That was me?

Damn.

I spent the better part of my day today going through the forbidden closet. It's been sealed off to outsiders, nay everyone since I've lived here. Contained in this sacred domain was MY LIFE before adulthood. It was quite disturbing going through everything. Not only did I find all my old high school student cards, I also found a lifetime supply of greeting cards, letters, and other stuff.

This expedition was prompted by the idea that I had WAY to much useless crap sitting around. My closet isn't a tomb. Anything that was in there was just collecting dust, must, and mould. I figured that it was time to shed off the excess fat, and hold a garage sale. The disheartening thing is that after all that digging, I really don't have all that much in the way of sellable goods. I went through a lot of boxes and drawers (yes, I had a dresser in my closet), but yet there wasn't much there.
I don't think I'm done with the shedding of the fat though. I think I'm also going to go through all my books and more modern junk and give that a toss, too. Donate it, offer it to others, perhaps burn it. Who knows. All I know is, I have a lot of junk that doesn't do anything, and really don't mean all that much to me. I'm not saying I'm trying to become a minimalist, I'm just saying that it's just time to get rid of the shit I don't need.

A pop-culture quickie.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it, so I'm going to today. The reason? Because it was thrown in my face for the umpteenth time.
Hong Kong actors got it made. I doubt many of you have paid much attention to Hong Kong cinema. If you have, then you'll notice something-- it's always the same freakin' actors. What's more, these actors also dominate the TV scene as well.
There's this one actress whose name I'll likely never know, that I've seen in at least FOUR shows in the past year. And it's not that she's all that pretty or anything. She's way too thin, although she does have the heavily sought after high cheek bones and pale skin. I've had the TVB channels for not even a year, which also makes this rather shocking. There's even this same blond white guy that seems to make a cameo appearance in every contemporary program. It's weird.
To counter my point (always have to be fair), HK TV works a little differently than North American. A show basically has a set number of episodes, and then it's done. It's rare that a show goes beyond that. There's one called Healing Hands which I know has gone to an unlikely third series.
Secondly, most shows don't run weekly, the run M-F or throughout the weekend, and thus end very quickly. This fact also contributes the frequency of need for popular actors.

The moral of this story is.. my cats take big poops.

At the half-point.

Two sleeps until I find myself back at the office. How drôle.

It's a good thing Ottawa took the series TODAY against Buffalo, as Cloudie and Grindy are probably somewhere over the Atlantic right now, on the way to France. They'll likely only miss one game of the Stanley Cup Final. That rolls off the tongue quite nicely, really.
I'll be happy once Stanley gets nestled into the bosom of the Sens.. the stress of it all is killing me-- however, it's worth it.

I came really close to posting on my LJ today, which is something I haven't done for 21 weeks apparently. I did manage to comment on a Joey Michaels post though. Baby steps. I guess having my own blog again kind of removes the necessities of updating the LJ.

I got nothing else juicy to go on, so I'll leave you with this instead. It's pretty funny.

What is it, really.

Sometimes I think I'm smart. Let's examine this idea a little more closely.

I'll be honest and say there I times when I sit in my overused heap of a chair, waiting for my girth to eventually crush it's tired legs. While I sit, I stare blankly at my internet browser of choice (currently sitting with firefox, but it changes every now and then). The internet, and this whole idea of Web 2.0 and what it is bounces back and forth around my noodle. So much in fact, that I Google it.

Web 2.0 is a term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes. -Google

So now I know.

Continuing with this honesty trend, I had a whole direction I wanted this to go in. This was going to be a smart post. Really. There were some actual though bubbles I wanted to explore. Then a pan of lasagne came up to me and forced it's flesh into mouth, disturbing my thought paths. It's self sacrifice allowed me to avoid the use of the noodle, and drove me towards a wanton desire to sleep. So regarding Web 2.0, I'm going to sleep on it, and I won't post about it again until a much later time when Web 2.0 was a mere stepping stone towards the Interweb™ 2000.

What's my motivation Mr. Deville?

No need to talk hockey. Ottawa is awsome. 'nuff said.

Writing lengthy emails is non-conducive to my blogging lifestyle. I've been writing a series of novellas to a couple of friends of mine over the past couple of weeks, which I have found has overused my blogging voice. It's all going to my personal correspondences.

It's not like my linking to it will generate him any traffic, but I will regardless. smallShift.com
From the website:

smallSHIFT is a blog built around the belief that technology in the hands of passionate users can inspire change, empower individuals and make a difference.

A noble effort. I've added it to my RSS feeds, so it can't be all that bad. I wish I had that kind of motivation to start a bold new project like that.

Segue.

I seem to be lacking in motivation lately. It's gone. Poof. I've lost the spark. Without spark, there can be no fire. Maybe I'm just dampened, and I'll try out soon. I hope so, because I hate feeling like this. I feel so.. useless.

Sick as a dog, but able to blog.

So yeah. Pretty sick. A veritable poopcano™ (I stole this from Kyle) out of the upper and lower major orifices. I think I'm finally on the mend, though. I haven't been this sick in a long time. It was similar to the second time I got food poisoning in Nanning. Not to regale you with my poop adventures, but today I find myself pooped out. There's nothing left. The mighty Mississippi ran dry. I'll be glad to get back to work tomorrow (as freaky as that sounds). I tired of sitting on the pot, not to mention there's a circle of pain that surfaces anytime my ass finds itself on the throne. Yes, I've been on it that much. 'nuff said.
I also miss being hungry.

I don't think it's much of a secret that I have the seeded desire to be re-educated. I've developed that thirst for knowledge, not so much to help further my career more-so for my own personal fulfillment. Something to help feed the whole pride and dignity. There are very few things more personally satisfying than to be able to say "I did that."
Grindy has decided to take a stab at Athebasca University, and one of their HR Programs. It's a cost of over $600 per 3 credit course. Let's do some basic math.

$600
x 30 (the amount of 3 credit course to achieve a BA)
$18,000 (or $6000/year for a 30 credit year)

Granted, you're not paying all this with one lump sum. In reality, you could be looking at a time period that could span over a decade. It all depends on how much time you can put into the courses. If you were to actually attend a university, you'd be looking at a yearly basic tuition of around $4250, but this doesn't cover any of your learning materials and other various University add-ons.
You have to question whether it's worth the expense. Some might say you can't really put a price on education.

Will I decide to go this route? It's tempting, but the cost does scare me a little. On top of that, I worry about how much this would interfere with my Mandarin language acquisition. Also, I ponder what actual program to take. Poli-Sci interests me, as well as their English program.
For now this is all talk and speculation. It is something that I am regularly contemplating though.