A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.

The last couple months were bad. I had my heart crushed; I had a facebook stalker steal from me; I had a my luggage lost on my way to vacation.

I think it can only get better from here on out. Here’s hoping to a better rest of the year.

It’s that time of the year again. Last year I overdosed on galas and stargazing, watching films that would have eventually hit the mainstream theatre circuit anyway. The only one I was really glad I went to was The Wrestler (Evan Rachel Wood is yummy, even though she was there with Marilyn Manson). This year I’m trying to look for films that I wouldn’t have access to otherwise. So far I’ve gotten tickets to Soul Kitchen and Symbol. If anyone is interested in seeing/suggesting any other films, do let me know!

I have to say, ordering single tickets this year has been a breeze so far. Last year I had to line up for up to an hour to pick up tickets I had already bought online. This year, I got to skip the line (which was about half a block long), and was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes.

I’ve kind of been trudging along the last couple years, totally ignoring this and shutting down emotionally. Something/someone happened to me that woke me up from my slumber. I was literally figuratively shocked into waking up, partially because of her and partially because it was just time. I’ve learned quite a few lessons from this episode:

Stop trying to sleep with women on the first date! It really screws everything up one way or the other.

It’s time to stop using the past as an excuse and time to get over and on with it.

Just because you want something doesn’t mean you can have it. You have to let it happen naturally.

Stop and smell the roses: I’m too goal oriented. Once I have a target I put the blinders on and go full steam ahead. I didn’t even check to see if the prize was worth the the price of admission (no offense intended — I just didn’t take the time to get to know her before putting her on the pedestal).

Watch my mouth. Some of the shit that comes out is funny, and some of it is offensive. Most of the time it’s both

I’m still an introvert. Luckily I have great friends that love me despite it. Also, there’s nothing wrong with being one.

Long time no see.

One of the things I’ve been reminded of over the past 6 months is if you don’t put yourself out there, you’ll miss the opportunity of getting anything valuable in return. Sometimes you get something back and sometimes you don’t. It sucks when you don’t, but you just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and put yourself out there again. It’s better than the alternative of living in your own world forever.

So I’m not the only one!

Caring for Your Introvert

Just got done seeing a TIFF Midnight Madness screening of SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, courtesy of Loretta. Made by the director of Ichi the Killer (Takashi Miike), it’s a wacky take on the spaghetti western with Japanese actors attempting to do the whole film in English. I enjoyed it a lot, but watching it with a raucous crowd at Ryerson Theatre in the middle of the night, along with a surprise cameo by Quentin Tarantino, made it even better.

One day after launch, we’ve already gotten a great review: http://www.allfacebook.com/2007/07/a-possible-acquisition-for-winelibrarytv/. It’s all very encouraging and exciting!

Today we launched a new Facebook application, WineBeagles. It allows you to share your favourite wines and tastings with your friends. We’re planning on adding a lot more features in the near future, so please give it a try at http://apps.facebook.com/winebeagles! If you don’t have a facebook account, get one

It’s been a while since I’ve posted — I’ve had quite a busy last week. As part of the Toronto Jazz Festival, I went to see Dave Brubeck as the first ever Jazz act at the new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Nice venue, great act.
On Friday, went to see Sammi Cheng at the ACC. Listening to so many familiar Chinese songs from over 10 years ago brings back memories from what seems like a lifetime ago.

On Sunday evening, we went to Peter’s Cottage up in Bancroft, then drove another 1.5 hours out to the Ottawa River to go white water rafting for the day. It was a great time — only one of us fell out of the raft in of the rapids, but we made up for it by jumping out and bodysurfing anyway We got to do some cliff-diving where we had to swim against the current to get back to shore too. All-in-all we had an awesome little trip, and I’d definitely go again.

One word of advice though: do NOT rely on Google Maps to help you navigate your way back. It took us on a 40 minute detour out of the 5 hour trip back to Toronto that was straight out of the beginning of a horror movie — dirt backroads where you could hardly see ahead of you and no lights anywhere near us. I was half waiting for the car to break down so we’d have to trek to a nearby house for help and get sawed in half.

Luckily, the Google Map wasn’t so bad as to give us the wrong directions, only really bad ones. We finally made it out to the highway and got home in one piece.

Got my preorder of the Planet Earth HD DVD from Amazon last week, and I haven’t been able to stop watching.  Here’s a mesmerizing clip of a great white shark devouring a seal from the first episode, slowed time 40 times:

Although Attenborough doesn’t provide any social commentary, the show does allude to the effects of global warming. One episode shows a polar bear unable to walk far enough out to shore to hunt for seals due to the ice melting too early — the bear is forced to swim out into to the ocean to look for food. You’ll see what it desperately tries to do out of starvation in the trailer.