Category Archives: Personal Bits

Just things from my personal life

Things I’ve learned in the last 48 hours:

Personal Bits, Toronto

Trash wanders through Cabbagetown. The city does pick up large trash if you call them and ask specific direct questions. And if you put a bag of plastic hangers outside your door, it will dissapear within minutes. However, for every item you put to the curb to magically make dissapear, an equal mass of cigarette wrappers will wind up inside your front hall vestibule, making a vaguely cute a tornado swirl every time you open your door.

I am in a mortal war with food packets.
On my trip down to Miami last year, I nearly doused myself and Sharkboy with Marinara sauce for my Air Canada sandwich. If we were sitting in regular seats and not the emergency leg room row, we would have covered our nice “travellin’ duds” in red sauce. Last night the enemy attacked again, spraying vinegar all over my backpack instead of my fries. At least I smelled clean all during improv class.

My company hates me.
2 days ago I found a pre-print draft of our consumer newsletter with the following amendment from a contest we were running: “Sorry! Our web designer forgot to put one of our packages in this contest on our site… (bla bla bla)” Of course, I had nothing to do with this and wasn’t presented any web amendments regarding upcoming contests. I brought this up with my boss and he promised to change it. He joked that they were going to put this as the main story, front page. “Great! OUR WEBMASTER SUCKS! in war-time font!” I said, sarcastically. His phone rang and that was that.

My coworker likes me. Today my print layout coworker taps me on the shoulder and shows me the offensive retraction showing our clients how much of a forgetful jerk I am. “Nothing like the blame game, eh? Did you know about this?” she asks. I said I knew of it but wasn’t responsible for the upload error. I didn’t mention that our boss was going to change it. She turns to her keyboard and removes “our web designer” and places “We” instead. “That’s horrid.” she says. She went right over someone’s head doing that. And I thank her.

Moving Day

Personal Bits

I’m all in at House RoboShark after a nearly uneventful move. I say nearly because it seemed like all day I was deflecting things that could have made the day …interesting.

Like the two dimwits who showed up at my door, sent from the moving company I usually call. They had about 4 neurons between them left (years of pot smoking, I’m sure) and had to be told 6 times (three each) that “this pile is going to the locker, this pile is going to the new apartment”. This is my third move with this company (think of their name as having a couple numbers in it, a gender, and an organ) and if I use them again, I will ask that I get persons who can retain a thought longer than 43 seconds.

Or the super who wanted my apartment key the moment all my stuff was out of the apartment a week before the end of the month. “Sure!” I gleefully say, “I guess that means you’re going to clean the place and repaint that one orange wall.” Her face went lemon-sucked. Nope. Dang.

Or the elevator to the storage locker that died as soon as we arrived. I looked at the storage manager with saucer eyes when he said that he would have to call in a service tech and I pointed to the stoners in the van: “These guys are hourly. And they’re not completely on the same page as us, if you get my drift.” After some fiddling, the elevator worked for 2 out of three loads down. Whew!

Sharkboy and I hung shelves and art and then reorgainized closet space with minimal griping. Lordy that man has a lot of clothes. I use to think my dad was clothes crazy. Meesh was goodwilling fluffy cow print shirts and shiny slinky dress shirts (thankfully) left right and centre.

At the end of the day, comfy cozy in my our bed (we tossed Sharkboy’s 20 year old matress for my 5 year old one), drifting off to sleep, Sharkboy mumbles “Welcome home.”

The Innocent Eye Test – A 35 Second Review

Celebs and Media, Personal Bits, Toronto

I’ve asked Shelly to take a break from the reviewing seeing how this is my brother and all.

The Innocent Eye Test was the fart that Healey needed to release. Actually referring to people’s perchance to build up hate, the “fart” monologue turns out to be the most thoughtful and meaningful moment in this farce. Michael needed to get this play out there as he ventures into different writing genres. A typical Healey play is abundant with well written actrobatic comedy and Eye doesn’t dissapoint. However I’ve always equated “farce” with “Blake Edwards” (the later, forced, unfunny Blake) and this “farce” doesn’t dissapoint me in that way either.

Eye has all you’d expect in a farce: entrances, exits, slamming doors and mistaken identities, deftly handled by Christopher Newton (as an emerging actor, Michael sent Mr Newton a series of letters over a period of a year and later adapted it into a novella called “Dear Mr Newton” making Eye a bit of a cyclic moment for Healey). Eye had typical production woes as well, made evident by the loud mouthed patron behind me, eager to explain to whomever what scenes were re-written from the Winnipeg production, including the ending! Well thank you, you schmuck! Why not pull out your cell phone and do a play-by-play while you’re at it. And yeah, I know Kate Lynch too.

Eye pulls from my family life with low level reconnaisance accuracy (without giving away much of the plot): the gay husband on vacation, the Italian setting – a possible reference to my mother, my brother’s facination for the city of Vegas, vast amounts of drinking, and of course, the signature “lead character’s pants off in the saftey of their room” moment. I’m probably reading too much into all that but it’s easy to see where he’s getting his inspriation. Is my family a farce?

Who’s isn’t, when you take parts of it and put it up on stage?

In all, an excellent evening. I did find some of the Canadian vs American dialogue a bit atypical, almost mirrored from any episode of The Rick Mercer Report, but the majority of the play was brilliantly written, if I do say so myself. I have to mention the excellent work on the set design and lighting. In a farce, characters enter and exit with bravado and to have the cast all pour through Mona Lisa’s eye was a stroke of genius.

I give Innocent Eye Test an unbiased 4 out of 5.

Digging Around The Server

Personal Bits

I’m cleaning house and I’ve come across some pics not in the gallery, and thought I’d share them with you:

too slow

I dont know what this was for…

wiggly

I remember I had this one on my first blog. Always made me laugh.

farty

Lordy I was skinny! Lordyx2 Andrew had a lot of stuff.

huh?

I have no idea…

Sharkboy Jr.

Personal Bits

Please welcome into our non-typical family: Mankyfish!

Mankyfish!

That’s right, Sharkboy and I are now freakishly proud parents of a tetra fighting fish with the rattiest tail ever.

I feed, Sharkboy cleans and we have full on rights to Maternity Parking at Canadian Tire.

The Room in My Head

Personal Bits

Int: a dark room with a ratty couch that has seen better days. Diet Coke cans, pizza boxes and porn DVDs litter the floor. Across from the couch is a large HDTV that projects image feeds from Ted’s eyes.

We pan across the front of the couch, revealing a version of a chubby, disheveled Ted, wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt that says “Stomach” in Batman-esque henchmen lettering. Beside Stomach is Ted again wearing a clean shirt emblazened with “Reason”. And finally, beside him, is a third Ted, skinny, weasel-like, wearing a shirt with “Penis” across it. Reason has a PS2 controller in his hand.

POV: cut to over the shoulder shot of Stomach, Reason and Penis as they watch the TV. POV shot on the screen of a crowded mall.

Stomach: Can we eat that?

Reason: Please. It’s a bank machine.

Penis: Can we put me in it?

Reason: Where? In the deposit slot? Honestly you two are too much. Can’t we just get the body home without base and animal distractions…

Penis: Bah! You are one fuckin’ ice queen, you know that?

Reason: (rolls eyes)

Stomach: Are we going to pass by the food court? It’s been at least–

Penis: HOT COP! LOOK! HOT COP!

Stomach: Can we eat him?

Reason: I have to admit, I wouldn’t mind getting his attention.

Penis: WAVE AT HIM! YELL AT HIM! THROW SOMETHING AT HIM!

Stomach: Put him in our mouth!

Reason: Stop it both of you! I am walking away normally. (He wrenches the controller to the left – the TV lurches left)

Penis/Stomach: NOOOO!