Well, I don't feel like updating today.

However, I also know that if I don't write this now, I'd probably let it slide for a week, or a month, or something stupid like that, so I'm going to write stuff. Topics will include the Toronto Chase and the first week of class, in particular my ENG511 -- the art of writing life.

The Toronto Chase was put together by Jeff Chapman and his long-time friend Andrea. It was loosely based on TV's "The Amazing Race" but all took place within Toronto. First they scheduled it for the Labour Day weekend, which was just silly. Then they moved it, so I said I'd go and offered to bring friends. I ended up having Jesse and Wai as my teammates. I think as far as knowledge of downtown Toronto goes, it was quite well-rounded (except for one or two parts).

We met at Dundas Square (like, right near Ryerson anyways) and after everyone showed up (there were 5 teams) we were given small "brochures" and told to pass them out at Yonge and Dundas, the busiest intersection in Canada (if I recall correctly), and someone there would give us our clue. Jesse immediately noticed a guy who was alone and standing still, so passing out one brochure we acquired our first clue.

The clues were of a cryptic nature rather than purely directional, which actually made this game quite different in style from The Amazing Race. If we couldn't figure out a clue in our case, we'd just be boned. Anyways, we had to do some stuff in the Eaton Centre eventually having to go to a parking garage. None of us had ever parked at the Eaton Centre or known where parking was. Yes, we were allowed to ask directions, however most of the staff of Sears gave very poor advice (to take the elevator in Sears, blah blah).

Frustrated on the subway

Unsuccessfully hiding from other groups at EXILE

We lost some time here, but the next clue led us to Kensington Market where we saw several other teams. We figured out a clue that had a lot of people stuck (there were two stores named EXILE, referred to by an element of the clue), and got a clue reading "Find the King of Kensington". Stuff we found:

• Patty King restaurant
• Sea King's fish market
• Crown restaurant
• A guy who told us to search in an artifact store for a crown
• Small Elvis toys in various toy/junk shops
• A stuffed bear wearing a crown in front of a bubble tea store

So, basically we went into most stores in Kensington Market. Then we saw Liz's team who were clearing up some confusion about the previous clue with Jeff via cellphone. It was a real mess. The ultimate result however, was that we followed Liz's team to the next street over from Kensington Market to a statue of Al Waxman in a park. I learned the next day that Al Waxman had a television show back in the day called "The King of Kensington" or something like that. This clue was my least favourite.

Making lemonade with Mr. Waxman

Free door-to-door lemonade

Jesse holds his torch high

Jesse barbecues a sub

Deciphering our last clue

At Mr. Waxman's statue, Andrea was waiting for us to make lemonade, and she provided us with lemons, a jug, a spoon, sugar, paper and markers. We had to make lemonade and get ten people to sign saying it was the best lemonade. Wai made the sign, Jesse made the lemonade, and I took some pictures. After getting some signatures in the park, we tried offering free lemonade door-to-door. That didn't work so well, but eventually the job was done. I drank some of the extra lemonade, and it was actually pretty good. So Jesse was useful during the race -- several times, believe it or not.

Our next clue was to get a torch near Broadview and have someone run it to Pape, and arrive in my brother's friend's backyard with an uncooked souvlaki or kebob. Jesse ran while Wai and I got a stick and a submarine sandwich that we later cooked on a barbecue in said backyard. Me and Wai broke it in half, and it was actually okay. I remind you that we'd barbecued a pizza during the big blackout last year.

We identified our position by this point. There was one team far in front that we hadn't seen all day, one team minutes in front, and two teams minutes behind. For some ding-dong reason, the team immediately behind us abandoned all hope and quit. They may have killed themselves or something, I'm not sure. I might ask a guy.

Anyways, we had to go to High Park and solve a puzzle using animals' scientific names. Wai knew his way around, so it was quick. It ended up being a word scramble, which ended up being "BIG BOAT TO CENTRE ISLAND". We took a route out of there just because it seemed convenient at the time, but it ended up being a wonderfully fast way to go. Jesse's knowledge of the waterfront area helped us get to the boat quickly. We got on (with some hesitation, heh) and I noticed that the team nobody had seen all day because they were so far ahead was sitting directly across from us on the ferry to Centre Island. I got pumped.

"Wow... if we kill or otherwise pass these people, we will be in first! Or, hey, even if we can't, we'll be in second out of five! That's pretty awesome!" -Kyle's brain

So we got off the boat, we couldn't exactly fight them (there were children around) and they had better spots, so they won by steps. Then it turns out they were the third team. The other two teams that hadn't dropped out both just reasoned the answer based on the logo (which featured a shopping bag, a lemon, a fire, a tree, and a boat) which we'd never paid much attention to, or based on some likelihood of which letters would end up in the word scramble. Anyone who knew that the scientific name of the American Bison is "Bison Bison" could've skipped the whole High Park part with a little mental finesse and attentiveness.

Group picture at the end of the race

So, only the team that was in first and beat us by steps and our own team actually did every item we were supposed to do, but ultimately we finished last. Except one team dropped out, so we kind of finished second last. And two teams skipped parts of the race, so it feels like we're in second. Altogether, however we finished, we had fun and were happy we did the freakin' stuff.

Jesse and I have given a slight amount of consideration to knocking it off into a Pickering-area, foot-travelling version before I move away. We haven't given it that much consideration though.

Oh yeah. I'm moving closer to downtown in early November. Heh, funny that I didn't mention that before.

As for my classes, it's been a week of class now, and I made some changes. Right now my schedule is like this:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8-9	Comparative languages
9-10					Music
10-11				Graphics
11-12	Music				Data Comm
12-1
1-2	Graphics lab		Algorithms
2-3
3-4			Comparative languages
4-5				Algorithms
5-6		Algorithms lab		Data Comm

And the wonderful thing is that due to idiocy, the labs are indefinitely cancelled. They took all the computers out of the Rogers Communication Center and haven't quite finished the new building, plus we know there will be things screwed up when that finally happens. Anyways, the CPS511 lab is entirely optional anyways, it's just time to do our work. The other one -- the one at the fuckin' stupid time -- is important. Well, whatever.

I switched into MUS501 from ENG511. MUS501 is a study of music from different cultures around the world, and fits nicely into my timetable. ENG511 was a little worse for my timetable, and it sounded fun at first... y'know, a course about private journals. How to write things that aren't necessarily for reading... it sounded like it would be a topic of a lot of interesting discussion.

Really though, the course is about biography, autobiography, people's lives, the things people write about... not how to make it fun... not how to make it good... and not even especially about why people do it, it seems. The course was formerly titled "the art of diary" and I guess that scared off a lot of males. The class had a lot of women in it, and that's quite okay by me. Very okay by me. However, one must always cater to their audience to hold interest, and as such the course seems to have a bit of a feminist leaning.

Feminism doesn't bother me. Rather, it is good. The only thing that bothers me is the term itself, where sexual equality or something would be a much more fitting term. As my former inspirado, Kat Angus, once wrote (not a direct quote, probably misinterpreted... AGAIN), feminism is about equality more than about girl power and exposing and exploiting the utter uselessness of men. It would be like calling racial equality blackism. Or perhaps people who think all cutlery should be used at a meal could be supporters of spoonerism. Hm.
It's just... not descriptive, and certainly not accurately descriptive. Whatever, total tangent.

So, yeah, ENG511 involved readings of a Sylvia Plath biography (not bad), The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston (which I was a little nervous about discussing), the sentimental and "why can't all men be like that"-provoking A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, and the Diary of Anne Frank. That last bit wouldn't be bad either except the teacher couldn't help but more than once mention Anne's emergence as a sexual being... I'm not all crazy and prudent, y'know? The problem is rather that I'm the other extreme. I make fucking penis jokes. All the time, too. I'd even make a humourous observational statement about using the word "fucking" as an adjective describing "penis" if somebody else said it.

Anyways, I can't help but think that any discussions that I participated in would get me mentally slapped by about 40 women. A room full of women reading the private experiences of women reflecting on being women. Hey, it happens, and I welcome that, but I cannot be a part of it and I'd be just downright uncomfortable experiencing that as an observer. I hope somebody considers it noble that I can admit that.

I also feel it wouldn't help me grow as a writer. More and more I feel that I need to get pissed off more to be a better writer, more like I was at the end of high school. The problem with that is that in high school, I hated everything.

Ahem.

I don't give a fuck if I can write well.
That said, I'm going to continue doing this shit.
Futhermore, I'm going to continue to swear, if only in writing. Peace out.