Ralph and Joan grew up together, and were best friends for much of their lives. They went to the same high school, and eventually the same university. It was in the second year of their economics program that they both had a life-altering experience. Ralph 'recovered', but Joan dropped out of the program, her parting words to Ralph being 'Come to me someday, and I'll take something from you, and in doing so give you happiness'. Years passed.. Ralph graduated, entered business, and several years later, was a partner in a large investment firm. One day, when waking up to go to work, he thought of Joan, and a curiosity filled his mind. That evening, he contacted Joan's family, and found that she was living in the wilderness not far from where he grew up. Two weekends later, he drove out there, and after some time, found a tent, some hanging clothes, and a small fire. It was empty, so he waited. In time, the owner returned, and it was her. They caught up on old stories, laughed, and all the time he marveled at how they both had changed so much. She was one of those who had given up on modern society, and literally lived her life out in commune with nature. She believed herself, lightheartedly, to be its guardian. He wasn't quite sure of her sanity, or at least found her different enough to be quite surprised. The evening drew to a close, as the sun began to set, and as he began to get ready to go, she placed her arm on his, and said "Before you go, ask me your question". He felt confused, staring into her eyes, suddenly frightened at something indescribable he saw there. A question? He didn't have one.. but couldn't tell her that in the face of such raw determination. "Umm.. Well, I don't really know what to ask.. if you could name the thing that most seperates the rest of us from nature, that if we gave it up, we'd take the biggest step towards union, I'll ... I'll give it up". .. He sat back, embarassed at his outburst, and wondered what she would say. She sat back in thought for a moment, the word "investment firm" being chewed in her mouth like a salty taffy. She leaned forward, and said "pockets". He was nonplussed... "Pockets?" She smiled, and waved him out of the tent.

So, today I did most of what I wanted so far. I went to the waterfront (first time in quite a long time), and saw "Freddy vs Jason". No, don't roll your eyes at me! Heh. Anyhow, I think I basically saw it because I started the (Nightmare) series when I was younger, and I wanted to see what'll probably be the conclusion. Was it a good film? I really found it hard to judge -- I was always into the Nightmare series in the same way I was into the Leprechaun series -- it's one of those fairly rare Horror/Comedy genre films. It wasn't really good like the last Nightmare series, but wasn't really bad like the second one. It had some irritating narration at the beginning (irritating but necessary, I guess), some pretty neat special effects, but felt like it was moving a bit too fast. And, surprisingly, I found myself really rooting for Freddy, as opposed to Jason, or the people. I think that's one of the things about Horror/Comedy -- the villains tend to be pretty appealing and long-lasting, while the people tend not to be. I kept hoping that we would see the daughter or the father from Nightmare 1.. oh well. That rootingness though.. I guess it's a strange cousin to childhood heroes... I sometimes find myself absentmindedly unfurling one of my hands in a Nightmare kind of way... Odd, but I know that other people do that vague kind of thing -- If you know someone well enough, and know what they grew up with, you can often spot little bits of the characters that most captured their imagination in their mannerisms. Intitively, I feel that the selection of those characters tells us deep things about peoples' character, but I'm not really certain about that. When people have big life changes, do their old icons change too? If not, and they lie forgotten, could enough reference to them offer a crack into which a crowbar could undo some changes made since? Am I carrying a metaphor a bit too far?

Oh, yes, I've been getting some pressure from certain people in my family to settle down with someone and have kids. It's been directly put to me that I'm getting older, and all that other stuff I'm sure you can imagine and fill in yourself. I really don't know what to think about that.

The Red Army Choir singing "Hey, Uhnem", played through some good speakers, very loud, is really .. well, not uplifting, because I've found that very little good russian music (that I've heard, anyhow) is, but it grabs you. There's a certain grand, stoicism in the face of a known sticky end. I really wish I spoke russian so I could sing along to the songs I like that are in it. But.. that goes the same with a lot of other music (and books) in other languages.

It's weird to think about it, but wally's not as young as he once was. He's definitely shown signs of aging....