Sunday, October 3, 2010

Mountain Tops, Ganesh and Tearful Goodbyes

Such a strange, sad dream.

It started with Christina staying in Vancouver for longer than she really did. She rolled some dice, or possibly got a fortune cookie that told her to take advantage of sudden chances. So she decided to stay for a little while longer. While we were all at a video store, Max showed up and he and I were kissing. I paused to say to her "By the way, this is my boyfriend." and she laughed and said "Yeah, I guessed."

I have to interrupt for a second here to say that my identity in my dreams is always very fluid. Sometimes I am myself, but there was a brief amount of time where I was Christina. I never seem to stay the same person. Anyway, carrying on...

We all slept over (Max included) at a swanky apartment that Tanis had come to own. It was, indeed, very swanky. There was an upstairs and a downstairs (we were in a high-rise building) and a huge balcony with a swimming pool. Max and I slept on the couch while Tanis and Christina were upstairs. The next morning, Max kept trying to coerce me into having sex with him, but Tanis was in the kitchen and I told him that would be kind of weird.

Max went off, and Tanis and I told Christina that we would take her to Whistler for some sightseeing. We got there, but Christina was mysteriously not with us anymore, although Tanis and I didn't seem to mind. We were on the very peak of the mountain, and it was horrible. The edge was very thin, and it was like we were in the middle of a terrible blizzard. It was dark and freezing, and the wind was just howling. It was so dark that we couldn't see the other mountain peaks around us. We were right on the edge of the peak, and lying on our bellies. To my right was an abyss, and full of this dark swirling stuff. I thought it was mist, but when I put my hand out to touch it, I found it was water. The ocean was right up against the side of the mountain.

We were trying to make our way to the far edge of the peak, which was behind me, which had a tiny tunnel that we were going to use to get down the mountain. A memory (that wasn't actually a real memory) came to me, that Tanis and I had used this tunnel as children. Anyway, we got there, and it was too tiny for us to fit down. So I stood up and smashed the top of it in (which conveniently smashed to top off the rest of the tunnel) and we slid down the old tunnel, zig-zagging our way down the sheer face of the mountain.

At the bottom, there were all these slush puddles, and they were in the shapes of the continents of the world. We walked across them, joking about how we were on top of the world, which is kind of funny, considering that we already were, since we were on top of a mountain. Also, I believe William Shatner was there for some reason. Oh, the dreams of a Canadian.

Then we were suddenly giants, actually standing on top of the world. I could cross entire countries in a footstep. We raced across the continents. We ran over the oceans, which were only an inch deep to our giant-ness. We started off on Canada, and ran over the Arctic. At this point, I realized that this was not our planet, but a larger look-alike. If it had been our planet, we would have crossed it 5 times by now.

But I digress.

We were running across the oceans, whooping and yelling to hear our voices echo across the world. By this time we were somewhere in Asia. There was a moment where I wondered if the people were were running past could even see us, because we were so fast.

Well, turns out they could, and they weren't our biggest fans. They got together a whole bunch of warships together to come and kill us. We were in India now, and could see the weird red and blue cliffs ahead of us. There were children on the beach who told us that it would be too hard to climb the cliffs, but we were goddamn giants, so we could do whatever we wanted. It was admittedly harder than I expected it to be. The kids somehow managed to get up as well.

As soon as we stepped foot on the plateau on top of the cliffs, Tanis and I turned into elephants, and the children turned into ducklings. I heard a man talking, as if he was the narrator of this dream, and he told us that all the animals had been turned against us too. I heard rattle snakes, and they rose up from the grass and killed all the ducklings. Specifically, we were being hunted kangaroos, pelicans, tigers, and the duckling-murdering rattle snakes.

We ran to what looked like an ancient temple that was being held up by scaffolding, as if they were trying to restore it. I was informed by the narrator that entering this temple would change someone's life forever, but also end someone else's life. Even though I knew that one of us would die, it was like I couldn't control myself, like I couldn't escape fate.

We quietly entered the temple just as night was falling, and all hell broke lose. They toppeled columns on us, rock slabs, and threw nets. In the confusion, I found a baby elephant who was good and joined us. The baby and I escaped the melee, but Tanis was the one who's death the narrator had predicted.

Er, sorry Tanis.

The baby elephant and I changed into (normal-sized) humans, and the baby elephant was actually a little... boy? Girl? Honestly, I don't think it had a discernible gender. We found an abandoned high school on a cliff overlooking the ocean, and ran inside to take refuge. We were searching for some sort of dirigible that would take me back to my own world. We were joined by a young man (who was sometimes Max) and a 77 year old woman who had a strange Norwegian name that began with a T and had a whole bunch of letter S' in it. Now, instead of animals, there was a horde of screaming teenagers chasing us down. We found the blimp in an old closet in the school, and then climbed staircase after staircase so we could launch it from the top of the school. On the way up, I found an ancient gold chain, with an equally ancient pendant of Ganesh hanging off it. I picked it up and put it on, hoping it would give me luck. The young man (who was Max at this point) found a long dagger with a burnished gold hilt. I told him to take it with us, because we were most likely going to need it.

The teenagers were racing up the stairs, screaming and jeering. I had superhuman strength, which I think was due to the Ganesh necklace, and I was throwing benches, garbage bins and even a wooden barrel at them. All the while I was laughing maniacally and calling them awful names, shouting things like "Eat this, cum-brains!" and making jerk-off motions in their direction.

It was very fun.

I shut myself in a room, which was really well furnished, with all dark wood furniture, a fireplace and ceiling high bookshelves. I locked the door, and was dressed in a beautiful vintage 1940's summer dress. The young man was there, sitting at a desk, and I told him to draw a picture of me. He started, but kept getting interrupted by the old woman, who was bothering him to try and find her telephone number on this very cool steampunk themed computer, so I could call her when I got back home. With the rabid teenagers beating on the door, I finally yelled at him to hurry up, and he yelled back "Why do you want me to draw this picture so bad?!" Then I got all teary and I shouted "Because I just want you to have something to remember me by!" His face got really sad and we hugged each other tightly. He motioned to a navy blue dress lying on the ground (which was actually a dress I'd contemplated buying in Forever 21 the day before) and smiled sadly, saying "I'll always have something to remember you by." I'm not entirely sure what he was implying with that dress, but it was very sweet.

The room was huge now, like half early 1900s office and half exotic garden. We crossed a small bridge over a shallow pond, holding each other and kissing tearfully. I heard the kid shout out the the dirigible was ready...

And then I woke up. Typical dream ending.

I'm going to have to rate that dream as one of my top 10 strangest/coolest dreams of all time. I don't know what it was all about, but the ending was very bittersweet. Uh, again, sorry you got killed in my dream, Tanis.

WHOA that took a long time to type, and I am sick at the moment, so that took a lot out of me. Also, Max just caught the biggest fucking spider in a cup like, oh my god, so fucking big. It's been a big day for me, I better be heading off to bed now, old lady that I am. Hope you enjoyed reading the contents of my brain!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Illness and Art

Ugh. I'm sick. I only get sick about once a year, and when I do, it's a doozy. Headache, sore throat, aches, dizziness, fatigue, weakness. How freakin' lame.

I've started drawing more comics, which makes me feel good. I have a bunch of plans for some more. There's one I want to do, illustrating a poem I wrote once. It'll be short, but I think I'll make that my first big project. Wish I had a tablet.

... Wish I knew how to USE a tablet.

My dad keeps telling me to go into art. I just don't know. That would be awesome, but... how do you break into that, man? Like, okay, if I do go down this road, I want to make comic books. I've been a fan of them, and all my webcomics, for a long time. I've been making cartoons since I was pretty young. The first mini-comic book I made was around age 9. It was really dumb, haha. I called it Star Comix, and there was a dude I'd drawn in the shape of a star on the front. I-It would make more sense if you saw it.
When I was about 11, I made Taboo. He was a cartoon character modeled after this little round candle that my sister had stuck two different coloured tacks into, for eyes. I first heard the word 'taboo' in class, and thought it was a cool word, so I christened him as thus. Heather helped me modify him, so he had two blue crescent shapes as eyes. Man, we made a toooon of silly little comics of him and her own character, Chilli, who looked like a... gerbil, or a cat, I guess. Only, he had no legs and a giant tail. Yeeeeah.

I've always made comics, and loved drawing, but figured I'd be a writer. Now, I'm not so sure. Maybe comics are the way to go?

Honestly? I feel so ill and achey right now, that I am going to post this, turn my computer off and go straight to bed. Goodnight all, and here's to feeling better in the morning for some gadabouting with Tanis.

Friday, September 24, 2010

How I Missed Your Ranting

Whoooaaa! This is my one hundredth blog post right here. It feels kind of momentous. I know it just means that I've been sitting around long enough to write some rabble, but still, it's important rabble.

So, my children, what's been going on?

Again, nothing. I work and hang out with no one. I'm really taking this loner thing to new heights. Honestly, the idea of hanging out with people is starting to make me uncomfortable. I'll be a bona fide hermit in no time! But in all seriousness, children, you're going to end up never seeing me again. I'll come out of my house every so often to be with Max, and that's all. Maybe that's all I need?

Naw, that's not true. Now, I never get lonely (which is one of my super powers) but I do get restless. Come to think of it, why don't I ever just go places by myself when I want to do something? I'm not adverse to seeing movies by myself, or just being on my own in general.

Speaking of being on my own, I was frustrated the other day that I don't have a place to call my own yet. I voiced this frustration to my father, and he came up with an awesome idea. He said "Well, why don't you and me rent a whole house together? I'll get the whole top half, and you'll get the whole basement." Holy fuck, yes please! At first I was hesitant. What did I want to share a place with my dad for? The whole point of moving out is to get away from my family. And then I thought "Wait, am I retarded or something?" An entire basement to myself? He said he would probably only charge me $400 tops for rent, for the whole basement. I'd have to be so fucking stupid to say no to that. So, we're going to rent a house together! I'm stoked. I'll have my own little suite, my own little kitchen and living room and bathroom and everything. I'm hoping it'll have two rooms, because one will obvs be my bedroom, and the other will become a study, no fucking joke. Do you know how long I've wanted my own study? I'll keep all my books there, and get this sweet old fashioned desk. And stuffed animals or something, and a big glass decanter of scotch. Goddamn, that will be awesome.

Apparently, we're going to have some friend of my dad's living with us soon. Well, the son of a friend. I'd be cool with it, but Rachel said he's like, 30+. That'll be lame. I thought he was going to be my age or something. I don't want to hang out with some old guy. Then my dad suggested we let him have the basement. No fucking way, man. If that happens, I will kick up such a fuss. Now, I pride myself on not being spoiled, but no way is some stranger going to get the awesome part of the house. I need that study.

Hrmm, what else has been happening.

I've started slow but steady work on my comic now. Big step: Two of my main characters now have names, which I'm pretty excited about. I'm going to start getting serious with this and developing the story more. Still not really sure how I'm going to make this into a webcomic, since I don't know anything about the "web" part of that word. Hopefully Max will lend a hand with the technical mumbo-jumbo, because I'm just no good at it.

Ugh, tired again. I hate getting tired. I slept for more than 12 hours last night though, so I can't really understand why I'm so tired now.

Tonight, I watched Samson and Delilah, Enter the Dragon and The Man from Laramie, on TCM. Today, I ate 2 toaster strudels, 3 spring rolls, one bowl of butternut squash ravioli in pesto sauce, one bowl of blueberry and vanilla granola cereal, one small bag of M&M's, half of a pomegranate and one package of Sesame Snaps. Why am I keeping track of this? I always do anyway, in my head.

There was something else I was going to tell you, but now I honestly can't recall. I've added another 2 webcomics to my ever growing list today. It's getting hard to keep track of them. I need to break out my obsessive organizing skills and order them by their updating schedule.

Well children, that's all for now. It's been a good 100 posts. Let's hope for 100 more!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Nothing Better

I'd like to take a moment to welcome a new follower to this blog, a certain Lady of the Woo. Hello, new friend! Welcome to the club!

Oh god, who am I kidding? There is no club. It's just me and a computer screen. Boo hoo hoo.

Updates? Updates!

Oh wait, nothing cool has happened (except Sushi, and Gelato, and Sleepover last night! Am I right?). I wish I didn't live such a ho-hum life. I wish something interesting would happen. I wish...

I wish I could write like I used to. But everytime I want to, I get scared and give up before an attempt was even made. It's so sad. I cry, sometimes. But only sometimes. I'm big and strong, dontchya know?
I'm scared, too scared to pick up my trombone and coax the tones again. To afraid to illustrate my stories, to afraid to try anything that will accomplish nothing but let me know that I'm hopeless.

Le sigh. I'm such a lazy bum.

You know what I'm going to do? I am going to post a list of all my favourite webcomics, because I meant to do it a long time ago, and I feel that they should all get some free advertising because they're so amazing. Some are a little NSFW, but we're all big kids, right?

Right?



Gunshow









Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal






Shrub Monkeys







Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name









Girls With Slingshots









Nedroid Picture Diary







Gunnerkrigg Court








Hark! A Vagrant









Johnny Wander








The Meek









The Zombie Hunters










Bad Machinery










Lackadaisy










The Seraph Inn (Dreamless, Inverloch and The Phoenix Requiem)












Rice Boy and Order of Tales











Awkward Zombie






Darwin Carmichael Is Going To Hell
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Sandra and Woo
Blip

Those last 4 don't include pictures because somehow, it is suddenly 4:40 am and I don't know how this happened. This is what time I was up until last night, too!

Will I ever learn from my mistakes? Stayed tuned, kids!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Breakfast and Dinner (Dreakfast? Brinner?)

I just ate the most perfect toaster strudels, and now I feel all warm and happy inside. My mouth is still literally watering.
I have this obsession with toaster strudels, which I'm pretty sure stemmed from me not being allowed to have them as a wee child. No, I only had good, wholesome breakfasts in my younger years. Whenever my mom was making it, it was homemade pancakes with real maple syrup. Whenever my dad made breakfast (this was usually on weekends and was more of a brunch) we had peameal bacon and eggs, fruit, a big hunk of bread, and coco. I have no idea if that's the proper spelling, and it has no relation to 'cocoa' or anything else chocolatey. The way you make it is to whip egg yolks with some sugar until you get this custard, which in itself is an amazing treat. He would always make extra, so my brother and sister and I could some in a little bowl. Then, you take the custard and stir it in to warm milk, making the most frothy, the most delicious hot drink anyone could ever have imagined.

Now, I eat toaster strudels.

I was kind of lamenting the loss of our family dinners the other day. When my parents were still together, we would all have dinner together every night. My mum was what you would call a homemaker, up until I was in my mid-teens. I had a warm breakfast everyday, a lunch prepared for school, and a delicious dinner every night.
My mum made some great dinners. Lasagna nights were the best, made with my nonna's recipe. Stir fry nights were great too, and tortilla night was everybody's favourite. One of my all-time favourite meals was a recipe my mum had pulled from her father's Healthy Heart cookbook, which he'd gotten after his first heart attack. I don't know what it's called, but you chop up broccoli really fine, and toss grated gruyere in with white rice. With some of the rice, you make a ball of it, and wrap a piece of sole (or your favourite white fish) around it. Then you bake the fish/rice combo in the oven for a bit, leaving plenty of extra rice in a pot to put on the side of your plate. It is AMAZING, and I would eat it everyday for the rest of my life if I could.

Man, look what happened. I started talking about toaster strudels, and then I took a tasty trip down memory lane.

Going to go get my laptop fixed today (hopefully) and finally watch Scott Pilgrim with Max. Nice, relaxing day. Cute outfit, even if the pants do smell like woodsmoke a bit, and a nice sunny day. Let's try and make this pleasant, shall we?

Monday, September 6, 2010

Edit

THINGS THAT NEED TO HAPPEN:

-getting my license
-going back to school
-moving out
-make more $$$
-hang out with friends more

I need to improve my life, people, but the prospect of doing so kind of terrifies me. I don't know why. I'm just kind of set in my ways, you know?

But I'm tired of that. I want to be an adult.

Argh, I'll write a proper one of these later, I promise.

You Can't Break That Which Isn't Yours

Everytime someone tells me what they want to do with their lives, I'm really supportive. "Oh, that sounds cool!" "That's the perfect job for you!" and yadda yadda yadda.

But whenever I tell anyone what I want to be, I always get criticized. Like, fucking ALWAYS.

"Oh, you won't make very much money doing that."
"I don't think there are a lot of jobs around for that right now."
"School will be expensive. I guess you'll have to get a bunch of student loans."
"Will that pay off?"
"You shouldn't get carried away with any ideas."

Fuck you! Fuck you! I can be whatever I want! Leave me alone!