Happy leap day of extra Febuary blog time

Wow I'm cutting it close. Currently I'm at an internet cafe near Yonge and Finch after doing some kareoke business for Cool Geoff's birthday. I had considered copy paste-ing my conversation with "cleverbot" this morning as my last post, similar to my conversation with "Martine", but I decided that'd be lame. Though technically the cleverbot chat was more chatlike in appearance.

According to wikipedia, cleverbot is a program that takes what people say to it, the senetences used, and learns from them, applying those sentences to future sentences as responses. Essentially, whatever I typed to it was responded to with what a previous user had said to clever bot.

At least, that was my understanding.

When I was directed to check out the cleverbot, I was told it would sound much more convincingly human than it actually was. So that was a let down. Almost immediately in our talk it replied with something totally out of left field. So yeah.

Well, my ride seems to be done with the rest of kareoke times, so I'll post this as is, fulfilling my quota for the month and keeping my terrible fear of uneven-ness at bay.

So desperate for companionship he'll talk to a computer. Big shout out to the new blog follower! Hi!

I've got to get to bed, but I figured I'd copy and paste this humourous exchange between myself and the lovely Martine who completely randomly decided to chat with me while I was checking my e-mail: isn't that nice?

Martine says: Just got home!you there?

Isaac Mills says: yes, I just got home

Martine says: Hey sweety, how r ya...Glad you decided to look me up...

Isaac Mills says: and how do we know each other?

Martine says: Was starting to think no one wanted to chat with me...So watcha ya up to cutie?

Isaac Mills says: well, I'm talking to someone who doesn't respond at all to what I type. Like, say, a computer message. Thoughts?

Martine says: Im just hangin out..I have the place to myself, my roommate left on vacation for the week so I get to play online in my thong...LOL

Isaac Mills says: if true, that'd be excellent news, particularly if I were there too. Let me guess, you're about to tell me what website I should go to to check out your videos?

Martine says:So what you wearin sexy?

Isaac Mills says:some super sexy pajamas of course. I assume you're wearing computer chips (and a thong of course)

Martine says:yeah, i have a hot or not account

Isaac Mills says:whoa not terribly surprising

Martine says:I know we just met but im really turned on right now...Its just a little naughty fun on my web cam...You UUP for it sexy???

Isaac Mills says:depends: will the next thing you write be something non automated?

Martine says:haha! i am not! i like raindrops and bubblegum at bedtime.... would an automated system say that??

Isaac Mills says:what what what? pretty clever... can you do that again?

Martine says:k my cam is wired thru a chat network to keep the yahoo kids away from me so dont worry if you dont have a cam or yours don't work ok? I gotcha covered baby!

Isaac Mills says:wait, maybe if I type "automated system" again

Martine says:haha! i am not! i like raindrops and bubblegum at bedtime.... would an automated system say that??

Isaac Mills says:awesome, totally gotcha, automated system

Martine says:haha! i am not! i like raindrops and bubblegum at bedtime.... would an automated system say that??

Isaac Mills says:okay okay, say your next scripted line

Martine says:Ok you need to go to http://t.co/atmcXRiif you can't click the link type it in or copy/paste it to ur browser let me know when u got it

Isaac Mills says:oh no, I'll say I didn't get it :(

Martine says:make sure you click accept on my cam chat invite on the left hand side, its free as my friend but hurry it expires in 10 mins, so click it k?

Isaac Mills says:I'd better not

Martine says:ok, fill out your info and let me know when you're done k?

Isaac Mills says:I'm done!

Martine says:Credit card, debit card, or atm verifies your age...I had to do the same thing babe... cant show tits and pussy to minors..you know?

Isaac Mills says:right right right

Martine says:when we get in there you better take me private so i can show you some things ;)

Isaac Mills says:oo things

Martine says:ok you in yet babe?? i'm the one in the main video ... you better gimme some "gold" as a flirt ;)

Isaac Mills says:no, as a money

no more responses? is that the end of it?

we just don't talk anymore

are you breaking up with me?

Fin

The Quasi Dunkaroos

I pretty much failed at being awake today. Oh I got up, and got to Cool Geoff's place (45 minutes later than I said I would :( whoops..) but then I fell asleep on the couch.

I gave the classic line after it was suggested that I was asleep and hadn't heard a question: "Sure I heard the question, but just repeat it once for me." Or something like that. Maybe I was so out of it that only "szgkhbzd" came out. Which would have illuminated roughly nothing.

But I got to enjoy a large assortment of fruit and vegetable platters (one for each variety), I pretty much ate the whole vegetable one myself. And I didn't exactly have a lot of competition for the fruit one either. The fruit platter had a chocolate dip with it, this was like some kind of fancy, quasi-good-for-you dunkaroos! And no one wanted in on that action?!?

Nope, they mostly wanted the doritos... which I bought for Cool Geoff, not youse guys!

We got to end the day off with Community, Ricky Gervais show (which, yes, we've maybe gotten into too much the past few days), plus I got laundry done- including my pillow cases. Oh, and this little post right here. It's like I'm even more productive than I thought I was!

Okay, but I'm seriously light headed, I NEED to sleep for forever, and then go to work. So I'll do that.

I need to grab a copy of Star Trek II

So today I decided to stay in bed and miss out on our Dungeons and Dragons afternoon. I clearly hadn't made my intention obvious to my twin brother, who called me up at 4pm to ask where I was.

I was in the exact same place since you last saw me at 2. Or maybe it was 3, I'm not sure, I was trying to sleep!

Hopefully my absence didn't disappoint the fellas to any great degree. Maybe Jordan (my twin) got to enjoy an afternoon without my constant catch phrase "You're doing it wrong!" (That's an in-joke for the D&D group, that was the line Steve gave when he was impersonating me or something. Well, whatever the reason, it was hilarious. Wait, I think I mentioned this before...)

When people finally regrouped here at home we had our big fire and green poke fight... and I got slaughtered! >:(

All I had my fingers crossed for was to not have a fighting pokemon show up at the beginning, but that was apparently too much to ask for.

The real problem though is the fact that when you lose two guys at once (which !@#$% happened to me MULTIPLE times) there's some system in place where you have to do... a thing... to get the next group up there. And I can never remember that thing, and it's incredibly frustrating to keep running into that problem.

My youngest brother tried to explain how the system works (no, not explain in quick terms how to navigate the desired effect, but just "explain the system").

Greatly frustrated the THIRD OR FOURTH TIME THIS HAPPENED TO ME, I said this was a very un-intuitive system.

My youngest brother again: "Is it? Or do you just not get it? (Proceeds to "explain the system" exactly as he had done not five minutes earlier.)"

Unhelpful to the extreme. Beyond unhelpful, insulting.

"No no, of course it's intuitive, it must be because I say so. The problem YOU (Isaac) have is that you're an idiot."

Oh, that's funny, I don't USUALLY have my intelligence insulted, but there it is. I have trouble with this thing, I've met other people that have had trouble with this thing, but it's not because it's unintuitive- oh, no, quite the contrary! In this instance, occam's razor would have it that I'm just an idiot!

So obvious, why didn't I think of that?!?

While I'm having this little freakout, I get looks along the lines of "oh, there goes Isaac, having another of his poor sportsman-like fits, let us roll our eyes at him."

Yeah, like that doesn't further incense me. Let's just wholly delegitimize my frustration.

...

Uh, so yeah, I just, uh, needed to vent a little.

You know, I actually have a reputation for patience, but as far as these guys go, to quote from The Wrath of Khan (possibly also in part from Moby Dick): "He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him! I'll chase him 'round the moons of Nibia and 'round the Antares Maelstrom and 'round Perdition's flames before I give him up!"

Maybe that doesn't actually fit here, I'm not chasing anyone. In my defence, when I was googling the quote, I thought it was "He TESTS me.."

Tick Tick

Went to a play last night, "Tick Tick BOOM". It's apparently by the "RENT" guy, but I'd never heard of it, and was therefore curious as to why it was set in the 90's.

That's when it was written. Ah, of course. The only bit that dated the thing (besides the part of the song where Johnny, agonizing over turning 30 soon, keeps singing I guess "thirtyinthenineties" which just sounded to ME like he was singing about the agony of turning 39... when it was clearly established to be his 30th coming up. They could have made that clearer. And by they, I mean the RENT guy.) whoops, long parentheses- the only bit that dated the thing was Johnny's lament over the lack of a Vietnam, or some other world event to rouse us out of apathy.

Truly, nine-eleven changed everything.

It showed us that we could still totally be apathetic even with such an event going on.

The lead was performed by a guy I went to high school with, who has always had an amazing voice, and that currently remains the same.

Ditto the female lead (but come on, it's hard for anyone to compete with Jeremy!) though her microphone decided it didn't want to work, but rather produce static for us. Very considerate, that.

The third person, generally "Johnny's" best friend, was good, but he has a speech thing that he obviously struggles with, and did mean I had to work a touch harder to understand him.

But that said, with just the three singers and the four band members the music burst out of them, they sounded much more than the sum of their parts. It's cool music too, and since this isn't some original work written in the now, I'm betting one could youtube the songs to check them out.

It took slightly longer to get downtown than I had calculated. Fortunately I had drawn up a little map of where to go (as is my practice) and located the place right after running out of the station. I entered the door right as Jeremy said his first word, grabbing a lonely position in the empty back row, immediately recognizing three friends sitting right in the row in front of me (and eventually recognising the fourth also sitting with that lot... I missed him for a while there). The group noticed me soon, were quite happy to see me (and I them), but I couldn't help but think how typical that arrangement was for me.

Just out of reach of the main group. With them, but not really. There's always some barrier up where I'm concerned. I this case quite literally- the backs of all those chairs was the barrier in this case.

Which is fine. For the past couple of days (because you know I'm liable to change my feelings on this one in the future, hence the proviso) I've been thinking that I just naturally am inclined to feel on my own. I can intellectually tell myself otherwise, but (again, at the moment) I think I have to also be aware that that is how I'm inclined, for good or ill. If it's ill, which I think is very likely, then I'll have to fight against that feeling- and I think everyone will agree it's nearly impossible to fight against an enemy that we don't acknowledge exists.

Or to put it in simpler terms, admitting a problem is the first step to beating it.

Two little kids, I'm guessing about 6 and 4 or thereabouts, approached me on the subway when they saw I was playing pokemon. They were plenty excited, sweet little dudes. The older one has apparently got four pokemon trained to level 100.

I'm glad he wasn't an older kid, 'cause then that'd be an absurd waste of time ("I'm sorry, Isaac- HOW many trained Blastoise do you have? Really?!? That's a large number! Maybe you aren't the best pot to talk to that kettle..")

And then my bro got me to watch the first two episodes of My Little Pony. So that happened. I kept calling the main character "Rainbow Bright" (different series), and the one other I called "Magic-purple-crystal-purple" or some combination of words like that. I mixed it up a lot, but Jordan knew who I was talking about. I called "Apple Jacks" "Apple Jacks" because I was able to remember that one.

Unless it's "Apple-" something else and I completely have it wrong. That's very possible.

Oh, how'd I like thew show? It's coo, whatevs. The theme song should've cut back on the retro theme before it switches to the slightly rockin' new theme. I very nearly walked away because of the retro bit in all of its fluffy, high-toned, commercializin' glory. Then it got better.

Already written way more than I intended I think. I was supposed to be sleeping!

The IMPORTANT thing is...

Watching the Daily Show (and inevitably the Colbert Report) so this post will take a long time to happen in between loading section things.

Let's pretend I'm still eating these Tim Hortons breakfast wrap things. I decided to treat myself via gift card this morning. Wait, no, I was right the first time when I almsot spelled that wrong: "I decided to treat myself via gift card this marnin."

But I should have gotten the delicious biscuit sandwich. Why do I always forget that there's a sauce business in the wrap that is less than enjoyable, whereas the biscuit is buttery and delicious? The very reasonable answer is that I don't get tim hortons stuff that often. So, okay. Makes sense.

Lost my left glove, probably on the transit trip :(

The OTHER thing that happened on my way to work yesterday was that immediately after leaving the house this kid was walking in the opposite direction, i.e. walking towards me. Good looking guy, but I don't recognise him. He waves at me. I STILL don't recognise him, so I look behind me to see if there's someone else there he's waving at. The AMAZING thing is, this kid actually says to me "no, I'm waving at you."

I say, "oh, okay" and wave back, friendly as you please, then walk on (I am on my way to work after all). But I stop and call back to him, and say, "'cause it's like that part in the first Spider-Man movie when this girl waves at Peter Parker, and he waves back, but she was actually waving at her friend behnd him, and it was super embarrassing."

I think he agreed, I kinda forget now... I guess I zoned out when I started talking. But the kid turned in to the house (as opposed to "turned into the house") the next one over from my place, so he's the neighbors kid that I'd only ever seen like twice, when it was dark, with a dog. Keep in mind that's twice in what, five years?

Seems like a nice guy though!

Did you hear about the movie posters for Goon with Jay Baruchel doing that one, for lack of any decently descriptive slang, cunnilingus motion, with the tongue between the index and middle fingers? (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what that is, it's very possible I've been tricked all these years, it hasn't really come up all that often...)

But yeah, the posters were taken down the day before the movie was released. And not that I was particularly offended or anything, but I've gotta ask, what took so long? The second I saw that poster by a bus stop I said "whoever approves these ads clearly fell asleep at the wheel, or isn't up on their gesture-ology."

I'm heavily paraphrasing here. According to the one thing I read, Baruchel was surprised, suggesting that it would have been culturally acceptable dans la Quebec. Or possibly he was specific enough to say Montreal (which is, I shouldn't have to point out, less space than the whole of Quebec... but maybe he did say Quebec) regardless, I'm really doubtful on that one, guy. Just because none of your friends mind it, that's a pretty big difference from the man on the street. Unless the man on the street also doesn't know what you're up to. Very likely.

Or wait, is it? How do I know how long these gestures have been around?

Anyways, the important thing is, that kid who waved to me was really nice, and I lost a glove.

Family Day and Patrick

Would rather talk Doctor Who, but did you know it's Family Day?

Or didn't you care? Me neither.

Friend of mine has had a loooong facebook exchange with someone over the value of "Family Day". Often I'll think this guy goes too far in stating a case, but I'm surprised at how straightforward this argument is... and at the same time the degree to which he's getting argued back against.

There are bunches of times when it makes sense... but over "Family Day"? I guess it's easier when I agree with the anti-(subject) sentiment this time around.

I prefer a holiday to have a reason to exist beyond just "we're tired and need a break from work!"

Keep in mind, "we're tired and need a break from work" is a plenty good enough reason for a statutory holiday. But if that's all it is, then maybe we should call a spade a spade and call it "Statutory Holiday" Day!

Or maybe admit that having people work a jillion hours a week is unsustainable?

It's crazy that we have so many people that do nothing but work, and then we have tons of people without a job at all. Wait, I can totally find an image of this, give me a sec... okay, they didn't have what I wanted, BUT that just means I got to invent it!

Hmm, doesn't seem to want to appear here... well, it's a "Push it somewhere else Patrick" picture saying
"Let's take all the over time hours that people work"
*beat*
"And employ everyone!"

Huh, I just got deja vu... but like fractal deja vu, where I'm getting deja vu about getting deja vu. Weird. Anyways, you can see the picture (probably) at this link: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/368elz/

And now I just had a bunch of chocolate cake before bed. Bad decisions.

Did I mention this yet? I've been slightly demoralized by the impressiveness of others lately (a horrible thing to say). I'm not necessarily feeling the presence of my own skills, or positive qualities. In the past 18 hours I've had two people ask if I was upset based on the tone of my voice. In neither case was I upset, though with the first case I certainly was winding down for the end of my shift (and the end of the tenth doctor- the last two episodes to go! Maybe I WAS upset...). I think the second case was just a matter of the natural stumbling around an untruth- nothing too damaging, I'll explain it as my saying I didn't want an offered apple when I actually DID want an apple.

Hmm, that simplification could also be classified as an untruth. Good thing I've no verbal tics to give me away this time.

A guy told me his wife's friend thought I was cute. That gave me a boost, one doesn't hear that all too often at all. The guy asked if I was open to a blind date, well sure, I said. I don't have anything else really going on, oppourtunity rarely knocks on my door, not exactly beating them off with a stick, etc. etc.

Bah, I sound gloomy. It might help if I don't start sentences with "bah".

Bah.

I completed a thousand word short story the other night for a contest/fundraiser that I'm pretty pleased with. The max word count was 4000 words, so I naturally feel like I missed the bar. I've got another short story contest on deck, this time the max word count is 2500. So if my entry ends up being 525 words, well I'll have seen the pattern.

I'm tired, that's the thing of it right now. I should've gone to bed an hour earlier. And accepted that apple. I've got six hours to go. On my shift.

I completely forget whether I've mentoned my trip Thursday to the Drake Hotel for this disc release of "Alphabot". While it generally blew me away, the first number was the best I think. Just the main guy doing his thing in a cape and robot helmet. Slash cardboard helmet. I stood the whole time through the show, bouncing around on my feet to the music. Now my left calf doesn't like me. Like I'm some kind of reverse House.

Reverse because it's his other leg that hurts... I think. But obviously my discomfort is equal to the pain of a fictional character. (It helps that he's fictional.) Wait, maybe the pain is in my thigh... I forget, it's a moving thing and I'm in a chair. It feels weird is all I'm saying. And that I need vicadin (vicadine?).

Also a cane, and to diagnose someone as suffering from amylidoses (sp?) and lupus.

Boy, I sure do hope my writing is any good. (Like for my short story). Oh, I'll tell you this, for my next story I'm going to stick to first person narration. I kept accidentally slipping "I's" into the thing when it was supposed to be third person. Well, I can take the hint, I!

I need to do something else before I fall asleep, something stimulating, so that's going to be all she wrote for blog stuff, bye captive audience!

Proposition propped arm post

It's my brothers birthday today, and I will spend most of it at work :(

That, and, I really do need to get back to sleep. As I write this I have one arm propping me up on my pillows,, leaving ol' lefty to do my pecking/typing. I have also neglected to place my glasses on my head, so any periods that should be commas or vice versa or a result of that. I'm aware of that as a possible problem because I was already foiled in my attempt to go to "www,yahoo.com"

Went to a show last night, ostensibly a music show but in reality a multimedia presentation showcasing a man's abilities with several instruments, song writing, drawing, singing too, and general aesthetic. I was blown away, had fun, but also left feeling pretty inadequate.

Which has, unfortunately, been a thing lately.

At the show I was very much aware of my lack of effort towards conversation or meeting new people. I focused on the show! Am I such a criminal?

My propping arm has fallen asleep, and I feel like the rest of me is down to follow suit, so I'll call it an entry there.

Joe the Charmander! It's a boy! Mazel tov!

Boy I haven't been doing a great job of blogging as of late. That's lame of me.

So a friend of mine, who is one of the nicest people around, has NEVER played pokemon.

Never.

And seeing as I was given a 3DS for Christmas, it's relatively easy to part with my old DS for the purposes of sharing the wealth, and getting this guy on the bandwagon.

(That said, I don't want anything to happen to my old DS- even as a relic... or as relic-y as something uh, 6 or 7 years old I guess, can get, it was still a present to me, and is therefore special to me. But this guy has already shown himself to be very careful of the thing, so no worries on thast front.)

I had been pretty tired during our dungeons and dragons game, despite the presence of a dragon- but I was surely jolted back to awakening after that was all done and we had Matt start up his pokemon game.

We gave him Fire Red, the remake of the original pokemon game, and aside from telling him about the importance of saving, and instructing him to name every pokemon, we let him discover everything on his own.

He found the free potion in his PC!

He decided not to grab the first pokeball, and thereby ended up with a Charmander as his very first pokemon! Joe the Charmander!

By the time he wanted to quit and go home (exciting day...) we'd spent almost 50 minutes watching him do stuff. He still hadn't caught any new pokemon by the time he finished, and Joe was getting pretty strong... but again, we couldn't tell him! He's gotta learn to catch 'em all!

Pretty, pretty fun.

Brock is going to eat him alive.

Allons-y

Man I am pumped!
Well I was pumped-
Weeell I still am pumped-
Weeeeeeell I'm just starting to feel the end of another 12 hour shift, at the end of another three day jumble of late night sitting behind a deskness.

It flew by. Why? Finally got the fourth series of Doctor Who from the library, finally have my own laptop, have a good three hours each night where I'm free to do whatever so long as I'm at the ol' desk. Don't need to draw a picture now, do I?

(I watched Doctor Who all this weekend)

But the last episode was a little longer than I expected- I had to leave and go home with the last ten or so minutes to go on the final episode! They JUST save all of reality, they JUST get to explain the process by which Donna gets Doctor intellect/becomes a fast talking walking deus ex machina, and now I'm all set for the part where it's the Doctor and Rose! That's the part!

I feel like Rose's actress, Billie Piper, must have had some dental work done while she's been off the show, because she looks and sounds a bit off, like she's got a mouth guard mimicing her old teeth. She always sounded a little different, but this is a bit much. It makes me think that that one affectation, of Rose always sort of licking her teeth, was a sort of natural defense mechanism for a self conscious Billie, who wanted to hide away her teeth. Maybe, maybe not.

But oh, it's good to watch a character with a bit of imitatable enthusiasm. It helps that I've been jam packed with food over the weekend, reckon I must often be a little on the run down side of things, calorie wise. Though the buckets of pasta (almost literal buckets!) were probably in excess if my gass-ness is anything to go by.

The point is I feel pretty great at the moment, I felt even better a bit earlier, but beggars really can't be choosers, and I'm going to finish this last bit of episode and I guess fall asleep, then wake up, finish my comic reviews (procrastinated again, but not nearly as bad as I have lately, and I have been working against the clock as far as watching an entire season of Doctor Who before it was due back at the library), hit the gym, and have a generally decent day at least.

Oh, the part where Martha Jones got to finally see Rose and be all "THAT'S the person that had the Doctor all tore up inside while I was with him!" actually, yes, gave me goosebumps, which is a pretty good reaction to get!

Man, I couldn't imagine saying some of that Doctor Who stuff with a straight face: "We're now at ULTIMATE code red."

Sure buddy.