I ran across a trailer for a film called Love the Hard Way and I wasn’t much interested at first. When watching the trailer though, I heard three songs which caught my attention, most notably the last one, a hip-hop track with a kickin’ beat and chorus. I decided to search for these songs, but all of them seem too obscure to obtain. The first song has no lyrics, so I quickly gave up the search for that particular track. A single line is distinguishable from the second song, but none of the words can be found as lyrics on the net. The last track had quite a few audible words, but after much scouring there was nothing to be found. I decided to check for soundtrack information, seeing as how the film is supposed to come out today, but there doesn’t seem to be any soundtrack info, and usually trailer music is not included in the soundtrack anyway. I decided to check the official site of the movie as a last resort, and there wasn’t a tracklisting but a score background and the mention of a few artists. I checked the discographies of the artists mentioned, until I found a song called Ra Ra by Coleon (”but can you back the ra ra” is one of the lines in the hip-hop track). At last, I had found the artist and the track name, but searching on free mp3 sites, his label website, or even Kazaa Lite proved fruitless. After re-watchnig the trailer so many times to snatch some garbled lyrics, I find myself quite interested in seeing the movie.

When I went back home to hang out with Darren and John, I met a guy named Leon, who had quite a different lifestyle than anyone I had ever met before. I won’t go into his story, since that would be quite inappropriate, but I must say that he was an extremely interesting person, someone who seemed wise from his (rather unique) experience. He told me about his drive, and that the track I Can by Nas was inspirational to him. I had never heard the track at the time, but since then was fortunate enough to catch the music video. Every time I hear the track now I think of Leon and what I could learn from him, and it has become inspirational to me as well.

On to St. Anger. Wow. I can’t figure out what Metallica are thinking. Every track on the album sounds like they’re trying to regain their status as metal heads after their extended sellout period (of which only one album I like). The songs sound empty and hollow (seems like Lars has lost half his drum set as he consistently bangs a skin every time the guitars bang out a chord) and repetitive (oh god, the repetitiveness). There are some decent vocal lines, but that’s about it. I saw the video for St. Anger, and the intro with the guards warning the band about the prison is laughably cheesy. Sadly, I believe Metallica has lost it.

There’s an AFI concert coming up which I’ll probably be catching with Trolley, Dina, Wheaties and Aaron. AFI is a group which I don’t know much about, since I’ve only recently discovered them. I heard some of their old stuff while driving in Wheaties’ car but it didn’t really catch. Hopefully, the concert will focus on their latest album, Sing the Sorrow.

I’m still sorting through my 3.67 gigs of songs, most notably the rest of the System of a Down albums and the Beth Gibbons side project.

It’s getting dark here, but the light hasn’t completely left the day yet. The sky waxes grey with the setting of the sun, and a gentle rain is making the pavement shine with the yellow glow of the street lamps. The smell consumes me, and I’m back walking the streets on an unrecollected gloomy day.

I finally finished off my honours project, so I can rest a bit easier now. The one report is worth two courses itself. It ended up being around 22 pages, which isn’t too bad. The only thing that remains is my geo essay, and I only have about a half page left to write. I went to lunch with Aaron and Wheaties to celebrate a completed course at the Elephant and Castle. A great waitress served us, and offered a variation on the Strongbow I was having, which was the addition of some lime cordial, or some black currant juice. We all got to try both with the Strongbow, and it was decided that the lime was the better of the two. The remaining black currant juice went into the beer, and Aaron told me that it was tasty.

200 more wins to an archmage icon.

I’ve been listening to the latest AFI album lately, and even though I didn’t much care for it at first, I’m completely addicted now. There’s something about the harmonies in the vocals that make their sound so unique. I’m not quite used to Davey Havok’s voice though, as he sounds like a child to me. Quite unconventional Currently, my favorite song is This Celluloid Dream.

A trip to the Dominican Republic may be working out for the first weekend of May. Since it’s the beginning of the off-season, the cost of the entire trip, drinks and meals included along with residence at a four-star hotel, will be around $900 for a week. Apparently this includes scuba diving, horseback riding, jet skiing, and a beach-side view. Currently, only Aaron, Cristina and I are completely committed to going, but we need an even number of people so we’re trying to find one more person.

Artfag is currently a redhead. Ummmm…yah.

Jonathan tells me that the full-time job seems promising, but he’s not making any guarantees. It would mainly consist of going around the city to various commercial customers and troubleshooting computer problems. The pay will start at around $15 which is not too bad, but not great for a graduate. He says that I’ll also need a car to be able to get to the locations that need service, something that I’ll consider more if I’m actually able to get the job. He tells me that it’s a good foot-in-the-door for web programming positions in the future. I am very grateful, and I’m not getting hopes up.

The weather has been beautiful lately. I’ve always found the briskness of early spring to be indefinably nostalgic. The grey pavement seems to be freshly laid, from the absent snow which so recently covered it. The yellow grass, the cloudless skies, it all seems to be such a poignant sign of the change in season.

I was sitting on Trolley’s sex lounger yesterday in his hot apartment, and I felt a slight draft coming from his window. Trolley’s apartment always seems toasty to me, so it was refreshing to feel a breeze from the outside. It reminded me of this great quote from Moby Dick:

Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable, and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable any more. But if, like Queequeg and me in the bed, the tip of your nose or the crown of your head be slightly chilled, why then, indeed in the general consciousness you feel most delightfully and unmistakably warm. For this reason a sleeping apartment should never be furnished with a fire, which is one of the luxurious discomforts of the rich. For the height of this sort of deliciousness is to have nothing but the blanket between you and your snugness and the cold of the outer air.

I happened to tune into CHUO FM on Sunday at around 11:30 pm when I was testing my alarm clock, and I was fascinated at what I heard. I generally don’t like the radio at all, but this programme had me hooked. A male voice, apparently a co-host, whose host had not showed up, had the show to himself for the hour. The programme was terrible. This person had a decent radio voice, but the things he was talking about, the tricks he used to avoid dead air, everything he did made the show interestingly bad. I had to listen until the end, because of how rarely I experience something so poorly done, yet so public at the same time.

I was lucky enough to discover a group called E.S. Posthumus, and there doesn’t seem to be an official website, or any website for that matter, in which I can find out more information. They seem to be doing well, with songs on soundtracks like Spiderman, Minority Report, and Unfaithful. One of my current favourites is Tikal. I recommended them to Jeff and Nick, since I remember how Jeff was getting into the instrumental stuff right now. He told me that he had a four tier system of knowing whether to keep a song. I should probably try doing that, since I currently have over a gig of songs I haven’t decided whether to keep or not.

I feel…alone. I wish I could speak to someone who could understand. I wish I could express my feelings the way I wish. What a perfect time to write.

I’ve been working on my graphics project all day. I have almost everything done now, with the cells co-ordinating their movements in a 3D Game of Life dance. They grow and shrink as the rules dictate, and although I have some bugs to iron out, and some bells and whistles to add, it shouldn’t take too long.

My cryptography presentation went alright. We didn’t quite formally rehearse, so I spoke for 15 out of the 20 minutes allocated to us, when three of us had speaking to do. We were fairly rushed at the end, but I think that we got our points through well. I felt that I did a great job at opening the presentations, and at explaining my part. Mike, Pat, Iain, and I went to get loaded before the presentation, but unfortunately, the shock of the situation sobered me up rather efficiently. After all, it was the first presentation I’ve had to do through all of university.

I feel better after playing a few games with Darren. Somehow we made it under the 300th mark, with a 55–7 record at level 14. I believe the height of my addiction was most evident when I was watching a movie where a man gets trapped in a bathroom by some triad members, and the first thing that I thought of was the item box, and town portaling to a safe location.

I might going to the Dominican Republic when school ends.

I’ve listened to some of the Tool songs off of the strings tribute album, and they’re not very good. The strings are greatly lacking in energy, and sometimes bare little resemblance to the songs they’re paying homage to. One can tell that the composer is inspired by Tool composings, but the instrumentalists are insipid in their performance.

The Honest Lawyer yesterday was relaxing and frustrating at the same time. I never I had a chance to really savour the fries this time though, since I felt so guilty about munching on Wheaties’ last time. All in all though, I think I’d rather not have gone.

I’ve always thought that Beth Gibbons had an amazingly attractive quality to her, not only from the distinctive timbre of her voice, but also from the grace and gentleness of her figure captured in her photographs. I’m trying out some of her latest side-project work with Rustin Man, and so far the sound has been amusingly unique, a mix of acoustic guitar with bittersweet melodies.

My cryptography midterm was easier than expected. I was the first to leave, and I was able to answer every question. Whether I was right or not is a different story.

I have only four projects left to do. A cryptography presentation on message authentication, my honours project on Rubik’s cube time complexity, an essay on gold price fluctuations, and a final OpenGL presentation program. They’re all due one after the other, so I’m trying to take one at a time, even though the going is slow.

I went out to support a few friends of Wheaties, in a band called Pensive State yesterday. I didn’t really feel like going out, but I figured that it would be a good break from being stuck in my apartment all day. It was much warmer than expected.

CAt told me about a version of Autumn Leaves by Eva Cassidy, and I think that it’s my favourite version so far. Apparently, the song has been completely overdone for over half a century, and I’ve only just heard of it.

Jeff’s coming over tonight to catch up a bit.

I’ve been seeing a lot of use of Moveable Type. I’m not very good with Perl yet, but the code will probably be much cleaner than what mine is now, and more modular. On every blog I’ve seen, the author keeps one large page of the current months entries. I much prefer to have one entry at a time, so that there can be more depth to my writing without flooding the page with text. I would also want multiple queries from the database, so that I can display my recommended and analysis sections at the same time. I’m just not sure if Moveable Type can pull all this off, or whether my host even supports the right script permissions.

Wheaties, Aaron, and Trolley are all coming over on Tuesday for a sort of guys night. We’ll be watching Swingers, and maybe some Basketball.

With dual sisal scratching posts, 3 carpeted lounging surfaces with climbing holes, hanging sisal toy and sturdy, wide base? Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet.