BNJMN

Three words... There's something too awesome about this picture. Is it Mary's (left) hair and smile-with-attitude? Is it the weird alphabet-ball-with-mouse-named-Mort that Ruth (centre) is holding? Is it David's (right) hurry-up-and-take-the-picture attitude? This was taken circa 1967. Wonder what they look like now? Ruth (mid-left), David (centre), and Mary (mid-right), with even newer brothers James (far left) and John (far right), July 2009. Also, vintage MJ the first time it was cool to wear his face on a sweater. Oh and that's me, Dec 1984. The stylin' guy is my then-four-year old cousin, Matt.

Day five was fun. I arrived at work an hour and a half early (when rides are offered, you don't really want to push your luck). This allowed me the opportunity to sit down and have breakfast with a coworker. Subway breakfasts have become boring ever since they stopped actually preparing eggs and stopped carrying round 4" buns; they're microwave-ready egg patties leave me with an underwhelming 'meh'. I learned that there was freezing rain going on, so thankfully another coworker offered me a ride home. On Day Six of this wondrous OC Transpo bus strike, I did the inevitable: I walked to work. With a car, there are half a dozen different routes to take to get there, and two buses (that take the same basic route). That said, there's no convenient way to actually walk there, not without having to overshoot and circle back, or walking from point A to point B to point C to the Destination. It's all very awkward, and a lot of it has to do with how poorly planned ou...

I haven't blogged in some time, but I have a really good reason: Maple Story. A friend of mine suggested I check it out. Not having much else to do, I did. Maple story is what the enthusiast would call an MMORPG, an adventure game where people from all over play together online. The charming thing about it is that it's bright and colourful, and in 2D. It's simple but deep... and that's what caught me about it. Here I am, taking on a King Slime all by myself. And that's also what has push me back into reality. Loneliness. The odd here is that I typically don't enjoy playing adventure games with other people, but with Maple Story comes a strange but strong sense of community play. Aside from the rare event when I'd be partied up with someone, I was never really part of anything. Yeah I got into guilds early on, but I was never a high enough level for that to mean much. So instead of futilely leveling to no end (or trying to recruit friends to play), it's p...