sorry, there isn't a wii at the end of this line

the decision to spend money which can just be earned back whenever we want is a much less important decision than the one to spend time which will never be seen again, and yet i know i am much more generous with my time than my money, and, judging from the cheapness and idleness of my dearest friends, i am not alone in this. indeed, spending time is probably the most popular activity in the world, everyone does it and you can do it however you want, you could criticise leggings (and their wearers by extension) on the internet, write mean-spirited but reasonably accurate letters of complaint to los angeles based clothing companies regarding local outlets, or build a time machine so you could go to the newly renovated biltmore cabaret on saturday the 2nd for a night of vaguely gypsy themed wallpaper, fancy lamps, deer heads and daft punk related madness. there are possibly too many ways in which we can spend the fleeting hours and minutes of our lives, so how is it that a single event, like saturday at the biltmore, could draw so many people that 400 too many unfortunate souls waited more than an hour in a lineup on a freezing cold february evening outside of what used to be a very scary hotel bar?

the line outside of the biltmore on saturday represented an absolutely ridiculous amount of free time being spent with very little immediate gain except for cold fingers and the warming hope of an awesome party. arriving at 8:40 didn't even guarantee a place at the front of the line and arriving much past 10:30 pretty well negated any chance of getting in until after 1 when the crowd started to slow down, and yet people were willing to wait in a long line stretching almost up to the street and be treated like cattle by the meaty jerks at the door who were so drunk on power that they were willing to work with an honour system for the guest list line (too bad not many people knew this). while i had a great time there (A++ seller, item exactly as described, would buy from again) i spent quite a bit of time wondering how so many people could be convinced that waiting in a long line in bad weather with little hope of success was a good use of their time and this graph is the closest i have come to understanding.


people are certainly not entirely rational about how they spend their free time, the proliferation of presumably unread blogs in vancouver is evidence of this, so the above graph is not entirely accurate but it was kind of a lot of work to make because i just got the new microsoft office and it is totally different from the 2004 edition and i couldn't find anything in that stupid menu thing at the top so i'm not about to make a better one. fortunately, everyone knows a good time is rated on a 15 point scale which includes the number of your friends who will be there, the number of attractive stranges expected to be present, the dj's reputation, the weather outside, the cost, and the existence of other, more fun, alternatives. m!g!h! and hana have been throwing parties long enough to know this and saturday night they nailed all of them in people's minds, but i'm certain they were still pleasantly surprised by the number of people willing to wait in line to see them (even though they can be seen with relatively little wasted time every friday and wednesday respectively, not that i'm complaining, jus' sayin' is all).

anyways, the host isn't in charge of much more than their reputation and the cover charge, everything else that would make a person wait in line is in the hands of the people doing the waiting, the dj's probably didn't invite all of your friends or convince you that there was nothing else worth doing that night; additionally, people presumably found out about the event through facebook and knew that nearly 1200 people had selected the legally binding "attending" option and so they made a choice to show up with full knowledge that there would be much waiting, but they expected the party to be worth it so they came anyways, which is why i was kind of puzzled to see all of the negative comments on facebook complaining about the line as if it was the fault of the hosts that people were FORCED to wait, and not a conscious decision on the part of the guest, but then i realised that this is the internet and people are entitled to complain about anything and expect an apology.