Chapter 343

I had the weirdest of dreams. It lasted a really long time, or at least there’s a long segment I remember somewhat vividly. I was living in the Arctic, in a settlement of a thousand people, and some weird shit happened. My dog was running around, and when he stepped on the front lawn (or front patch of tundra) of a cabin, an Inuit came out and threw a flatscreen TV at the spazzy little animal, missing him by inches. I started hurling insults at the guy, and he threw a car iron at me. I dodged it, consider chucking it back, but decided not to escalate and just walk away. Later, I was teaching a chemistry class, and the belligerent Inuit was in my lab, and awkwardly avoided eye contact with me. And after that, a Japanese expatriate got murdered in a research station, and a Chinese man got accused. What a wild, eventful life. Maybe I should move to Nunavut.

I supervised a lab, and then sat in the office listening to the Metal Minded podcast. They reviewed four albums quite positively, but the two I did listen to were a bit boring to me. Hypocrisy, well, it was Hypocrisy, and Ossuaire failed to tickle my black metal sweet spot.

I went home, and was welcomed with a paper tissue carnage. I didn’t close the bedroom door so the retarded dog got in there, grabbed the roll of tissue on the bedstand, and shredded it to a million pieces. “臭狗子!”, I yelled at him. He hid under the dinner table, and when I tried to dislodge him from there, he ran to the toilet, effectively turning himself in. I closed the door of his prison.

I ate leftovers and went back to work. Crazy Class were in the lab, and I had to yell at two boys for splashing each other with distilled water bottles. I’m all for them having a bit of silly fun in the lab but physical horseplay is off limits, too much dangerous shit around.

I went home, watched a crazy interesting video about Jussie Smollett made by a criminal psychologist, ate a big-ass meal of leftovers and garlic bread, and took a nap before going to the bar on my longboard. The dog came along, and as soon as we walked in he made a beeline for a table of patrons enjoying a plate of onion rings with their drinks and scratched their legs. He has no manners.

There was quite a big turnover for the pub quiz, with a total of five teams fighting for the cash prize and bragging rights. First round was Canada-themed and I aced most questions, but the following rounds were about pop culture, Christmas music, celebrities, and other shit I have almost no knowledge of. My team placed second, by one goddamn point, to our arch-rivals.

I stuck around for a bit longer, talking to a British pal of mine, the one who tried out jiu-jitsu the night prior. He said he really liked it and considered buying the gi and gym membership, but his girlfriend heavily, heavily disagreed, since BJJ practice coincides with their usual couple hang-out time. Ah well. We talked about current events, politics, China, the whole thing, and he came out with a brilliant spot-on quote about what it feels to watch the YouTube channel China Uncensored: “Okay... okay... hmmm, okay... oh, BOLLOCKS!!!”

I stayed way past my bedtime, then rode home. Worth it.