GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS
Ahh... my pledge to write at least one article a day this week kind of fizzled out. Goddamn it. I've just been getting out more... mainly going on quests to various Zellers and Toys R' Us stores around suburban Ottawa, searching, in vain, for some kind of cheap but nice Maisto 1/18 or 1/24 scale "Assembly Line" model of a 1961 Ferrari 250GT California a.k.a. "the Ferris Bueller's Day Off car" (though the Ferrari they drove around in the movie was really a couple of converted MGB's with a mock-up Ferrari shell).Goddamn it. You'd think Ferrari models would be easier to find at Toys R' Us and Zellers, but the large pre-assembled model car section now is dominated by "Bling Bling" Pimp Your Ride-type models and souped-up Ricers. There's nary a prancing horse to be seen anywhere. I know goddamned well that I'm not the only guy out there who likes collecting model Ferraris, so you'd think more of the sort of model car companies that sell their models through mainstream retailers rather than super-expensive hobby stores would spend a few more dollars to get the Ferrari license.
Tomorrow (Saturday), I'm probably not going to write anything as I want to leave the house "early" (like around 2 p.m.... early for me) so I can make a little jaunt across the Ottawa River to Gatineau, the city formerly known as Hull, because that's where the only remaining Toys R' Us in the Ottawa area that I haven't checked is (and it's on the same block as a Renaud-Bray bookstore, which means I'll be in French-translated manga heaven for the first time in ages, since the downtown Montreal Renaud-Bray had closed down by the time I visited last month).
Also, I've taken a break from playing Star Ocean: 'Till the End of Time, but only to play Kingdom Hearts II, which I've rented from Merivale Blockbuster from a week. And I'm having a good time too. I mean, yes, it's a bit easy for a 31-year old man, but it is aimed primarily at a younger target audience than even Final Fantasy, and it's getting harder as it goes along. I swore a couple of times at a couple of literal monster cars (reminiscent of the car in Tetsuo's living nightmare in Akira) in a very clever black-and-white level based on very early Disney cartoons. And I have a few Disney games for the Sega Genesis, but I still haven't gotten over the novelty value of playing an RPG where the main supporting characters in your party are Donald Duck and Goofy. And I also dig that Hades from Hercules sounds astonishingly like Mike Toreno from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (naturally, he would, since they're both voiced by Hollywood actor James Woods, who also played Hades in the original Disney Hercules film). My main complaint so far is that the Mulan portion of the game follows the plot of the film very closely, presenting a condensed version of the original film's story rather than a side story like some of the other movie-based levels, except Mulan/Ping barely did crap in the fights and let Sora do all of the work while she got all of the praise from the Emperor of China.
Anyhow,
GOOD NEWS
I haven't talked here much about our precarious financial situation or why we've been living off the money we received from selling our house in Pincourt. I was once set to tell the entire story, but my parents told me not to, as it's embarrasing (and one of my parents wants to use it as the basis of a book). I think I can say that it's a cautionary tale about the Internet/tech bubble and knowing when to quit pursuing dreams that don't pan out into anything tangible.
Anyway, I don't think I should give details about what just happened, but I think I can say this: after two years of frustration, some degree of depression, worrying, and just nothing much happening on the job, we've turned the corner and we'll finally be getting a proper income again. Let's just say that, while I don't think I'd ever be able to show you a photo of a Ferrari on our driveway,
not counting "forced perspective" shots of my Ferrari 550 Maranello model from Maisto,
things are definitely looking up for us.
Also, I got a positive letter in the mail from the Ontario government confirming that I can get the full assistance I need to integrate myself fully into society and, ultimately, get a job and back into school.
BAD NEWS
For the past little while, and it got worse starting around Saturday the 28th of July, I've had a toothache, on the top right molar. Starting pretty much soon after I got my wisdom teeth taken out in September 2002, I noticed a groove in the back of that tooth, probably left over from where the wisdom tooth dug into it a bit. Over the past couple of years, it went from groove to cavity, but I really didn't have the resources to do much about it. Last month, apparently, the whole crown of the tooth split in two, and there's a lot of pulp exposed.
The following week (though several days after, since I postponed leaving the house because of the incredible heat wave late last month), I went to an emergency dental clinic to have it looked at. The good news there is that I don't have to get a root canal again. The bad news is that I have to get the whole tooth extracted, leaving me with just 30 teeth, or, more precisely, 30 and a forth due to my still having 1 side of the molar at the other side of the mouth that I had the root canal on in the spring of 2003 and which fractured soon after. And they couldn't just pull the tooth right there and then because the roots of my teeth are especially long and twisted and they had to refer me to a specialist, who I don't even see for a consultation until the end of this month. Until then, I'm on painkillers (just Ibuprofen, like Advil but stronger... I'm not going to go all Rush Limbaugh on you and get hooked on Oxycontin) and penicillin.
I don't think it's the only reason I haven't been in much of a writing mood lately, but it's certainly a contributing factor.
To leave this entry on a positive note, we're back to the summer temperatures I prefer here in Ottawa... temperatures that feel more like autumn. It's only 10ºC (50ºF) outside right now, and the daytime temperatures are low 20's (high 60's). This is great sleeping weather, so I think that's what I shall do now.
posted by Steve Brandon @ 4:25 AM
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