Thursday 26 November 2009


Jorge and Gonzalez

We've acquired two new house mates over the last month. One courtesy of James, and one courtesy of myself.

Neither are very talkative, but both still manage to bring something special to the house. Jorge, for example, often spends the night in someone else's room. Gonzalez is less outgoing, but is calm and reflective. A good listener.

How they both get a vote at house meetings without paying rent is beyond me, but they do. Although they seem to vote the same as whoever's sitting nearest to them, rather than offering their own opinion.

Their exact origins are unknown, too, which I think is something of a security issue. All we know is that Jorge is from the jungle (which jungle?), and Gonzalez from the rainforest. Maybe as they settle into the house better, they'll open up about their past.

For now, however, we just enjoy having them around.

A giant blue gorilla and a small green tree frog.

Tuesday 24 November 2009


et cetera

I shalln't apologise for not writing recently, or emphasise just how many unfinished drafts I have this time. Instead I'll write a fairly lame post, then go to the gym, exert myself, and return home to finish the beast of an essay I've been tackling for the last few days.

This morning, after 4 hours sleep, me and Nora went to McDonald's for our complementary coffee (part of a huge advertising campaign). The walk there was pleasant, we spoke about various things, and planned to steal some abandoned furniture. The coffee was acquired, then Nora got the subway to university and I walked home.

On the way I was lucky enough to see an elderly man openly purge the contents of his nostrils all over the sidewalk. Not what I wanted to see. I tried to block the image from my mind, but to no avail.

I then arrived home, opened my essay and began working.

Told you it would be lame.

Check back soon!

Peace

Tuesday 10 November 2009


♫ I'm going to Montreal

Another lyric as a post title. This time, however, it's not so abstract.

Due to the tomorrow being "Wacky Wednesday" (or "Virtual Monday") and the subsequent mini-break, me and Alex decided to go to Montreal for a few days. Initially the plan was to hitch hike (it's safe in Canada), but unfortunately it's illegal to do so on the 401 (the road that goes most of the way there). Emily also expressed an interest in coming, so we all pooled together and ended up finding a ride share (kind of like pre-arranged hitch hiking). It's going to be $35 each, each way, which is cheaper than a coach.

Emily's friend has also kindly allowed us to stay with him, so we're saving on accommodation for the time we're there too!

Awesome.


double homicide in a sushi restaurant

You may recall, at the end of this (this link doesn't work properly yet) post, my mention of a heavy police presence outside a sushi restaurant on Bloor. I found out today what it was in aid of.

This story, taken from CBC, explains what happened just minutes before we walked past:

"There was a fatal stabbing at a Toronto sushi restaurant on Saturday.

A fight broke out in the kitchen of the New Generation Sushi restaurant at 493 Bloor Street West between two employees at about 11 p.m.

Police say a 27-year-old man was stabbed during the fight and later died at St. Michael's hospital.

Xu Wang, 25, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

The name of the victim has not been released.

The slaying marks Toronto's 50th homicide of 2009.
"

Monday 9 November 2009


generic update #9 (Will Smith vs. Beethoven)

I'd hope most people know to whom the title refers, but just in case:

vs.

Today has been quite a productive day. Me and Alex rearranged our room, me and Char spoke about things and I've began working on the first of three essays due over the next couple of weeks. The essay is a comparison between 3 recordings of a famous Beethoven work of our choice, and whilst doing primary research I left my iTunes library on shuffle. Will Smith's cover of "1,000 Kisses" came on quite early on, and one of the lyrics it about Beethoven:

Yo yo me and more it's like a Pichasso painted your aura
It's like Beehtoven composed your vocal tones

I know this isn't hugely interesting, but I like it when weird little consequences like this happen. I got so excited that I jumped up and flailed madly, sending a cup of precariously balanced coffee all over Alex's bed.

Actually the song and the coffee were two independent events, but it's amusing to think of them as related.

Now I'm about to resume working. I've just eating my second manwich (manly sandwich) of the day: both were filled with pasta from last night, chilli, chilli sauce, cheese and salad. Both were delicious.

Saturday 7 November 2009


chrexat202620

This post details another of my (and (slightly less so) Alex's) awesome creations.

Today, whilst listening to and discussing music with Alex, it occurred to us that we should have some record of our combined listening tastes. We each have separate last.fm profiles (Christophogo and hy07asw respectively), but after some intense deliberation, we decided to collaborate and create a joint profile.

Aforementioned joint profile was created almost immediately, under the name "Chrexat202620". Chrex is a mixture of Chris and Alex (3 letters of my name are included because it's half of each of our names, but I had to round mine up). The date between our birthdays was calculated as Chrex's date of birth (the date was 31st December 1989 - the last day of the 80s - which was pretty cool), and the music represented on the profile is a mixture of our own. 202620 is our room and house number.

The profile can be viewed here.

Thursday 5 November 2009


robot trap

Last night whilst looking at our ceiling fan, I had a flash of inspiration and realised that it could be incorporated into a booby-trap of sorts. I immediately began work on creating such a contraption:

Above our window is a shelf, on which I placed my small plastic robot. For the prototype, I connected my phone charger to my headphones with a crude knot, and connected one end to the fan and the other to the robot (this was replaced with a length of white cotton for the finished version). When the fan was turned on, the rotation pulled the string taut, causing the robot to fall from the shelf and be yanked violently about the room.

As you can probably imagine, the path of the robot is highly unpredictable. It seems to work better if the fan is turned on, then off for a couple of seconds, then back on again. This causes epicycles in the circular movement it takes on, making it less likely to smash everything on the mantelpiece.

In the (crappy) picture above you can see the window, the shelf, the robot (circled), the fan, and if you’re particularly observant, the string. I might upload a video of the contraption in action, too, so keep an eye out!


Nora's notebook

First I'll briefly introduce Nora for anyone reading this blog who doesn't know who she is: Nora is an exchange student from Germany, studying for a Masters in English Literature at York University in Toronto. She has lived at Huron since August*.

I'm not sure how it began, but people in the house were teaching slang terms in English and Canadian. She then came upstairs and inquired as to whether people in the kitchen had had any "butt sex" recently, then asked me and Alex to teach her some more words, particularly slang terms for genitalia.

Of course, we accepted. Below is a helpful diagram, labelled with all the terms we could think of.

I'm aware this is hugely immature, but it was fun and it was a good deed, so it doesn't matter.

*Sorry Nora!!!

Wednesday 4 November 2009


generic update #8 (aaargh!)

I woke up this morning (first time in a while) and checked my diary schedule book thing to see what was going on. To my immediate distress I noticed that the second PSY240 midterm is this evening.

I'll be honest: I haven't done nearly enough work for it. I missed a couple of the lectures what with moving house, and haven't done all of the reading, but I've taken the appropriate actions to remedy the situation: I've dismissed all prior plans for today, drank a cup of coffee from Camille ( =] ), eaten a fried egg sandwich, and installed myself, my laptop, and my consumables in the common room in preparation for an intense study session.

So far I'm 2 hours (out of 5 and a half) and 2 lectures (out of 3) in. The plan is to finish taking notes for the third lecture, then relocate to the front porch and read and read and read and read and read aformentioned currently existing and soon to exist notes.

In case you're wondering why I'm writing my blog instead of revising by the way, it's break time.

Sunday 1 November 2009


so far at Huron

Before starting, I'd like to say that I may currently be experiencing writers' block. It seems I have lost the ability to structure and transcribe my thoughts in a coherent and readable manner.

I'm going to elect the excitement of the last few days as the reason for this affliction. I'm also going to attempt to write something anyway, so bear with me:

Since moving, I've noticed an inverse relationship between my distance from downtown Toronto and my enjoyment levels. Although I am incredibly grateful to Eva and Chelsea for their hospitality and their welcoming me into their home, I feel taking Alex’s offer of moving in was a good decision - so much fun stuff has happened here already (even despite its adverse impact on my budget).

We had the toast on Wednesday, as I mentioned in my last post. It was really nice to be welcomed and I feel like I’m pretty much settled here now. All my stuff is in and my half of the room is (currently) tidy and organised.

Last night we went to the Red Room for beers, then to a concert at El Mocambo. The headlining band were Bishop Allen, but the first support, Darwin Deez, were much better.

See the video below for a demonstration of their awesomeness!



As you're probably aware, today is Halloween, and we have some rambunctious plans to match: James accompanied me to Honest Ed's today to pick up some face paint, which I'm going to apply to myself until I look like this:

We also picked up some alcohol (I got 2 litres of 7% pomegranate cider for $11, which I'm very eager to try) to drink while we wait for trick-or-treaters to arrive, gorge, and leave again. We also spent $16 on candy to give to aforementioned scavengers.

I'm sure the evenings festivities will be duly documented by me at some point in the near future.