Shane's Domain

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Awww yeah kids. I’m #1 at angry birds out of everyone in my friend group (a pool of 1200 potential contestants).

Yes, now that this is accomplished I will go back to trying to have a life.

Cheers (moving onto conquering Tetris soon).

I’m not often an anecdotal sap, but I was standing at my usual bus stop at the Rideau Centre outside of Chapters. It’s raining, ergo I seek shelter under the indented space to the doors with an overhead lip protecting those waiting for the bus.

I noticed a man in a wheel chair backing in to seek shelter. A woman with a large umbrella comes along and he moves out of the way so she can come under as well. She begins to tell him, in French, that she is okay waiting under her umbrella. They strike up a conversation and I listen in as to learn some more conversational French. Eventually they depart on the same bus.

10 minutes later: I’m waiting alone and a guy looking strangely familiar to someone I know from Toronto makes a comment about the weather. Luckily enough, he could tell I was an Anglophone and so made the comment in English. We started talking about the weather as per all good, and often awkward, beginnings to a conversation.

So, he introduced himself as Oscar and I introduced myself. He asked me what I was doing in Ottawa as I had made some comments as to differentiate myself from being an Ottawa resident since birth. He said he had lived in Scarborough before this and I explained how I was from Cambridge (and like most he only knew it when I mentioned it was next to Kitchener).

The conversation carried on from talking about University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Political Science, Parliament Hill, him saying “You should be Prime Minister” (I swear this was 2 minutes into us talking total) and asking if I ever would consider getting into private business. Then he complimented my dress style, he liked my shoes and he found me very likeable. He begun a conversation with me because I “looked likeable”.

I asked him where he was from and he said he was originally from Panama. I talked about a friend of mine from Peru who I often talk with at that very bus stop as we take the bus together. He then began into a) why he loves Canada b) the big world out there c) how much he loved life in general. His zest of life immediately influenced me to cheer up again after a bumpy day.

Everything I said, he would reply “Wow!” For example, “I used to volunteer on Parliament Hill” – “Wow!” or “I was going to work in private business this summer but I will next summer.” – “Wow! You’re so young and accomplished.” Or “I bought these shoes cause they were sort of like boots, but not.” – “Wow!”

Only in Canada would a stranger be welcome to talk with another about love for Canada, world travels, life experience and how you like how someone dresses in Canada. In other countries and among older generations, accusations of a predatory homosexual would be made and/or a general dislike for strangers having conversations. In the end, he was bold enough, after 10 minutes, to ask for how he could keep in contact and he is going to look me up and add me on facebook.

Oscar, one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I recommend you stand at the bus stop and see if you can meet him too because I guarantee it will brighten your day and re-expand your ego to unhealthy proportions.

I’m not often an anecdotal sap, but I was standing at my usual bus stop at the Rideau Centre outside of Chapters. It’s raining, ergo I seek shelter under the indented space to the doors with an overhead lip protecting those waiting for the bus.

I noticed a man in a wheel chair backing in to seek shelter. A woman with a large umbrella comes along and he moves out of the way so she can come under as well. She begins to tell him, in French, that she is okay waiting under her umbrella. They strike up a conversation and I listen in as to learn some more conversational French. Eventually they depart on the same bus.

10 minutes later: I’m waiting alone and a guy looking strangely familiar to someone I know from Toronto makes a comment about the weather. Luckily enough, he could tell I was an Anglophone and so made the comment in English. We started talking about the weather as per all good, and often awkward, beginnings to a conversation.

So, he introduced himself as Oscar and I introduced myself. He asked me what I was doing in Ottawa as I had made some comments as to differentiate myself from being an Ottawa resident since birth. He said he had lived in Scarborough before this and I explained how I was from Cambridge (and like most he only knew it when I mentioned it was next to Kitchener).

The conversation carried on from talking about University of Ottawa, Carleton University, Political Science, Parliament Hill, him saying “You should be Prime Minister” (I swear this was 2 minutes into us talking total) and asking if I ever would consider getting into private business. Then he complimented my dress style, he liked my shoes and he found me very likeable. He begun a conversation with me because I “looked likeable”.

I asked him where he was from and he said he was originally from Panama. He asked if I liked beaches and warm weather and said, “Panama is like Hawaii but better and cheaper”. I talked about a friend of mine from Peru who I often talk with at that very bus stop as we take the bus together. He then began into a) why he loves Canada b) the big world out there c) how much he loved life in general. His zest of life immediately influenced me to cheer up again after a bumpy day.

Everything I said, he would reply “Wow!” For example, “I used to volunteer on Parliament Hill” – “Wow!” or “I was going to work in private business this summer but I will next summer.” – “Wow! You’re so young and accomplished.” Or “I bought these shoes cause they were sort of like boots, but not.” – “Wow!”

Only in Canada would a stranger be welcome to talk with another about love for Canada, world travels, life experience and how you like how someone dresses in Canada. In other countries and among older generations, accusations of a predatory homosexual would be made and/or a general dislike for strangers having conversations. In the end, he was bold enough, after 10 minutes, to ask for how he could keep in contact and he is going to look me up and add me on facebook.

Oscar, one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I recommend you stand at the bus stop and see if you can meet him too because I guarantee it will brighten your day and re-expand your ego to unhealthy proportions. I guess seeing people make friends made me again believe that it’s not only me out there peace-mongering and smiling at randoms on the street. There are others and they chose to be Canadians. I love it. Vive le Canada!

I don’t often see movies anymore in my busy life of politics, politics and the occasional political mealtime (I like “red meat” ;)). BUT… I did get the chance to see “The Artist” tonight. It did make me miss my last bus home by one minute (forcing me to pay cab fare), however, my satisfaction with the movie is to be emphasized here.

The Artist was brilliant, spectacular, clever, subtle, educational and immersed you so deep that you thought the world was black & white again. One might believe they were seeing an old time film if they would be brought out of a coma and forced to immediately watch a film instead of defrosting or something else important.

I, as always, watched the Oscars this year without any of the prerequisite judgments on the top contending films. Usually I find them pretentious, unrelatable or obscure. With the Artist, I assumed it would be the same as other results for a man such as myself i.e. Annie Hall > Star Wars. Saving Private Ryan/ Elizabeth < Shakespeare In Love. Hurt Locker > Avatar. Either way, I have a bias, I likely hadn’t seen the other or thought about the other when it won and I had rooted for my guy anyways to the bitter end.

However, this one intrigued me. I watched it with a friend on a whim tonight & wow. Simply wow. I have not seen something that engaged me emotionally and let me happily sit there and watch scenes that required some attention span. My usual jitteriness, RLS and compulsive need to move around usually bothers people out of watching movies with me.

Cheers to John Goodman (pictured above) on his role that was fluid and made me finally enjoy John Goodman in something that wasn’t West Wing. Also, this movie as a historical surpasses any other I’ve seen in depicting the 20s, stock market crashes effects in the West & culture at the time. The silent pictures to the talkies is shown through the tale of George Valentin & Peppy Miller & a dog.

Beautiful. Magnificent. Must see. And I’m very cynical of movies…. so… there ya go! ;)

10/10.

totally-relatable:

All the guys are like:

All the girls are like:

And then there’s me:

(via Totally-Relatable: The funniest relatable posts.)