Rain

I don't like it when people say 'oh it's so gross and miserable out today' when it's simply raining. Why not embrace the rain? Here on the west coast of Canada, it rains a lot. It doesn't snow a lot, in Vancouver at least, so when it's not sunny, there's a very good chance it's cloudy and/or raining, and throughout the year it's usually a 50/50 split between sun and rain. This is very unscientific, but probably not far from accurate.

The TV weatherpeople get right into it. 'Ooooh, it's looking pretty brutal out there. If you can avoid going out, do it. It's only suitable for ducks out there right now. Just a horrible horrible day today.' This leads sheep, I mean people, to walk around cursing the rain. Why not enjoy the rain? For half the year it's going to rain and that's not going to stop. Why be in a bad mood for half the year?

It's only rain! Enjoy it! Dance in it! Look up and feel the raindrops landing on your face!

BookCrossing.com

bookcrossing
n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. (added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in August 2004)

It's a fascinating exercise in fate, karma, or whatever you want to call the chain of events that can occur between two or more lives and one piece of literature. Oh, and it's absolutely free and absolutely private, too.

---> all of the above is from the BookCrossing homepage

So, it is not actually a support group for book addicts. It is a website for book lovers, or even book likers, or even just people who have heard of books. Even those of you haven't heard of books can probably find something enjoyable out of it.

The main purpose of BookCrossing is to track your books. You register your books, you marked them up with their BCIDs (BookCrossing IDs), and you release them 'into the wild'. The idea is that the books you've read aren't doing anyone any good by sitting on your shelves collecting dust. By releasing them onto a park bench, or at a gas pump, or anywhere where someone might pick it up, it may find a new reader. The beauty of it is that with the book marked with its BCID, the finder can go to the website and make a journal entry on the book, thereby logging its journey. And you get an email the instant that happens.

There are also forums for people to discuss stuff. Stuff such as books.

This is a global site with, at the time of this sentence being written, 419,096 members and 2,533,443 books registered. Both of those numbers have been steadily increasing since April 17 2001, BookCrossing's birthday.

Click here for the BookCrossing website

There, as I am here, I'm jblueafterglow.

Here's a book whose journey I've had a part in: The Dogs of Babel

And here's my favorite catch: 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said

Halloween at our New Place!

While still renovating our place, we stocked up on candy and chocolate to give to trick-or-treaters. For the first bit, there were no knocks on the door, and Biscotti was getting upset. "Oh great, we've moved into a non-festive neighborhood. I guess we can just be the house that gets really decorated." When the first knock came, she perked up and exclaimed, "really?" After that debut, many more knocks, and bell rings, followed.

Here are pictures I took of Biscotti's magnificent carvings.

















































And the cute carver herself, warmly welcoming the costumed kids.

Looking for a terrible boyfriend for one week

Today I learned that my umbrella is not meant to be used when it's windy. It's got one broken spoke, and that might have helped it go all pretzelly when I turned this certain corner. This certain corner was apparently the entrance to an invisible wind tunnel. Many times in my life I have watched amused as others wrestle with their upturned umbrellas. What goes around comes around I guess, as everyone else I saw had sturdy umbrellas that were not affected.

That, however, is not why I'm posting. I am looking for a terrible boyfriend for a week. Replace the "I am" with "A girl is" and that previous sentence is a little more accurate. My friend Tias, hopefully out of amusement and not potential interest, emailed me the link to a posting on Craigslist.org, which I have copied and pasted below. If you are interested, I can give you the exact link and you can contact her, but I should tell you that it was posted to the Denver craigslist, which may or may not affect your response, high altitude and all.

Here is the post exactly as it appeared:

I am looking for a terrible boyfriend for one week to restore my happiness in being single. Now that school has started again I find myself in classes where 80% of my classmates are either married/engaged/in a relationship. I was content to be single all summer but now that I have been exposed to all these happy people in relationships, I'm starting to wonder if I need one too.

In my head, I know I don't, but let's make this concrete with an experience. This is where you come in. I need you around for one week in the role of a bad boyfriend to renew my glee in being single.

My requirements of you:
-You are attractive. Sorry, but if this is to work out for me, you have to be a pretty boy who is nice to look at but a total dick otherwise.
-Be very needy. Call me several times a day, checking where I am, who I'm with, etc.
-Have poor or no manners. When we go out, I want you to not use your napkin, tip poorly or not at all, never open doors, that sort of thing.
-It would be nice if you have politically conservative leanings so we can get into fun arguments
-Stare at other girls when we're out together. Bonus points for flirting with them.
-Don't listen when I talk, and interrupt me when you can.
-Insist on driving us everywhere, but proceed to get so drunk that I have to drive your car or call a taxi.
-Wear ugly clothes, or at least clothing inappropriate for every occasion.
-Have wildly inaccurate information and unfounded opinions. It is your mission that you are right about everything.
-Steal something of mine. I will set out one designated thing that you must steal from my house. You will steal this and nothing else.
-Don't be too upset when I end things after a week (and part of this deal is that I am the one to break things off). You know what you're getting into and do not form any untoward bond.

After the week is up we can either be friends and laugh about this, or we can pretend that we've never met and ignore each other if we happen to meet in a public place.

What do you get out of it?

At least 5 nights out (you pay your half, sorry. I am not rich). One stolen item (of my choosing). A good story to tell people later. Satisfaction that you are also single. A chance to vent your spleen. A dissatisfying tryst for both of us.

You'd be a fool to pass up this opportunity!

Calvin and Hobbes & Fight Club

If you're a fan of the movie Fight Club (and who isn't?), and if you have read a fair amount of Calvin and Hobbes (and who hasn't?), then you'll probably get a kick out of reading this:
The Return of Hobbes


Also, I did get Biscotti yesterday for the first of the month. I'm the champ for a full month!

I think there was some other small bit of info I wanted to write. Can anyone remember what it was? It might have been that Biscotti carved out several great pumpkins for the trick-or-treaters, and I did my part by taking several great pics of the pumpkins on display on our front steps. The pics will be posted in a day or two.

For The Last Of The Month

When is a pinch not a pinch? When it's the first part of the pinch-and-a-punch devastating combo.

For as long as I can remember, way back when I was but a wee lad, my family has played a fun little game. On the last day of each month, each person tries to pinch and punch each other person while saying "pinch and a punch for the last of the month". Sometimes people have gotten woken up by being pinched and punched.

That's not the end of it. The next day the exact same thing happens, except this time it's "pinch and a punch for the first of the month". If one person can get another person on consecutive days, well then they are obviously the masters of the universe, and can walk around with their chins up and their chests out for a full month before needing to defend their title.

Tis a fun game with many nuances. Since I moved out, and with my parents currently in New Zealand and my bro currently in Victoria, Biscotti and I are going mano à womano for this Halloween edition. Today I got her. Wish me luck tomorrow..

Happy Halloween! Has anyone seen Saw 2 yet? If not, are you going to?

Hiding Tildy

So Tildy's been staying with me and Biscotti at our rental house, which is all good, very good, except for the fact that we agreed to a no-pets rule way back in June at the start of our rental lease.. Well, now that we have a place that we're renovating and moving into in a couple of weeks, our lease is done on December 1st.. Actually, I guess it would run out November 30th.. Details Shmetails.. Our landlord lives just a few blocks away and we're kind of worried about her walking by our place when we're not home and seeing Tildy on the windowsill.. When we're home, we have a no-sill rule.

With us moving out, our very nice landlord has asked us very nicely if she could come by now and then, with advanced warning, to show the house to prospective renters.. "Surrrrre", we say. "Just make sure you do give us advance warning!" Last night was the first night of showings, which meant packing Tildy up in her carrier box and escorting her to Biscotti's parent's place for a couple of hours. But that's not all. There is the kitty litter, Tildy's food & water dishes, her scratch box, her fake-mice toys, and her fur clumps that she has left all over the place.. We basically had to walk through the place as though we were walking through for the first time to see if there was anything that would make us think to ask, "you have a cat?" What? No. We have a Tildy.

It's hard to capture the essence of Tildy on a camera, but these photos come somewhat close.. I have many many more to choose from but these are essentially the only usable ones to show her off. All the other photos either look similar to one of these, or she looks too plain jane. And Tildy is definitely not plain jane. What do you think of our kitchen and its colors? I fell in love at first sight, makes me think I'm in a rustic cabin. Others feel like they're in a pirate's galley, but you're unable, in this pic, to see the main reason why..

One good Tildy deserves another...

Jon Stewart Intelligence Agency

You probably know by now that Jon Stewart is fantastic. I only recently discovered how great his Daily Show is, wish I knew about it when it first aired. And it wasn't until today, less than five minutes ago, that I stumbled upon this site: Jon Stewart Intelligence Agency

I haven't seen much of the website beyond a page of quotes, and need to get back to studying for my midterm tomorrow (the effects of media on socialization.. ironic?), but will be checking it out some more in the coming days. Enjoy.

Is It Me? Is It Her? Is It Us?

For the past several years Biscotti and I worked at GM Place during Canucks games. Then last season there was no season, which screwed me and Biscotti financially. (As a big hockey fan, getting paid while 'working' at Canucks games was an awesome perk.)

This year, we've been working after-school programs at an elementary school Monday to Friday. Except now there is no school which means no after-school programs which means Biscotti and I are screwed again. It's not all bad, we do have other jobs. But still, now that we have a mortgage and wedding to think about, the extra moola we would've had from the past year and a half would've come in handy.

Those of you who want to contribute to the 'Biscotti and jblueafterglow mortgage & wedding fund', please contact us. You may soon find us on a street corner downtown with a handwritten cardboard sign and a sad dog at our side (and maybe we'll be featured on Cher's new blog). Or we may don a red hoody and screwdriver and track Jason down (is that in poor taste?).

Spare a loonie?

House and Biscotti

Starting now, I'll be using this blog less anonymously, as can already be seen by the profile pic I posted a few days ago. I'll probably remain jblueafterglow and Biscotti will probably remain Biscotti, but you'll notice changes, that's for sure, including more pics to jazz up this blog o' mine.

The thing that is taking up much of our time these days, besides the kids that come and go far too often, is our new house. We've been painting and sanding and having security installed and replacing furnace and all sorts of other fun stuff. I say "we", but it's mostly been Biscotti and Biscotti's parents, who somehow have endless amounts of energy.

Here's our house:














And here's a pic of Biscotti: