Dear comrades, sorry I haven't blogged for a while. Things are getting a little crazy at work, preparing for a conference next week. In fact, I'm in the universidad right now on this hotter-than-lovely Sunday evening.

Anyway, big day today. Gay parade. The day homosecsewals walk around and display their pride for their secsewal diversity ... so ... basically it's like every other day except some of them are naked now. Yes, I'm talking full frontal.

I used to live in the middle of the action last year, in the 'village'. I've moved since then, and I'm not so much in the village core now. Although, when you're in the East side, there's really not much choice; it's either the ghetto, or the village ... or sometimes the ghetto village. I'm borderline.

Anyway, I didn't go to the parade this year. I've heard it's one of the bigger parades in North America, so it was a good photo-op, couldav gotten a lot of colorful shots. But it was kinda too hot, and sort of a 'been there, seen that' sort of thing (definitely haven't 'done that').

Of course it doesn't mean I didn't get a piece of the action. Somehow, the parade seemed to originate from right underneath my building. Or at least some of the contingents did. Or more correctly, the League of the Nasties did. Imagine a group of 60-year olds in leather garments that cover only the non-essentials. Bare-asses and everything. Displaying the goods, so to speak. I really wonder if the majority of gays themselves find that at all tasteful.

So, that's pretty much it. til later.

update: Speaking of gay, check this out. It's gotta be one of the best things I've ever seen.

I was working late at the office tonight, I was making progress on something which I had avoided (due to its sheer difficulty) for a long time, and I didn't want to interrupt it.

I finally finished it at 3AM. By this time, I'm absolutely exhausted with a pounding headache and I just wanted to go home and sleep so I called a cab. It arrives and I hop in, give him the address, ask him if he takes credit, to which he says yes and swipes my card. He starts to go. Half way there I suddenly realize I don't have my home keys with me. I definitely can't go home without my keys. I was pretty sure I had left them at the office, so I ask the guy to go back.

I tell him I'll be a minute and go up to get my keys. I search my desk and it's not there. I totally can't think straight so I just scramble thru my stuff to find it ... but it's not there. The search was starting to take too long with no hope of finding the keys. So I go back down and pay the guy, and come back to the office.

I still don't wanna give up the search, cuz it's just not possible. I hadn't lost anything in more than a year; that's like a freakin world record for me, and I'm sure I haven't left them anywhere.

I go to the other offices and cubicles, the washroom, and anywhere else I can think of.

Then, I suddenly remembered my fleece. Yeah, that's it, I had worn a fleece today, cuz the Toronto weather is so fuckin crazy that after a week of 30+ temperature, it actually got chilly today!! I had totally forgotten that I had worn a fleece today, and there it was on the coat rack.

should I call the cab again? It's almost 4 now, and I gotta come back early tomorrow anyway ... hmmm ... what to do.

I was working on my code, as usual, and a part of it wasn't working.

In an act of pure frustration, I inserted a printf("lalallalalalallalallallala") somewhere in the code, and it suddently started to work. You probably think I'm mad (I'm sort of suspecting the same thing) but I swear to god that's all I did.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a cooking person. In fact, you could say I hate cooking. I hate the kitchen, in general, and my motto is 'a minute spent in the kitchen is a minute wasted', or something like that.

It's mostly because I don't love 'food' all that much, so I see absolutely no point in putting time and effort preparing it. Specially since for most foods, it takes more time to prepare them than it takes eating them. So, it's a totally inefficient process. I also hate cleaning and washing dishes and stuff.

Anyway, of course I do have to eat, and there's only so much take-out one can handle. Recently a friend of mine, who actually sort of enjoys cooking and food, told me about these Lipton Sidekicks. Now, I'm very pessimistic about food that comes in a box or packet. I mean, just because I don't like cooking doesn't mean that I eat junk or processed ready-made food.

So, taking my friend's recommendation, I decided to give these babies a try last week. They're basically pasta, with different flavours, that come in a packet which contains both the pasta and a powderish mixture which later miraculously transforms into a tasty sauce. I started with the Stroganov, since I sort of like beef stroganov.

The result, was actually quite amazing!!! I mean, this sort of stuff is usually bland and tasteless. But this one had quite a taste; creamy, rich and full of flavour. I tried a couple of different ones and they were pretty good too.

Best of all, they're like dirt-cheap, and it takes 15 mins max to make them (you basiclaly add pasta + powder thingy which is in the package to boiling water + milk + butter until the pasta cooks and the water evaporates). Add to that some oven swedish meatballs (also from a box, although a different box!) and you've got yourself a heck of a royal meal.

So ... needless to say, that's what I've been having for the past week, and I thotoughly recommend it to anyone who doesn't really enjoy cooking but doesn't want to eat garbage either. The only bad thing is the 'stir frequently' part, which means I have to actually be in the kitchen for a good part of the 15 mins.

What's next? Self-stirring pots. Add self-cleaning while u're at it too.