Thursday, February 26, 2009

Februarypast.

It ran away behind my back...
Without me.

Time is passing so fast. It's the end of February, and i only realized that a few minutes ago when i was confirming the date of my piano competition. In the back of my head, i was still thinking that we were in the teens of black history month.

Maybe it's because of all the things that keep us busy so often, but i have very little bearing on time these days.
Seeing that number 26 was a wakeup call for me. And then I realized that February only has 28 days, and then that woke me up even more.

Having a lot of stuff to do eats time up like crazy. First of all, I waste time
worrying about the things i have to do. And then i waste time stalling so that i can put as much time between me and the thing i have to do. The thing that i have to do in itself comes along sooner or later, and for obvious reasons, that takes up quite a large part of the agenda. And then there's my absolute NEED for some kind of rebound period. I do this thing, where as soon as i've finished a big project, or assignment, i have to do something to reward myself. Whether it's a short game of cellphone-Sudoku, or a less-short-game of DOTA with the boys, it still takes up yet more time.

When you take all of those things into consideration, and toss in the fact that February is the most important month of the wrestling calendar, the result is a completely baffled Justin.

I'm scared of time going out the window without my knowing. I'm horrified of it. because i really don't want to be saying to myself in June; "I really didn't get to enjoy those last months of my highschool years". Actually, if school were to end right now, i know that's what i would be saying to myself (that's a do not want. donotwant.).

So i guess i'm deciding to pay more attention to every day, instead of just looking ahead to that 2:25 bell.

Song: Half Alive - Secondhand Serenade

Saturday, February 14, 2009

peejeethurteen(thezombiestory)prt.2.

Impossible odds.
annnnd.
Wannabe Heroes.

The door slammed shut the instant the four of us were out. The first step outside felt like the complete opposite of relief (whatever the word for that is. idunno.).

In the street ahead of us, there were already dozens of zombies making their way towards the oasis. They must have known that some people had left the safehaven. And here's where it all starts to parallel with gears of war two.

We all hid behind the wall of sandbags, taking turns reloading, then giving cover fire, then targetting the bigger, more menacing zombies. Every once in a while, one of us would toss a grenade in, and 4 seconds later, we'd hear the zombies shrieking with rage.

This all went on for around fifteen minutes, when it all finally slowed down, and the last zombie hit the ground. Our hearts still racing, we hopped over the barricade, avoiding stepping on one of the disgusting carcasses, and with great difficulty.

It was about then, that we started to realize that the zombies were not all just of random form. We started to notice classes of zombies, ones that looked the same, acted the same, walked the same. Some of them even had special abilities. I remember there was one kind of zombie, it looked kinda like a floating-demon-cow-head with red eyes. And it had these tentacles coming out from behind of it that could latch on to a victim to induce hallucinations.
There were skinny, claw-armed zombies who could run ridiculously fast... and all different kinds. Again, it was extremely video-game-esque.

We made a run for it. We'd just finished fighting off a wave of them, and we didn't want another confrontation if it was possible. The mall was a long way off, and we needed to get there asap.

We kept running. Somehow, it seemed like all of the zombies had gone into hibernation, or we'd just scared them off, because everything was eerily silent, and there was not one in sight. And then we turned the corner.

It was the city-center-square. A tall clock tower stood on the right hand side, and opposite was an old, deserted playground, surrounded by high brick walls. And opposite of us, was a mass of zombies so dense, it was impossible to tell how many there were. We turned around and rounded the corner, going the way we came from, but somehow, we'd be flanked. It was jam-packed with zombie-monsters as well.

Sean lost it, and turned around, sprinting into the square with his army-style rifle firing into the fray. The rest of us headed in his direction as well, Glenn and I hanging back to give cover fire, but Kelly sprinting ahead, too worried to leave Sean to take the point by himself.

We were fighting for our lives, even though we knew we had no chance. We were pretty much just trying to take as many down with us as we could. But no matter how many we killed, more just climbed over the pile of bodies to have at us.

For one second, Sean took his hand off of his gun to reload, and a hallucinator-demon flew at him from above, latching onto his temples, and resting on his head. Kelly raised her gun to try and rescue him, but realized that she might end up blowing his brains out. But as she too released her gun to try and bat away the demon, another one shot out of one of the dead zombie bodies and took away her consciousness. The pair fell to their knees, clawing at their hair, and shrieking like babies. It was like they'd instantly lost their sanity.

Glenn pulled out his pistol, blasting away the zombies that were converging on the couple, while i hung behind with my rifle still blazing, giving coverfire. Finally, Glenn was able to tear off the demons from their heads, and tossed them away, shooting them as the flew through the air.

All the time we had lost had allowed for us to be almost completely surrounded. We had no choice but to fall back into the old playground... we were cornered. Now that the zombies were coming from every direction, it was even harder to fend them off as we fell back. And Sean nudged us backwards as he took the front of the line. "Go! I'll hold them off!" We turned around and booked it into the playground to find cover.

He stood in the gate of the playground, his hand never leaving the trigger, belting out a frustrated roar at the never-diminishing numbers of monsters. No matter how many he took down, more continued to climb over the pile of bodies until they completely engulfed him. All we could see under the mass was repeated flashes, as Sean struggled. And then we heard him say "EFFF THISSS.", followed by the unpinning of a grenade. The zombies were thrown everywhere by the blast.

Kelly was helpless. We could see on her face that she was defeated, too tired to go on. She pulled out a grenade of her own, holding it high into the air, and running into the crowd of monsters, pulling the pin, and tears streaming down her face. There was a second explosion, but they just kept coming.

I was perched on top of the jungle gym with glenn behind it at the base, using the bars to rest his arms. There was no hope.

I fired off the last bullet that i had, and i threw my gun at the nearest monster, bringing it to the ground. As they surrounded me, i flailed, trying to throw them off, but it was no use. I made a last prayer for Glenn before everything went black.

~~


haha. what a weird dream.

Song: Wherever You Will Go - The Calling

Sunday, February 8, 2009

dinnerdance.

Dressed up. Nervous as hell.
But proud and content.

Just in case you don't know; I was recently informed that i was the winner of the annual scholarship awarded by my dad's company. It's given to four children of employees from anywhere in North America each year. There are more than 1000 applicants yearly.

I was invited to the annual dinner dance that my dad's work holds each year, so that i could receive the scholarship and give an acceptance speech. When i was told this, it seemed harmless enough.

But i found out later, that unlike i'd initially thought, there were to be not only 4 or 5 hundred people, and i was not to sit with just anyone...

There were 1650 people in attendance that night at the Westin. Also, because of my "scholar status", me, both my parents, and Sally who agreed to accompany me that night, were placed on a table comprised of important-retired-people. Not to mention, the founder of the company was sitting at the table just next to us, with all of his high-roller friends.

You can imagine that it was all a bit nerve-wracking.

As soon as we arrived at the Westin, even just waiting in the lobby, my nerves were starting to take hold of me. Just seeing everyone all dressed up with heels, pearls, ties, bowties... It suddenly made the whole event real for me. And when we entered the banquet hall, i realized just how large an event this actually was.

1650 people in my mind is nothing like 1650 people in real life. When i think of the number 1650, i think... that's less than the number of people in my school, and there's already not that many people in my school. But seeing 1650 people under dim lights in a banquet hall gives the feeling of something similar to a wave of crippling fear about to engulf me at any moment. Nevermind, it was that exact feeling.

Only a couple of minutes after we were in, the introductions began. I met just about every person i could imagine. The CEO, the founder, the MC, the organizer, my dad's old friends, and even a ton of people my dad had never even heard of before.

I can't lie. It was extremely flattering to have a horde of impressive people praising me, telling me that they're impressed by me. But that didn't make it any less awkward. I was constantly at a loss of words. I had no idea what to say to a person after they complimented me. Now, after thinking back, i still have no clue what i should have said. I didn't want to agree with them, because that seems narcissistic, i didn't want to disagree with them, because that would be unconfident, and i didn't want to say nothing, because that would just be rude.

My vocabulary of the night consisted mainly of the following words:
  • Thank
  • You
  • Very
  • Much
  • It
  • Was
  • Nice
  • Meeting
  • [You]
Even later on, i started just belting out the same words even when i couldn't hear the people talking to me over the loud music.

Regardless of how much my ego had been stroked, sitting at the table and just waiting for the time when i'd have to deliver my speech with the rest of the winners, was nothing short of difficult. It's a good thing that Sally was there to distract me. "You're gonna turn so red :D" , "You're gonna stutter so much :D". Surprisingly though, even with the truth in her comments, it was relaxing to have someone to chat with, and get out some of the nerves.

Finally the time came when Mr. John James called up the winners so that we could be introduced. "Our first winner, Justin Hugh..." he trailed off into a list of my extracurriculars, and interests, while i held back the nerves. As soon as he finished his intro, and motioned for me to take the podium, I swallowed hard and then made my way to the podium. "Thanks for the intro, JJ" and then i continued on with my speech.

I got exactly the response that i was hoping for. Some sincere laughs, and no background murmur, meaning that i actually had everyone's attention. When i finished my speech, i took my plaque, took the picture, and fell into the background.

The rest of the night continued on, and i actually got to enjoy my dinner, now that i'd gotten over the hump. And it was quite nice to recieve even more compliments from people about my speech. Although, i feel a bit guilty that i've left the poor MC with a new nickname he probably doesn't like (i saw him multiple times that night talking to people, i didn't hear a single one call him anything else other than JJ, hehehefun.).

It was a good night. Even with many of the awkward introductions, I came out of it actually feeling really good about myself. I mean, really good about myself. And although i wasn't able to mention it in my speech, i wanna thank all of you guys for being so supportive of me. I really do appreciate it.

And i'd especially like to thank Sally for putting up with the same number of awkward instances to support me.

Oh i forgot to mention the old couple i saw dancing. They danced to almost every single song, and they were like, 75. I hope one day my wife and I, at 75 will be dancing happily to Billy Jean at the company's annual dinner-dance.

Cheers.

Song: Tongue Tied - October Falls