Merkavah - Drive the Lord's SUV!

Getting home at 5AM after a night on campus working on an essay... knowing you have to wake up in a few hours to repeat the process again... is no fun.

The subject of regrets came up over dinner (well... 4AM Pho), in association with something else. But I got to thinking... as I often do... there's very little I regret in life. Most everything that's happened has made me who I am... and I'm certainly not perfect, but it'll do.

But there are some.

I regret not working hard enough in my first few years of University, being disillusioned with the whole 'school' thing and not knowing where I really wanted to go. I regret decisions I've made... not for how they've shaped me, but for what they've done to others.

There's not much else I can come up with, except your standard regrets concerning girls. Or one girl, in particular, right now. The usual... I regret not kissing her, the like.

Anyway, I must be off to sleep. Up in four hours to do more work. Huzzah!

Posted by Johann Kwan at 04:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Contrary to the title this is more a post about a lost item that I miss dearly that I bought and lost in Amsterdam... an item which I found a great rarity and yet wonderfully and properly suitable for me.

The only picture I came across on the interwebs of a similar design is below:

image source: University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences

These opera glasses unfolded from those double clamshells... it was brilliant. The only other ones I've come across online unfolded from a single box and are of later generations. The only difference I can recall from mine to the ones pictured is the fact that the ones I bought were completely done in bronze and had no leather features. Otherwise these are the only ones I have found (part of a University's collection, likely impossible for me to get) on the interwebs.

I often get sad about having lost them, especially before going to a show where I am in a back row or balcony somewhere in a theatre.

Curse me for having left it at the hostel. Curses.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 12:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Went out to Kanata's AMC tonight to watch The Watchmen with Dave. It was a rather good adaptation... far above my expectations to be honest.

Only one thing to say though: since the AMC has a "Please do not add your own soundtrack to the video" announcement before each movie to encourage people to turn off their cells and stow their crying babies, Dave and I joked before going that we should bring iPod speakers and create our own soundtrack the way we do to Youtube videos, playing music over the video and syncing it up. It turned out not to be necessary. The soundtrack from beginning to end ended up sounding exactly like a playlist we'd make up drunk at 3 in the morning.

I have yet to decide if it was a good thing. Effective, I suppose.

Posted by Johann Kwan at 01:15 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Things turned out to be rather interesting in the end today after all... it started poorly enough, with me feeling as though I was well on my way to doing absolutely nothing with my life... sitting about dicking around in the Humanities lounge between an 8:30 class and a 5:30 rehearsal... but eventually post-rehearsal things picked up. Drove home Prof. Beer and Lady Catherine, went out for Tapas with Dave and Rosemary... enjoyed some stimulating conversation about art and words which boiled down to a disagreement between fiercely subjective and objective worldviews (if you're reading this, you probably already know I'm rather subjective and relativist to the point of being a relative solipsist, though recognizing the fundamental traps they eventually lead to) over said tapas (which is always nice, since I'm a big fan of slow food) and went over to Jess Ruano's and kept her from sleeping. After which of course I drove people home (all the way to Kanata, even! Though that was nice and I really do enjoy driving... clears the mind) and now can finally kick back with a scotch and contemplate... crap.

The list of things I have to do in the following weeks is ridiculous. I'm writing this mostly for my own benefit so I can tally up the things I need to do.
- Several assignments are due, of course... one tomorrow, one Thursday (grar).
- I stupidly volunteered for a silly amount of presentations... so I now have four presentations to prepare in the next three weeks. One on Russian foreign policy under Yeltsin and Putin (pretty much done), one on Mazarr and one on Kundera for Darby's class (not done at all, and the ones I worry most about) and one on Botswana's economic policies (nowhere near done).
- Gotta get ready for formal, check my camera equipment and shit, figure out what I'll wear... maybe buy cufflinks if I go with a suit instead of Chinese garb
- Gotta cobble together some quiz night questions from QI
- Since we didn't watch Milk today... do so sometime this week.
- Practice Forza 2 and GRID a bit to get back into shape to school some newbs at Prof. MacIsaac's racing game event. Hope using a racing wheel isn't so different that it will be hard to get used to.
- Prep for essays, of course
- Attend events, print business cards, and start getting ready for wedding season (Huzzah! Moneys!)
- Get Toto - Africa out of my fucking head.
- Oh yeah... be a guard/soldier/extra/skinny muscle in the Trojan Women. I damned near forgot we were on next week already.
- Finish the website for Depravity Heights

Posted by Johann Kwan at 01:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)