This and that
We had a decent time in Toronto last weekend, even though it was pretty low-key. Other than food, gas, and a couple drinks, we really didn't buy much of anything. I bought an Aero bar, a foamed chocolate delicacy that Canada cruelly witholds from the Hershey's-eating savages lurking on their southern border. It's probably for the best that we DON'T have them here, or I'll have to spend most of my waking hours in the gym, working off the chocolate.
On Monday my staff manager from my contract house took a bunch of us to lunch at Mongolian BBQ. Those things are always so awkward. In a group of usually 7-10 people, maybe 2 of them work together. The only thing any of us have in common is our employer and our office location, and our only common point of contact is the staff manager. Invariably, lunchtime consists of eating and awkward silences, with a background whirring of mental gears as everyone desperately tries to think of something to say. I made an effort to get some conversation going about the holidays, the various changes at Mongolian BBQ since they first opened the chain, and other trivia, but without continuous maintenance it lapsed back into meditative silence. I managed to get a few laughs with various witty remarks, but the conversational inertia was too great to overcome. Still, it was free food, and I stuck to only one bowl so I wouldn't succumb to food coma.
After the gym I caught up on last Friday's BSG episode. It was almost as intense as the previous one, but I don't really like Kat's character all that much, and the focus was on her. The scenes with Baltar and the Cylons were really intriguing, especially the bit with the hybrid that controls the base ship. It was also a relief to see Baltar finally acting clearheaded and confident instead of perpetually on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Later I was kept distracted by the marathon of The Lost Room miniseries which, despite being confusing initially because we didn't see the first couple episodes, turned out to be really good. The final episode is tonight at 9pm, so I'm going to try to catch it. I'm kind of glad it's a miniseries instead of a regular show, otherwise they'd spend years dragging out the main character's quest to rescue his daughter, and that kind of thing gets tedious after awhile. Still, the premise would make for a great RPG story, possibly using GURPS or World of Darkness.
One more week til Aruba!
On Monday my staff manager from my contract house took a bunch of us to lunch at Mongolian BBQ. Those things are always so awkward. In a group of usually 7-10 people, maybe 2 of them work together. The only thing any of us have in common is our employer and our office location, and our only common point of contact is the staff manager. Invariably, lunchtime consists of eating and awkward silences, with a background whirring of mental gears as everyone desperately tries to think of something to say. I made an effort to get some conversation going about the holidays, the various changes at Mongolian BBQ since they first opened the chain, and other trivia, but without continuous maintenance it lapsed back into meditative silence. I managed to get a few laughs with various witty remarks, but the conversational inertia was too great to overcome. Still, it was free food, and I stuck to only one bowl so I wouldn't succumb to food coma.
After the gym I caught up on last Friday's BSG episode. It was almost as intense as the previous one, but I don't really like Kat's character all that much, and the focus was on her. The scenes with Baltar and the Cylons were really intriguing, especially the bit with the hybrid that controls the base ship. It was also a relief to see Baltar finally acting clearheaded and confident instead of perpetually on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Later I was kept distracted by the marathon of The Lost Room miniseries which, despite being confusing initially because we didn't see the first couple episodes, turned out to be really good. The final episode is tonight at 9pm, so I'm going to try to catch it. I'm kind of glad it's a miniseries instead of a regular show, otherwise they'd spend years dragging out the main character's quest to rescue his daughter, and that kind of thing gets tedious after awhile. Still, the premise would make for a great RPG story, possibly using GURPS or World of Darkness.
One more week til Aruba!