I got back from winnipeg.
I'd hate to offend anyone who lives there or whatever, but it seems that city is just like edmonton. Only older, poorer, and more boring. But nevertheless I had a good time visiting my sisters place.
Maybe I'm a bit biased though, and I'd blame that on my sister. She's pretty smart in most respects, as well as not usually narrow minded. Only lately I've noticed some disturbingly racist trends. Often while talking about something remotely negative, she'd toss in the word "natives".
Perhaps I'm ignorant of the history of winnipeg, but one way or the other I tried to view the city with an objective mind. Frankly, I really didn't notice much of what my sister said. But whatever, if she really is smart, she'll figure it out.
While I was there I got to attend the winnipeg stop of the Banff Film Festival, which seems slightly retarded seeing how it comes from my home province. That was the first time I've seen it too. I wasn't hugely impressed, but I was assured that previous years were better... One film that stuck out was about a couple of self-labeled "mountaineers" climbing every peak over 4000m in the alps. Everything in the stupid movie screamed of self importance. Even the length, the movie was over twice as long as the next longest one.
Here's a summary of the movie so you don't have to waste your time.
Guy talks about himself, how he's really good and stuff. Mentions friend.
Guy and friend climb a bunch of peaks, take a few photo ops (their own camera helicopter included).
Guy and friend rest for a couple hours.
Repeat about 6 or 7 times, and then Guy slips and dies, and is then portrayed to be even more saintly than he was portraying himself earlier (almost).
I dunno how this crap made it in, as well as a few others, they seemed like big giant product placement ads and commercials for stuff that most people don't have a practical use for. I understand there are lots of people who like hiking, and mountains, and all that shit, and that's fine. I just don't understand how there's stores like MEC which are constantly full of people buying their overpriced outdoor stuff. Especially in winnipeg! The closest thing they have to a mountain in winnipeg is a sealed garbage dump that kids use as a tobogan slide now.
Unfortunatly my mom falls within this group of people. This christmas I got an "ultralight space age polymer" jacket, some really expensive gloves in case I decide to go outside
, and some binoculars. There was even a bunch of other travel crap, I was half expecting to get tickets to somewhere awsome.
Well, maybe "half expecting" is a gross exageration.
I wasn't there for presents anyways, I don't buy into all that mindless consumerism shit that surrounds the holidays. I was over to visit my family and spend some quality time.
My little beliefs about christmas are completely not related to the fact I didn't really have much money to spare on presents, I swear...
Anyways, I honestly don't think anyone reads this, but oh well, I probably have to practice my writing skills or whatever blah blah blah...
One more quick story:
Today after returning from winnipeg, I come home to a distressed roommate. Apparently instead of doing something crazy like... I dunno... leaving my apartment never occured in the 3 days I was gone. Also, I had to use the bathroom, but the toilet paper was simply no longer available. My roommate used like 5 rolls in 3 days. I didn't even know that was possible. He must have used about 1.33 (repeating of course) rolls per wipe. That strikes me as innefficient.
Of course I probably don't know the whole story, blah blah blah, I end up having to scoot out to the store to buy some. On the way out I'm asked to pick up some blank CDs...
Anyways, I run to the store, grab the toilet paper, realize I forgot my wallet, chuckle at my situation, realize chuckling at my situation and not making progress home could lead to an unfortunate situation, then I find 5 bucks in my pants (there is a god!), pay and leave.
Crossing the street, I pass the big basilica, where there's some old beater truck parked with a couple dirty looking dudes in it. As I walked by, one of em jumped out of his car and yelled for me. I wasn't exactly concerned, other then my desire to get home and possibly make use of the newly acquired toilet paper... The guy tells his quick little sob story about running out of gas on the way to work. Work on a sunday. Convieniently outside of a busy church.. At 4pm?
So not wanting to part with my precious nickles left over from my purchase, yet feeling surprisingly generous, I responded.
He asked after his wee little story:
"So do you have any spare change or anything?"
So I declined the change part, but offered a roll of toilet paper to make up for it. I figured I was safe, because he included "or anything" to his question. I also figured hey, homeless people probably can include a chronic lack of toilet paper among their problems.
And the guy looks down at my gift, scowls, and stomps back to his truck. I didn't even get my mom a card this christmas, yet I offer this dude some much needed commodities, and it's refused.
I'm curious if there's some kind of big moral or something that I should learn, or maybe I should either become jaded, or even just make comments to that effect.
I'm so scandalized
It's just as well though, that damn toilet paper is expensive...
*Edit - holy fuck this wasn't supposed to be that big... and so much for another quick story. and my apologies, it sounds better when I tell it in person... it's kind of hard to put inflections and tone into words. Or that's just my excuse for not being funny...
