The Refuge

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Bishop Lord Irving the Implacable of Snotting on Wold Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Grand Duke Irving the Dissolute of Lower Slaughter Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Milord Earl Irving the Mellifluous of Deepest Throcking Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

As more years pass and I get older, I quickly am solidifying my stance on wanting to stay connected to the Eastside. Gone are the days where I wish I lived in a slick condo in Coal Harbour or the West End. I would love for a house near Trout Lake just like Sashe and Andrew wants or a home by/near Commercial Drive (in the nice area, not the dodgy end). This is not to say that I want to be poor or whatever or anything clicheed with those in the Eastside. I just feel so more vivacious and aware when living in the East.

The friends I know that live in the West End, Downtown, Kits, Westside core that are satisfied by all they have in those areas know next to nothing about the rest of the city or surrounding area. You all know how I am with obliviousness and utter ignorance about the world you live in. I just feel that by isolating myself in the comforts and conveniences of the Westside, I will ignore the rest of the city and the other goings-on in our small cosmopolitan.

Take for example an argument I had with a Westender over whether Trout Lake is in Vancouver. She was adamantly sure that Trout Lake was in Burnaby and blithely ignored the fact that I told her I live a 10-minute walk from Trout Lake. I mean, I'm sure part of it is her being dumb and stubborn about something she totally has no clue in. But I mean, Trout Lake is right beside Commercial Drive! How much more Vancouver can it be? Funny enough, this little confusion over the location of Trout Lake occurred again today when a CTV female anchor incorrectly threw to Tamara Taggart (so cute) stating she was at, "Trout Lake in Burnaby." Tamara politely corrected her but was met by a stunningly stupid, "Oh really?"

You also know what is dumb about this isolation aspect of living Downtown? Our isolation in Vancouver is a false one generated by planned geography. I can understand people in Manhattan not knowing about ALL the events in the city but NYC is huge and genuinely a world of its own. The fact that I have, on occasion, walked from my house to Stanley Park and then back to Main St. then to Commercial Drive to shop is a testament to the fact that our Vancouver is still comfortably sizeable, hardly large enough to warrant arrogant isolation - or it is a testament to my walking ability but whatever.

By living in the Eastside, I will absorb the community news of the area. And since I will inevitably be thrown news from the more important Downtown and Westside, I will be well rounded in my civic experience. It's very down to Earth in paradise. And I love it.

I've come to realize that I have never been one to risk it in life. I've never been the one to risk life and limb or even dare to put the body first at anything. It explains a hell of a whole lot about why I'm a bit rotund but still, wouldn't this inability to take physical risk be an indication of something more? Even in the instances where I have risk bodily harm, it was under calculated conditions and in more controlled environments. At what point does this safe-minding result in a debilitating fear of living? Or does it even matter?

With the inevitable balances in the universe, my caution with my external self would result in the extreme carelessness I have with my internal self. If not physical, I surely do risk it emotionally. It's not a risk in that "heart on his sleeve" kinda way - it's a bit more pathological. While you can be guarded with your outer self - I mean, all it takes is a second of thought before just going for that roll dive for the ball - controlling my emotions certainly takes a lot more discipline. Certainly, given the abundance of anti-depressants and angsty teens, one would think that emotional fluxes create more trauma than physical ones. I mean, the whole point of terrorism is not the actual act of blowing a building up, but to stoke the fires of fear into the general population.

So why is it that I am so unafraid of laying bare my soul to the world when I know that as much as I can soak in positive rays of emotions that I will take an equal amount of tears and scratches?

You Are Different and That's Bad

The Boy Who Died From Eating All His Vegetables

Dad's New Wife Robert

Fun Four-Letter Words to Know and Share

Hammers, Screwdrivers and Scissors: An I-Can-Do-It Book

The Kids' Guide to Hitchhiking.

Curious George and the High-Voltage Fence

All Cats Go to Hell

The Little Sissy Who Snitched

Some Puppies Can Fly

That's it, I'm Putting You Up for Adoption

Grandpa Gets a Casket

The Magic World Inside the Abandoned Refrigerator

Garfield Gets Feline Leukemia

The Pop-Up Book of Human Anatomy

Strangers Have the Best Candy

Whining, Kicking and Crying to Get Your Way

You Were an Accident

Things Rich Kids Have, But You Never Will

Pop! Goes The Hamster...And Other Great Microwave Games

The Man in the Moon Is Actually Satan

Your Nightmares Are Real

Where Would You Like to Be Buried?

Eggs, Toilet Paper, and Your School

Why Can't Mr. Fork and Ms. Electrical Outlet Be Friends?

Places Where Mommy and Daddy Hide Neat Things

Daddy Drinks Because You Cry

So the Vancouver Water Crisis of 2006 has finally subsided and people are well hydrated now. The snow barrage of 2006 also seems to be coming to a close and much of the invasive white stuff has retreated and the roads are cleared. It's been a trying couple of weeks in paradise but it all seems to be back to normal. I'm found my fondness for this city again, especially after the Vancouver Parks Board voted in favour of the proposed Vancouver Aquarium expansion (only 1 Parks Board member voted against it and that person certainly isn't getting my vote next election).

I graduated and I feel no different. Although I did care more about it as I approached that date. I was #215 and ended up being first in line in one of the processions and I nearly screwed it up all thanks to one of our Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Science. He told me to go when I shouldn't have but I realized his mistake almost right away but I was already exposed and into the auditorium/hall but I had the werewithal to stop where I was and wait for the right place to continue. Phew. Anywho, the convocation was short and sweet and I took many photos. Whatever.

I'm well into the Christmas Shopping Season and it's already starting to wear me out. You all know how I like order and neatness (in certain things) and I guess I must just slowly realize that that all goes out the window come December. But at least now that I am in a leadership role I can delegate the horrible stuff to other CERs - but I'm smart, I always give crappy stuff to 2 people who like each other rather than just one person so I can give them an excuse to talk and visit. It takes the sting out of it. I'm worried though, my new position is hardly anything worth bragging about but what does one do when even their crappy, low-paying job makes them at least un-miserable (let's not go crazy and use the word 'happy')? I sometimes feel like my GM is grooming me for Retail Management and those two words together just send shivers up and down my spine but I mean, who's to argue with more money?

But overall, I'm not sure how this Christmas will turn out considering that my dad is in Hong Kong until after my birthday in January. I've always said that our family, the 3 of us, work best in the absence of any one of us but without the entire unit, who wants to throw the huge shebang at Christmas? But now that I do have more time, I might put up some decorations. My sisters will probably want Christmas dinner because god knows none of them can put together a feast like my mom and dad (and me to some extent). On the upside, I miraculously was able to time my credit card purchases right so that all my purchases will show up in this statement so that I can start at full credit amount come the new year. I just hope I can keep my spending in check.

So obviously I never did get around to writing those VIFF reviews but that's just how things go though. I'm just coming off a couple of good days and I promised myself that I would cherish these by placing them here on LJ. This will be my last blog before I graduate for real on Thursday. I'm a little nervous, I've even quit drinking alcohol just so I will be fresh and look good on that day. Sigh.

Anywho, I'm just in a rambly mood, partially because I'm running on very little steam after lack of sleep and a 13 hour day. Anywho. Wait, that's my second 'anywho' in one paragraph.

What a week. It sure has been everything but boring. Thursday was particularly interesting considering all that happened while at work. Gotta be vague (corporate restrictions) but my Thursday consisted of firemen and technicians in Hazmat suits, police blockades, store evacuations (for customers, not staff), stressed out fellow employees, hundreds of oogling onlookers making us feel like animals in a zoo, 4 lanes of Robson Street cut off during rush hour, major adrenaline pumps, and me buying my first pack of cigarettes in a long while (shhh...I only told Sashe that I smoked, but I guess now you know that I actually bought my own pack, whatever).

Couldn't help but feel like I was on a Vancouver movie set. Thankfully, I still got to see the screening of 'The Queen' at VIFF. But yeah, too wired to review all 4 films that I saw this year but I swear I'll do it soon. Right now, I just..uhh...gotta head for some fresh air.

I've always been a vain person. It has always bugged me that I'm not 6'2 with cheese grating abs and ironically tossed about hair. But one thing I've never worried much about until recently was my age. I guess because I've been fat or chubby for most of my life, I've always had great and smooth skin. But I now see tiny wrinkles that stare and laugh at me when I look too closely at a mirror. It's nothing crazy and it isn't anything that's causing me any grief but it had really dawned on me that I am getting older now.

How profound huh? I'm getting older.

Of course, the whole pseudo-epiphany is probably brought on more strongly because I'm around stupid teenagers so often. At work, I now supervise a mostly teenaged frontdesk. Some of those cashiers are so sickeningly teenaged that it's like looking into an alien when I consider how far removed I am from those disturbing years of my life. One cashier still talks about getting this label and this brand to impress her friends and talking about how she needs to get a Mercedes to show this other 'biyatch' that she's better than said 'biyatch'. Of course, I gave a big eyeroll. I just can't believe those words still come out of people's mouths.

Then when I'm not at work, I'm tutoring at Gladstone for mostly grade 10's. I'm one of two university tutors that come in to the Tutorial and Education Assistance Center that oversees perr (re: highschool aged) tutors. In our introductions, our teacher superviser says, "And Irving here is also a Gladstone grad, class of 2002." At least a handful of kids express shock and how long ago that was. Sigh. Nothing like horrified gasps make one feel more like a spring chicken.

Well, all I have to say is...and quoting Georgia Lass, "Life sucks then you die....and then it still sucks."

A love letter is what Douglas Coupland's screenplay is being dubbed at both the Toronto International Film Festival and the Vancouver International Film Festival (TIFF and VIFF as they are known). "Everything's Gone Green" was born out of a need felt by Coupland, the erstwhile Vancouver native, to see Vancouver represented for what it is rather than for which city it can look like. It was born out of frustration that as the hub for Hollywood North, Vancouver is rarely given due credit. Thus, a movie that pokes fun at all clicheed Vancouver conventions while celebrating the fact that there really is no other place like Vancouver in this little fucked up world of ours.

I will be seeing this movie on Saturday at VIFF. I will report back with what I thought and what I hope to be an inspiration for more Vancouver loving. With all the anti-Olympics, anti-VanAqua, and general frustration coming from Vancouverites recently, I need something that glorifies this city. And considering that summer has closed and all the tourists are gone, there's no more steady stream of pro-Vancouver comments coming at me.

We'll see.