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Best Reading Week Yet:

With a calm Friday, the party got started on Saturday. Nothing too crazy happened, there is a kissing movie that seemed to impress Ross, but that I will hold off distributing for now.

I am somewhere under the pile on my bed:



This was also in my room:



There are some more pictures that I won't post right now, including an instructional photo on the "Donkey Punch."

After the party disbanded the next day (around 4:30 pm), I decided with a friend of mine to make a blitz to Calgary. It would be a short one night gong show, we would stay at someone's place (to be determined) and would come back up the next day.

We left on Tuesday, at around 4:30 pm. Passing a really ugly guy (RUG) on the highway, I slowed down, told Matty to grab the camera, let him begin to pass me on the right, had a picture taken, then sped off and away. We are assholes. He is really ugly:



We arrived in Calgary and had supper with a fellow who went to Steve Smith's high school (this was coincidence only, Matty knew Steve as he also went to the same high school, blah blah blah). We met up with some friends at Sal's on 17th. The only things that happened were innocent:



The only relatively eventful thing to happen at the bar was an incredibly creepy and pushy guy hitting on Tara, my rather drunk friend. He didn't seem to realize that 4 guys, all larger than him, were waiting to seperate him from our friend. Also, his relatively sober boss was watching, and making fun of him. Because of him, however, I failed to properly mock the two guys who make me feel like I can dance. Pathetic.

Having left the bar, however, my spirits were lifted when we passed the two wet noodles on 17th, I drove around the block quickly so we could pass them again and mock them, if only mildly. With windows rolled down and Tara screaming at some thugs, we then passed the twigs from the bar, honked many times and yelled something rude at them. What that was, I forget.

Our next stop, at about 2 am, was Pizza 555. This place is great - you can get a 16" pizza with unlimited toppings for $12. We ordered a pizza, then Tara, Matty, and the other drunkards started there entertaining shenanigans - fooling around in the bathroom with a toothbrush, trying to kick vagrants people out of the pizza place, inviting the vagrants to party with us, and almost curbing a friend of ours. We grabbed the pizza, and drove around the building to the parking lot of a friend's apartment.

Things get less exciting here, but come morning, we definately have some bright and sunny faces ready for the trip back, that is, after a stop for puking:



Of course, for some reason, some fool managed to get swindled into being an A&W bear thing in St. Albert. This was the third attempt to get a picture. Apparently the A&W burned down recently.



So Thursday, I woke up at 5 am, was picked up by a friend, and went skiing. Relatively uneventful, but fun. I hassled the female lift ticket checker at the bottom, asking how much clothing I was required to wear for a ride up. She said there was no minimum. Thus, I returned sans shirt to hit on her:


Unfortunately, by the time I returned she had gone on break or something, and this left me hitting on a guy, who muttered something about having a wife. However, I did learn that fanning your boxers can, on a warm day at a ski hill, feel surprisingly good.

Enter Friday. Expecting a non-gong night, we surprised even ourselves. As often happens, we started at a Boston Pizza. Some punk 14-15 year olds sat at a table behind us, and I noticed a sugar packet hit my head. Naturally, I returned their lost sugar packet by means of random tossing. Being the nice guy that I am, when my friend offered his wet nap, I couldn't refuse the opportunity to give it to them. Randomly tossed, it was. This, however, was returned to us, and entered a friend's food - no good. Feeling we lacked the necessary protection, my friend said something about the tipping condom we had brought, which I promptly requested I have at the end of our stay.

So, with the bill paid, my friends waited at the front of the restaurant. I, having finished my reason for being in the bathroom, unrolled the condom and closed by right hand over it. Walking past the punk-jerks, I tossed it casually onto their table, hitting directly centre, and kept walking. Right when I met up with the group, we heard a high pitched scream, then exited quickly through the mall.

Leaving the mall, my friends disposed of the remainder of our pizza, then we picked up another friend in St. Albert. We waited at a Tim Horton's for another friend who had gone home to pick up a large firework he had acquired. With everyone at the Timmy's, we ran the "Donut Bitches" adventure. Essentially, Matty had screamed "BITCHEZ" towards a couple weird girls at a red light, only to find his window partially unrolled. They had come to the same Timmy's, and bought donuts. For some reason, this necessitated a high speed, FRS coordinated chase, where they quickly lost us.

Saturday night, I played monopoly with an ex. It was fun, I owned her ass again, which is apparently quite humbling for her.

On Sunday, I went skiing at Lake Louise, hitting speeds of approx. 120 km/h. Pretty uneventful. There was a really, really hot lift ticket scanner. And boy did she scan me! Oh yes, also, lots of ugly old people from Europe. Some of those from Calgary too.

These runs were good, and worth the 1000 km and reduced sleep:

This Week Thus Far

2005-01-26T19:49:00.000-07:00

Interesting.

As always, a fair bit of commentary that I will reveal only on a person to person basis, and wouldn't be silly enough to post for the whole internet to read.

A fair amount more insight into people. Observation alone can be a beautiful thing. In regards to that, it really isn't hard at all to understand conflicts such as those in, say, the Middle East. It is amazing how closely those large long lasting conflicts seem to parallel your typical interpersonal issue.

If you see me around, ask me why the hell an extension cord was the rope of choice.

Cheap Tuition for Scott

2005-01-18T23:01:00.000-07:00

So, I've got this little piece of paper that, for reasons unknown to me, grants me essentially unquestioned permanent resident status in Quebec in regards to tuition.

If I want, I could go to Quebec, pay $1600 a year for tuition, plus about $800 a year in student fees, then whatever my living costs are. It seems like it may be a good idea to go experience a year elsewhere, if only for fun.

What is this little piece of paper, and why would the Quebec government throw so much money my way? I can't answer the latter, but the document is a Quebec birth certificate.

All in all, a good week thus far.

First Post of the New Year

2005-01-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

So, I'm pretty bad about keeping this thing updated, apparently.

Anywho, Council was fun as usual. We managed to get through the whole agenda, although that required postponing several items.

Matters of executive character should not be touched by a governing body, but should be acted on by the executive. I really wish the Students' Union would learn this, all salads aside.

Speaking of salads, I am told I can expect to hear back next week about the actual cost of producing them, etc. in regards to my revolutionary idea of... having no additional charge for salad over fries with a burger.

Also, a point of information should never begin with with the words "will you not concede."

Anyway, I'm out for now. I have little clue what state(s) of consciousness this night will see me in, but I am intrigued to find out.

The Boxing Day Christmas Review

2004-12-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

So, Christmas went well.

The gifts I had chosen for my family were quite well received, and the gifts given to me were things I needed anyway, in one way or another.

Fortunately, my family is pretty good about not overcommercializing Christmas the way many people do.

All turned out well.

Bright and Lively Marriage

2004-12-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

I take my above description of marriage from the third point of the dictionary.com definition of "gay".

First off, read Steve's blog post about the Supreme Court ruling. Also, Mustafa said he would post something on POI. Check it out.

Relatively unrelated to the court ruling, I figure this is a convenient time to delve into the issue. We, as a country, should grant homosexual individuals the same rights in regards to government recognition of their relationship with their significant other as heterosexual individuals. I could expand upon how equal rights are a good thing (tm), however, I will limit this to shutting down a couple opposition positions (for a large part, you could consider my stance on homosexual marriage as "Why the hell not?").

Religious groups should simply understand that what they do, and what the state does, are completely unrelated. They do not have to recognize a marriage if they do not want to. Claiming that government recognition of homosexual marriage degrades the traditional values of marriage and its religious significance is only attempting to develop a connection between church and state that we absolutely do not want.

I never understood the groups claiming to represent family values that oppose gay marriage on the basis that it erodes family values. Acceptance has always been a good family value to me. The notion that children raised by a homosexual couple may be unfairly taunted in schools is bunk. Children are cruel for many reasons, and in any case, it would do more to help such children by promoting the acceptance of homosexual relationships, than to continue to teach our children that such relationships are unacceptable.

How should gay marriage be implemented? I am okay with calling it a civil union or marriage. As far as I can see, the status quo is simply a civil union that is called marriage. The choice of wording is rather irrelevant to me, so long as we offer the same service to members of all sexual orientations, under the same name. Individuals can still refer to a civil union as a marriage, should they chose, just as I refer to the building in which I live as a "house" and not a "single family dwelling," as I would imagine it is legally considered (although I am too lazy to look it up). I don't really know why those who object to gay marriage would object any less to gay civil unions, but it seems to work, so I'm all for it.

First injury of the holiday season

2004-12-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

With the non-denominational holidy season nearly upon us, and I already have my first injury of the holidays.

Last year I took it upon myself to whack my mouth shut with at least one knee, then proceed to the dentist for $430 of timeout, while simultaneously giving probably about a hundred people on a chairlift a story to tell people. That, however, happened mere days before New Year's day.

This year I am glad to report that the first injury this year has occured much earlier. Sometime last night, I managed to collide my head into a friend's front year, while being involved in some entertaining shenanigans at a party. Fortunately the bleeding stopped relatively quickly (which, given the alcohol intake, was somewhat surprising). After padding my head for a couple minutes, I was quickly back in the house with a beer in hand and ready to enjoy the rest of the night.

Now that the train has left the station, I can't wait to see what other entertaining festive adventures I will experience this holiday. Further injuries are expected with at least two ski trips planned, one with the U of A Ski Club. In fact, I was considering placing money on the probability of my own death, until I realized that the mass sums of money I would make from such an endeavour would do little to benefit me.

Regardless, here is a survey of the damage thus far this season:

Feedback on what the next cheerful holiday injury is likely to be is encouraged.