Well I suppose I should make one last post this year, it was quite the time, after all. I've actually had a really great year and I want to thank everyone for that...I hope you all had a good 2004 as well. I DID make a post-Christmas post, but it was deleted, and don't you just hate that?!?! Anyway, I wasn't motivated enough to re-post, so I just let it drop...how bad of me. I think though, this year, I'll refrain from jumping on the band wagon and post all about what presents I got...that's not to say I didn't appreciate them, I just think it's kind of odd how some people rate their Christmas Day and even their holdays on how many presents they got/how much they liked their presents...ah well, I guess there's no point in pretending that the actual holiday is significant in any other way anymore, since it's so heavily commercialized. There are good parts about it of course, like when people put lots of thought into the presents they give and make an effort to do something nice for someone else...those presents are the best. Anyway, got some cool things for Christmas, and all that...

New years should be a freakin BLAST this year...oh sorry, I meant to say, it WOULD have been, had my parents not decided that it's "too dangerous" to be driven around on New Year's Eve...how lame. Anyway, I'll be spending tonight at home, eating appetizers and playing family board games. I WAS hoping to go to a party at a friend of Dave's, but there you go. Dave has to work tomorrow morning anyway, but it still would have been fun to spend New Year's together...especially considering this is the first year I have someone to kiss at midnight! ;)

Well I better go, the family calls...apparently I'm being antisocial and "talking to strangers on the internet" again...man is that getting old. Will post later!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! It came so quickly this year. I still have presents for my siblings to wrap, too...I'll probably do it tonight. I've had such a busy week, too, and this is my first time on a computer in like, 2 days! How unlike me...

Did some last-minute shopping at Metrotown yesterday with Taryn...I had to get a little something extra for my little brother and sister, and Taryn needed to find something for Colin. I also found some great presents for Sarah and Yoojin, and then we went for lunch at that Greek place in the new food court...it was very good. Anyway, I hadn't thought that my bank account was doing too terribly, because I had at least 90 bucks in there just a day before, so we went to the Gap to get a jacket (my mom gave me 50 dollars about a week ago to get a winter jacket, as part of my Christmas presents) and I found a great one that was only 30 bucks! Anyway, I went to buy it and also intended on having enough left over to lend Taryn a few bucks for her present to Colin AND get something for Andrew and Gregory (since I'd already found a small present for Jacqueline for about 9 bucks) but what greets me when I swipe my interac card??? "Insufficient funds"!?!?!?! I thought that couldn't be right, so we went hunting for an ATM machine so I could try and check my balance; Metrotown is freakin retarded. For one, if you've ever been there and had to go to the bathroom, there are almost NONE in existence, and ATM machines are the same...we finally got to a directory and were directed to an ATM location, only to find that it was moved, and when a security guard directed us to another ATM, it was out of order. At this point the mall was getting insanely busy, and FULL of slow-walking asians (I mean, uhhh...people) and we were getting quite pissed off with the whole ordeal. Anyway, I finally found one that worked, and when I tried to take out a mere 20 bucks, it also said "insufficient funds"...so I called my mom, and luckily for me she transferred 50 bucks into my account, which was very nice of her. Anyway, I got the jacket, Taryn got the shirt, and all was good, so we left the mall and headed home. If you're going to go last-minute shopping before Christmas, just remember to go early, cause trying to get around when it was packed was just plain annoying. Oh, and Taryn ALMOST lost the shirt for Colin on the skytrain...she left the bag on the floor and then noticed it when we got out...then she kicked the door and when that didn't work (duh) we had to run around to the other side of the station before the train came around again (luckily we got off at King George Station). Taryn was completely freaked out by the prospect of losing that shirt, but I thought it was hilarious...hahaha.

Also went to Jessica's birthday party yesterday...we ordered indian food for delivery, played some video games (Mario Party is still a blast...what a classic) and watched some Family Guy episodes. Jessica also made us all boxes of chocolates and cookies that she made herself... (how nice of her!) and it was cool seeing the old band gang again...man, that sounds cool.

Anyway, I must go now and do some VERY last-minute shopping at the IGA...I need something for my brothers still, and am heavily in debt so I need to get some cash. I also get to find out whether or not I'm working either on New Years Eve or New Years Day...and book off some VERY important dates (January 15th, February 14th, March 6th of course...but more of that later).

PS-I miss Dave. I wish I lived in Poco.

Well, I had a pretty good day...and not boring at all either (unlike many past Christmas vacations...) I woke up at about 12:30, when Taryn called me, and asked if I wanted to come shopping with her and her mom in 30 freakin minutes!!! So, I ran upstairs and got ready, even though I didn't end up having too, I was ready well in advance...but yeah, it was fun. We went to Semiahmoo mall, or whatever it's called...the one that's crawling with old people, anyway. It was very funny actually, we couldn't find ANY good stores in there, it was all for old people...Murchie's Tea, stores filled with candles and home decorating stuff, and of course the many clothes outlets filled with freakin ugly old lady sweaters in their front windows...then we had lunch at White Rock, checked out a second-hand music place, and went to "Knitopia"...man oh man, what a fun place that is! Hahaha...actually it was cool, I got to help Taryn pick out yarn for the scarves she's making for people this year...including one for little ol' me! Yaaaay...Taryn is a perfectionist with those things too, and I'm sure she'll make it very nice...plus I've been so cold wherever I go, especially this year, for some reason...

I think I'll make my journal "public" now...cause what would LJ be if you couldn't read interesting, random entries by strangers??? And you can meet interesting people on here too...it's kind of ironic that I would stop myself from meeting friends because my journal is "friends only"...so yeah.

So I was watching the Six Feet Under DVD today, since it was due back tonight...very interesting show, rather morbid but I love the characters and the whole idea of the story. It's the only show that I've ever watched religiously and COULDN'T miss...yet somehow I missed the new season starting on Showcase, hence the DVD. Anyway, I was watching the last of 3 episodes on the DVD, and my mom sat down halfway through to check her email on the computer in the family room...I'd told her before that it was a cool show so she started watching it at the same time. Now, sometimes they tend to focus a bit more on a particular character in some episodes, and during this one that character happened to be David, the gay brother. Anyway, it so happens that my mom chose the best episode to watch, because not even a week after finding my nexopia and the resulting "talk" (ugh) I then had to watch this David character date another man, make out with that man, meet up with his ex-boyfriend, and as if that wasn't enough, have sex with his ex-boyfriend. To top it all off, my mom ACTUALLY said "so is this why you like this show?" Wow, that was some fun conversation...I just told her she was being "stupid" and ignored her. She laughed waaaay too hard when the gay guy would make jokes, too...what a weirdo.

Let's see, what else...went to the Y tonight, after dropping off the DVD. It was good, I always feel great after working out...and I've lost 15 pounds since I started going towards the end of summer! Go David... :) There always seem to be hot guys at the gym too...always a plus ;)

I was thinking about my job today, and I really hope I get to do my work experience at the library...there's always the chance that they'd hire me afterwards, and I could finally escape. The thing I hate the most is that even though I hate the whole idea of McDonalds and everything it represents, the second I walk in there and put on that stupid hat, it doesn't matter anymore...I just serve people food that they usually don't even need, and take their money for it, and I don't even care! The thing I dislike even more, lately, is the fact that they rope in kids at such a young age...most of the advertising is geared towards kids too, with Happy Meals and Ronald, which really pisses me off. Kids get taught that these meals will make them "happy" and get roped in to being McDonalds customers or even workers before they know any better, which is much worse than tempting older people to eat their food, who know better and realize the consequences. I even like my job, when I'm actually there. I just hope that library thing comes through so that I can stop being such a hypocrite...

One last thing: I'm glad so many people are posting! It's not as if we have school to worry about, but still....very cool.

PS-Haircut and Dave's house tomorrow! I'm excited...man oh man, that buzz cut is going to look great! ;)

I haven't posted in far too long...plus it's 12:48, my last good MSN contact has left me, (and on her birthday, too! For shame!) my beautiful boy toy isn't here...what else is there to do?! Oh my, how rude of me, I haven't even properly introduced him to you all...his name is Dave and he's great! ;) And at the risk of shocking some of you who are somewhat "out of the loop" with some parts of me, today was the best day eeeever! I highly recommend walking along English Bay at sunset...very nice and highly romantic! :) Yes, it was quite the momentous occasion, very nice...and one day after our one month anniversary, too! How fitting...

Christmas holidays are finally here! Not a day too soon either, I was feeling very burnt out and my "study habits" have been even worse than usual lately...all my classes got to the point where they were almost unbearable, especially long blocks. On the bright side, I had my last math and chem classes EVER (since the rest of the semester is review for the provincial!)

I highly recommend you all listen to a band called "Fiery Furnaces"...they're extremely cool and I don't even know how to classify their music...they're a brother/sister duo from New York and their music is awesome...the lyrics are also very odd/interesting and there's so much to each song that I never get bored of it. I think this says it quite nicely: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/f/fiery-furnaces/blueberry-boat.shtml
I've been listening to a lot of different types of music recently...maybe it's partly due to my exit from the world of high school band, but I listen to all sorts of rock/techno/dance/different stuff and it's great....so, yeah.

I like this livejournal business but I feel like I write it too much for other people and not enough for myself...like writing a speech for english class, I get the point across but it's kind of boring and not really me, know what I mean? Pshhhhh never again! Plus now that I got the whole "gay" thing (yes, I am GAY!!! see fig. 3.7) out of the way, I can preeetty much say whatever I want...what fun!


Fig. 3.7

Well I'm going to bed now, seeing as it's 1:26, I'm freakin tired and in a weird mood, and who knows what I'll think of this post in the morning. One last thing, for those of you to whom this applies, thanks for being such great friends, so accepting, so intriguing, whatever...you make life interesting! Good job. And c'mon, I made an effort, let's get some posting done...shake it up a bit, at least an UPDATE...honestly. Not you Dave, you're doing just fine ;).

Well I guess I have to post about Winterfest...how can I not??

I have to admit, my expectations were not high this year, and I wasn't really even that excited about it all week...last year it was a bit disappointing; even though everyone was dressed up so nicely and there was so much good food and drinks set up, the music was kind of crappy and very loud...they had all these decorations on the tables, with confetti and the like, that kept bouncing around with the booming music. Anyway, the first thing that I noticed this year was that the decorations were so much better...Katherine had this great plan and organized it all herself, and it looked great, with christmas lights and ornaments strung up everywhere...all my Winterfest pictures can be viewed here:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v609/davidrlee87/Winterfest/ (they're in reverse chronological order)

I got there early (around 6:00) to help check in tickets with Jeremy, and had my wallet and my brother's camera, along with its carrying case. Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures of the hub before everyone got there, since the decorations were sooo nice, and after a while we set up the computers and got ready to start checking people in. (Jeremy designed this new system where all we needed was everyone's student number to check them in, instead of having to cross people's names off on a giant list, which used to take forever. Anyway, it ended up being really fast, and we got to use those uber-cool laptops, which is alwys fun.) Then, people who had already been admitted had to go back outside and wait in line to be checked, but I conveniently got to stay inside, and because "I'm in yearbook" (aahaha what a joke) I was one of only 3 people allowed to bring my camera inside....muwahahaaaa. So yeah, check out the pics I took and uploaded, there are lots of good ones...I'll give them to Taryn for yearbook as well (since she's in charge of the Winterfest page) which means my friends and I could have a monopoly on pictures on that page...aaahahaha. It's always the same group of people in yearbook pictures anyway, so it'll be nice to see that shaken up a bit.

Anyway, once more people started to arrive and I realized I had become a bit redundant helping to check people in, I conveniently slipped away (sorry Jeremy and Ashley...hahaha) and right away, I noticed the music was going to be better than last year...it was just the right volume, and they played more of a mix of different music...they even played a Basement Jaxx song, which I requested on the grad board!!! (It was the techno-ish one near the beginning.) Yoojin showed up a bit later, and was considering staying home because she was so nervous about "not knowing how to dance" so Taryn and I dragged her out there, and they started playing swing music!!! Taryn and I have been looking for an excuse to swing dance for years, ever since we did it in gym class together, and it was sooo fun! I even taught Yoojin how to do it, and it seemed like she had a lot of fun. They also played Spice Girls (so fun to dance to, and I admit, I knew all the words...hahaha) and then a Grease remix thing...very cool. They also played this latin-ish music, and east indian music...it was tons of fun! I had a lot more fun dancing this time too...I mean, I've always had fun before but it just "worked" this time...I dunno, hard to explain...but yeah, it was great! Dave, you better come next time, I promise you'd have a blast! ;)

Well my account balance is now somewhere perilously close to absolute zero...at least pay day is coming up this week, I guess...?!?! I didn't intend on spending it before my next cheque, but I can't go downtown and spend nothing...just too many temptations. Went to Robson Street today to do some last minute shopping for Taryn for Winterfest...she got some really cool stuff, and for cheap too! I also got a CD for my Dad for Christmas (which is convenient, cause I really want the CD too...) Combined with another purchase, all I need to do now is take care of my Mom's present, all and she wants is cheap candles from the dollar store...easiest present ever.

Just realized today that I'm organizing Candygrams for the student council but have no idea how much candy canes cost...anyway, according to the posters, they're going for 50 cents each, if anyone's interested...send some to that special someone ;) - they go on sale Wednesday.

The rest of my weekend was good...went to Dave's on Friday and watched Mean Girls...best movie ever! It's freakishly similar to our high school (there's your slutty asians, geeky asians, and even "sexually active band geeks"..aaahahaha). It's also a bit disturbing how much some girls at our school are like the "plastics"... For those of you who don't know, Dave is the super-cool Poco version of me...but yeah, Friday was fun!!!

I'm thinking this week will probably suck...I have a history test Tuesday, history paper due Wednesday, and I might have a chem and/or math test this week as well....gaaaaahhhhhh. Not really much worse than any other week, school-wise, but still....crappy :( .

Well, I better get going...I have lots of homework to not work on; I'm out!

This kind of freaks me out...they're trying to REDUCE the power of the Endangered Species Act??? I guess this is just the beginning of another four years of Bush, even though I don't know how much better the Democrats would have been, I suppose...

BATTLE LINES DRAWN ON PROTECTION OF SPECIES

By Julie Cart and Kenneth R. Weiss
Los Angeles Times

SAN DIEGO — Western governors gathered last week to plan with the Bush administration and Congress how to change the Endangered Species Act, the 31-year-old law they say has cost developers, loggers and ranchers too much money and hassle for the few animals brought back from the brink of extinction.

"Just about everybody agrees the Endangered Species Act is broken," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., a cattleman turned chairman of the House Resources Committee. "The only way you are going fix it is with legislative change."

( read the entire article )

link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002109587_species05.html

Tomorrow is Buy Nothing Day! Participate by not Participating!

Finished work at 8 tonight...it wasn't sooo bad, except we were short on almost EVERYTHING!!! When I got there, we had no large cups, were running out of medium cups, (for you non-McDicks workers, that's pretty damn serious...) had no napkins, (people were using paper towel strips instead) no large bags and about a dozen medium bags, (so we were using happy meal bags whenever possible) no root beer OR milk, and the freezer was almost empty! Hahaha it was pretty hectic for a while, before an assistant manager, Hung (aahahaha what a name...) came in with some supplies from another restaurant. Anyway, other than that the shift wasn't too bad, even though people got so pissed when they couldn't get their root beer and then found strips of paper towels in their bags...hahaha.

We had a grad council meeting today, in which it was announced that because of so many people showing up to Grad Bowling drunk, if there are any more "slip-ups" at grad events, then ALL grad events will be cancelled! We also have to hire security guards and have breathalizer tests at every event now, and Ms. Harris, who is supposedly all gung-ho about grad events, and her room is where we hold our meetings, is going to recommend that if this does not happen, the school will ban any grad events...how ridiculous that they would let 5% of the grad class ruin it for all of us!

This is probably also partly due to the fact that Hiu (some random asian guy at Sullivan...hahaha) pulled out a SWORD, of all things, and sliced Jon Mahon in the neck (not fatally, obviously, but it's still freakin scary) after Grad Bowling. Apparently, it was thought that someone in Hiu's supposed "gang" was going to attack Kevin Rutt, since he's friends with Jon, and Mrs. Morissette (our principal) said "if he attacks you, don't fight back...if you retaliate, I'd have to suspend you"... What are you supposed to do when someone pulls out a freakin sword, go Gandhi and say "violence is not the answer" and hold a prayer circle or something?! Hahaha seriously though...what a dumbass. It makes me happy that someone wrote "Mrs. Morissette is a cunt" on the school, and she supposedly ran out there and took pictures for "evidence"...aaahahaha. I thought she might be bad news when she made grade 12's share lockers...what a cuntbag...hahaha. Also, I was talking to Steph at work today, and she said that the principal comes around every time she has a spare, telling them to split up so that they're "4 to a table" and threatening to take away their spare if they don't work for the entire time...then when they say they'll just leave, she says "stop calling it a spare...it's a STUDY block, and you can't leave the school premises!" Pshhhhh whatever...anyway, long post, and I'm "supposed" to go to bed soon, even though I said that last night and ended up being up til 1:30... :S so I'm OUT!

So I realized at about 9 PM last night that I had a math test this afternoon, on a unit which I was "supposed to" teach myself over the weekend, but didn't...so I crammed for like, 3 hours last night and all during my spare (except the obligatory visit to Nexopia, of course...) Anyway, it didn't go as bad as I thought, and I think I'll get a decent mark...if I do then I'll know that you really CAN do well in Math 12 without doing homework! I also found out recently that I got 49/50 on the multiple choice section of the last history test...and Colin and Kristina got a terribly disappointing 38! As Colin said, "for an A student, that's a fail." I also talked to Stephanie Sfikas the day of the test, who said that "she probably got quite a few wrong" since she "forgot what Normandy was"!!! When you've just studied World War 2 for weeks on end and Normandy is where the allied invasions on D-Day happened, there is no excuse for forgetting that! Anyway, I don't care, at least I'm not her...hahaha.

My mom just let me order Blackspot sneakers (for Christmas) from Adbusters over the internet...they're uber-cool. For those of you that don't know, Adbusters is a magazine/organization against consumerism, in favour of sustainable development, etc. Anyway, this sneaker is supposed to be the "anti-brand"...they make it in a factory in Portugal with really good pay and worker's benefits, and if this project is a success they're going to branch out into other products as well, which I think is a really good idea. Also, when you buy a pair you become a "share holder" and get a say in how the company is run. Plus, it looks very cool, if I haven't mentioned that already. 4-9 weeks and they'll be mine!


Hmmm wow, listening to a Rufus Wainwright song called "Gay Messiah" and he just sang "no I won't be the one...baptised in cum"....interesting...... :S

Anyway I'm out...history beckons (barf)