Monday, November 27, 2006

Today's lunch was had at the franchise of Takara Sushi just north of Yonge and St. Claire. 



If the bright red sign hanging over the front bay window isn't an indication that you are in for a colourful meal then please step inside. The place was packed this Friday lunchtime and filled with sounds of cooking, talk and laughter. Meetings taking place, friends out for a bite and lonely food reviewers cluttered around the small, square, dark wood tables. I was led past the busy sushi assembly bar, where the chefs sweated under a time crunch, to my intimate, two seat corner and fit myself against the wall to observe the comings and goings of the medium sized restaurant. The menu was placed delicately in front of me and I automatically began scanning for cheap foods. Now, this is by no means a cheap restaurant, but they did offer some good looking lunch specials for as low as five dollars. I chose the Nami lunch special for $5.99 and duly ordered. She left to process my order and to fetch the complimentary loose-leaf green tea as I checked my morning's messages and ripped open my chopstick wrapper to make sure the chopsticks were in good condition. They use a good brand of disposable chopsticks and so I was not surprised to find they were fine. About five seconds after this the crumpled wrapper was scooped from the table with a very slight bow, which I appreciated very much, and was left for a short while to enjoy my tea and soak up the decor. 

The decor is something they did not skimp on, large rectangular mirrors line one wall, japanese paper-style lanters hung over the booths with frenetic hiragana splashed across the panels, track and embedded lighting is also utilized, wooden dividers painted and moulded to look like shinto panels were used to break up the space and they even had a tacky little christmas tree with snowmen surrounding it amid some japanese artifacts and flowers. It is a warming place, to be sure. 

My food arrived quickly and I was presented with a bow and a segmented, wooden bento box with Teppenyaki chicken (I think,) on a bed of long-cut veggies and sprouts, three large chunks of fried, soft tofu, three small vegetable rolls, a green salad, the obligatory short-grain white rice all placed around the bright green of a generous portion of wasabi. I have no complaints for it. The sushi was simple and expertly rolled, the chicken was savoury and delicious, the tofu (which I normally dislike) was good! 

4/5 steaming bowls! A calming lunch-time experience for a hectic work day. I recommend the Nami, Kisho and their advertised $5 Teriyaki chicken bento. Arigato!
The third installment of The Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind, has been really exciting to play. Based in an ever-changing landscape and in real time, rains fall to different degrees, sandstorms ravage the parched mountain terrain, pea-soup fog inhibits your vision sight, all while travelling through a world that actually feels alive and dangerous. 

I had a taste of this feeling of danger when my character was out on a lonely, wild paths, trying against odds just to find a place to rest until morning in a relatively safe spot where no beasts might find me and take a bite. The sounds of distant winged atrocities echoed in my ears as I lay down last night for some sleep. It didn't come easily as i thought of strategies I might employ to steal my character out of the treacherous mountains he unwittingly fumbled into. 

The history of the world is full of colour and is very in-depth though as I play my barbarian norseman to his fullest I find he is an illiterate brute and most of the books that come his way are left by the roadside, unread, as he stumbled onto another fight. 

I have only just begun playing this game and already I am in love with it.

Also, I have begun a food review blog.
The third installment of The Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind, has been really exciting to play. Based in an ever-changing landscape and in real time, rains fall to different degrees, sandstorms ravage the parched mountain terrain, pea-soup fog inhibits your vision sight, all while travelling through a world that actually feels alive and dangerous. 

I had a taste of this feeling of danger when my character was out on a lonely, wild paths, trying against odds just to find a place to rest until morning in a relatively safe spot where no beasts might find me and take a bite. The sounds of distant winged atrocities echoed in my ears as I lay down last night for some sleep. It didn't come easily as I thought of strategies I might employ to steal my character out of the treacherous mountains he unwittingly fumbled into. 

The history of the world is full of colour and is very in-depth though as I play my barbarian norseman to his fullest I find he is an illiterate brute and most of the books that come his way are left by the roadside, unread, as he stumbled onto another fight. 

I have only just begun playing this game and already I am in love with it.

Also, I have begun a food review blog.

Thursday, November 9, 2006

WATCH ME RIDE OUT OF THE SUNSET ON YOUR.. COLOUR TV SCREEN
TRYIN FOR WHAT I CAN GET IF YOU.. KNOW WHAT I MEAN <3

WOMEN TO THE >_> OF ME AND..
WOMEN TO THE <_<

AINT GOT NO GUN AINT GOT NO KNIFE
DON'T YOU.. START NO FIGHT


CUZ IM
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DYNOMITE!
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AND I'LL WIN THE FIGHT!
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POWERLOAD!
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WATCH ME EXPLOOOOOOOOODE!!!!!

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

At Sunnybrooke Hospital in Toronto is a house called Wellspring. Standing in front of it is a woman, jubilant and free, basking in the world and cut with beautiful filligree. She is crafted of sheet metal and seems to represent the dancing health most of the people who visit the house asipre towards. The walls house a cancer support and healing program with many facets contained. There are holistic healing classes, raiki, qi gong, tai chi, yoga, art therapy, even a journaling workshop to name a few. There is a lending library, coffee and tea, as well as friendly staff to speak to when feeling lonely, scared, inquisitive or anything, really.

The house touched me and calmed me in that way that quiet spaces calm a person. There are quilts hanging from the ceilings in naturally lit, high alcoves made by the very people who attend the quilting groups who meet in the house. Everything is open and flowing in it's design and placement, geared towards comfort and ease of movement. Wooden desks with beautiful grain, blue-white light bouncing of the pale hallway walls. It's really a beautiful house.

All parts of the program are open to Ma Pop, never and I. I will surely be accompanying my mother to a few of the programs they run as well as looking into what never and I might want to do together, alone. We rarely have any time to ourselves, less so now that Ma Pop is not available to take the kid anymore. I can think of at least one other person I trust with taking Br0n for a few hours or even overnight, I just need to work up the nerve to ask him if he would mind doing that kind of thing once in a while on a barter basis. We need a break so badly, we are getting tense and short-tempered and I can't stand seeing that change in us.

Never and I are confused, finding ourselves dwelling more and more on the fact that our long term life goals concerning where we are going to live are very different from each other's. She, the country mouse and I, the city mouse. I want a small, clean apartment in the midst of downtown and close to various good foods and all the crazy, massed people I affirm my humanity within. I want a crawling sea of wild difference and rancorous odour, a hard place covered in grime of people. She wants a small clean place in the heart of a forest, away from noise and distraction, a place she can be spiritual and calm, tending to simple labours and desires. I don't know what to do, compromise seems like it wouldn't give either of us anything close to what we want, fullfilling one wish would leave the other unhappy and possibly resentful.

I am starting college in January. I'm very excited about going, having a complex schedule again, making a niche for myself within college society, using the university resourses for research (my campus is on Ryerson University grounds,) meeting new people to have coffee and lunch with, possibly even making a friend. I think once I get my laptop I'm going to get rid of my home office area in favour of a cleaner, more minimalized and streamlined apartment. I won't be able to study and work at home anyway, not with all the distractions. If I can find a counter or a table of the right dimensions I could extend the kitchen into the area where my office is now. I am thinking about taking massage classes part-time but will need to look at my finances for the coming September to see if I can afford an extra class or two. My wife and kid would love me while I'm in massage, having to need someone to practice on, I forsee fights over table time.

Oh, this is me:
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:D