So long my belovd bachelor pad!

I moved today... to North Burnaby! I hate moving, so I'm glad I got the hard parts over with. I rented a van and moved all the furniture in. Tomorrow, and over the coming days, I'll move all the "details" over. I have until Wednesday evening... but I also have to make the place I'm leaving spotless.

So anyway, this is to let you know I've moved. Instead of sending out a gigantic mass-email with my new contact details, I thought I'd post the fact that I'd moved, and anyone who wanted to come see me (I'm guessing it'll be few) could just ask me how to get there. Fair enough?

If you want to call me, I just have my cell now (no landline), so just call that. Same number :)

See you weekends Abbotsford!

If you want to get your Manager to acknowledge your existence....

Muu hahahahaha! A little experiment today in the effects of 'stirring the pot', so to speak. In my office, we wear business casual clothes. Today, I put on a tie. No one wears ties, unless of course, they have an interview (or a funeral... something out of the ordinary). Anyway, I wore the tie, and everyone, I mean everyone, asked me if I had an interview today. It was hilarious! And when I told them I didn't have one, that I was just wearing it for kicks, they didn't believe me!

My manager, who rarely even acknowledges my existence (he leaves it up to the supervisors to maintain good relations with us), came to my desk and chit-chatted with me. And my direct supervisor was extra nice to me today. I presume this is because they don't want me to leave, and assume I have an interview. LOL

So funny! What an experiment! I should wear a tie again next Thursday to make them think I have a 2nd interview. MU HAHAHA!

...a time for fun...

Big T was right, Matt needs a little fun. “He’s so serious and deep all the time!” It was true, and I have reformed! I’m happy to say that I’m intentionally having more fun now, and I’m finding it’s so important and healthy! Yes, be serious and contemplative, but not all the time. Loosen up! Have some fun! Let go for a while!

What a great lesson to learn… thanks Big T!

(PS – do you even know I call you Big T?)

About A Boy

In Review

When a video store goes out of business, its patrons are in luck! My video store did such, and I got to pick up a few DVDs at rock-bottom (well, could’ve been lower) prices. One of them, About A Boy. This is a movie I’ve seen before, and I really like it.

Based on the book by Nick Hornby, this movie is directed by the same two guys who directed the American Pie series. You wouldn’t know it though, About A Boy actually has a soul. Starring Hugh Grant (who apparently didn’t have to act much to play the part), Toni Collette (who stars in another of my favourites, Little Miss Sunshine), and Rachel Weisz (yeow!), this is one of those feel-good movies, but it has a bit of cheek to it as well.

The basic premise is a challenge to the saying “No man is an island”. The man, Hugh Grant, is very independent, and happily so. In his quest to populate his calendar with dates with single mums, he ends up very involved in the life of a 12-year-old boy, and effectively Hugh becomes “about a boy”. He learns through having real relationships and actually caring about other people (ie. love), that there indeed is a substantial purpose to life.

Maybe this is just a movie that I like because its title should actually be “About Matt” (yeah, I’m exaggerating), but at the same time, it is quite entertaining, especially for those familiar with the British way of life (or at least the humour!). Normally, I hate it when writers make kids just as smart as or smarter than the adults, but this kid's thought processes are just funny. It's hard to hate it! But he is definitely [written] smarter than his mum and Hugh Grant.

It is a flawed happily-ever-after ending, because you get the sense that the problematic characters are not fully cured, just better. But I think that is a great way to end a story! For all the warm-and-fuzzy junkies out there, this may still do it for you - everyone, and I mean everyone, is half a couple by the end.

Next time you’re out renting a DVD, give this one a try. Or, even better, if you’re looking for a read, pick up the book. When you’re done, let me know how it is!

Watching me from the air of endless delight
I think you must watch me and smile.
The way I talk, the things I write, the way I think
all turning your mouth and eyes with joy.
I can’t get away from feeling your happiness
over who I am, and what I have become;
your patience for how I am yet to be.

My God, your smile, my smile.

Fix You - COLDPLAY

by COLDPLAY

When you try your best but you don’t succeed
When you get what you want, but not what you need
When you feel so tired, but you can’t sleep
Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face
When you lose something you can’t replace
When you love someone but it goes to waste
Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

High up above or down below
When you’re too in love to let it go
But if you never try you’ll never know
Just what you’re worth

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

Show me your flaws
so I can avoid the danger
involved in loving you.

Tell me your loves –
let them be of something
I can never be.

Help me shade my eyes
from the beauty I see in you;
beauty I’ve not seen before.

Help me hate the forbidden you;
help me hate you;
somebody help me.

Though knowledge can be a curse,
knowing friends with knowledge is a blessing.

Posting

Hello my faithful readers ... it's been a long time since I wrote anything that resembled a journal entry. Most of it has been either poetry or "thoughts".

Well, I've been busy, and I don't mean that as an excuse! Work work work ... I've just had the most stressful work situation I've ever had, but it's much better now. With the brain-draining day and the life-sucking commute, I just haven't had the energy for a life these days! Oh well, the commute is soon to end!

Starting March 1st, I will no longer be getting strange looks from co-workers and those I meet in Vancouver when I tell them I live in Abbotsford. "You're nuts!" they always say, and I never hear anybody complain about their ride in. So it's 110 minutes each way, it takes up a lot of my day. My new commute, from North Burnaby, will only be 30 minutes max! I found a nice big house last Saturday, with 4 other guys living in it. I get a room and we all share access to the gigantic kitchen, dining and living rooms. I'm excited! I even get to keep my car, so Abbotsford won't be such a memory.

To make it even better, my grandpa just gifted me with his laptop (which is how I'm able to post this evening). The place I'm moving to has an internet hook-up AND cable, so I'll be living large, though I've done happily without both for almost a year and a half.

I bought a t-shirt yesterday that says 'Kill Your TV'. I am quite proud.
Life is pretty much going on at the moment... as it always does.

Stupid

We all know how it is
to want to be stupid
if just for a while;
to choose sensuality over sense,
emotion over logic,
the short-term over long-,
now over forever.

Ah, the free life of the stupid man,
and so riddled with consequence!

Sometimes I consider the trade
of what I want and what it will cost me.
Sometimes I see life eye to eye,
instead of from a mountain’s peak.

Sometimes I just want to be stupid.

Good Anger

How tired am I and horrified
of this atrocious world.
Time and again reminded,
time and again reangered.
Idi Amin, Rwandan cleansing;
Sudanese camps, "famine";
international law created and unenforced -
the armies of enforcement too busy
conquesting for profit -
Hijacking Islam, hijacking Christianity,
hijacking anything of use;
Saudi royal terrorists;
Russian democratic facade;
making gain off the uneducated
and impoverished;
promising teenaged boys paradise;
brainwashing and bestowing weapons;
using every tragedy for political gain;
the White House regime.
When will the day of peace come,
when the evil get their reward
and the used get back what was stolen?
How long will we wait
for a new world order?

More than justice, we need peace.