The Chronicles of Chris

c_drive @ 2009-11-16T22:30:00

2009-11-17T02:30:12Z

Is there any funnier show these days than It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? I doubt it!

c_drive @ 2009-11-14T12:49:00

2009-11-14T16:48:57Z

March 9th can't get here quickly enough.

http://bit.ly/3MxT2G

c_drive @ 2009-11-01T13:20:00

2009-11-01T17:20:48Z

I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice.

Since a bunch of you guys have asked...

2009-10-05T21:55:05Z

The message in that last post was just a joke. It's a common thing on this forum (and in a lot of net forums, from what I've seen) where if someone posts a personal story, (especially an unfortunate one), someone else will make a post from the "other" point of view. And since I am okay physically, I actually did laugh when I saw that someone had done this with my post.

Also to those who've asked, I filed a police report today. They gave me a number to call when I went to the police station, because they can't handle racially related incidents at that branch. Does anyone else find that really weird?

Also, thanks for the kind words, everyone. Very much appreciated.

c_drive @ 2009-10-04T16:50:00

2009-10-04T19:58:31Z

So I frequent this wrestling forum, and I've been there long enough that I kinda "know" a lot of the members.

Subject: Wow it's awesome looking like a terrorist

So I'm out tonight, hitting the bars, celebrating my bday and all. It's the
end of the night and these dudes walk up to me and start bitching about their
friend being overaseas fighting terrorism. I empathize with them and cross
to try to get a cab.

I walk down the street, the pricks yell at me not to look at them, not to smile
at them, because their friend is overseas fighting bastards like me,

Of course, me being the flippant bastard I am, I look at them and flash the
pearly whites.

They cross the street. They start yelling at me about how their friend is
risking his life fighting "bastards like you!!!"

"He's fighting Indians?" I quip.

"Well they look like you!!!" the fucking rednecks respond. They then proceed
to punch me in the head till I fall down. Fucking awesome.

At least they chose to leave after that, and didn't give me the Orton punt [note: this was a comment to keep things on-topic for a wrestling forum] or
anything... but my head hurts.

Goddamn rednecks.

About 15 minutes later, this anonymous post showed up.

From: Jocko McPherson <jocko@thepub.ca>
Subject: *Destroyed* this fuckin' terrorist tonight, brahs

So I'm out tonight, hitting the bars, celebrating my buddy's valor overseas
and all. It's the end of the night and this terrorist walks up to me and
starts smiling and shit.

I cross the street and tell him what's what. He denies he's a terrorist,
but I've seen "24". I bash him in the head till he falls down. It was
fucking awesome.

We considered giving him the Orton punt, but I think he learned his lesson.

Goddamn terrorists.

c_drive @ 2009-10-04T13:06:00

2009-10-04T16:07:35Z

To all that have expressed concern - I'm ok. I only have one lump on my head, so I guess two of the dudes hit like pansies. Hip hurts from where I fell, but I'm an old man now, so hip pain can be expected. But I'm ok - more insulted than anything else.

c_drive @ 2009-10-04T03:23:00

2009-10-04T06:31:53Z

You know what the best way to end a night downtown is? Getting jumped by a bunch of fucking rednecks because I "look like the guys my friend is dying fighting overseas!!!".

"Oh, so sorry to hear your friend lost his life."
"No he didn't... BUT HE COULD HAVE FIGHTING PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!!!"

Awesome. In the defense of those pricks, I had it coming. Because we had that convo that was summarized above, and I laughed at the ridiculousness of it, and you know me, I have a big smile.

So that put things off to an uneasy start, but whatever, I crossed to get a cab, and get away from them.

But the fucking dicks yelled at me:

"Don't fucking look over, don't smile at me, because we'll drop you because our friend is sacrificing his life fighting you bastards!!!!"

So I'm sure you all know what happened next. If you guessed that I decided to show my sarcastic streak and turn and smile at the fucks... biggest smile I can muster... you win a prize! So they come over and give the big spiel about their friend sacrificing his life fighting bastards like me.

"He's fighting Indians??" I ask.

"Well they look like you!!!" comes the extremely enlightened reply

Clearly their best course of action was to punch me in the head till I fall down. I got in a few ratalliatory punches, but I totally had it coming, right?

Awesome awesome awesome. Sometime I love Halifax so much.

Fucking fuck.

c_drive @ 2009-10-01T09:54:00

2009-10-01T12:55:06Z

Today is my last day in my twenties.

Wow.....

c_drive @ 2009-09-27T12:10:00

2009-09-27T15:09:58Z

So yesterday was my Street Fight against cancer (or for cancer, if you were to believe the naming of the event). There were about 40 people signed up for the SF4 portion of the contest, and a lot of them were really hardcore. There was even a group of guys that showed up together and brought their own game sticks, and I was getting owned in most of the practice matches.

I managed to step it up a bit once the tournament started, and won my first two matches. They were really close fights that came down to like one or two hits in the final round. The guy I beat in my 2nd match was one of the guys that brought his own stick, and had his entourage cheering him on. I lost my quarter-finals match, and so it was loser's bracket time for me (the tournament was double elimination). After not hearing my name called for a while, I went to see when my next match was, and the guy said they'd called me twice for my match and I didn't answer, so they'd advanced my opponent. I was there the whole time though, and one of the other guys said he didn't hear them calling me either, so I'm not sure what happened there. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it since it was a charity event, but it sucked to go out that way. But I was happy with how I did, and it was pretty sweet taking down one of the "hardcores" at least. It was also nice to see once I got warmed up, my old SF2 skills kicked in and were enough to help me do alright... I think if I took the time to learn the new systems in 4 I could end up being pretty decent.

c_drive @ 2009-09-26T13:43:00

2009-09-26T16:46:05Z

I saw Marilyn Manson last night! There were like three people between me and the stage for "The Beautiful People"!!! It was awesome!!

c_drive @ 2009-09-22T19:59:00

2009-09-22T23:03:13Z

This Saturday, I'll be competing in a Street Fighter IV tournament as a part of Frag for Cancer. The SFIV portion of the event is tentatively scheduled to run at around 4pm, at the Dal MacInnis room, if anyone wants to come cheer me on. The dudes posting on the forum sound super hardcore, so I'll probably get whooped, but whatever, it's for a good cause.

Event details here:
http://fragforcancer.ca/

What are the odds...

2009-09-20T15:51:48Z

I'd gotten tickets to go to last night's WWE show at the Metro Center with Sarah and William months ago. The day before, my bud messaged me and told me his brother had a single ticket, but couldn't make the show. He was giving away the ticket under the condition that whoever went for him took lots of pictures. I told Doug, and he went for it... not happy about having to sit by himself, but can't turn down a free show.

After Doug picked up the ticket, he called me to let me know where he was sitting... Section 71, row 2, seat 6. Our seats? Section 71, row 2, seats 3-5. What are the odds?! (Well, considering the Metro Center holds like 10,000 people, I guess 1/10,000...)

c_drive @ 2009-07-29T17:29:00

2009-07-29T20:30:43Z

Went climbing for the first time yesterday. So THAT'S what it feels like to be Spider-Man. Well, without the strength, speed, agility, web shooters and spider sense. But hey, everything in due time, right?

c_drive @ 2009-07-22T19:36:00

2009-07-22T22:44:53Z

Last week, TNA Wrestling debuted their newest Knockout, Sarita. She used to wrestle here locally for years! I once got to accompany her to ringside for a match! She even mentioned me in an interview once! It was really really wild seeing her on tv, and being all like "I KNOW HER!!!". TNA is the second biggest wrestling company in North America and she's signed to the roster, so she should be wrestling on tv almost every week!

If you want to see some of her cool moves but don't want to watch an 8 minute video, go to about 2:15 and watch for 30 seconds.

c_drive @ 2009-07-21T20:35:00

2009-07-21T23:59:08Z

My alarm went off in the middle of a dream this morning. In the dream, I was in the middle of a debate with a few people. We'd discovered these magical items that had incredible power. But it was one of those scenarios where they could do unspeakable harm in the wrong hands. We were trying to decide if we should just destroy them, and what the best way to go about destroying the items would be. The source of the power? Magic. Cookies.

Normally I at least have some idea where my dreams came from (and I'm thinking this one might've been some weird variation of the magic beans from Jack and the Beanstalk), but seriously... magic cookies???

THE OFFSPRING!!!

2009-07-06T23:32:31Z

The original plan for Saturday was to go to Nathan's place, and check out some of the music from his new apartment. He'd just moved there earlier in the week, and has one of the units with a balcony overlooking Citadel Hill. I was interested in checking out Metric and the Offspring, hanging with a few people and keeping it calm.

Of course, then it turned into a free show, and as the time drew closer, we realized we HAD to be in the thick of things for the Offspring. We got a pretty decent spot before the band took the stage, good view, kinda close, and not too squished. I was fine there, feeling I was getting too old to handle the mosh pit. Scott and Nathan wanted to be closer though. I was still a tad reluctant, then Scotty asked me "10 years from now, wouldn't you like to be able to say you were in the mosh pit at an Offspring show?"

Yes, yes I would. So as the band took the stage, Nathan, Scotty, Sara and I made our way front and center, into the heart of the mosh pit! We spent most of their set maybe 4-6 "rows" of people back from the stage. The pit was intense, and we ended up losing Sara early on (but found her again near the end!). But the adrenaline was definitely flowing. The entire time was spent shouting along to song lyrics, jumping around, pushing and being pushed, and basically trying to stay standing up.

We emerged from the pit after the band left the stage, tired, sore, covered in mud, and amped out of our freaking minds (especially since they played a decent number of songs from "Smash"!!!!). The fact that I'm still a little sore from the whole thing might back up the "too old" argument, but it was more than worth it.

Hard to believe that one of my best concert experiences was a free one, that I got to be up front and center for the first band I ever got into, and that there was even a time when I was considering not going to the thing in the first place.

c_drive @ 2009-06-23T23:12:00

2009-06-24T02:21:51Z

For some reason, I decided to listen to a Mainstream Pop Top 40 radio station online today. I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to do such a thing. It might've at least had a little to do with the fact that when I was downtown on Saturday, I didn't recognize like 90% of what was played. In any case, (surprisingly enough), I was actually able to listen to it for a good portion of the day without wanting to rip my ears off. I did eventually have to switch to a Hard/Alternative Rock station, but I lasted a lot longer than I thought I would.

At one point before I made the switch though, a song started that I was kinda liking... so I pulled up the playlist to see who it was....................

..........................Hilary Duff. In my defense, the beat sounded a lot like Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus", which is a pretty cool song. But... yeah...

Casino parking experiment - one year later

2009-04-01T01:59:55Z

Well, today wraps up Year One of the casino parking experiment. After like 3 weeks in a row of winning only once a week at roulette, I decided maybe it was time to switch it up a bit. So at some point in August or September, I decided to go for blackjack, which has similar odds. At the point I made the switch, I think I was somewhere between $100 and $150 spent on parking.

After one year of parking out the casino, cancelling out my wins and losses, I've spent $180 on parking. For contrast, 12 months of parking at Scotia Square ($160 a month) would've run me $1920.

Thus far... I'd call the experiment a success!

c_drive @ 2009-02-23T19:55:00

2009-02-23T23:58:55Z

Sometimes in order to test stuff at work, we basically gotta makeup fake servers and have the data going to a test database. People usually just name these servers whatever. Occasionally people screw up and put the data into the real database. Today, there was data in one of the real databases coming from "Amazing Spiderman" and "Spectacular Spiderman". Within an hour, I had three people (including someone from Calgary) asking me about it, assuming this was something I'd done.

And no, it wasn't me. I would've properly hyphenated Spider-Man.

Sweeeeeet

2009-02-21T21:10:23Z

I was doing my daily check of wrestling news the other day, when I saw a headline that TNA had signed a top international female talent. I didn't really think anything of it, but clicked the article and read this:

TNA has signed Sarah Stock, a great female performer from Canada who
has worked most notably for CMLL in Mexico and a number of independent
promotions, including SHIMMER. This is a major league signing for the
company as if they use her correctly, she's most likely to fill the
void left by the departure of Gail Kim last year.

This is Sweet Sarah!!! The girl who used to wrestle here locally, that I got to accompany at ringside for one of her matches and that I kinda know!!!

It's so exciting to think that I know a TNA Knockout!!!

I have a love/hate relationship with my roommate

2009-01-15T03:00:07Z

I'm pretty sure 90% of our friendship is based on one of us shaking our heads, thinking "I can't believe that bastard just did that"... while at the same time laughing at how entertaining whatever they just did was.

Take today, for example. I get home from work...

Doug: Yeah, so you're going to hate me... but I hope that you'll be able to appreciate the humour in the situation and not be too mad about it.

[Like I said, story of our lives. My immediate thought: "Uh oh, what NOW?"]

Doug: So, yeah... I was browsing plenty of fish, and I came across this really hot brown girl... and so, I wrote her a little note telling her I was doing all this without your consent, but saying that she might want to give you a chance. I included your picture and asked her what she thought. I know I shouldn't have gone behind your back with all this, but I hope you're not too mad about it.

[At this point I'm kinda thinking "Agh that bastard", but at the same time, I don't really care all that much and don't think it's that big a deal.]

Chris: Yeah, you're a bastard... [but kinda laughing] ...so, what'd she say?

Doug: Well, here's where the funny part comes in. She said "Um, I already know Chris, our moms are friends. And by the way, not all brown people hook up."

[And thus the "I hate this bastard, but this is way too funny" cycle is complete]

BOUND FOR GLORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-07-31T15:53:27Z

So Doug and I have more or less given up on WWE, but we still watch TNA (Total Non-Stop Action), a smaller wrestling company.

Their biggest show of the year is Bound for Glory (basically their equivelant of Wrestlemania)... and this year it's in Chicago. One of our best friends from childhood is living there now, so we figured it'd be cool to see him and check out the show.

Tickets are supposed to go on sale tomorrow, but I was able to guess the password for today's pre-sale, and snagged us tickets.

SECOND ROW

RINGSIDE

YESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYESYES

I don't think I can sum up in this post what a big deal this is for us.

I am the Dark-skinned Knight

2008-07-24T01:05:40Z

OMG I just got back from seeing the Dark Knight... (I know I know, everyone was shocked I hadn't seen it opening weekend because I'm like the comic guy).

Even with all the hype I'd heard... it surpassed it. After the movie, Doug and I just kinda sat there for a few minutes trying to express how awesome we found. Which finally led to this bit of dialog:

Chris: I just want to run around and like... start head-butting things.
Doug: ....YES.

c_drive @ 2008-06-01T23:03:00

2008-06-02T02:09:33Z

Friday was the last work day of May. It also marked day 29 of my casino parking experiment. I currently stand at 14 wins, 15 losses. Which means that I've paid $10 for 29 days of parking.

I didn't know that I was going to be in Calgary for most of April, so if I'd gotten a Scotia Square parking pass, I would have needed one for April and May... which would have run me around $300.

2 months in, $10 vs $300... not too shabby!

YES!!!!!!

2008-05-09T21:48:37Z

I'm going to see Nine Inch Nails in concert!!!!! August 5th, at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. 6th Row, lower bowl. Waaaaay back in the arena, but still.

NINE INCH NAILS!!!!!

YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!