Where you can read the relatively rational ramblings of a silly half-monkey, half-boy. This freak of nature is named Joel. He also responds to the name 'Bart Wang'.

 
Dammit... I wrote a huge freaking update a couple hours ago and my computer crashed. CRAP! I'm watching Bruce Almighty right now. I will complete the movie and then post all that junk again. You won't even know I was gone.

See, I'm back already. I've got the deleted scenes running.
That is a funny movie. There are a lot of good scenes of just
plain humour and interesting spiritual perspectives. Ok, let's
start with the most important things. I'm engaged! On June
28th, I asked Melanie to marry me. She said 'yes'! To
me! Which makes me think that I should really reconsider. I
mean, me?!? Hahahaha. Kidding. There's no way outta
this one, baby! You are stuck with me now! Woo hoo!
The wedding will be November 28th. How crazy is this?!? I
can't believe we're getting married. It's exciting and freaky at
the same time. We hope you'll be able to come to the
ceremony. And, judging by the people who have told me that they
read this (only Bill & Blondel),
I already know if you can make it or not. Blondel, yes.
Bill, no. At this point, anyhow. C'mon, Bill! Take
Ronee on a nice vacation north! Hahaha.

Everything pales in comparison with that, I know. I'll fill you
in on the other events now. We went for a nice drive with Darren
Conley and John Campea to the home of Todd Brown
in Toronto. As you know, I deplore Toronto. Fortunately,
Darren was able to give us general enough directions when we
encountered road closures in spite of not exuding confidence and
causing me to question him. I'd do it again but my faith in his
navigational skills is slightly higher. Anyhow, Todd Brown is a
great guy. You might know him from his years of record reviews
(see Opuszine for some of them) or as one of the brainchildren behind The Movie Blog,
where you will learn of his odd love for Asian cinema. Seriously,
his movie collection is probably more Asian than North American - and
he doesn't speak Chinese, Japanese or any other Asian languages!
He has good taste in music, however, and we can spend obscene amounts
of time discussing such things. He's also very generous and
gracious so he had people over for a BBQ. With Matt Dredge
manning the grill, we had some good burgers and hot dogs. Melanie
and I got to see Blondel & Melody (who made the trek from
Peterborough, which is largely under water as we speak from what I've
heard), Darren (fresh from his reconstructive surgery and several
makeout sessions with different ladies) and Dave Lapsley (another
member of The Movie Blog collective and one helluva funny guy).
Then there were the other folks from the O.B.C./Tyndale crew that I
knew much less well but are great people: Andrew Mack, Matt Dredge
& his wife (Cindy or Sarah, I can't remember - sorry!), Peter,
Campea and Karen a.k.a. Renee a.k.a. Crapface. No Doug Nagy on
this night, my friends. We had a good chat about the old BBS days
(Lapsley even remembered TAG, the BBS program, which made me laugh and
laugh). A good night was had by all. We invented a new
adjective for when something is really good. You've heard
'kick-ass' as a descriptor before. Darren invented 'kick-asser'.

This is how it went down. Melanie makes the best desserts you've
ever wanted to eat. Seriously, they rule. She made 'Hello
Dolly' bars and these peanut butter/butterscotch/marshmallow things
that are better than sugar-coated sugar. Oh, wait, they
essentially ARE
sugar-coated sugar! Anyhow, I suggested Darren try the
marshmallow ones because they are 'kick-ass'. Darren decided to
try a 'Hello Dolly' first and asserted that they were
'kick-asser'. Thus, it was born. Go forth and use
regularly. This post is kick-asser.

The night before, I went (by myself) to see Switchfoot
in Hamilton. Taxman was off in Toronto getting some lip and Belly
wanted to go to the gym instead of do something other than go to the
gym so I decided I would go. I've liked Switchfoot for years so I
didn't want to let this chance skip right past me. They put on a
good show. I wore my Fold Zandura shirt. Jerome Fontamillas
is now with Switchfoot, formerly of Mortal and Fold Zan. The
album, 'Ultraforever', is easily one of my favourite albums of
all-time. Anyhow, I was treading perilously close to breaking
that rule of concert-going - do not wear the band's t-shirt to the
band's show. You might be wondering why. I can't explain it
now, just accept that it's a rule and abide by it. Good, good
show. They didn't play enough songs from previous albums,
particularly 'Learning To Breathe', the one before their current
record. They played a couple new songs, including one that had
never been heard before (so they said).

I saw all these people at the show that I knew but a bunch of them
don't know me. I have been blessed (I suppose it's a blessing)
with a freaky, scary memory in which I will remember almost everyone I
have ever met or seen, even if they do not know who I am. I saw
Caleb and Jake (two kids I play basketball with on Tuesday nights),
Kirk Lewis (with whom I grew up with and then attended high school),
Chris Stacey (from the hip hop crew, Knights Of The Realm, and the
grandson of David Mainse of Crossroads/100 Huntley Street), Mark
Kasprzyk (KAZZER - put the
pedal to the metal and I'm off!) and Biana Mermuys (she went to my high
school and was a year or two younger than me - I don't think we ever
exchanged a word but I still remembered her). I think that was
it. Oh, and this guy Steve who I knew years ago at the
Alternative service. He thought he recognized me, came up and we
chatted a bit.

I think that's it for past stuff. Work has been insanely
busy. I have never been as busy as I am right now and have been
for the past couple weeks. Blech. Today is Nancy Kasun's
wedding day. She (finally) married Brian (last name
unremembered). Today is also Jonathan Lewis Belanger's
birthday. Happy birthday, Professor! I think Chris
VanHoffen got married last weekend. I have to ask Jon when I talk
to him. Crap, Trevor Muir's birthday was this past week. I
didn't remember to fire off an e-mail greeting.

I should go because I have to whiz and clean up my apartment a bit
before I go to bed. I'm going to try to get to church in the
morning. Hope you're having a good day.


posted by HCJoel at 5:54 PM