Tagged: Friends
I know some brilliant people
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One of them is Skot Deeming aka mrghosty, who I met years ago through Tyrone and currently stalk via the interwebs since he moved away to Toronto and now to Montreal to earn his doctorate and become drghosty.
Today though he was in town to give an artist talk at Videopool about curating games and game-based networks as you can see in the above photo.
Because in addition to being a grad-and-now-phd student studying digital games (among other things) he's also interested in having conversations about games as art, the physicality of games, the ephemeral nature of pop-up arcades, and a multitude of other intellectual subjects pertaining to gaming that most of us don't think about day to day.
As an avid gamer myself I'm always interested in what Skot has to say, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to hear him speak.
My Toronto peeps should make a point to check out Vector Gave + Art Convergence Festival which runs Feb 19-23 and everyone should make a point to keep up with Skot's work is through his twitter @mrghostyx.
As always Skot, it was a pleasure seeing you and getting to witness all your smarts.
xox yr Shaner
"Enjoy the fuck out of it"
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is something that my friend Adam (on the right) says a lot.He's one of the most ridiculous people I know. Incredibly sweet and hilarious and rocks harder than anyone else, guaranteed.
Recently I was thinking "wtf am I going to do with 2014?"
'Cause even though it's a giant cliche a new year is always a decent reason to stop & reflect on yr life and where you want to go and etc
and I always try to take some time to think about wtf I want to do with myself.
To be honest, I'm working on being more positive.
But not in that fake way. I hate that shit.
That "like omg you guys it's SO. GREAT. HAHAHAHAHAHA OMG"
bullshitty way.
Fuck those chicks.
(and it's always chicks who act like that, isn't it?)
I'm talking about being like
"s'cool. I've got this, life.
I can handle this shit."
I'm going to do my best to not stress the f out when life gets tough
to channel my inner rock like Adam would do
and enjoy the fuck out of it.
Happy 2014 darlings
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2013 was a big year for yr girl and I spent NYE celebrating it in the best was possible -surrounded by amazing, lovely people. I drank too much sparkling wine, ate too many nachos, killed my feet dancing to great music, and managed to drag my tired self into the office today because (gasp) I missed being here while I was away on vacation.
Which was the biggest surprise of all.
Considering that I was unemployed for a good chunk of 2013, and the stress of getting a job that was only part-time, finding a new job, getting laid off from that job less than a month after starting with no explanation as to why and feeling so utterly hopeless -probably more so than I've ever felt- being able to roll into my work every day and spend my workday with really great people doing challenging and interesting things feels like such a stroke of luck that sometimes I wonder how I finagled my way to where I am.
Reading everyone else's posts it seems like 2013 was a bit tough for all of us.
Character building, if you will.
It's funny how a different number at the end of the calendar year gives us hope for something better. A chance to improve & get better.
We're kinda weird about time like that.
Either way, things are looking up for 2014 and I'm excited to get this party started.
Thanks, as always, for reading and hanging out on the internet with me. Happy 2014 to you!
xox yr girl Shaner
The Uniter Fiver
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Local university mag The Uniter is holding a competition called The Uniter Fiver where you can go n vote for your favourite artist ad they win stuff (I think?) and get some much-deserved local cred.I'm lucky enough to know not just one but two of the super-talented guys who submitted videos and even though you can only vote for one I'm gonna plug 'em both anyway, because they're both brilliant and they both deserve it:
"Crows" is a collaboration between Co-pilot, Mumbles and my friend Abstract Artform aka Shea M.
I met Shea through my friend Colin a few years back on a patio at Beachcomber's. In between charming all the waitresses and probably the waiters too he totally won us over as well.
After we'd had our fill of slushy drinks & beers he insisted that we go to karaoke at Saffron's on Corydon where we had one of the best, most random and entertaining nights ever.
In addition to being a sweet and unbelievably genuine person, Shae is also super-talented, and you should definitely vote for him.
Aband*nthecar is a one-man synthpop band aka my very dear friend John L. I don't know much about his music so here's his description of his setup for this video: I use a Boss RC-300 looping pedal with a single drum sample, the Little Phatty mainly for the arpeggiator, and the MicroKorg for the vocoder and leads.
I first met John several years ago when he was dating Kat, who is my best ladybro.
We were all at Wine Fest and ran into each other about 2/3's of the way through the night and even though everyone else decided to go off in search of more, differenter wines, John and our friend Teri and I decided to stand around the port table for close to an hour and drink there.
This move has basically become a staple of every Wine Fest since, and with good reason (port is great).
In addition to being one of my best friends and one of the cleverest and most outrageous people you could hope to meet, John writes some of the most charming and catchy tunes I know and you should definitely vote for him.
I don't actually know anyone from Bear Clones but they get a special spot in this post because of this cover of Faust from the epic 80's rock opera that almost nobody knows about Phantom of the Paradise.
I can't in good conscience tell you to vote for them since I'm plugging my friends, but I highly recommend you check out their stuff and definitely recommend that you watch Phantom of the Paradise.
Happy voting, and good luck boys!
xox yr Shaner
Another weekend in the bag
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dinner's almost ready and we're having a bunch of healthy stuff to try and balance all the shite we ate/drank earlier and the gym we skipped on Saturday
(whoops)
which happened because at the time we usually go to the gyme we were actually waking up in 'MERICUH.
Which if you had asked me more than 24hrs earlier I would have no expected, at all. But that's one of the great things about life is we don't always know what we're in for and sometimes it's bad but mostly it's awesome. At least for me, anyway.
Who would have known that upon completing my interview with fabulous local band Les Jupes and heading out to Garbonzo's for a beer tasting with some of my finest male friends that we would be planning a trip to Grand Forks to drink beer.
Yes, that's really the entire reason that we went.
We weren't even in the good 'ol US of A for 24hrs but managed to have a ridiculously good time nevertheless -we closed down JL Beers and were right back at 'er the next morning before departing back to my lovely country of origin.
I was impressed at the waitress who made fun of Adrian's accent with us, the selection of beer at Happy Harry's, the cheapness of the burgers at JL Beers, and the amount of fun that we managed to collectively jam into less than a day.
Thanks boys, I'm glad we're friends.
cc: the amazing @cenquist, @kenquist, @adriantrimble and of course the always-charming @tyronedeise. Love you all.
I bet you want to know why I'm watching 'Chocolat'
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The answer is that it's partially because it's on Netflix.
But mostly the answer is because back when I was fresh out of high school I knew a girl named Rae-Annon and it was her favourite movie if I recall correctly. If it wasn't, and I'm wrong, it was damn near her favourite because she talked about it a lot.
Even though she and I went to elementary school together, or maybe it was middle school I'm not sure anymore I knew who she was because she was the weird goth chick that my yuppie friends and I would look at from down the hall with big saucer-like eyes and wonder what could possess someone to dress that way.
(We, however, were dressed in as little as the school would let us get away with wearing without having to wear a garbage bag for a shirt and we were barely on our periods so who were the fucked-up ones, really?)
Anyway after high school we reconnected by chance because we both worked at the same McDonalds in Winnipeg Square where I wiled away a year of the year and a half between when I graduated and when I moved to Ontario.
She was way more self-assured and I didn't realize it at the time but I really looked up to her even though she had slightly hippie-er tendencies than me like not always shaving her armpits and talking about shakras and stuff.
She went to the East Coast for a month and brought me back a small bag of sea glass which I still have and treasure even though we haven't talked in years.
We used to hang out in her parent's basement which was basically her little pad and watch movies like East of Eden and Breakfast at Tiffany's and drink wine from a box and talk about the boys in our lives. She showed me how to paint watercolours and bought me a martini glass set for my 18th birthday and we had stupid made-up words like 'citag' that we used with each other because young girls are dumb that way.
She knew me back when I was still a pretty fucked-up mess and sometimes I feel bad about that.
We've completely lost touch over the years after a nasty falling out that was, largely and unsurprisingly, my fault. But when I think about those years I try not to think about the end, but rather the rest of it which was sweet and amazing and good.
So when I saw Chocolat on Netflix the other day I put in my queue and even though it's not a very good movie (which I didn't expect it to be) it's nice to remember her and my friendship that feels like a lifetime ago.
So hi Rae-Annon, if you're reading this.
Mushy Thanksgiving post
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Woke up today with a crick in my neck because T. was sleeping on it
with my arm wrapped around Tyrone
(mostly for warmth but also for love)
in my little apartment with the leaves turning red outside the window.
Ford was in the window but wouldn't come post for the picture so that's okay.
You know he was around
being difficult in his kitty way.
Yesterday we had brunch with Ty's family
at his sister's super cute new place
and I realized how much they've all come to mean to me
as we drove home down the highway and I looked out at all the
red and yellow fields and the big blue prairie sky.
(Also living in the prairies. I love it here)
Almost every day I'm reminded somehow of how lucky I am to have the friends that I do
(honestly, I really know the best people
who are hilarious, smart, creative, outrageous, and largely inappropriate)
but on Friday night we played Catan with two of the people I've known the longest
since I was
what
13, 14? Something like that.
Which reminded me of how much my friends mean to me
and how far some of us have come together.
Tonight I'll call up my Mum
tell 'er I love'r
talk to my dad who will undoubtedly tell me some crazy story
and keep me on the phone for way too long.
I love them despite their craziness
but it doesn't need to be Thanksgiving for that to be obvious.
Obviously.
And Tyrone
who I'm thankful for every god damn day
for more reasons than I can and should list here
like hugs, inside jokes, long drives, morning runs, his beard and moustache
always having fun even when doing the most boring, mundane stuff
but especially the eggs benedict that he just made for me.
yum.
happy Thanksgiving kids, be thankful for what ya got!
I sure as hell am.
We're helping Adrian move tomorrow afternoon
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which Tyrone says he isn't excited about but I think he's lying because it's brilliant when someone gets to move into their own place and you get to share that with them.Carrying be damned.
I moved out for the first time when I was 19 because I was sick of living in the suburbs and was fighting with my mom a lot. I don't remember what we fought about but it was awful and we were both awful and some friends were moving out together and I just kinda went
'Can I get in on this action?'
and they said yes and like two weeks later I was living in a house which was too big for the three of us and way too expensive for me but I didn't care. I walked to and from my minumum-wage job at the video game store in the mall and existed on a single small bag of salt n vinegar chips and an orange juice on the days that I worked and a few perogies on the days that I wasn't. Sometimes I had sour cream if I was lucky.
I lost a ton of weight and slept and drank way too much but it didn't matter.
Though a few months in I wound up moving to Ontario which was an even bigger shock.
Except there I was miserable and ate n drank all the time and put on all the weight I'd lost and then some.
Eventually I moved home.
I moved back in with my parents and my mum and I got along but once you've had that taste of independence it's hard to let it go, I think, so within a year I moved out on my own again and have been ever since.
I had my tiny character suite in an old building in Osborne Village and now I have my big-ass character suite in an old building in West Broadway which I love to pieces, which is also why I encouraged Adrian to move in here, too.
And by 'encouraged' I mean 'harassed him and the caretaker nonstop about it until it happened' which it has and everyone wins.
Adrian gets a super-cool bachelor pad right near campus.
My caretaker knows he has a decent tenant that he doesn't have to worry about.
And I get a new neighbour one floor down who loves beer, good food and has a super-cute accent.
Did I mention he's also single?
My life is about to become a sitcom.
I wrote a big mushy post full of feels just now
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but I deleted it all because it was silly.
I don't need to write a big blog post about how
amazing
hilarious
stupid
offensive
and imperfectly
perfect
all my friends are
I assume that the photos and stories I share here and on other social media platforms convey that well enough.
But they deserve one anyway.
Even if it's only a short n sweet one to say
my friends are the best friends.
FEELS EVERYWHERE.
Last night: a recap
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Gord and Karley threw a wicked shaker and I stayed up way too late which has resulted in a do-nothing Sunday which I really, really needed.
We did a bunch of tequila shots and it wasn't Jose Cuervo tequila which means that I didn't immediately throw up after doing it. Gord did, though, and that made me feel good about myself.
For a long time there was a Songza playlist on which was playing Rhianna and Britney Spears and nobody noticed until I brought it up and then we listened to gangster rap.
Kat and I made these wontons with shrimp and cream cheese and other good stuff in them and they were amazing and I ate too many of them and actually had to leave the kitchen so I would stop shoving them in my gullet.
I tried to learn to play cribbage and failed horribly.
Gord showed me how to make a tart except there were no eggs for the dough and we almost forgot about it in the oven and I don't actually know what happened to it after that. Did someone eat it?
Karley informed me that the sign of a functioning nuclear family unit is half-completed butterfly puzzles on the table and I almost peed myself laughing.
While on a walk to get smokes for Karley I kicked this weird box that had a pipe running to it from a fire hose and nothing happened so we walked across the street and then a weird man yelled WHAT ARE YOU DOING at us from his porch and we ran away.
This photo of Tyrone and I was taken and I fucking love how cute we are.
Realizing that the word 'enjoy' on their wedding invites was spelled 'engoy' and I laughed so hard I had to lie down on the floor for a second.
We also got totally lost on the way back and Gord didn't believe me when I found his street because you can't see the gazebo they have set up on their front lawn from two blocks away.
Ty bought me a chicken tendercrisp sandwich from Burger King and while we were in the drive-thru line some guy in an SUV passed out while waiting for his food so the line didn't move for a long time. I eventually got my sandwich, though.
Which brings us to today.
I was supposed to hang with my mum today and go have lunch in the Exchange District but she cancelled which means I've been lying around in my underpants watching Quentin Tarantino movies which is, it turns out, the only thing I'm capable of doing after last night.
Thanks, Gord and Karley Obama.
