This saga is called, 'two dvd's and an mp3 player'

  A few things you need to know before this entry makes a lot of sense to you.

For a while i have quite wanted an MP3 player.  I had been looking at the Nomad II because it had everything i wanted in a player.  It came with an FM radio, had sufficient room, was small enough and took the same memory as my camera (oh yeah, and was kinda pretty too).  Then, while i was looking at it, they discontinued it.  So then i was looking at the Nomad IIc, close to the same as the II but didnt' have the radio and wasn't quite as sexy.  But that was ok, it was cheaper by over a hundred dollars. So then i decided i wanted that one.  Then i had an incredible amount of time finding it.  You know that pretty much everyone that sells MP3 players has a horrible selection and is constantly out of stock?  Finally last week i was in a London Drugs with my friend and they had the Nomad IIc that i wanted (actually it wasn't exactly the one i wanted, but it was close).  I thought about buying it right then on my Credit Card but they guy said that they would for sure have one this weekend, payday for me. I was also with a much more rational friend than i am and he counselled waiting.  I tell you though, i was aching for this device.  The nice man behind the counter also nicely pointed out this other MP3 player. The Yepp-700.  It was sexier than the other, had a few other, cooler, more geeky features and has the FM radio that i had wanted.  Only problem was, the Nomad IIc i wanted was $269, the one they had in stock, $199 and this one $400.  I left, thinking, 'come friday the Nomad would be mine.  Of course, somehow, on monday i went into work and up on my desktop appeared the Yepp website, and somehow, it remained there ALL week.

Amelie was my favourite movie of last year.  I have wanted the DVD since i watched it but most especially for the last couple weeks since i heard it had come out.  But being a good little boy, i didn't use a credit card and just go out and buy it, i told myself i had to wait for payday. (remember?)
The Royal Tenebaums DVD has a similar (if not quite as loved) story.

Last season of Survivor myself and 7 friends ran a pool.  The winner of which would get one drink and a dollar from each of the other players. Through some weird sort of incredibly unfair twist fate and made up rules, my friend Shawn won. This week he was in town, finally and we were going to gather and buy him his prizes.

Friday rolls around and it is time for an afterwork pub-like gathering.  Free drinks for one, good food and paid drinks for all. It was actually quite a good time with much mocking of us for not choosing the obvious winner of 'V.'  It was a good time.  Well, one of us, decided that in paying up his dollar he would be a little symbolic.  He had a one dollar chip from the Great Canadian Casino's for some reason, and being as how we had been gambling, it made sense to him to pass that over.  We all thought it was a good idea. 
   When Shawn said that it was a good thing that he had this dollar, that this meant that we could go to the casino and play it on number 20 (Run Lola Run reference).  I didn't give this much credence as the nearest Casino, in my mind, was in Burnaby. 

   At about 8:54, we leave the pub, very full, and Shawn, rather tipply.  All of a sudden we are going to walk to the Casino.  This has me aback, until i find out that there is one down the street. Shawn says we must walk to it, so i tell him that it is about 20 blocks away and he says, 'that's not far, we'll walk.'  I was kinda ok with this and away we go.  Half a block later, we are in front of a Future Shop and i say out loud, 'hey, we could get me Amelie!'  He tops it by saying he could get me Amelie and The Royal Tenenbaums for my birthday (ok, it was 4 months ago, but i am hard to shop for).  So we are in front of future shop and i look at my watch, one minute to closing.  Being as how i think it obnoxious to go in that close to closing, we don't go.  
   We keep walking.  There is a chapters not far ahead, i can't remember if they have movies at this one but they do at the one downtown so we might as well check it out.  The fact that there are movie posters in lights in the windows was a good sign, so we go in.  And then, when in, we wander around looking for the movies, there were no movies, the posters were merely so you could buy the books of the movies.
   We leave...myself, i would have been disconsolate if it weren't for the fact that i knew we were about to take a long walk to a casino situated directly beside a London Drugs, one i knew was open until midnight.  Also one i knew had dvd's for sale.  Along we walk.
   Not as long as it could have been later, we arrive at the casino. Go in.  it was a little bit disheartening to find out that not one table in the place had a limit of less than $15.  so Shawn changed his chip for shiny new dollar and we left. We went to London drugs.
   as we had walked my hopes had grown and grown, after all, if the other london drugs had had the MP3 player i wanted maybe this one did too and i just hadn't noticed.  Maybe, maybe, maybe.
   NO.  in fact it didn't have amelie, the royal tenenbaums or the MP3 player. Shawn and i went home. we walked a long way by way of the water, but we still went home. and went to sleep, if by went to sleep you mean had wicked raunchy man-sex until dawn.  no wait, both of us read our books for a while and then went to sleep alone in separate sleeping areas.

   Saturday morning the plan had been to go to ikea and then shawn was going to drop me off in burnaby at my sisters where my parents were heading and would meet me and bring me home again. shawn would then head for the ferry and home.  well, on the walk home, my passion for an MP3 player overcame me and we came up with a new idea, a new plan.  at 9 a.m. we would head downtown and i would buy the player and then shawn would leave for home from there.  my parents, could just come to see me without my going to burnaby. 
   and a good, grand, great plan it was.  at 9:05 we were downtown at the london drugs. would you believe that the player i was supposed to buy, the nomad IIc, the player the guy had assured me there would be one of, was sold out (did i mention how hard it is to find the player you want in this town?).  there was nothing for it but to buy the yepp. the more expensive one. it truly was fate, ya, know?  or somethin. anyways.  i was also going to buy a memory chip, or shawn was going to buy me a memory chip but i decided it was too much money. in spite of the fact that shawn read an article in the 13 minutes i was awaiting service at the counter that said that they were not only soon to be adding a $100 levy to MP3 players but to memory chips as well.
   of course, they still didn't have amelie or royal there. as we left, i told shawn he could take off but i was going to go to Virgin for the movies, cause damn it, i wanted the movies.  we went. they had amelie.  they didn't have royal. they were sold out!  the annoyance of it all. so shawn bought me amelie for my birthday and the CD i was going to buy, K-OS, very good, quite like it. thank you shawn.

  i get home. i start droolin' and playing with my MP3 player and my dad calls.  he wants me to come out to burnaby anyways.  something about my sister's computer having issues. i would likely have said yes right away if it weren't for two things, one i had this new mp3 player to play with and the battery needed 4 hours to charge and two she had told me to fuck off last night when she was asking me for help with the same problem and i told her that one of the 5 computer geeks she lived with would be able to better handle the problem.
   but they called back, wheedled again, offered to buy me lunch, wheedled some more and i said yes.  but i wasn't going to leave for half an hour. (enough time to fill my player with all the mp3's that i had and figure out the expansion battery attachment that uses an AAA battery (this thing is sooo cool)).  did i mention that i have never actually downloaded an MP3 song?  that i don't know yet if i intend to?  although i might, if i have to pay these levy's in spite of the fact that i am not stealing music.  however i had been sent a dozen or so songs by people over time. a weird mix if i have ever seen one, from etta james to arlo guthrie to the chemical bros. 
   i head to burnaby, transit-like, with my new wondertoy in my possession. playing, and wonderful.  i get there, the parent's are there and one of sis' housemates has already fixed the computer problem.  i might have been annoyed, i guess, maybe, but it was sunny, beautiful, i had a new player and my parents had brought gifts. 
   get this. i am 30, haven't lived at home really since i was 19 and they bring me a bunch of food.  the main reason for this is that my 21 year old sister just moved out a month or so ago and they were bringing her some care food and when dad was buying sis food, mom was telling him that he had two children and that it was unfair to just buy for one.  so it was kind of cool, i guess.  although i told them that they didn't have to do this anymore. what did i get, you ask? 
   sure you did, i heard you.  I got, 5 peppers, fresh from the hothouse (my dad, the lucky bastard lives near these hot houses where you buy bags of red/green/yellow/orange peppers for like $4 for 8-10, there little way of avoiding the intermediaries and GST), fresh tomatoes, a cucumber, two new york strip steaks, two quarts of picked today raspberries, sliced, smoked turkey and a big package of pepperoni.

   Then we go for lunch; all you can eat sushi. and let me tell you, as a family, we eat a lot of sushi.  after lunch, mom heads off to zellars to get my sister some of the ugliest orange shorts ever and i convince the old man that we should go to the nearby future shop (we were at metrotown).  
   At Future Shop, they had about a 100 copies of royal.  I buy one, at $5 less than it would have cost at Virgin.  And a copy of Of Human Bondage for only $10.  (although i tell you, there is no movie in the world that can make me feel worse than this film). And i buy a memory chip for my MP3/Camera, at $10 less than London Drugs had it.

  It took a long time and a lot of places but i ended up with the 2 dvd's i had ached for and an mp3 player to die for. what could be more grand?

   well, if i hadn't already filled up about 6 web pages of text worth, i would tell you about last evening where i went to a chinese night market, a walk through a gorgeous neighbourhood with some swank/cute houses i had never seen before, went to a party that was never to be but was anyways and still came home to eat raspberries and ice cream and watch royal. (although you can go and look at the one picture i took if you like)

  today, i go to the beach.