The mourning period for America's choice for President for the next four years is officially over. I left my long post about the results and the future of American politics up for a couple of weeks because it was getting a lot of attention. Now's time to move on to different things.

First item of business I want to take care of is about my hair. That's right. My hair. Several of my friends overseas are wondering how Pedro looks like with "long" hair. I've been growing it ever since I was an extra for "The Cinderella Man" last spring. Now that it's reached it's full length, I'm ready to post a picture or two. Let me go take a couple of pics right now... be right back...

(3 minutes later)

Ok..So here you have it, my current look:



What? You want me to smile too? Sheesh! Picky picky... here you go...



... now stop bugging me with that! LoL.

Now that that's out of the way, I want to mention that today I discovered the pleasure of hanging out at a Starbucks. Because I'm not a coffee addict (I avoid it actually), I never had a reason to visit a Starbucks. Two of my friends however - Melanie and Ana - mentioned there was one on College Street with Wi-Fi so it would be a perfect place to hang out and surf the internet at. So today I decided to check it out!

I took the TTC Streetcar along College. There was this teenager arguing with somebody, shouting into her phone! GRRRRR! I hate that, I don't need to know some dimwit's life, and less do I want to hear people shouting in a public place. You're hurting my ears bitch! .. no, I didn't say that, I'm a bit more civilized than that: I punched her out! ... You actually believed that? lol.. No. I simply stared at her with a disapproving look. Other people did the same. She hung up.

That put aside, here's my stop. I got off at Ossington and walked along College, listening to my life's soundtrack on my iPod. There's always this different feeling when you walk down a street with your favorite music playing in your ears. You're in your own world, you become more confident, you smile at strangers...

I arrived at the Starbucks.. it looked empty. It was still 3:30pm after all, I'll go for a walk and come back later. I remembered Melanie had shown me a unique street in Toronto, which is preserved in all it's glory from the 50's. It's most noticeable features are the front gates (streets don't have gates in Toronto), cast iron lamps and the posh houses that line the street.
I had my camera with me, so I can share some photos I took.

It was a beautiful Fall day so the leaves on the floor added a nice touch to this session of urban photography. I took the pictures in Sepia style:






I headed back to Starbucks, the place was beginning to see more people going in and out.


College + Euclid

I walked in and was surprised to find another guy with a PowerBook. I guess Mac's aren't that rare in Canada as I thought. Later, another woman came in with one of those colourful clamshell mac's. cool!

The place looked very comfortable, with couches, small tables and chairs. It was very cozy because everything's fit into a small space in an area secluded from the counters but still with people walking in and out because it's located at the entrance. It's arranged in a way at that it's easy to make conversations with strangers sitting across from you.

I first sat down on a couch, then thought I might want to order something... oh wait, I'm in a coffee house, I don't drink coffee... maybe I'll order a hot chocolate if somebody asks me if I want something. I took a table, powered up my Mac and began looking for a wi-fi connection. I found none. Boo hoo! I came here for that... but I'm still confortable in here, I might as well stay. Besides, this Starbucks is populated with alot of cuties. I'll definitely stay here!

I soon knew what I was going to work on. I came here to get some creative work done, so I picked up where I left off in writing my novel. I can't really release any details because it's still a while before I'll get to finishing it and hopefully publishing it. When (if) I do, iPedro.com will definitely be a place to check out for details.
I managed to get my creative juices flowing and get alot done. I have a feeling this book is gonna turn out quite nice!

Now... to another major topic! Today I managed to watch a movie I've been waiting nearly 10 years for!
One night, in my teenage years, around 3 in the morning, I was surfing channels and found an interesting movie on. It was capitvating because it was all based on the dialogue of the 2 main characters. They met on a train in Europe and ended up talking the whole night. I identified myself very much with the male character. There was something in his rational, in his ways of expressions that seemed so ... so.. humm.. Me! If you know the film, you will probably have figured that I'm talking about "Before Sunrise" with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.



I was so captivated by this film because the film represents so much of what I see as simple pleasures in life such as meeting a stranger while travelling to a distant place and clicking so well with them. Jesse and Celine, brilliantly played by Hawke and Delpy give us a feeling of improv' conversation. The best facet of this film is that it doesn't seem scripted. The dialogue flows so naturally that you forget you're watching a film.

This movie truely shaped me, and has given me a reference point of what to seek out in life. Since then, I have been travelling and fullfilling some of the ideals the movie represents.

When I arrived in Canada, I wanted to find this movie, but it was so little known that no rental place had it, no tv station was broadcasting it. Eventually I found a Blockbuster which had it and later I purchased the DVD from Amazon.ca. I maintained a tradition of only watching Before Sunrise late at night.

Well, nearly 10 years later, a sequel to the open ended film was launched. I was excited when I heard that I could finally find out what happened to Jesse and Celine. I trusted the director and both actors in not ruining the magic of the first film. They did not disappoint. Before Sunset continues the magic of the first film and starts off in real time, 9 years since the couple's first and last meeting.



I was brought back to that night when I first watched Before Sunrise. The feeling of the sequel was the same as the first, each character speaking about issues important to them and slowly beginning to see time run out before Jesse had to leave to the airport and they'd be losing their opportunity to jump back into eachothers arms again.

Somewhere in the middle of the movie, I find out why Jesse seems so much like me. Celine says he's a scropio! No wonder!! That explains it! Celine turns out to be a Sagittarius.

As the film reaches the end, you can tell the tension is building and both of them want to talk about getting back together. The problem is Jesse is now married and Celine has a long term boyfriend. Frustration eventually builds up and their true feelings begin to seap out.

I'm not going to tell you the ending, but I will tell you that you have to understand the entire movie to know what the result is. It's not explicit and some will be disappointed because they weren't "fed" the ending but instead have to imagine it. It's truely an ingenius script, matching up quite well with the first movie.

I was curious after the movie was over to find out whether Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are the same astrological signs as their characters because astrological personality isn't something you can just act out. Most people aren't aware of what makes a scropio a scropio, a sag' a sag'... Turns out they were! Ethan Hawke was born on November 5th and Julie Delpy on December 21st.

One more thing. After I walked away from the couch, I realized that I had just watched the movie in the daytime.. so much for tradition... oh wait. This is Before SUNSET.. it takes place in the day! I can watch this one literally before sunset. ;-)