I sure am going to miss these adventures

Mickey Mak:

14:00:35

So this is new adventure for you. Are you gonna miss Canada?

yash gupta:

14:00:52

I was talking to friends about coming back to canada for christmas.

yash gupta:

14:00:55

:)

yash gupta:

14:01:18

I didn't tell you about the adventures we had out in the snowstorm!

yash gupta:

14:01:25

or did I?

Mickey Mak:

14:01:36

I don't think so

yash gupta:

14:03:29

okay, let me introduce the characters...

yash gupta:

14:04:21

one indonesian guy by the name Doni leemrijse. you can call him Donnie.

yash gupta:

14:04:38

and skinny Indian dude called Yash.

Mickey Mak:

14:04:40

lol

Mickey Mak:

14:04:49

SUPER LOL

yash gupta:

14:05:41

they are good friends, they help each other out, play squash together, go to BK, etc.

yash gupta:

14:06:53

so one friday evening, Doni calls up Yash and goes, "Hey, let's go to Toronto. I want to go to bestbuy to purchase an Xbox 360 and a HDTV."

yash gupta:

14:07:25

Yash says, "No man, there's a snowstorm outside."

yash gupta:

14:08:16

Doni says, "we just have to get in the bus, take the go train to Union, walk through the PATH to eaton center, get the stuff, and come back. No snow, No cold."

yash gupta:

14:08:29

"I'm not so sure about it." Yash says.

yash gupta:

14:08:52

Doni convinces him anyways.

yash gupta:

14:09:25

but a little while later, he calls Yash and goes, "Hey, I checked on the website, there are no more Xboxes in Toronto!"

yash gupta:

14:09:36

you see, it was almost christmas time.

Mickey Mak:

14:10:21

lol

yash gupta:

14:10:24

"New plan!" he proposes.. "We take the 24 bus to missisauga and get it from the bestbuy on Winston Churchill. They have it in stock there!"

yash gupta:

14:12:19

Yash still not convinced, Doni bribes him with Sushi. "we can go to bestbuy, then eat sushi at the buffet restaurant. I'll pay for both of us." Yash unwittingly agrees. (no way he could resist Sushi!) They get dressed in their warmest winter attire and take the 24 bus, get to winston churchill, and begin their march towards bestbuy.

yash gupta:

14:13:48

As we knock our shoes on the mats inside best buy to get the snow off our shoes, I notice my jeans cuff has frozen stiff!

yash gupta:

14:14:05

well, it was a little amusing.

Mickey Mak:

14:14:35

lol

yash gupta:

14:14:47

Doni as usual, takes forever to decide whether he wants to buy the xbox arcade or 'ultimate' or whatever it was.

yash gupta:

14:14:56

arcade vs ultimate

yash gupta:

14:15:15

using his iphone to compare and contrast the features/drawbacks..

yash gupta:

14:15:56

then he considers if he can stretch his budget to get a large LCD display...

yash gupta:

14:16:25

and after about an hour and a half or so.. as the weather has worsened..

yash gupta:

14:17:05

he finalizes his purchasse, and we walk out. Fuck that Xbox was heavy!

yash gupta:

14:17:15

and the box of the TV awkwardly wide!

yash gupta:

14:18:15

The distance from the bestbuy to the sushi restaurant, seemed 10 times as long while walking in knee deep snow with these boxes in our hands while dressed to look like pilsbury doughboy and Michellin tyre man!

yash gupta:

14:18:52

they stumble, pause, switch, many times over

Mickey Mak:

14:19:15

lol

yash gupta:

14:20:15

constantly motivating each other. "Come on man, it's only less than a hundred thousand centimeters more!

yash gupta:

14:21:17

Realizing Doni was much slower, and Yash was more succeptible to the cold, he walked fast, walked ahead and got to the sushi restaurant first

Mickey Mak:

14:21:19

lol

yash gupta:

14:21:47

he put the tv down, and remembered the promise he made to his friend, "I'll be back for you!"

yash gupta:

14:22:23

Yash took few deep breaths, wiped his nose and walked out oh so bravely!

yash gupta:

14:22:43

Reached Doni, and offered help. They had both almost made it!

yash gupta:

14:23:07

The walk of misery was over, and a warm soup and some delicious sushi awaited them

Mickey Mak:

14:23:16

lol

yash gupta:

14:25:34

After eating their reward feast, they decided they will need the help of a majestic and heavy metal contraption capable of pushing forward through all this snow at great speed, driven by an Immigrant who most probably speaks broken english, while we both sit comfortably in the magically heated interior of the beast.

Mickey Mak:

14:26:09

lol

Mickey Mak:

14:26:14

exploiter!

yash gupta:

14:26:31

so they called a cab. Which would seem was the easy part.. but the wait on hold was getting more excruciating with each passing second!

yash gupta:

14:26:49

both tried different companies with their respecive cellphones.

yash gupta:

14:27:10

and when finally we got through, it was like god had answered our prayers

yash gupta:

14:27:17

...if there was a god at all!

yash gupta:

14:27:57

because the cab was here, and we had to walk out in the cold hell, carrying the boxes to the cab as it couldn't come any closer to the door because of the snow.

yash gupta:

14:28:53

and again, we were relieved.. though only momentarily! because after the cab got us to sheridan college, we had to drag our asses all the way to the res, and into Doni's room!

yash gupta:

14:29:22

did I mention i was christmas, and the res was as busy as a graveyard at midnight?

Mickey Mak:

14:29:52

What!

Mickey Mak:

14:29:59

lol

yash gupta:

14:30:21

Yash actually dragged the tv box on the floor with the last bit of energy he had.

yash gupta:

14:31:17

and then, when it was time to open the boxes and install it, suddenly, they were as ecited and refreshed as kids on chistmas morning!

yash gupta:

14:31:28

such a happy moment!

yash gupta:

14:31:35

RUINED!

yash gupta:

14:31:51

by the traitor who said "Yash you can't be here in the res man."

yash gupta:

14:32:01

"FUCK!"

yash gupta:

14:32:13

the end.

yash gupta:

14:32:37

gotta go now.

My first snowman!

Yay! I finally made a snowman, all by myself! I was so excited! I have the pictures up on my flickr page. I don't want to spend time uploading them on blogger again. So you can head over to flickr.com/photos/yashrg and comment on them! I'd love that. Plus, did you guys know blogger now supports open id commenting? I hope this will open a wider window to people who want to respond/interact. Anyways, on with the details!

I woke up after a good night's rest and I went downstairs to get some breakfast. I had heard in the news that there's gonna be shovelable snow outside by sunday morning. They were right(for the first time...LOL) Vironica was resting on the couch there, and she said there were shovels on the verandah and that the snow is suitable to make a snowman. I was really excited! That's what I've been waiting to hear since the summer! (Last winter I was too scared to 'play' in the snow) So I ran upstairs and put on my clothes. Came running down and walked outside.

First, I had to shovel some of the snow from in front of the door. And I've NEVER shoveled snow before. And vironica was laughing out really loud looking at my goofy ways. She had to instruct me on the 'art of shoveling snow' but then I was on my way. It was quite an exercise and got me plenty warm. Then I went ahead and started rolling a snow ball for the base of my snowman. Because I wasn't sure how big I could get it without breaking it, I wanted to be on the safer side and keep it small. Plus, this was my first time and I wanted to aim for a realistic goal. I had to decide earlier on where it was going to end up so that I can roll the big heavy ball into place.

Then I started on the next ball. By the time I was done, I figured this was all I'm going to do. I thought this was good enough. Besides, it didn't seem very stable to me and I was scared whole thing would topple. But Vironica egged me on, so I started on the head ball! This one just collapsed under pressure when I was rolling it. I guess I overestimated its integrity. Vironica was watching me from the window and she laughed out too. I redid that and thus, the 'making' of the snowman was done!

Now for the ornamental finishing touches! I dug out two small stones from under the snow and shoved them in there. Didn't get the placement I wanted, but then I was happy with how it turned out.. gives it an expression... LOL. I put in a carrot for the nose, and some celery for the arms. I tried using the brocolli to make hair, but it didn't work out. green hair doesn't look very adorable. So I used that to make buttons on its torso. Vironica pointed me to the plant that had brown tiny flowers. I liked that idea and gave my bald snowman some hair. Sticking stuff in there wasn't very easy, took a little poking and re-enforcing with more snow.

And I just couldn't help but put in a little leaf where his private parts will be. I had always loved that concept in cartoons when lets say dexter removes his clothes, a little leaf will appear in front of his penis. It was just so hilarious! But finding a green leaf at this time was impossible so I just put a yellow leaf I found on the lawn. It was great. And when all was done, I couldn't wait to get back inside. My shoes were getting all wet.

Good thing that we took pictures, because the thing had fallen apart by evening because the temperature rose, and there was little rain. I will do another one sometime soon. Maybe even BIGGER! but I'm really glad with this experience.

First Snowfall of the season

Oh! It finally snowed today! Winter is officially here. A typical canadian winter. Bring out your toques, mittens and snow boots! Its the smart thing to do! But I couldn't find my winter cap when I was supposed to leave for college! My dear adidas clima-warm cap that I bought last year. It served me a good 11 months, and now I think I've lost it. I might have left it in the college on monday or the workshop on saturday.  So I just went to college without a winter cap on. As soon as the wind started blowing in my face, and all the snowflakes started hitting me, I started thinking about the last winter and wondering how did I ever survive this weather!

I didn't stay for the whole of typography class. Its such a pain in the ass. I just waited till I got to ask him some questions I had in mind, and left. We also got briefed about the next assignment, which could be a typographic storyboard or a poster on the history of typography. Needless to say, I decided to do the storyboard. I got back home, fired up flash, and started making my animation based on the thumbnails that I had drawn in class. I will then print those frames out and trace over each of them on the bond paper. But for next week, I have to have the current assignment finished! Darn!

I went to shopping with vironica, And bought more okra. Vironica had been bugging me about winter boots and even I noticed that my toes were kind of wet and cold. So I said "what the heck" and decided to go to walmart and buy me a pair. I tried some really good ones on, and they were just 40 dollars! I was really amazed by how comfortable they felt. I would have bought them. But I figured I could check out some other places too before I actually let my money go. And when I went to look for a disc wallet, vironica went and grabbed a bunch of toques and gloves for me to try on. 

I figured I could buy another toque, ,even if I find my other one, what's the harm in having two. But I didn't want to buy gloves because I already have a few pairs. Plus, I'd rather buy mittens because they trap the body heat way better just because they have one thick compartment for the whole paw. In the end, I did end up buying nice mittens, I think they're called hot paws or something. Anyways, I am pretty satisfied with them, because I've already given them a test run, but will get to evaluate them better tomorrow morning.