Juggling Mike

Well, after a long time of thinking about it, I finally decided to quit my job. I have been there since February 4th, 2001. I know almost everybody and I have made many friends. It is going to be really hard to say goodbye to everybody, but it is something that has to be done. I have accepted an offer as a programmer somewhere else, and it will be quite an adjustment. While I studied and have worked as a programmer, I have spent the last 2 and a half years working as an Integration Specialist/Web Designer. The good thing is that I really needed this challenge and change of pace.

Ever since I broke up with my ex, I felt like I needed some variations in my life to get out from under her shadow. I did several things since we split to move my life around, and they all helped, but I didn’t do anything drastic. Worse of all, I realized I was becoming a workaholic and I would end up doing crazy hours at work. While that resulted in me not spending much time at home (which brought back unwanted memories), it also made me avoid my family and friends. Once I realized what I was becoming, I was lucky to come upon a series of fortunate events and perfect timings to result in this new scenario.

I believe in fate, and I guess one sign that I did the right decision was the fact that the same day I quit, my friend called me up to tell me that my ex was getting married (with the undead warlock she fell in love with behind my back). While it was not necessarily news I cared to hear, I figured it was the sign I needed to prove to myself that this was the right decision. So while it may turn sour in the end, I’m pretty pleased of my decision. Add the fact that I will be in Europe in between the two jobs, and I think I will be more than ready for the new challenge.

So while I will miss all my friends I worked with, I will do my best not to lose touch.
I have a lot of good memories at that place and I don’t plan to forget them.
Here’s to a brand new start!

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I have a lot of stuff on my mind these days. My brain is constantly swirling with ideas and thoughts, about the present and future, about happiness and sadness. Today was particularily bad. I pretty much went through every emotion their possibly is, almost all at once. It was like a giant hairball; just that instead of hair, it was my emotions. Sounds ridiculous, I know. You figure that when you have every emotion, you tend to get an even amount of both good and bad, so that in the end, you are neutral… but not tonight. I am mostly stressed. And stress is more of a negative emotion. At least, in my case, and at least, at this present time.

In order to forget all these emotions, and recuperate some joyous emotions, I like to go take a walk. I put on my headphones, turn on my mp3 player and I go walking. Tonight I went out in the dark, but the temperature was just perfect. The first song that swam through my head was a very chill song (by Air, if you were curious) and it just relaxed me for the walk ahead. I have noise isolating earbuds. They don’t emit the hum the other ones do, they just properly fit your ear so that you get less outside noise. One particular cool thing about my buds tonight was the fact that with every car that passed by, the sound that would come through made it sound like wave, hitting the shores of a beach. This invoked memories of my family on the east coast and the beaches there. I was in audio nirvana.

Overall, the walk did me a lot of good, and I considered coming back home, grabbing my juggling balls and going back out to juggle as I walked. While it was definately tempting, I decided against, and coming in to go to bed earlier. I’m hoping tomorrow I will be able to go ut with my friend and play frisbee or soccer or something. Summer is almost over and we need to take advantage of it! If only there were more hours in a day…

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After nearly a year of waiting, I will soon be gone to Europe. This is my first time in Europe since I was around 18 months old, so everything will be new to me. That is why, I am asking you, dear readers (yes all 7 of you), if you have any places to reccomend, or any advice in general. We will be four people, although we won’t be all together the entire time. Here is our itinerary:

Ireland, Dublin - 2 days (2 guys)
Pub crawl!

Ireland, Cork - 1 day (2 guys)
Not sure what to do in Cork.. we won’t be here long.

Netherlands, Amsterdam - 4 days (2 guys)
I have two friends living there at the moment, plus it just looks like a crazy fun place to be.

Germany, Baden Baden - 3 days (3 guys, 1 girl)
Going to visit where my parents lived when I was born.

Switzerland, Interlaken - 3 days (3 guys, 1 girl)
Going to go try to go on top of a glacier. I’ve heard tops of glaciers are very photogenic.

Austria, Vienna - 3 days (3 guys)
I’m lucky Mark lives in Austria and he could recommend me some nice places to go visit!

Germany, Munich - 3 days (3 guys)
One word: Oktoberfest!

Germany, Cologne - 3 days (3 guys)
No idea what to expect here, but I was told the train station was nice.

If anybody has some recommendations, do not hesitate to add in the comments below.

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This is what happens when you get bored at work. I started writing a story with a coworker in which we would add a sentence after the other and create a small story. The end result makes about zero sense. It is the story of Repunzel, who hates her name and decides to leave her kingdom. She gets chased by an evil cow and a flying frog is sent to the rescue. This is the kind of stuff Hollywood can only dream of!

It ends a bit abruptly, but I wanted the story to take no more than a day to write. Since it is too long for the main page, click the link after the first paragraph to read the rest of the story.

Reppy’s Story by Juggling Mike and Miz N
Once upon a time lived a girl named Repunzel. She hated her name, so she made her friends call her Bobby. But then she had an identity crisis and changed her name back to Reppy, it was cute and original. Fearing that her parents would hate her new name, she decided to leave town with a rabbit named Toonsie. Toonsie was a good companion and eventually together they met other animals with weird names, for example a duck named Dongle and a cow named HorsesRule. Of course, in cow tongue, HorsesRule actually meant “Is Superior to Horses”, and although it did not know it yet, the cow was destined to overrule all horses in the country. Reppy became friends with the cow, but after a while she started seeing the glint of evil in its eyes and decided to leave the pastures where HorsesRule hung out. What Reppy didn`t realize, was that the cow was never too far behind no matter where she went. One day, Reppy and Toonsie stumbled upon a tall mountain covered with pink flowers. But since Reppy was allergic to flowers, especially those of the pink variation, they decided to go to Ninja Town instead. Ninja Town was home to the Ninja Turtles, who ruled the town with an iron fist. Deciding to save the citizens of NinjaTown, Dongle, who was a duck fu master, decided to take all the Ninja Turtles head on. Dongle first faced the leader of the turtles, Leonardo, and in an unexpected move that drew cheers from all over the town square, swallowed the turtle whole. With the leader gone, the other turtles melted into a pile of goo and the city was freed from the grasp of the evil reptiles. Happy with the outcome, Reppy decided it was time to move on, not realising the evil cow, who changed her name to Moozor to sound more evil, was following her again.
Continue Reading »

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I saw the French Quebecois movie “Les 3 P’tits Cochons” tonight. I really had no clue what to expect before watching this. All I knew was that it had been getting good ratings, and well, most French movies with good ratings are actually good. The movie deals with infidelity and revolves around three brothers. Their mother falls sick and ends in a coma. As the three brothers are reunited, they speak about their lives and their marriages. One of them is tempted to cheat on his wife, and one brother urges him on and the other warns him to stop. As most men, lust overpowers common sense, and the cheating begins. Although he’s confident he won’t get caught, the inevitable occurs and hell breaks loose. At the same time, the idea of infidelity is passing through the heads of both other brothers.

(Click the picture for the trailer in French)

The entire story intertwines and it feels a bit like the classic child’s story The Three Little Pigs. The narrative is excellent, and there are a lot of funny moments. This is the type of movie that will touch people in different ways. I’m sure a lot of people will be able to relate to this movie, either on the infidelity issue, or just seeing a marriage in trouble. I saw a lot of couples hugging or smiling with each other after the movie.

That led me to wonder.. how loyal are people out there? There could have easily been a couple in the audience in which one was so happy that their couple is so strong, while the other is feeling shameful for having cheated on their partner. It is crazy how everybody these days seem to be cheating.. or hell, maybe not, but sometimes it sure damn feels like it. I think we all know somebody who has cheated on somebody else. Hell, I know somebody. I’ve always thought of myself as a loyal person, but who’s to say that if I fall in love that the other person might go fooling around behind my back? Hell, maybe I would even get the urge at one point. What the hell is wrong with us? Why can’t we magically find that perfect person for us and just be happy for the rest of our lives? Then again, if we keep on thinking about infidelity for the rest of our lives, we’re just going to have a relationship burnout. You need two trusting people, and that can take a while to find.

Sorry for the rant, and feel free to post your comments on the subject. I highly recommend you see this movie. It is definitely a conversation starter!

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I’m not a huge fan of french rap, but I quite like the band Zebda. Their big hit, which may not have been very popular unless you live in a french area, was “Tomber la Chemise” a couple of years back, but the one song that really hooked me was “Oualalaradime”. It wasn’t the song in itself that I liked, but more the video clip. I caught it once on Musique Plus (think Mtv, for Québec) and I found it so enthralling. It mixes various animation styles and bundles them all together as they run away from a giant robot.

Anyways, I lost the name that day and never found it again, but I never forgot about it. Today, after so long, I found it on dailymotion! So, in order to not lose it again, here it is!

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I have a love/hate relationship with MMOs. I had a lot of fun with them, but they`ve also gave me more than headaches. There is a reason why they call it World of Warcrack and Evercrack. While I was never addicted to a MMO, I can see how people can become obsessed by the game. You can be the biggest loner in the world, closed off from everybody else, yet be a superstar in game. While browsing Joystiq for my gaming news, I came upon this post which spoke of some statistics polled about MMOs. Here`s the brief information they posted:

• 40% of people discussed sensitive issues with online friends rather than real-life friends.
• 30% were attracted to another player.
• Women were more likely than males to be attracted to other players … and more likely to date them.
• Women said “therapeutic refreshment” was their main reason for playing, where men did it for “curiosity, astonishment and interest.”
• 1 in 5 believe MMORPGs have a negative impact if their partner doesn’t play. Over two-thirds said it was a positive experience if their partner did play.
• 50% says World of Warcraft is the MMO of choice

I`ve seen relationships broken because of MMOs. I`ve seen women fall in love with other players and even leave their boyfriends for people they have never met. I find it insane that so many people get hooked by these games. The media says that violence in video games affect kids; I have to say they should take a look at MMOs, since in my humble opinion, they affect people even more.

That was my rant of the day. In other news, no Dan and John, I will not start playing World of Warcraft again.

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Around 5 years ago or so I looking at a dance class and the students had to show the class a dance they had not learned yet. One guy decided to do skanking, so he played a ska song. The song he chose was “Bumblebee Tuna” by the Mephiskapheles. Ever since I heard it there, I fell in love with that song.

Today I had an urge to hear it again and since I didn’t have it available, I did the next best thing, I searched it on youtube. I found this AMV which used this song and it was actually rather well done! So in order to share my joy and my love for this song, here’s the video. Enjoy!

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I just downloaded the demo for the Bioshock… and wow. I haven’t been impressed by a shooter like this since Half-Life 2. The environment is so creepy, and the first time you see a Big Daddy, you just want to wet yourself. This game should be awesome. If you have a 360 and have not played it yet, what the heck are you waiting for?? Go download the demo!

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I’ve been seeing the link for this video on a bunch of sites, but I never really bothered to watch it. Now that I’ve finally seen it, I just had to share it. This video has excellent 3d animation and is actually quite funny. Plus, who doesn’t love steam mechas?

Update: Video got removed. Bummer. I’ll update when I find it again. Sorry.

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