YMCK

Good lord.

I set up a small, 13" TV next to my computer and I've got a NES hooked up to it and I've been chugging away at Ninja Gaiden for a while here.

HOLY CRAP?

I've owned it for years but have never actually played past the first level, but now I'm on the last level and am realizing that this is probably one of the best games ever made.

The controls that are so amazingly fine-tuned, the amazingly meticulate level design, the perfect sound and music.

I am in love.

but no

I AM IN RAGE!

In the sixth level, there are three parts, each immensely, hair-pullingly difficult. It has taken me about two hours to even get to 6-3. Finally at 6-3, I have another 45 minutes of anguish as I trudge towards the final boss.

I get to the final boss. I've got the wrong weapon. I die.

... and am sent back to 6-1.

Thankfully, I've played through act six enough that I can get through it without too much anger. Back to 6-3, this time with the right weapon.

Boss is dead!

Another boss?!

It's twice as hard. I die.

Right now I'm sitting at 6-1 with tears in my eyes and my NES controller furiously set on top of my NES.

I will beat you one day, Ninja Gaiden. That day will be tomorrow, even if I don't leave the house all day.

bright eyes

no one ever plans to sleep out in the gutter
sometimes that's just the most comfortable place

-james

ps: pics and details about last night's show soon

city & colour

so I got paid my last cheque from Future Shop today and it was $500. for two days of work?!

I expected like $150 but ee! I'm going mixer shopping tomorrow to get maybe a 10 channel mixer for $200 or so then I'm going to take a look at some semi-acoustics or a guitar amp or something like that.

people who never showed interest in my music before randomly started saying "hey I really like your new song" -- little do they know the song is five months old, but it's still very inspiring.

I'm sitting here with two shows coming up for the metal band I'm in (jan 17th and 26th -- come out please, it's all ages! :)) and finally getting things in gear with my solo/gord project.

AM I HAPPY WITH LIFE OR WHAT?

seriously. not working has been the best thing for me.

also: Brand New concert live in Calgary on May 12th. I don't think I've ever shit so much in my life.

:)

james

THE * SCANTY

note to self: never drive on the highway in incredibly windy weather -- Gord tells me it was 75km/h winds D:

I was driving with Jon Russell and Chris Holtz out near the airport last night to pick up Nicole Gillette (who lives in the cutest vertical home I've ever seen) to go to Tim Horton's with a few other people and then maybe do a little bit of drinking, and I was speeding happily down the highway at around 75km/h (we meet again, "75km/h")

earlier my mom had told me she'd driven down University Hill to come back from Wal-Mart and she said the wind was really affecting her driving and she was afraid it'd push her off the side of the road (which I tactfully laughed at, because of course that doesn't actually happen)

but apparently it does?

driving happily down my own lane, having a good ol' time catching up with Jon, when the wind picks up and fucking decides that it wants me to go into the other lane... "other" meaning the lane with traffic coming directly towards me

Jon: "HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK" in perhaps the funniest way I've ever heard "HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK" said while life is in danger

so I freak out as I see the car maybe five seconds away from me, Jon, and Chris dying a horrible death and swing my wheel to the right and slide back into the right lane with too nearly perfect timing, and we collectively shat our pants.

the drive back to town was probably the scariest thing in the world, and every time a car passed by us in the lanes to our left, we all flinched.

anyway! we went back to Jon's house after Tim Horton's and made with the drinks (I didn't plan on drinking because of reasons which will be mentioned later) and I got drunk on less than I have ever been drunk by which was embarassing but oh so wonderful

hello vodka & orange juice at a 3:1 ratio (is 75/25 a 3:1 ratio, yeah it must be) really quickly

got home at 6:30am, went to bed at 7am, woke up at 8am, went to work at 9am still a little drunk

WHAT A DUMB FOOL

I got home from work at 5pm, ate some delicious pizzarogies (the best invention ever) and then had a nap until about 10 and now I'm here at 3:30am.

lost my bank card at Jon's too, shit. how will I buy my brother the most rockingest Christmas present in the world when I have no access to my fundage!

ps: Alycia, I'm so sorry I didn't call you <:( I didn't read the comment until the 18th and by then it was too late. I am going to try to get down to Victoria at some point in the next semester so please book some time off for some wonderous coffees)

alright see you!

say anything

there is so much depression and nothing to do with it

seriously

if only this translated into something positive somewhere

afro skeleton

just for the record I am not actually as passionate about unions as my last post would have made me out to be

I'm not really that passionate about anything, unfortunately

except maybe Tex Avery! we just finished a new song called Sun o' Man with some wonderful bible imagery. check it out and let me know what you think! my good friend Kiel might be playing some of our stuff on his radio show next week, which is exciting.

http://www.myspace.com/propellent

we're working on a Christmas album now due for estimated release of Dec 19th with some wicked album art by Tim Halverson (1/3 of the band)

made $140 at work last night on a slow night, which is incredibly exciting to me. perhaps I can afford a new amp soon after all! :D

jon russell comes to town tomorrow morning at around noon and hopefully we're going to go for brunch and I'm pretty excited. he is a dude that makes some of the most wonderful and touching tunes I've ever heard

http://www.myspace.com/afroskeleton

alright what else is going on? I hate blog posts like this that just sort of detail what was going on today but today is one of the few days I actually did things which is exciting! haha, that is depressing.

brought out my SNES and started to play FF3 again and am in the Narsh Mines right now but I'm probably gonna finally start Twilight Princess tonight instead of continuing with FF3.

Hyrule here I come~

james

ps: Gord, tomorrow I get my Future Shop work schedule and then I let you know when we are jamming :D I re-learned IL2LU (and never ever forgot it apparently) and discovered that I have these songs ready for us to play pretty much:

-Daydreams (we can breathe life into this one)
-Next September (this time next year o/')
-Shallow Sun?

I swear there were a few more but whatever

okay Hyrule inc

bright eyes

this just in: christmas music performed by non-Christmas music people is incredibly good

never have I been more depressed about Christmas than when I listen to Conor Oberst's Christmas album or never have I been more in love with everything than when I listen to Sufjan Steven's recent one

anyway

a friend of mine just called me "apolitical." sure, I am not very open or vocal about my political beliefs but that's only because people who are generally make me mad

but not always

but I will use this opportunity (and this blog which so many people graciously read) to outline something:

I fucking hate unions

*fights off his leftist friends*

okay now that the initial "what, unions protect worker's rights are you a capitalist Jamie, are you a dirty faggot" is past it is time to explain

to me, unions are an excuse for someone who is a lazy piece of crap to get paid the same amount of money and priveleges as someone who is dedicated and works their asses off. don't get me wrong; in theory, I believe unions are a pretty awesome idea (much like I feel communism is) but of course the humanity in us steps in and ruins shit again (thanks a lot, humanity).

of course I would not make such, dare I say, childish and silly accusations without any reasonable thought behind it -- oh no!

my dad is a manager of a business (uh oh I am suddenly losing my zeal and don't want to write this anymore but I will trudge through it) and I've had many a talk about managing and work ethics and just being a good person in general with him in relation to the few jobs I've held. when I went to quit the Gas Bar, I felt like such a douche for leaving them shorthanded and considered not doing it and asked my dad for help and he told me that I was the kind of person he would want to hire because I actually care, and that there are many people who would just quit and say "fuck it, they aren't paying me anymore, they don't mean anything to me"

he told me about people that he pays to work that roll into work at 8:59am when they're scheduled for 9-5 and leave at 4:59pm and will never do anything extra. if work is slow for them in particular and they only have five runs to do (when in a normal day they can get fifteen done) they'll take eight hours to do five rather than do five at a normal pace and see if there's any extra work around.

however, he can do nothing about these people who just lazily slop into work and don't work with him, but work for him. uh, crap, that made it seem like he's some sort of dictator, which he's not. what I mean to say is the heart isn't there: the person shows up and lazily does whatever he's told to and never does anything more.

if I were a manager I'd want to have the ability to trim these people away and keep only people whose heart is there, people who want to work with me and who want to do more than they're asked. not only does this promote being a good worker in the first place, but it keeps the pressure there that says "if you do shitty work, you're not going to stick around." unfortunately, he doesn't have this option because the people are protected by the unions. "protected" has an odd connotation in this case because union people like to think of it as "protecting a worker's rights" whereas in this case it's "protecting a worker's laziness."

my job works on a fully commission-based system where I get paid based on how well I do, and if I do so shitty that I'm losing the company money, they'll eventually let me go. to me, this is the ideal way to go. I dunno if this is a weird way of thinking, but I'm one to think that if you are a good worker, you should be treated as such. if you're a lazy worker who has no work ethic, loyalty, or care for what they do, you should be let go because there are better things to do than fuck around.

at my old high school, my mom works as a teacher's assistant working with mentally handicapped people. special needs, whatever. the politically correct term slowly becomes less and less politically correct as more people use it haha :\

anyway

one of the things I've noticed about the school system is that if someone has more seniority, they get the job, hands down. regardless of if they're fucking ass-shit at the job, they get it since they've been around longer. take into account the fact that I think if you're a good worker, you should be treated as such, and it becomes clear why this union system is greatly disagreeable to me.

seriously

"yeah you're way way better at this job but she's been around for longer, so you can just go fuck yourself. try back in a decade"

doesn't agree with me.

anyway, it's 4:30am and I've gotta get up to go to my job (that I actually feel compelled to perform well in because my paycheque depends on how well I do) at noonish or so.

leave comments if you disagree or agree

but, before I go, some lighter notes! :)

-Wii is fucking fantastic fun with a few friends
-I really need to play through Final Fantasy 3 again, but on my 52" TV
-learning Japanese is going wellish
-god damn, chamomile tea is relaxing
-I wish I weren't alone this Christmas (Mandy, you lied! >:( )

good night!