Yes it's true, last week, while I was sitting peacefully at my local Starbucks, blissfully sipping my grande double-frosted vanilla-creme decaf latte macchiato, I was approached by a man I had never met before. He seemed to be in a rush, I hadn't seen him approach.. But before I could ask who he was or where he came from, he thrust a piece of paper into my hand, and while I glanced down to look at what it was, one return-airfare plane ticket to the Bermuda Triangle, he vanished without a trace..
Two days later, I was walking along the beach on the outskirts of a village named 'C'osachota', the waves lapping at the shoreline, and exotic seabirds wheeling lazily in the sky above and singing their early morning calls to the open ocean, when out of nowhere, the Flying Dutchman rumbled into sight in the shallow water and plowed into the sand in front of me, stopping not two inches from crushing me under it's hefty bulk.
Suddenly, I realised that the story I was telling was going nowhere, so I quickly ended it and went back to my normal blogging..
I suppose sometimes it really is true, reality can very much be stranger (and more entertaining!) than fiction.
I just want to reassure my readers, (some of who may be skeptical ;) ) that the stories I tell in this blog are 100% true, 84.3% of the time. (The other 15.7% is reserved for embellishments, exaggerations, omlettes and misc..)
Seriously, I wouldn't fabricate half the stories on here! I wouldn't have the heart.. Also, I've had enough real content flung at me this year to fill Wrigley Field, so it's not particularly hard to come up with new things to write about really..
Anyway, I just thought I'd clear that up, don't want any skeletons in the closet.. Or moths, but more skeletons, because I don't think I'd scream if I found a moth in my closet..
So, for real.
Saturday night I went to a Pirate Party, where Hey Ocean! was performing, it was great fun, live bands are teh l33t, the audience was so jacked, dancing, cheering, just good fun. Though I didn't go in my pirate outfit.. I should have found a feather or something to wear, but I didn't.. Have to wait until Halloween I suppose (which, by the way, is coming soon!! Oct 31st people! Oct 31st!). I've already planned that outfit.. Oh yes..
Cheers all!
Jimzip :D
(P.S.. I got through a whole entry without mentioning the vodcast!! Wait- oh.. damn!)
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Word verification..
Another day, another blog post.
My apologies once again for the lack of writing lately. Those of you that know what's been happening over here know how crazy things got last week. (Small refresher: wallet-stolen, bike-broken, new roommate-issues, replacement ATM card-eaten by machine, World Of Warcraft subcription-expired, lung-screwed... etc. etc. Oh and I also got a new job. Crazytastic eh? )
Anyway, a small update, cause I can.
Small update brought to you by MAx-IFLACH! The product name that will NEVER make sense!
So! Like I said, our new roommate, I won't mention her name, but she's been having a couple of troubles lately. Not simple troubles like those above, mind you. Relationship, job, boyfriend troubles. Those kind.
Anyway, so I got home from a party the other night, around 1:00. Went to bed, I was kinda tired. It had been a great party, (I'd put up the pics but they're in a membership-only site.. grr) and I hit the pillow and went out like a light.
At 2:00 however, my door suddenly flew open.
There she stood, tears rolling down her cheeks, and a brief announcement that "[she'd] taken a whole heap of pills" was enough to get me out of bed and quite awake.
I called an ambulance, the boyfriend, and Oprah, (for that one-second dose of wisdom), and comforted her while I tried to work out how many pills she'd taken.
She'd also been drinking beforehand, which doesn't really help get sense out of people. A lot of the answers I got were mumbled and full of words that didn't really even sound English.. Anyway the medics arrived, and tested her, said she was fine, and left, then she went back to her boyfriend's place for the night. Apparently 2 hours later they had to rush to the hospital emergency ward when her pupils suddenly shrunk down to pinpoint-size and she passed out.. But that's what happens when you don't tell medics the truth darn it!
This is but the tip of the iceberg. But in the saga that is roommates, the other stories shall wait until another time, another place..
So that's about it! Just thought I'd share that little tidbit with you all, give you some reading material.
Also, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! To Sevy. Another year, another thousand Chinese poodles. (Please don't ask, I'm still not sure myself!)
Oh yeah, before I forget! Anyone out there that's reading this, please spread the word about the Lemon Lime vodcast, www.lemonlimevodcast.com . We've got 8 more days to get the show onto iTunes. I don't care where, the front page, the top 100, or even onto the video podcast list, ANYWHERE, it's all good, and it's free! So let's get people subscribing! (And thank you to our current viewers, you know I love you all in a strictly hippie-way!)
Cheers,
Jimzip :D
My apologies once again for the lack of writing lately. Those of you that know what's been happening over here know how crazy things got last week. (Small refresher: wallet-stolen, bike-broken, new roommate-issues, replacement ATM card-eaten by machine, World Of Warcraft subcription-expired, lung-screwed... etc. etc. Oh and I also got a new job. Crazytastic eh? )
Anyway, a small update, cause I can.
Small update brought to you by MAx-IFLACH! The product name that will NEVER make sense!
So! Like I said, our new roommate, I won't mention her name, but she's been having a couple of troubles lately. Not simple troubles like those above, mind you. Relationship, job, boyfriend troubles. Those kind.
Anyway, so I got home from a party the other night, around 1:00. Went to bed, I was kinda tired. It had been a great party, (I'd put up the pics but they're in a membership-only site.. grr) and I hit the pillow and went out like a light.
At 2:00 however, my door suddenly flew open.
There she stood, tears rolling down her cheeks, and a brief announcement that "[she'd] taken a whole heap of pills" was enough to get me out of bed and quite awake.
I called an ambulance, the boyfriend, and Oprah, (for that one-second dose of wisdom), and comforted her while I tried to work out how many pills she'd taken.
She'd also been drinking beforehand, which doesn't really help get sense out of people. A lot of the answers I got were mumbled and full of words that didn't really even sound English.. Anyway the medics arrived, and tested her, said she was fine, and left, then she went back to her boyfriend's place for the night. Apparently 2 hours later they had to rush to the hospital emergency ward when her pupils suddenly shrunk down to pinpoint-size and she passed out.. But that's what happens when you don't tell medics the truth darn it!
This is but the tip of the iceberg. But in the saga that is roommates, the other stories shall wait until another time, another place..
So that's about it! Just thought I'd share that little tidbit with you all, give you some reading material.
Also, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! To Sevy. Another year, another thousand Chinese poodles. (Please don't ask, I'm still not sure myself!)
Oh yeah, before I forget! Anyone out there that's reading this, please spread the word about the Lemon Lime vodcast, www.lemonlimevodcast.com . We've got 8 more days to get the show onto iTunes. I don't care where, the front page, the top 100, or even onto the video podcast list, ANYWHERE, it's all good, and it's free! So let's get people subscribing! (And thank you to our current viewers, you know I love you all in a strictly hippie-way!)
Cheers,
Jimzip :D
Monday, August 7, 2006
To the Emergency ward!
Ah, what a day, what a day.
I will always remember the day August 6, 2006, as the day I saw my first Pride parade, and also had to go to hospital.
Let's explore that shall we.
The parade itself was crazy. (And I'm not talking about the audience, they were great, very well behaved really..) The people in the parade itself were crazy.. Or they were representing a large financial institution.. Which in itself is probably a little crazy..
Anyway, being a beautiful sunny day here in Vancouver, a group of us all decided we'd go watch the parade, and then try to find somewhere to grab lunch in the thronging mass afterwards. A sound plan. However, it was the walk back from the march to where we were going to be having lunch which is when things began to go pear-shaped.
I suddenly realised that I had a certain tightness accross my chest.
Thinking nothing of it, I continued on with the group, however, I found that with each passing minute, the 'cramp' wasn't going away, it was actually getting worse. This concerned me somewhat.
Five minutes after I first began to feel the pain, my breathing started to get harder and harder. Immediately I went and sat down, thinking that a heart-attack at the age of 22 probably wouldn't be the most memorable way to reminisce about what had up to this point been a great Labor Day weekend.
The group was still hanging around, thinking I had indigestion or something, so I told them to press on and get a table at the restaurant, and I'd catch up with them there.
Sean, a new addition to our circle, stayed with me and sat on a seat nearby, where I soon told him that my breathing was painful. I said maybe I should see a doctor, by this stage in a lot of pain. I could barely move my left arm, and I couldn't take a full breath.
We rushed to a medical clinic, conveniently located only a block away, and burst through the door, Sean guiding me, and I, doubled over in a significant amount of pain.
We reached the desk, waited a couple of minutes or so as the elderly lady currently being helped gave her full address, mother's maiden name, pet history and a brief summary of the history of Germany, then I promptly told the nurse at the desk that I couldn't breathe. She then proceeded to take down my information in a similar manner to the previous customer.
Ten minutes later I was in the Emergency ward at St. Paul's hospital downtown, being hooked up to an IV, a breathing apparatus, and a heart monitor.
(Upon missing the appropriate vein with the IV needle three times, the nurse eventually decided she wasn't going to have much luck, and changed location from my forearm to the back of my hand, where she was successful in inserting the needle and hooking up the IV, by which stage I was having heart palpitations and basically fainted.. So macho..)
"How are you feeling?" A nurse proceeded to ask me, to which the other replied, "he's fainting.." with a certain 'duh' tone..
A couple of minutes later when my heart-rate had returned to normal, she asked me again how I was feeling.
"Ok.." I managed to choke out, now inhaling less than 5% of my lung capacity per breath..
"On a scale of 1-10, how much pain are you in?"
"Uh... 8?"
"Ok!" She said, "I'm just going to give you some morphine!" with a cheerful singsong trill.
"No," I said "actually it's not that bad.."
"I'm just going to give you some morphine.." She said with a slightly more worrying - less of a trill - intonation.
Five minutes later she returned.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better.." I say.
"On the scale?" she continues.
"3.." I say.
"Ok. I'm just going to give you some more morphine.."
"No, look-really it's not that-"
"Ok!" She chirps, "I'm going to give you some more morphine!", and proceeds to do so.
4 hours later, 3 x-rays later, and a blood test, I find out that I have what doctors call, a 'spontaneous pneuma-thorax'.
In layman's terms, it's a small tear in the lung, which causes a small bubble to form in the chest-cavity, in part collapsing the lung in question.
Apparently, according to 3 of the doctors, quite a common scenario in 20-something males. In fact, my step-brother (Hey Al!) got one last year during soccer practise.
It's not genetic, it's not pre-programmed, and it's not specifically related to any activity. It just happens. And when it does.. well it really sucks, but it is quite easy to cure.
Also, and on a more serious note, I would really really like to say thank you to Troy, Sean, Micheal and Jared. I sincerely appreciated you all being there through the whole thing, and to you guys that tagged along before the hospital, thank you also. It really makes a world of difference when you feel like crap, to know that you've got friends around that really care.
I hope I didn't put a dampner on your weekend..
-Epilogue-
So really, it was a great weekend. No, seriously I did have a great time, except the six-hour detour to hospital-land, which royally blew..
But what can you do eh? These things happen (apparently) and there's really not a lot you can do about it.
What I've learned from this experience however, is that if you feel chest pains, don't stretch, don't intake deep breaths.. and don't worry (unless you are, in fact having a heart-attack.. then worry..)
Just make sure you have appropriate health-care cover when you travel overseas, and that you're wearing underwear so that when you put on that patient-robe thing, you aren't completely humiliated, cause those things have more holes than a punctured lung...
Cheers all!
Jimzip :D
I will always remember the day August 6, 2006, as the day I saw my first Pride parade, and also had to go to hospital.
Let's explore that shall we.
The parade itself was crazy. (And I'm not talking about the audience, they were great, very well behaved really..) The people in the parade itself were crazy.. Or they were representing a large financial institution.. Which in itself is probably a little crazy..
Anyway, being a beautiful sunny day here in Vancouver, a group of us all decided we'd go watch the parade, and then try to find somewhere to grab lunch in the thronging mass afterwards. A sound plan. However, it was the walk back from the march to where we were going to be having lunch which is when things began to go pear-shaped.
I suddenly realised that I had a certain tightness accross my chest.
Thinking nothing of it, I continued on with the group, however, I found that with each passing minute, the 'cramp' wasn't going away, it was actually getting worse. This concerned me somewhat.
Five minutes after I first began to feel the pain, my breathing started to get harder and harder. Immediately I went and sat down, thinking that a heart-attack at the age of 22 probably wouldn't be the most memorable way to reminisce about what had up to this point been a great Labor Day weekend.
The group was still hanging around, thinking I had indigestion or something, so I told them to press on and get a table at the restaurant, and I'd catch up with them there.
Sean, a new addition to our circle, stayed with me and sat on a seat nearby, where I soon told him that my breathing was painful. I said maybe I should see a doctor, by this stage in a lot of pain. I could barely move my left arm, and I couldn't take a full breath.
We rushed to a medical clinic, conveniently located only a block away, and burst through the door, Sean guiding me, and I, doubled over in a significant amount of pain.
We reached the desk, waited a couple of minutes or so as the elderly lady currently being helped gave her full address, mother's maiden name, pet history and a brief summary of the history of Germany, then I promptly told the nurse at the desk that I couldn't breathe. She then proceeded to take down my information in a similar manner to the previous customer.
Ten minutes later I was in the Emergency ward at St. Paul's hospital downtown, being hooked up to an IV, a breathing apparatus, and a heart monitor.
(Upon missing the appropriate vein with the IV needle three times, the nurse eventually decided she wasn't going to have much luck, and changed location from my forearm to the back of my hand, where she was successful in inserting the needle and hooking up the IV, by which stage I was having heart palpitations and basically fainted.. So macho..)
"How are you feeling?" A nurse proceeded to ask me, to which the other replied, "he's fainting.." with a certain 'duh' tone..
A couple of minutes later when my heart-rate had returned to normal, she asked me again how I was feeling.
"Ok.." I managed to choke out, now inhaling less than 5% of my lung capacity per breath..
"On a scale of 1-10, how much pain are you in?"
"Uh... 8?"
"Ok!" She said, "I'm just going to give you some morphine!" with a cheerful singsong trill.
"No," I said "actually it's not that bad.."
"I'm just going to give you some morphine.." She said with a slightly more worrying - less of a trill - intonation.
Five minutes later she returned.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better.." I say.
"On the scale?" she continues.
"3.." I say.
"Ok. I'm just going to give you some more morphine.."
"No, look-really it's not that-"
"Ok!" She chirps, "I'm going to give you some more morphine!", and proceeds to do so.
4 hours later, 3 x-rays later, and a blood test, I find out that I have what doctors call, a 'spontaneous pneuma-thorax'.
In layman's terms, it's a small tear in the lung, which causes a small bubble to form in the chest-cavity, in part collapsing the lung in question.
Apparently, according to 3 of the doctors, quite a common scenario in 20-something males. In fact, my step-brother (Hey Al!) got one last year during soccer practise.
It's not genetic, it's not pre-programmed, and it's not specifically related to any activity. It just happens. And when it does.. well it really sucks, but it is quite easy to cure.
Also, and on a more serious note, I would really really like to say thank you to Troy, Sean, Micheal and Jared. I sincerely appreciated you all being there through the whole thing, and to you guys that tagged along before the hospital, thank you also. It really makes a world of difference when you feel like crap, to know that you've got friends around that really care.
I hope I didn't put a dampner on your weekend..
-Epilogue-
So really, it was a great weekend. No, seriously I did have a great time, except the six-hour detour to hospital-land, which royally blew..
But what can you do eh? These things happen (apparently) and there's really not a lot you can do about it.
What I've learned from this experience however, is that if you feel chest pains, don't stretch, don't intake deep breaths.. and don't worry (unless you are, in fact having a heart-attack.. then worry..)
Just make sure you have appropriate health-care cover when you travel overseas, and that you're wearing underwear so that when you put on that patient-robe thing, you aren't completely humiliated, cause those things have more holes than a punctured lung...
Cheers all!
Jimzip :D
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Cirque du soleil - The Party
So I've just arrived home from what was arguably one of the best parties of my life, and I thought to myself, what better way to cap off the night, than with a blog entry!
Given, I didn't drink tonight it shouldn't be that painful to read.. I'm doing a 'month off alcohol' thing.. (Likely cause = lack of moolah..)
The night began at 9:30 when I arrived downtown and walked to Granville St where the party of question was to take place.
I had graciously been added to the VIP list by a friend of mine who co-organised the event at Caprice, a nightclub along the main nightspot strip of the street..
The party really kicked off at a around ten, but because I knew nobody for that first 20 minutes and the hosts were busy greeting performers and such, I decided to sit myself at a table with a nice-looking girl in a stylishly-striped shirt (as opposed to an unstylish striped shirt remniscent of so many 80's music videos..) and began chatting. Thus I met Melanie from France, and we began getting to know one another over a couple of drinks.
Soon after, the place began to fill, and the show began. The lights dimmed, pounding music filled the room shaking the floor, accompanied by hypnotically actobatic performers. Smoke poured from machines in the roof while hors d'oeuvres were passed around by eccentrically made-up waitresses and waiters.
The theme of Cirque du Soleil could not have been executed better. The place was decked out with silk screens and sheets strung up around the venue. Video screens showed a large painted face which morphed into the event organiser's logos. Fluidly maneuvering acrobats spun and twisted from rings and billowing curtains of fabric hung from the ceiling over the dancefloor, while jugglers and (startingly) mobile gymnasts performed on a stage set up over one side of the room.
Mike and Christian were able to join up with Melanie and I, and we all found ourselves chatting, cruising, dancing and admiring the setup for a good couple of hours before we all decided to filter out before the scene started to get stale (which, by the look of things as we left, would still be a couple of hours off).
All in all though, it was a really great night, kudos to the boys at daab (myspace.com/daabpresents) Adam and Devon for helping setup the night. I think I'd be safe in saying everyone that went had a blast.
Night all!
Jimzip :D
Given, I didn't drink tonight it shouldn't be that painful to read.. I'm doing a 'month off alcohol' thing.. (Likely cause = lack of moolah..)
The night began at 9:30 when I arrived downtown and walked to Granville St where the party of question was to take place.
I had graciously been added to the VIP list by a friend of mine who co-organised the event at Caprice, a nightclub along the main nightspot strip of the street..
The party really kicked off at a around ten, but because I knew nobody for that first 20 minutes and the hosts were busy greeting performers and such, I decided to sit myself at a table with a nice-looking girl in a stylishly-striped shirt (as opposed to an unstylish striped shirt remniscent of so many 80's music videos..) and began chatting. Thus I met Melanie from France, and we began getting to know one another over a couple of drinks.
Soon after, the place began to fill, and the show began. The lights dimmed, pounding music filled the room shaking the floor, accompanied by hypnotically actobatic performers. Smoke poured from machines in the roof while hors d'oeuvres were passed around by eccentrically made-up waitresses and waiters.
The theme of Cirque du Soleil could not have been executed better. The place was decked out with silk screens and sheets strung up around the venue. Video screens showed a large painted face which morphed into the event organiser's logos. Fluidly maneuvering acrobats spun and twisted from rings and billowing curtains of fabric hung from the ceiling over the dancefloor, while jugglers and (startingly) mobile gymnasts performed on a stage set up over one side of the room.
Mike and Christian were able to join up with Melanie and I, and we all found ourselves chatting, cruising, dancing and admiring the setup for a good couple of hours before we all decided to filter out before the scene started to get stale (which, by the look of things as we left, would still be a couple of hours off).
All in all though, it was a really great night, kudos to the boys at daab (myspace.com/daabpresents) Adam and Devon for helping setup the night. I think I'd be safe in saying everyone that went had a blast.
Night all!
Jimzip :D
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