The Rum Blog

on a postcard, by a glass of wine.

2006-08-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

So, somebody has uncovered a terror plot again.

Is it too cynical of me to almost not believe it anymore when governments announce these kinds of things? I mean, on the one hand, I don't want people to die and I'm glad that nations are trying, and theoretically succeeding at keeping that from happening. On the other hand. . .it's a great way to renew the Fear of Terror keeping your citizens in line while simultaneously making them feel safe and restoring their faith in government. And if terrorists could be anywhere or look like anyone, wouldn't it be just as easy to arrest twenty innocent civilians, make sure one of them is separated from an Islamic cleric by two degrees or less, and call it a victory?

I want to have faith that the American and British governments are telling me the truth. What happened to that?

London Update Update: The version of OSX the tech guy installed on my new hard drive doesn't have iPhoto on it, so my camera has no software to work with. I'll try to get my hands on a copy sometime before the end of the month, but if not - the install discs are in my desk in Halifax. Yeah, I get that I'm an idiot sometimes.

down in the mouth and not half right

2006-08-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

I ran over a squirrel yesterday on the way to my MCAT simulation. It was really, really upsetting. Of course, it has nothing to do with why I haven't posted in roughly a thousand years, but. It's still sad.

The major reason for not being able to do my long, verbose London post is that my hard drive needed replacing, which took about a week - but was free. Although my new one is only 40GB, so I I may need to buy an external at some point, but. That's still cheaper than having this one replaced again. So, I've only had my computer back since Tuesday, really. Which means I'm not actually that behind on posting, I've only been putting it off for six days. And the reason I've been putting it off for the past week? Mostly has to do with watching the entire series of the new Battlestar Galactica since I got back from London, to put off studying for the MCAT. Which is coming up in 11 days, and that's a terrifyingly small number. I'm scared.

These aren't really justifications for not posting about London, just. . .excuses. I'll probably have something up by tonight. Unless I go see Scoop, and then it'll be tomorrow.

mmm, britishy.

2006-07-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

So. I'm in Canada. And I will, at some point, be posting about my fabulous and magical adventures in London, but that point will not be today for two reasons:
1) I flew home just this afternoon, so it's been Friday for. . .almost twenty-nine hours. That's too many, I think.
2) While I've been in London, Ernie's been at the Laptop Hospital (it's a technical term, you wouldn't understand) getting himself checked out. And I talked to the nice tech guy there today: basically, they have no idea what's wrong, yet. It doesn't look like a hardware issue, but when they ran the basic battery of diagnostics, odd things started to happen that indicated it was a hardware issue. But they need to do more diagnostics to figure out which hardware might be having the issue. He's talking about it either being part of the hard drive, or a RAM thing, and I'm hoping he figures it out fairly soonish because I'm only covered by warranty for another three weeks or so. And both of those problems sound expensive.
All of this of course means that I have nowhere to load my pictures, and what is a trip to London without illustrations and diagrams to go with the description? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

If any of you have opinions on London being posted in one giant chunk, or several smaller posts, here would be the time to say something.

use the force, luke.

2006-07-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

I know most of you guys aren't very well-versed in neuroscience at all, and that you basically don't care about most of the new-ish findings in neuro, which is totally cool. But you still might be interested in this paper published in the most recent issue of Nature. (Full text of the article is available for free, so you shouldn't have to go through the Dal library interface to read it)

The Cliff's Notes version of this article is basically that this group of scientists are developing technology that allows paralyzed people to move actual objects (computer cursors, limited movements of prosthetic hands, etc.) by imagining moving their hands to perform those tasks. Which is really cool. They've included some supplementary video of their single pilot subject, MN, performing a few of their tasks, and it's pretty cool. If you're not going to read the article, which is totally fair, you should at least check out video #5. Keeping in mind that he's controlling the blue dot with only the power of his brain.

As studies go, it's not great or extremely conclusive yet - they have a total of one participants so far, and they do admit to having problems with the stability of the connection to their implanted electrode after about 10 or 11 months. But it's a really neat research trajectory, and much more practical than that guy from England who does the same kind of research, but on his own arm, for fun. (I'll try to look him up if I get a chance. He's a bit nuts.)

don't know why i have to drive so fast (my car has nothing to prove)

2006-07-07T18:54:00.000-07:00

Okay. Chris makes a good point. I should perhaps have mentioned this sooner.

So, yes. I get to go to London for a week, starting next Saturday. I've known about it for. . .a month and a half, probably, and there is a story to it, but I've been so busy telling literally everybody I know in Calgary that I kind of. . .forgot to tell all of my Halifax friends. Which is dumb of me. Anyway. I'm really excited, and I'm hoping to see Baker Street and the Globe Theatre and lots of other cool, dorky stuff, and maybe come back with funny English yarn to knit funny English socks. (I also anticipate coming back broke, because: hey, London!)

Expect an assload of pictures of tourist landmarks and inane shit that I think is hilarious because it's in England, as well as at least a few stories about English food and tourist landmarks. (If anybody's already been and wants to suggest stuff they think I'd enjoy: I'm all ears. I really just know there's a lot to do, and I'm sure I'll find something, and plan to play it by ear for most of the time.)

the girl wearin nothin but a smile & a towel in the picture on the billboard in the field by the big ol' highway

2006-07-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Stampede, everybody!

I. . .probably won't be doing that much actual Stampede-ing this year, because I have work and I leave town in a week (To go to LONDON! EEEEE!) so I can't justify taking more time off/coming in too hung over. However, I give you all the gift of country music. Just because.

Because it's cute and he has an awesome stage name: Brad Paisley - She Said Yes
Because I waited five hours in line to see them play last year: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Fishin in the Dark
And finally, the quintessential my-woman-done-me-wrong song, that everybody should hear at least once: Travis Tritt - Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)

I want to be watching the parade right now. Like, a lot. Also: the title of this post is the chorus of a (country) song I heard on the radio this morning. And. . .it made me unreasonably happy. So.

take me, don't leave me.

2006-07-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Ralph announced today that he's thinking about another round of giving away money. Mostly because he's never going to retire, ever, but when he finally decides to crawl back into his coffin and hibernate for a century or so, he wants to be remembered as a generous and giving premier. (Note for those playing in NS: He's actually going to be remembered as the premier who talked about retiring for two full years while not naming a successor or a retirement date.)

This was reported on the front page of the paper, right next to an article about the fact that Calgary hospitals have no staff.

The article on Ralph didn't mention health care as one of the areas the rebate money could go instead. The article on critical understaffing and undersupplying of Calgary hospitals didn't expicitly mention that the money it needs comes from Ralph's government.

Oh, Alberta politics. I've missed you so.

but i'm takin' the long way around

2006-06-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

I don't really have anything to say on the subject that hasn't already been said, but everybody should be aware of this.

I swear, I will update with something longer when I have the time/something interesting happens to me. But in the meantime, a question for those of you who know more about these things than me. Ernie has been causing me stress lately, by stopping to "think" an awful lot while working with programs under a not-that-unusual load. (2 Safari Windows, Messenger, & iTunes) I've also been getting a lot of nonresponsive program errors, which are usually related. I feel like this is likely either a processor issue or a RAM issue - would I be correct? And if it's a processor issue... there's no hope of that being an inexpensive problem to fix on a Mac, is there? I'm starting to worry that waiting so long to fix my fan has done something awful to something important.

ow, my skin!

2006-06-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

Went to Banff on the weekend. In a little tank top. I forgot to bring sunscreen, and went for lunch by Bow Falls. Now every time I lift my arms I can feel my poor, burny shoulder skin, like, crinkling against itself, which is both painful and kind of gross. Why am I such a dumbass?

Also, I am starting to have Job-Related Stress. Not relating to my actual job as it stands currently, but related to what my job will be at the end of August when I'm writing my MCAT and getting ready to leave town/prepare for DSU Frosh. I think the most charitable way to explain why I have no stress now but will have a lot of stress in the future (instead of a constant, manageable workload throughout the summer) is to reference that old joke:

What's a camel?
A horse designed by a committee.

i just made my mind up. i'm taking you home in my car.

2006-06-21T21:03:00.000-07:00

Man. So. My subconscious last night:

I was at a new school. Like, a new university. Except my Italian professor wass teaching my only class - except it's an unusual format, and I started the class two days before the exam. I was being tested on my spatial memory of ancient Rome, by the way. The textbook was a 3D map. And I was all "oh, cool, I can totally handle that, in a single night, whatever."

And I guess I. . .didn't study, or something? But I came into the exam, and I did fine on all of the map stuff, but then I ran out of time before I got to the essay question on Hitler, who was somehow related to ancient Rome. (Yes, I know) And so I left the exam, all "Man, I should really have worked harder on that Hitler stuff, I definitely didn't finish that question."

Except then my best friend (who was a fourteen-year-old Asian girl) came up to me, because I was late and we had to escape after the exam, which was in the Dalplex if the Dalplex were covered in vines on the inside. And then surrounded by a Labyrinth-style hedge maze. Then there was some stuff about white-water rafting and a beach, but it kind of gets muggy.

Moral of this story? My brain is a strange and disturbing place.

The other moral of this story? Everybody should download "Heist" by Ben Folds. It's like ska, but with pianos, and Ben Folds' vocals, and catchy pop hooks, but the lyrics are a fabulously cynical commentary on our culture's tendency to consume. It's awesome. The title of this post is not a quote from that song, though. In case you were desperate to know that.

you don't know where you should look, so you look at my hands

2006-06-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

If this is true, it may be one of the most depressing things I've heard about the US-Iraq conflict to date.

you can't put tits on the radio.

2006-06-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

quixotic, adj -
a. Not compatible with reality: idealistic, romantic, starry-eyed, unrealistic, utopian, visionary.
b. see also sweater vest project, the.

So essentially, this is how the story goes. I signed up for this, about a month ago, thinking it'd be a really cool way to motivate me to knit something that I'd designed totally myself, and end up with something I'd actually want to wear. And I decided that what I really, really wanted was a charcoal grey sweater vest, that fit me, and had a pretty, complex-looking cable right up the front. Like a British school uniform vest, except a thousand times cooler because I would have made it.

Of course, it also did not occur to me until the evening of June 9th, when I was due to cast on, that I had no pattern and had done absolutely no planning. I also wanted to design a cable, and had no idea how to go about doing it or what I wanted it to look like. Which led to this, around Tuesday of last week.

Clicky!

Which led to this, as of about this afternoon. (The hand is there for, um, scale. And art.)

It's soo pretty. . .

Which led me to the realization that I have a lot of knitting to do between now and the 9th of July, if I want to satisfy my personal goal and feel all fuzzy inside. I believe the SI unit is a metric fuck-ton of knitting. So this is really what I've been doing in my free time the past three or four days. (I could blog about work, but nobody wants to read me blogging about work.)

I also managed to snag a copy of the latest Dixie Chicks' CD, and was pleasantly surprised. In the past, I've always felt kind of bad for liking the Dixie Chicks - most of their radio-played songs are fairly generic, Southern Everygirl stories, that're catchy and inoffensive, but fairly bland to listen to after a while. But their latest album is really, really worth both the money and the listen. In the aftermath of the Bush comment scandal (which, for those who don't follow country music, was a huge deal that lost them a lot of fans) they managed to take their hurt and channel it into a CD full of intensely personal, emotional songs that feel a lot more "together," musically, than their older work. It's also worth the listen for the two or three tracks where they deviate a little from their traditional pop-country genre - into cranky, rock-infused bluegrass on "Lubbock or Leave It," and gospel on "I Hope." I'd definitely reccommend at least borrowing it from somebody, if you get the chance.

I leave you with this: M + M spells "mmm"

"you have to call me by my dancer name. it's cobra. . .sss."

2006-06-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

This is an update for those of you following the progress of my sweater, which is like. . .nobody. Maybe Jenn, I don't know. Anyway, it's been done for, like, three weeks, but I just now got around to sewing in all the loose ends, and it is warm and fuzzy and sweatery and I am never taking it off. Although, sadly, it is buttonless. I may take odd-looking, MySpace-angled pictures of myself in it and then post them on the internet, once I find me some buttons. (Or ideally, toggles! I cannot believe I am under ninety yet excited by the prospect of sweater toggles!) Because I made a sweater and it fits me and I am proud in a way that's difficult to explain unless you've made one too.

Also: Chris gets to work somewhere that has ponies. This is not fair.

of all the people as they sing along the same old love song

2006-06-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

In case you were lying awake at night, wondering who Gorbachev is supporting in this year's World Cup: FIFA has the answer for you.

Also, I have Season 1 of the US Office. It is so funny and clever, I cannot even believe it. Steve Carell absolutely nails every line he's given, and the rest of the cast is just. . .it's good. It's a very good show.

my friend ate nothing but pancake batter and blue house paint for four days straight.

2006-06-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

I am so tickled by this piece of news, I cannot believe it. I realize it's not the first time this has been done, but. . .every time. So cute.

And I'm not saying this to take away from other teams people may or may not be backing in the World Cup, but I'm very excited. 47th-ranked Australia just won a game. Considering the other teams in their group, this is. . .so much more than I was anticipating.

bubble. pop. electric. (in the backseat)

2006-06-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Samuel L. Jackson, at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards:
"I’m here to tonight to present the award everybody’s been waiting for. Best Movie. Now this award holds a special place in my heart, because next year, I’ll be winning it, for Snakes on a Plane. Now I know, I know, that sounds cocky, but I don’t give a damn. I am guaranteeing that Snakes on a Plane will win Best Movie next year. It does not matter what else is coming out. The new James Bond? No snakes in that. Ocean’s 13? Where my snakes at? Shrek the third? Green… but not a snake. No movie shall triumph over Snakes on a Plane. Unless I happen to feel like making a movie called, “More Motherfuckin Snakes on More Motherfuckin Planes.” "

I am so giddy over this movie. And I'm even more giddy about how excited Samuel L. Jackson is about this movie. It's just. . .beautiful.

gonna grab some afternoon delight

2006-06-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

A Friday News Roundup of sorts.

Maybe this is why Harper hasn't been letting the media get near the government lately. Way to simultaneously alienate two of the four regions that elected you, idiots. This being said, I prefer the government when they're at least saying idiotic things to reporters, rather than taking their ball and going home, so to speak.

And speaking of taking the ball and going home, I'm getting a little aggravated with all the rhetoric surrounding the equalization payments agreement. (For those who don't know: my buddy Ralph is throwing a tantrum over the prospect of natural resources revenues being included as revenue when equalization payments are calculated.) Because honestly? The decision rests with Harper, who is from Alberta. And Harper knows that all Ralph has to do is whisper the letters "NEP," and the citizens of Alberta will literally march on Ottawa. So really. . .it's not an issue. I'm sick of reading about it.

And speaking of balls, (because I had to say that) the World Cup starts today. I would like to see Australia or England make it past the qualifiers.

Also: this morning, when I logged into MSN for all of three minutes before work, I noticed that Amber was online. So, if she's reading this, hello. I hope Africa is nice.

but i can feel a change is comin' on

2006-06-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

After a week of no meat, I honestly have to say: so far, I don't mind being vegetarian. I've actually learned a bit about working with stir-fry that contains some out-of-the-ordinary ingredients, and I'm kind of excited to try weird new recipes I normally wouldn't make if I had eating meat as an option. The only time I've found it to be an issue at all is in scamming free food put out for guest lecturers and symposia, which really, from a moral standpoint, I probably shouldn't be doing anyway.

I've been thinking a lot about the terror arrests recently - not because I'm particularly interested, mostly just because they're the top story for every Canadian news publication in existence right now. But it occurred to me this morning: nobody has suggested that these people are innocent. It's a really interesting mindset that I've only ever noticed in terrorism cases. People would be really upset if the suspect in a murder case was referred to as "the killer" before they went to trial, but once people are arrested on terror or terror-related allegations, they are "terrorists." It's almost like the 'schizophrenia' of the justice system, in terms of stigma.

Also, in case any senior Canadian military officials are reading. If your major opponent in a guerilla war claims to have captured an unknown number of your soldiers, your response should not be: "We're pretty sure they're lying, but we'll have to count."

But that's basically trivial compared to the number one threat facing Canada right now: BEARS.

in da lab, cage full of rats, honey i got prozac if you feelin' really sad. . .

2006-06-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Managed to make it through not one, but two barbequeues this weekend, without caving. I've discovered that the trick to enjoying veggie burgers when the guy next to you is eating Alberta beef? Is really good cheese.

I've also been spending a lot of time knitting - I'm trying to finish my latest pair of socks, because I've been making up the pattern myself and I'm considering submitting it for a book that's looking for contributions. (Odds that I'll be accepted? Slim-to-bleak. But it's the attempt that counts.)

Also? I know we're supposed to be just breathless with relief that Stockwell Day saved Ontario from a secret terrorist plot, but to be honest, the more I hear about the story the more I feel like these guys were the worst. Terrorists. Ever. Or, CSIS is the most badass intelligence agency in entire world. I mean, really. Who buys three tons of fertilizer from somebody and doesn't twig at all to the fact that their supplier is in the Canadian secret service? It's not like you can just pick that up in an alley, it seems like a fairly involved shipping operation.

I leave you with this little tidbit. If you think I coveted a sexy new Intel MacBook before, imagine how I feel now. (I know, I know, I have my Star Wars thing. But lightsabers are still a cool idea.)

in the midnight moonlight i'll be walking a long and lonely mile

2006-06-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hi, George Bush?

I realize I don't live in your country at all, but seriously? Go fuck a goat.

Love,
Jane

the humpty-dumpty ketchup chips are all the way in the other room

2006-06-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Arthur and George, Julian Barnes (356 pages)
I have trouble describing this novel, because upon finishing it I realize it belongs to two genres I don't typically like: historical fiction, and mystery. But it doesn't read like that at all - Arthur (who is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) and George (Edalji, who you can Google, but was also real) - are characters developed as if they were fictional, instead of people you already know by reputation. They're likeable, but viciously flawed in their own different ways, and they seem like actual people. The writing is beautiful, and engenders both outrage and sympathy in all the right places.

Also, it taught me the word "pusillanimous."

And speaking of words, if you're in need of something improbably entertaining to kill an hour or two, this blog is currently doing live coverage of the National Spelling Bee. The only Canadian candidate, ironically enough, is from Edmonton. But she's too young to hate, and also a girl, which is apparently rare in the spelling-championship world, so I'm totally gunning for her. (In the sense that I'm not really following the Bee at all, but if I was asked to pick a candidate, would choose her.)

just because i'm sorry doesn't mean i didn't enjoy it at the time

2006-06-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

It's begun. As of 12AM today, I have stopped eating meat. I'll try to update with progress - such as it's interesting, which mostly means recipes and/or wacky stories about terrifying meat-withdrawal seizures. (Mostly the former, I'm thinking.) Tomorrow night is my first crack at tofu, which...you'll hear about it.

Also, I'm having a bit of a moral crisis. See, I refuse to see the movie Cars, because I don't want to support what is essentially a glorification of excessive fossil-fuel consumption, underscored by Owen Wilson (who is nothing without Ben Stiller), and marketed to children. But then I was listening to the radio this morning, and. . .I think I want the soundtrack. Like, a lot. You won't want the soundtrack, because it's a lot of songs by country artists I like, but I'm pretty excited. Because I don't think any of the songs are about Jesus or hurtin' over a woman, and that is a rare, precious thing on a country album. And I need to expand my country-song inventory, because I'm starting to get a little burnt out on the ones I have right now. It's a dilemma for the ages.

And hey, speaking of CGI movies that are also life lessons: Over the Hedge. Is awesome, and Steve Carell is hilarious, and Shatner is awesome if underused. And Ben Folds does the entire soundtrack, which is very very cool, and the whole movie is about the fact that as a culture, we (and by "we" I mean Americans and to a lesser extent Canadians and Britons) consume too much. But with, like, cute squirrels and a BEAR.

My co-habitants may also be interested to learn that I got a coffee maker - nay, a tiny robot butler that only makes coffee - and it is awesome. The one in the kitchen is fair game for anything you might want to do with a baseball bat/classified advertisements/pliers/other things. Or, I'll get rid of it when I'm back in town.

And finally, I've been meaning to take a picture of this for almost a full year. Seriously, you guys. Skateboarding isn't allowed, you guys.

today's special: b.a. johnston's deep-fried hand. no thanks

2006-05-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

It's not really because I'm that upset about the Oilers playing so well, because that's clearly due to Ralph Klein's methodical slaughter of baby ponies. I mean, it sucks, and I was hoping the Stanley Cup finals would be Ducks-Sabres, but it's not the end of the world. In a few months, there'll be a whole new season of hockey to get anxious about, and a different team will be at the top of the league.

But I opened the paper this morning, and what really disappoints me? Is that apparently, Oilers fans are the new Leafs fans.

Except for Chris. (Incidentally, the guy teaching the physics part of my MCAT course is, like, a hybrid of Chris and Chris, but blonder. It's awesome.)

And. (AND!) Awesome Long-Haired Hippie Businessman is on my bus commute again this summer. (He's awesome because he wears a suit somewhere downtown in the mornings, and has this long, curly hair that goes all the way down to his waist. I feel like he must have a really cool job.)

"dead presidents, mr. b!"

2006-05-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

I have socks!

And: stitch pattern detail. It's pretty. For those that care: I cannot say enough awesome things about this pattern. It was easy to memorize, but not so easy that it got boring. And I love the colours in this yarn, and now I have socks, and dude. (Yes, this is what I'm doing with my May 2-4 weekend. Why do you ask?)

I stop being a teenager in six minutes. This is kind of weird.

Also, I'm thinking of going out and renting some DVDs, to catch up on stuff that's good but that I haven't had time to watch. If you watch any TV shows that I don't (so, everything but Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Scrubs) and feel there's something I'd enjoy, either cancelled or on the air, pimp it to me. Or try to sell me some ED medication/a correspondence degree/wedding planning services. Both seem to be a popular feature in my comments.

if i lay here. if i just lay here. .

2006-05-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

Oh my god. My Dad just discovered iTunes downloads, and he just called me over to his computer so he could play me his favourites from Monty Python. Which he just bought using the power of the internet.

I love him because he is such a dork.

Also: if anybody happens to have seen the Grey's Anatomy finale and wants to squeal incoherently about it on MSN? I will be down with that for, like, the next week or so. Homygod.

she says it's cold outside, and she hands me my raincoat.

2006-05-10T22:32:00.000-07:00

Most. Obvious. Headline. Ever

Edmonton plans to shoot at Toskala a lot more

I love that this is actual news. "We plan to take a lot more shots, because that seems to be our best strategy for getting the puck into the net." Like, how else were they planning to score?

halifax teenagers, gut-punch a squirrel.

2006-05-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

Seven hours of test-writing! For no immediate reason! Saturday morning! Why don't I like myself!

(Translation: MCAT practice exam, starting at a time that required getting up at 7:15 on a Saturday. I don't want to think anything at all for, like, a day.)

this is a public service announcement, this is only a test

2006-05-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

Edmonton is responsible for Game Seven. I know this for a fact. (Faith is a fact!)

I don't care if Edmonton wins the Stanley Cup, and then somehow plays so well that a new super-trophy twice as powerful as the Stanley Cup suddenly materializes so that they can win it. They suck. They suck, they suck, they suck.

I need a cupcake. Go Flames.

stick around, i've got a hunch we'll bomb this town, then stop for lunch.

2006-04-26T01:40:00.000-07:00

So. You know your flight's too early in the morning when you wake up to meet your taxi, and your drunk roommate is stumbling around the house, getting ready for bed. I'm just saying.

Possibly not the most coherent blog post in the world, since I've had roughly an hour and a half of sleep, but I have twenty minutes to kill in glamorous Halifax International Airport (which has picked up the Pearson-esque trait of periodically broadcasting recordings reminding you not to smoke or leave your bags suspiciously unattended) before my flight boards. At, in case I haven't complained to you already, 6 in the morning. Who thought scheduling a flight for that time was a good idea? What kind of person does that to two or three hundred of their fellow human beings?

And apparently, it's not just the sadists at WestJet. The airport is absolutely packed, considering the time. Like, line-for-security-stretching-out-past-Tim-Hortons kind of packed, which I've never ever seen before. Also, interesting side note (since I noticed this while I was waiting next to the Tim Hortons in the security line): did anybody else know the Halifax Airport has sparrows? In those trees, by the fountain in the main, non-security part of the airport. There are, like, four or five perfectly live sparrows chilling out, having a good time, totally not minding the fact that they're living in a people-filled, concrete-and-glass hellhole that breaks spirits. At first I thought it was just the one, that maybe got confused and never really figured out how to escape, but no. There's a whole group of them. Am I the only person who didn't know they were there?

And. And! Radar Love was playing in the cab on the ride up, and that was good.

This is all I have to say, but I have a mystery stopover in Toronto at some point (I say mystery stopover because I don't change planes, so the duration/existence of my stop isn't printed on the ticket) so the odds that I'll be writing more later, provided Pearson has free wireless? Very yes.

"i constantly thank god for esteban."

2006-04-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

So, while Celebrity Cooking Showdown seems like it's yet another attempt by a network to have the next surprisingly popular yet cheap to make [Verb]ing With B-Grade Celebrities as their breakout reality hit, which will probably ultimately fail, I have to say. Oh my god, Ashley Angel from O-Town! Aaaaaah! Ashley Angel from O-Town!

Also: what does it say about your career when your headlining claims to fame are that your band opened for washed-out pop phenomena that stopped making good albums about four years ago?

Also also: I just realized, there is a [Verb]ing With Celebrities show I would totally watch, love, and shamelessly endorse. Wouldn't it be awesome if somebody did a Celebrity Spelling Bee? I mean, I can't really get invested in watching Drew Lachey (he's the one that didn't marry Jessica Simpson) skate, or dance, or cook, but I would absolutely pay to watch him try to spell "circumvent."

"god, heather, why do you have to be such a megabitch!"

2006-04-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

*sigh* Between the whole thing where David Emerson is the minister in charge of the softwood lumber case, but can't actually deal with softwood lumber for ethical reasons, and his recent odd moves regarding the press on Parliament Hill, I really can't make up my mind about Harper. I understand that he's either:

a) A baby-eating, cape-wearing evil cowboy overlord,
b) Profoundly stupid, or;
c) Both.

I don't want to automatically assume a), because that's what everbody seems to be doing based on the mere fact that he's a Conservative. And I'd like to believe that the Conservatives aren't inherently evil, and that Harper wants to be fairly centrist and listen to the needs of Canadians. (Although I have serious reservations about how well he can control certain members of his party, which may be one of the reasons he's being so cagey with the press compared to previous PMs) But at the same time. . .he's not doing a very good job of convincing me of this fact. Especially with Emerson - he's very deliberately assigned this guy to a ministry where he can't work to his best ability to resolve a case that's become a hot button issue for a lot of Canadians, especially Western Canadians. And I feel like a lot of that has to do with the fact that resolving the softwood issue would involve taking a sharp tone with the Americans in order to get the money we're owed, which Harper doesn't seem willing to do. This, in itself, is distressing for me when I look at the Americans' recent policy decisions.

Oh, well. Here's hoping our Prime Minister is just plain stupid.

we'll dance around the open flame, if it gets too hot, well, we have no shame

2006-03-28T13:07:00.000-08:00

Seriously? Seriously? They make academic journals in which people publish papers on film study?

I feel so impotent in this class. I'm really great at talking about this shit. I understand it, and I can produce clear, educated commentary on all of the films we've watched, but I just can't write it like I used to. Or maybe I have higher standards, and get embarrassed more easily when what I'm writing is obviously bullshit I don't believe in. I absoutely understand how to use search strings to find journal articles in a database from, say, Obscure Molecular Neurophysiology Semiannual. But. . .seriously? Film study journals? This is why I stopped taking arts courses.

Also: I think I may have exemplified pop culture's bastardization of classical art and history. The prof was telling my Italian language class today about the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, and the only thing I could think was, "Well, in the end, they were both Ninja Turtles."

i'll be useful, i'll be cavalier

2006-03-25T21:22:00.000-08:00

I just did something I rarely do during the school year: I finished a book. I've been reading Hitching Rides With Buddha, written by the (I assume) lovely and talented Will Ferguson, since the flight back after reading week, and I just finished it a few minutes ago.

On the surface, this is a travel novel, but the tone of the narration makes it seem like more than that. It's a road trip story, it's a two-friends-drive-and-learn-about-things-and-each-other story, but with only one main character. The book is essentially a chronicle of the author's trip across Japan: he decides to hitchike the entire country, lengthwise, following the blooming of the cherry blossoms as they travel north. It's about the cherry blossoms a little bit, but it's more about Ferguson trying to convey the personality of Japan. Each ride he gets is a story about a person, about little bits of history or culture that he associates with them, and about the impressions he gets from the way they treat him. Each town or city is a story about that city, but also the people within it and the little things about it that you wouldn't get from reading a typical piece of travel literature. It's not about the landmarks or the famous events. Ferguson makes it about the people, and takes a uniquely human (and at times, incredibly funny) approach to documenting his travels that makes his writing difficult to get out of your head. But in a good way.

they are like emeralds and glint in the night/commas and ampersands

2006-03-23T17:48:00.000-08:00

So, interesting game to play if you're bored/immature/recently brain-fried due to school/all of the above. Put your playlist on shuffle, take the top 10 songs and add "in my pants" to the end of the titles. I didn't get too many entertaining ones, but this one was too perfect:

Weakerthans - Everything Must Go in my pants. . .

Another song with the title "Tenderloin" came up, which was a close runner-up for most amusing but really only works if I'm a dude. Which I'm not, as far as I know.

I have to go finish my cheesecake, chug some NeoCitran, then curl up in a corner and die. And by "die" I mean "quietly read a book." I choose to blame the fact that I feel sick on Dr. Wells, because I don't like her class.

Edited: I was playing witih Google Image, and found out the weirdest thing. Apparently there's a St. Dunstan, which is odd but not totally earth-shattering. The weird part? St. Dunstan's feast day is two days before my birthday. I'm sleepy enough that this is a profoundly eerie concidence.

"stole a page from your book, and a line from your page"

2006-03-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

The revolution has been suppressed. Certain radical parties have claimed victory, but we know this to be untrue. In their attempts to unsettle us and weaken our resolve, we proved stalwart and unflinching, and the enemy has capitulated. They have seen their agenda for what it is, a fruitless attempt to bully this administration into compromising its core values.

Every one of us has the ability to kill another human being. But does that give us the right to do so? If we are told by higher authority that we haven't the right to kill, and we kill anyway, have we really gained that right? Or have we merely demonstrated our ability to do something we haven't the right to do?

These insurgents - no, the terrorists - have spent the last ten days exercising their ability to disrobe, to stand in flagrant disregard for society's policies and principles. This does not mean they have the right to do so. We were founded wearing pants, with the principle of others wearing pants at our core. No member of society has the right to cast off that founding tenet, although they may be able to do so.

"Still, where did the lighter fluid come from?"

2006-03-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

The plague is going through the house, so I have a lot of time to knit.

I'm on this weird kick where I love complicated colourwork, but don't like having to use or learn new skills to produce it. So I'm designing a pair of reasonably straightforward fair isle socks. Although they are going to be calf-length, which means I need to incorporate decreases, which means a kicky fake seam at the back around which I can centre the decreases, which I like. And I'm so excited about these, because they're inspired by/robbed from the plot of Through the Looking Glass, and I can't wait until I get to the foot part because I have the dorkiest idea *ever* for it. Once I finish them, I may never take them off. Also, just for fun: if you see how these socks are related to Through the Looking Glass, you get a million points. That's right, I said it. A million.

i'm going to be a pirate on the river saskatchewan

2006-03-10T20:38:00.000-08:00

So, yeah. I'm not usually the kind of person who takes internet quizzes and then posts the results on my website. Because I don't think anybody else is really interested in what kind of cookie I would be, were I in fact a cookie, or other things like that. But this was too perfect to pass up. I realize it's likely a random phrase generator, but still.

Jane Dunstan will have to write:

I will not trust pirates

'What will you have to write on the chalk board?' at QuizGalaxy.com

is my unda-wears showing? yes ma'am.

2006-03-04T16:02:00.000-08:00

So, the most recent post. As a form of social protest, Chris has decided to stop wearing pants. It's a thing.

I am so incredibly excited about this project, because I'm learning so many things. It's my first real lace attempt, and I'm hoping it looks a lot more like the pattern when blocked than it does right now. However. Even if it doesn't, it's still cool because I'm learning about lace. And those black stripes mean I'm learning about life lines (and how useful they actually are). And this is probably the first project where I've had to constantly consult the pattern, instead of memorizing a couple stitch repeats and coasting. I like this.

I'm not actually making the whole beastly shawl, just the leaf repeat in green, and I'm thinking I might try adding a border in contrasting colour, although I'm not sure how I'd join two panels of lace parallel to each other without making it too noticeable. That'll be some homework for later.

you realise, this means war.

2006-03-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

It has come to my attention that an assault has been mounted, by certain persons, against the single founding regulation of our society: Always pants.
As a founding principle, it was established to bring order and harmony to all individuals, to establish a society in which all were equal, standing proudly with each leg encased in a tube of glorious fabric.
There have been murmerings of discontent among the populace for some time now, and in an attempt to alleviate the unanticipated strife of affected individuals, who have repeatedly petitioned for a pantsless environment in which they may freely chill their lower extremities in the drafts of our land, a compromise was very recently mandated.

If one is wearing more than one pair of pants for a period of time, one would build up extra "pants credit," which they could then spend at their leisure, by choosing an equal amount of time in which they could exist in a disrobed state without fear of reprimand.

Certain unreasonable individuals, upon hearing of my generous offer, have decided to use extremist tactics and threats, presuming our leniency to be a sign of weakness. We will not relent. We will stand beside the principles upon which our society was founded, regardless of pressure from radical movements both within and without. These rebels are terrorists, seeking to destabilize us through opportunistic intimidation, and we shall not give in.

2006-03-01T06:03:00.000-08:00

Yay, photos! This is the left sock in progress. . .it's now been finished, but I was too lazy to take and upload new photos. 'Cause I'm that kind of girl.

Is it bad that I just had to go back and correct my HTML tags, because I accidentally spelled "centre" the Canadian way?

come on, come on, put your hands into the fire.

2006-02-23T19:37:00.000-08:00

None of you can see it, because I left my Mabel-to-Ernie connecter (that's a digital camera cable) in Halifax, but I have half of the prettiest pair of socks the world has ever seen. The other half is on its way. And - oh, I'm so proud. They're fairisle, and I charted the (admittedly, fairly basic) colourwork myself, and I learned a new way of turning heels that makes me almost giddy with delight, because it kicks my old way's ass. I can do it from memory, because it's that simple and intuitive, and I don't have to pick up any stitches. Ever. (This is awesome for reasons that mere words cannot capture)

The Grey's Anatomy DVDs I've been watching virtually nonstop since I got here (hence the almost-finished pair of socks) are. . .addictive. Ignoring the fact that the Tegan-and-Sara-song-as-arty-indie-background-noise count is up to the truly obscene number of four in the first nine episodes, the music is OK too. And they mark the first time I've ever found a DVD easter egg without knowing it was there. I'm proud.

For those of you who don't care about my knitting, or the fact that I'm unreasonably obsessed with TV like a preteen girl, I just realized I was so tired when I wrote the previous post, that I actually calculated the time change between Halifax and Calgary backwards. The time change I've been calculating in my head for a little over two and a half years. So no, 2 AM in Calgary is not, in fact, 11 PM in Halifax. It's 5 AM. Which helps explain my exhaustion a lot better.

2006-02-18T13:08:00.000-08:00

I've come to the conclusion that every single person involved with an airport, anywhere in Ontario, is profoundly incompetent to a degree mere words cannot describe.

Halifax: enter security. Board airplane at 4:45, an already delayed time, but I've had to do some emergency rescheduling, and am grateful to just have an itinerary that gets me home.
Twenty minute wait on the tarmac because Toronto can't handle the current volume of air traffic in their space, and they'd like us to take off a little later, to stagger out the flights they're receiving.
News arrives that we've been asked to wait another hour. The pilot manages to get us off the ground within forty minutes, because he's a prince among men.
Toronto: 7:20. Arrive an hour late, but still with plenty of time to loiter and make my 9:00 connection. Thank-you to the lovely lady at WestJet customer service, for booking a large enough window between flights that my first plane's lateness didn't affect my second one. Gate on the ticket: B20.
I hike across Terminal 3, from the upper echelons of the "C"'s, down to B20. This is roughly a fifteen minute walk. Gate change number one: B22. It's at least visible from B20. No problems. I get myself a cup of coffee and hunker down to wait. . .at which point I notice that the flight scheduled to leave from B22 before ours has been delayed until after our scheduled departure time, which does not bode well. This, of course, leads to:
Gate change number two. Back to C37. Fifteen minute walk. I stop to get myself a sandwich from Tim Horton's, all is right with the universe. I plug in my computer to watch some Scrubs, manage to get through about 2 and a half episodes before deciding I need another cup of coffee. My scheduled departure time passes. We've been delayed an hour.
Gate change number three. Back to B20. At least Timmy's is on the way, I manage to snag a cup, and sit down to wait.
Roughly quarter to ten. This is getting ridiculous. We've been switched to gate B18.
Our airplane arrives. I phone my mother to tell her we're boarding the airplane, and I'll see her in four hours. We board, I'm stuck next to two of the beefiest dental students U of T has to offer, but they seem nice so I try to grin and bear it. This is our captain speaking. Apparently, the baggage handlers are calling in sick, and this is causing such a ruckus (did all of them call in sick?) that we have to wait another forty minutes for our bags to be loaded.

Calgary. It's 2 am, which is only 11 Halifax time, but I've been travelling since 2 in the afternoon. The icing on that metaphorical cake of my Lester B Pearson experience is about to become apparent. They've lost my bag.

. . .with another guy, oh here comes my baby.

2005-12-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Seasons Greetings. At this point, I feel it's a purely secular holiday. As a non-religious person, I can still celebrate today without buying into the idea of the virgin birth and the frankincense and whatnot.

Consider Santa Claus as a sort of capitalist Big Brother figure, who gently reminds us that we should buy trinkets for our family and friends to remind them that we care. It's about the "spirit of Christmas," which is really just to be nice to people and appreciate what you have, which I'm pretty sure is referenced in every major religion at some point. Today is Charlie Brown and claymation reindeer and taking a day off from life to pretend that if, by a fluke of a low pressure system, it happens to snow on a random date in December, things are going to be okay. I can get behind that.

2005-12-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

Snakes on a plane, man. Snakes on a plane.

one little thing i really need: the deed to a platinum mine.

2005-12-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

Dear Baggage-Handling Members of the Halifax and/or Hamilton Airport Authority,

I can only assume one of you is to blame for the fact that I gave you my bag when I got on the plane in Halifax, but did not receive it upon exiting the plane in Calgary. Thank-you for the Christmas gift of not having my luggage. It's really made me realize how lucky I am to have those things I take for granted every day. Luxury items like pants and clean underwear and a winter coat have really caused me to lose sight of the spirit of the season.

Sincerely,
Jane

PS. I would normally include some kind of arty photo of the "lost luggage" claim form, as a poignant attachment to this letter. But unfortunately, my digital camera is IN MY FUCKING BAG!

On an unrelated note, check out the blogspam comments in the post below. They're friggin' sweet.

ow, my skin!

2005-08-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

Went to the T-Dot for my cousin's wedding, and got acne such as I haven't seen since high school. The only logical conclusion is that I'm allergic to Toronto.

For those I've been speaking with, no appreciable drama was had. I met Hugh for lunch, and it was fabulous, and I spent quite a while talking to Peter Milliken , who is both my second cousin and the speaker of the House of Commons and the MP for Kingston, at the wedding. If he's ever in Halifax, I promised to take him for beers.

And in breaking developments, I just got up to take brownies out of the oven, and while I was standing on my toes to turn off the stove light, I burnt my tummy on the pan. And it hurts real bad.

Also: yarr.

if sam jackson says it, it must be true

2005-08-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Snakes on a Plane, Motherfucker!
This may be the most entertaining thing I've read in the past several days.

like gypsies only with worse luck and far less gold.

2005-08-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Dr. Jacques, for letting me know that I could register for your class a full two weeks before classes start. I now have a ton of time to refit my schedule around your stats course, which I don't even want to take.

And let us not speak of the fact that winter semester, I a) had to drop my beautiful, beautiful Dostoyevksy elective for a physics lab, and b) am only taking 3 classes because I can't find a Neuro credit that fits into my schedule. So I may end up having to take an Italian lit class, in which I'll be expected to read books, like I have time for that.

Although in all fairness, b) is due to the fact that I'm taking Neuroanatomy, which promises to be full of magical unicorns (hopefully dissected so I can see their nervous system) but which also eats up my entire Monday morning, thus killing the idea of taking M-W-F classes before 9:30, and nobody in the neuro department even wakes up before 9 AM, let alone teaches. Also, Dal Online and their "helpful" features? RAAAAGE.

But in good news, I get to take Perrot-Sinal's fall class, which means I don't have to deal with either Adamo and her fashion sense or Brown and his drinking.

this shit is bananas. b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

2005-08-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Done work, finally. Not that I didn't like my job, it's just nice to have some actual holiday to my summer holiday. (All 4 days of it) Although there is some question as to whether or not I'm wanted back - all of my coworkers are all, "yeah, will I see you next summer?" but neither of the two people involved in actually hiring me have mentioned anything either way. So. . .I don't know. Hopefully I'll find something bitchin' at Dal, and it'll be a moot point anyway.

Did a whole bunch of shopping today (and will do tomorrow) - trying to be ethical, and only support brands that don't use Malaysian babies to make their clothes, but it's hard because I don't know anything about some of the companies I buy things from. Although I suppose if it's a small company, it's relatively safe to assume they can't afford a huge factory overseas. Still may at least try on pants at the Gap (but not buy them) to get the free download. Can't decide if I'm that much of a music whore.

Also, I finished my mitts, and am working on a purse that I *hope* will be small enough once I'm done felting it, it may be a horrible mistake. We shall see.

And finally, Blood Services changed their policy so I can donate as soon as December 1st! Yay for reducing the wait time to 6 months from a year after you get pierced! (Although I'm toying with the idea of another one. It's still in the planning stages, so hopefully I can hold off until Christmas because I really do want to donate. It looks cool.)

I (heart) cake

2005-08-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Such a girly afternoon. Went to get a manicure for the first time, which was fun, and something I won't be doing during school. The place I went to had a TV, which was irritating for reasons that are twofold: it was playing the OC, and I couldn't see it, so I spent the entire time listening to the OC, and wondering what the hell they were doing. All in all, though, was a neat experience, and now my hands smell like cake.

Then, went to the yarn store (come on, this had to tie into knitting somehow) and returned a bunch of yarn, then used my store credit to buy the stuff for a tank top on clearance. I even managed to get the same yarn they use in the pattern (which never, ever, ever happens), in a pretty blue.

The show I went to last night was awesome, too. Fun dance-rock, with quite possibly the hard-corest tambourine player ever. He was so into beating the shit out of that tambourine. . .it absolutely made the show. Also, a very nice bar that I'd never been to before. Cosy, good bands, not too smoky - kind of reminded me of the Attic.

dignity. . .always dignity.

2005-08-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Almost done work, and almost done my mittens. (I have one thumb left. But my camera's dead, so even if they were done I couldn't show you) It's definitely a week of almost dones.

For those who have been wondering but afraid to ask, I fly into Halifax on the 1st. My dad's coming down with me, and we're going to buy some furniture for my room, so I don't have to sleep on the floor. (If anybody knows where I can get a dresser or a little half-bookcase like Dan's got, preferably cheap, holla my way)

Hmm, what else? I heart Gene Kelly, that's for sure. (Did I find Singin' in the Rain for $18 at Blockbuster? My heavens, I most certainly did) And I found the best new comic ever. I bought issue one on a whim, and I'm absolutely going back after work tomorrow to see if they have any others at the store. It's called Pirate Club, and that really should explain it to everybody. It combines my love of both pirates and ninjas with my love of immaturity.

Also, nearly learned a new song on the guitar (the chord changes aren't neat, the guy sings it in this half-drunk quasi-rhythm, so it's hard to figure out at first) which is very exciting. I propose a Henderson alum coffee house.

"we played bowling, BITCHES."

2005-08-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

I'm the biggest nerd ever. But I'm so excited, because I did this swatch, and it's the right size for me to make myself some molecular biology mittens! Let me explain. I found this pattern for a scarf. But I already have two scarves, and I don't wear them that much anyway. So I decided to take the DNA cables, and work them into a mitten pattern so I have DNA mitts. But first I had to check to make sure that the cable pattern was small enough that it'd fit across the back of my hand. And it does. And I have really, *really* soft yarn that feels like snuggling a baby rabbit, and I'm going to have mittens that feel like that.

Also, I stole the post title from my good friend Amanda's MSN nic.

yarrrn!

2005-08-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

Don't groan at that pun. You knew it was coming. Anyway, I'm really proud of this sock (it has no mate, yet) because it was my first try at intarsia (knitting a picture) in the round (on those 4 needles) and it turned out only a little lumpy, instead of unrecognizably disfigured. Also, every good pirate needs warm toes. So they're practical. You also can't see it in the photo, but the toe of the sock is white.

Once I buy more yarn to finish the second sock, there's a pattern I want to hunt down for a ~~secret plan to kill moose and squirrel~~ personal project. See, I clearly need to go back to Halifax, because without people distracting me constantly, all I do is knit stuff.

"No, I was merely reading the Muggle magazines," said Dumbledore. "I do love knitting patterns."

2005-08-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

Just finished the new Harry Potter Book in. . .somewhere between 6 and 8 hours. I don't know if I think it was the best book or not. It definitely set up a *ton* for the rest of the series, and I'm really excited (although slightly disappointed) about Book 7. Which will probably end up being a thousand pages long.

Yeah, and there's a beloved dead character. . .and I cried for maybe the last 6 chapters, on and off. . .but it was well done. I'm full of righteous literary indignation. And up until the crying, it was probably the funniest of the books, too. See the post title. And now I have to add Goblet of Fire to my reading list (which seems cute and tame, in comparison) in time for the movie.

. . .some people juggle geese!

2005-07-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

Look! Look what I did! Look guys, isn't this awesome? Look at the yarn. I just finished my first foray into kool-aid dyeing. That yarn was white an hour ago. It's really fun, and I feel like a knitting rock star, and the kitchen smells like orange flavouring and burnt hair. My hobby has a new facet.

Also, OMGLOLOLOL!!!!1!!! Second Serenity trailer is online, and I love it. It's so pretty.

Man, I had the strangest dream last night. There are, of course, two Wilson brothers in acting: Owen and Luke. So I was at this concert, where the third brother - Oscar, but nobody could remember his name - was singing with his new band. And I saw Owen Wilson, and I was all "Hey, Owen. Can I get your autograph?" 'Cause he's hella funny and all. And then I was like, "Hey, can you sign it the "Butterscotch Stallion"?" And then he did, and folded the piece of paper he signed into a paper crane. It was bizzare.

this is a protest song. because as white, middle-class men, we have a lot to complain about.

2005-07-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

The end tally is $0.30 a show. Good, good times. My friend Ellen joined me for the day, and we went around to a whole bunch of workshops in the morning. Workshops are a whole bunch of semi-related bands playing on the same stage, and occasionally playing together - as was the case with the sweet cajun band that workshopped with a Cape Breton fiddle group and a Quebecois fiddle group. Then we went to see Sarah Harmer workshop for a bit, but this one lady on stage was really. . .not so great. So we left, and wandered around a bit until we saw a wicked Indian brass band play. Then Ellen wanted to go see the Arrogant Worms, who were playing all of their. . .folk songs. . .which was okay. Ooh! And when I went to the CD tent, they had a theremin set up.

Steve Earle played the main stage at lunch, which was an incredible show. He's super old, which detracted from it a little, but his music is still good and he was very articulately political as well as funny. But also vaguely creepy, as he brought his late twentysomething child bride out onstage to do a duet. Which sounded wonderful, but. . .creepy.

And then, oh my god, Weakerthans. They were still amazing live, although the sound system was a little loud. And they played Plea From a Cat Named Virtue, and it was awesome. Also, while they were playing we noticed the gentlemen pictured at left, who I'm going to call the (very) Poor Man's Captain Jack Sparrow. He had my undivided attention for, like, eighteen seconds.

The evening mainstage bands were sort of unimpressive, especially after last night. A couple solid folk acts, but they were kind of music to go to sleep to, and we'd been there since 11:30 and it had rained all morning, so we were tired. . .not a good combination. But then this crazy eastern European dance band started playing, and dude. They had the fever. And in case you can't see from the photo, the only cure? More cowbell.

Also: guys on stilts. Be amazed.

folk festival: the blogging

2005-07-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

A while back, I bought a pass to the folk festival. Clearly, this was an awesome purchase. I worked it out, and after three days I've paid about $5.77 per show. And I missed most of today because I couldn't find my ticket.

I've also seen some amazing, amazing bands. Sarah Harmer played tonight, and I've decided she's so awesome I just might marry her. I also saw the most impressive one-mand-band in the world, ever. His name is Xavier Rudd, and his on-stage setup looks like this: a guitar on his lap, a mic and harmonica to his left, two drum sets to his right, and in front of him are three didgeridoos. He also plays wicked music, his cover of "Let Me Be" is fantastic.

And I just came back from seeing a craaazy hip-hop band called Arrested Development. They had wicked stage presence, and their lyrics were intelligent and socially conscious. It's hip hop for haters, yo.

On a totally unrelated note, I have a feeling I'm going to end up spending close to $100 on CD's this weekend. That's not so good.

your ad here.

2005-07-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

That's it. I'm dragging all of my friends named Chris to a Buck 65 concert.

Folk festival is shaping up to be pretty awesome, and the plate-conservation hippies are recycling their way into a new set of plates for Larch St. So there.

buy all our playsets and toys!

2005-07-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

Cosy cosy cosy! I finally found a camera to post a picture. Is it not pretty? (Also, it's cosying my new teapot, which I'm very proud of). That's really all I've got.

. . .but you can't take the sky from me

2005-07-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

People make me so angry. When terrorists attack wealthy, white-dominated nations and kill people, it makes headline news, people do exposes and discuss What This Means For Us, and Could It Happen Here. Allied governments make speeches and gestures of solidarity to show their support, they offer intelligence to the affected government.

When a ridiculous string of suicide bombings kills hundreds of people in a weekend in Iraq, the media barely pays attention. They report the information, grudgingly, but they don't analyze it and do their best to put a chipper spin on it so that it looks like The Insurgency Is Over. They'd much rather be reporting new developments in the Saddam Hussein trial. Goddammit.

i look just like buddy holly. (oh, oh) and you're mary tyler-moore.

2005-07-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

"For each now strives to isolate his person as much as possible from the others, wishing to experience within himself life's completeness, yet from all his efforts there results not life's completeness but a complete suicide, for instead of discovering the true nature of their being they lapse into total solitariness. For in our era all are isolated into individuals, each retires solitary within his burrow, each withdraws from the other, conceals himself and that which he possesses, and ends by being rejected of men and by rejecting them.

"He amasses wealth in solitariness, thinking: how strong I am now and how secure, yet he does not know, the witless one, that the more he amasses, the further he will sink into suicidal impotence. For he has become accustomed to relying upon himself alone and has isolated himself from the whole as an individual, has trained his soul not to trust help from others, in human beings and mankind, and is fearful only of losing his money and the privileges he has acquired. In every place today the human mind is mockingly starting to lose its awareness of the fact that a person's true security exists not in his own personal, solitary effort, but in the common integrity of human kind. but it will certainly be the case that this terrible solitariness will come to an end, and all will comprehend at once how unnaturally they have divided themselves one from the other. [. . .] even though he does it individually, a man must suddenly show an example and lead his soul out of solitariness to a heroic deed of brotherly and loving communion, even though he does it in the capacity of a holy fool. . . This, in order that the great idea shall not die."

I read this last night at 11:30. If you ignore the religious connotations at the end (the context within the novel is that the man being spoken to in this passage is becoming a monk.), it's really, really applicable to society today. Which is kind of depressing, considering it was written in 1879. I think Dostoyevsky imagined society would have seen the light by now. The first line of the second paragraph makes me think of the state of foreign affairs in the world at large, and it just blows me away that something published 120 years ago can still be so applicable. Maybe that saying about history repeating really is true. Everybody's looking out for themselves right now, everybody's working towards goals that shore up their own world-views without thinking of others in any capacity. I was talking to a girl today, and she once met a man who spent twenty years riding a bike through Africa teaching kids about AIDS prevention. And an American conservative group, on government money, came in and undid his entire life's work by spreading propaganda that said condoms were sinful, and advising against their use.

I don't want to get too much into US politics right now, but it's really unfortunate that developed countries are so focused on wealth and profit. Socialist societies don't typically work on a large scale, but captialism without some degree of compassion or altruism is just as bad. I wish more people would take chances and help each other out, even if by doing so he "does it in the capacity of a holy fool."

Although actually, holy fools had it pretty good in Russia. It was basically a loophole, where if you could get people to believe that you were crazy with the power of God, you could say whatever you wanted against people in the community or government with no reprimand or risk of arrest. So not really a bad thing, in some respects.

Oh, and Chris/Tim, I do use ellipses properly.

been crazy all day long, but it's only monday, mr. mom

2005-07-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Man. This sucks. I was totally getting into it, too. However, Tim Minear has experience with DVD releases from cancelled FOX programming, so hopefully we get to see it quickly. Chris, you wanted me to let you know: it's awesome. It actually ended up being quite a character drama, less a procedural, and I liked it. Boo.

In other news: I have a pair of cowboy boots! Which is awesome, and I'm glad I like them because for what cowboy boots cost, I'll need to be buried in them to justify it. However, it's also a good excuse to come home for Stampede every year. So, ups and downs.

I'm trying to hunt down a digital camera (for those not keeping up with current events of me, I broke my giant old clunker that one night, when Jenny did that mural on Ben's chest and he was running around everywhere) so I can bore you all with pictures of my knitting! I made some really ugly socks while I was in Manitoba - they're actually ugly, which I'm kind of excited about, because my last attempt at ugly socks turned out kind of not-so-bad-looking - and I wanted to share.

Fifi: blog. Get cracking. You know how it is. And if you've heard the song I nabbed the title from, I'm so sorry. So very sorry.

i heart ponies

2005-07-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

I saw the most adorable old lady today! She was Asian, in her late 50s and kind of hunched over, but all cowboyed up and ready for the Stampede. . .it really made me smile.

Also found a sweet pattern to make old-man slippers (and possibly a hat for somebody who's not me and also a hat for somebody who is me), but they'll likely be expensive because there's so many colours involved and you can't get teeny-tiny balls of yarn. I'm thinking about matching the slippers and the hat, so I can use up the extra yarn, but I'm worried that if I do that by the time I get to the 2nd project, I'll be so sick of the colours from doing the 1st one that I won't like them anymore.

Second semester is going to be the most bitchingly awesome semester in the entire world. (I have a neuro lab buddy. It's gonna be hot)

now "the herpes" free!

2005-06-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

"in all the earth there is nothing whatever to compel human beings to love their fellows, and a law of the type "man shall love mankind" is wholly non-existent, and if hitherto there has been any love upon the earth it has proceeded not from a natural law but solely from the fact that human beings have believed in their own immortality. [...]
"If one were to destroy mankind's faith in its own immortality, there would instanly grow enfeebled within it not only love, but every vital force for the continuation of universal life: then nothing would be immoral, all things would be lawful. For every private individual who believes neither in God nor in his own immortality, the moral law of nature must instantly be transformed into the complete opposite of the old, religious law, and that selfish egoism even to the point of evil-doing must not only be lawful to man, but must even be acknowledged as necessary, the most reasonable and indeed possibly the most decent way out of his situation. "

Everybody should read Dostoyevsky once. He's a really fun head-trip.

In other news, I've been scarf'd, and Tom Cruise hates water.

I keep meaning to mention The Inside, as well. It's kind of a weird TV show, about FBI agents who work in a special creeepy violent crimes unit. Basically they only do cases with serial killers, which could get kind of repetitive, but I'll hold judgement until I've seen more than two episodes. However, three reasons to watch it: Tim Minear, the man they call Jayne, and the lesbian sister from Wonderfalls.

That's all I've got. I really only updated because Tim was taunting me, and I wanted to one-up him. Now I win.

and they say "best friends" means "friends forever."

2005-06-15T18:15:00.001-07:00

Due to a certain upcoming movie, a lot of articles are being published discussing Batman as a phenomenon, and the pros and cons of his various non-comic incarnations. As most of you know, my favourite Batman is the one portrated by Mayor Adam West, and nobody gets why.

As superhero origins go, Batman's is pretty grisly, and naturally fairly upsetting. Most incarnations of Batman use this origin story to fuel a dark storyline, set in a gritty Gotham done on gritty lenses with gritty actors making gritty puns. I don't find any of these as engaging as the 60s Batman, because for me, while his origins are to be taken into account, they're not what he's really about. The whole point of Batman as a superhero is not to watch some guy channel his childhood man-pain into violence against socially acceptable targets. The point is that here is this regular guy who had an extraordinary experience, and decided to dedicate his life to fighting crime, and isn't that cool? Shouldn't that be enough? I mean, outside of the comic-book universe, superheroes don't deal with their feelings anyway. Making Gotham dirtier and acknowledging his darker past doesn't really help him work through it any, and it doesn't really alter his crime-fighting style except to make it less entertaining.

If anything, a darker Batman is less satisfying to watch. Instead of seeing him beat up the Joker and then feeling glad along with Batman and Robin because he's behind bars for a little while, you get to see a grown man sit there and go "yeah, I know I defeated the Joker. But I'm still mad, 'cause there's crime." It's not as clean an ending, and it takes the "super" off of "superhero" a little bit. I know, I know, his pain makes him "human," and the idea of an imperfect superhero is sexy to a lot of fans. But if I'm going to watch a story about human drama, I find gadgets and crime fighting (Batman's "superpowers") just get in the way.

Maybe I'm missing the point, and I'm too shiny and/or happy to really appreciate a moody superhero in all of his many layers. But I think superheroes should be something you can look at and go "oh, that's the way things should be," to feel good about the world or to be inspired to make it a better place.

This being said: I've never actually seen any of the other Batman movies in their entirety, and I don't watch the animated TV series. I've seen parts of each Batman movie, and never had any desire to go back and see the whole thing.

my pinecone girlfriend was cheating on me with a chipmunk. i caught him eating her. . .

2005-06-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

I just saw the ugliest. . .head covering. Like, ever. And I'm willing to bet a million gazillion dollars it'll be trendy within a certain subset of the Dal population by this winter. It's like. . .well, to me, it looks like somebody started knitting a hat, then got drunk or something and decided not to finish. It was a headband, but with earflaps. So: like those big ol' earflap toques everybody loves, but with the top cut off. It was. . .there aren't enough words for "ugly." Even fugly doesn't quite cover it.

Of course, it didn't help that when I saw it, this girl was also wearing bunny ears underneath it, and Ugg boots with a non-matching miniskirt, plus a t-shirt with an 80s neck.

In unrelated news: yay.
Oh, and the title quotes this, I'm not a pervert.

commandeer. we're going to commandeer that ship.

2005-06-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

. . .I like pirates. And socks.

Haha, man. This TV ad for some drug just came on, and the announcer was all, "yeah, come on, use our shit, it's awesome. . .most common side effect is a burning sensation."

I thought it was funny. Also: people say "box," like, a thousand times a day at work, and it's really hard not to laugh.

don't turn me down 'cause i've got no car and i've got no money.

2005-06-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's been raining most of every day the past week, which is awesome because I hate summer, so weather that puts it off is good news for me. Except everybody in Calgary complains about it like they're going to melt, which is kind of funny but also aggravating.

I have a new Thick Russian Novel to read until the new Harry Potter comes out, and it's much more interesting than Anna Karenina (which is thick and Russian, but by a different author who is not as good).

One of the awesome things about my job is that I do immuno staining a lot, which is all, like, 10 minute washes and stuff. So I get to knit a lot. I'm almost done my sweet pair of cotton socks, which were supposed to have contrasting heels and toes, but just have toes because I kind of forgot to do the heels and didn't want to unravel them. But they're cosy, and they don't match, and that's how knit socks should be. I want to make another stab at a sweater or a tank top, but I'm really nervous about fucking it up (and it's a lot of yarn to fuck up) so I might make a scarf first. I've got some big ideas for a scarf.

Fifi needs to update her blog more.

. . .a suitcase of mothballs and bowling shoes

2005-05-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

So. I realized earlier that when I don't have a job that I hate, I really don't have any motivation to blog.

Then I remembered that I'm a colossal narcissist. So what has happened in my life? Well, I booked a flight in to Halifax for the 20th (that's Friday, y'all, and I'm up for going to see the late show of Star Wars that night) that'll arrive at about 4, and I leave at roughly the same time on the Monday. For forgetful folks, my actual birthday is on the Saturday.

Also: new keyboard. Is awesome. There aren't any cookie crumbs, and I can type at, like, a hundred and seventy thousand words per minute, because my c key (I shall still call him Clarence, even if it's a new keyboard) is no longer FUBAR. And I covet this t-shirt, but will never buy it because nobody would get it. But if you scroll down, the music + science one is tempting, if and when I get my skrillah from my employer. (I'm being paid monthly, and I don't like it)

Title Quote: "Bastard," by Ben Folds

yarr. . .

2005-01-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

i really can't stay (baby it's cold outside)

2004-12-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

OK. So, all of you maritimers who complain because your province has The Weather. . .I will be hearing none of that. I just had to walk my great big dog (who must be walked or he starts following us around the house barking) in -20. Without windchill. Made worse by the fact that some of us, who are me, don't really feel like frolicking and smelling things and could we perhaps hurry a little because we don't have two inches of fur and our legs are turning purple and falling off.

In other news, does anybody in Halifax own/have access to a rolling pin? I will bake you cookies, and you can help decorate.

nicole!

2004-10-12T04:33:00.000-07:00

Was rooting for a hurricane last night. . .got some of that "tropical storm" bullshit instead.

happy thanksgiving

2004-10-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

resurrect some childhood memories, put some new ones on the shelf.

2004-09-06T13:42:00.000-07:00

What did one hundred and fourteen Henderson frosh learn yesterday?

I love being squad.

won't you just tell cincinnatti, i'm gonna need your love.

2004-08-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

So I was in the grocery store today, getting some milk, and this lady who was maybe sixty asked me to get her a thing of milk (and it had to be dated September 10) from the top shelf, 'cause she was only about 4'11". And then she turns to me as she's leaving, and says, "It's good to be tall, isn't it?" I almost started laughing right there.

In other news, I dyed my hair (sort of), but it doesn't show up in pictures 'cause it's just really subtle highlights, so I can't show y'all. But hey, only three days left until I see everybody anyway! I'm starting to pack, which is hellacious because it all has to go on a plane, so it has to fit in bags, and that's stressful. So, blech.

oh, legion of doom. when will you learn?

2004-08-20T21:58:00.000-07:00

Haha, back from Wacky Mountain Vacation. It was pretty fun, and I got some beautiful photos, especially from the hike we did up past Lake Louise where it was hot like nobody's business but sooo pretty. Also, the small furry animals 'round Banff National Park are awfully precocious, so I got a few pictures of a sassy chipmunk-squirrel looking thing, and a whole bunch of some whiskey jacks (that's a bird) that we fed cheerios, because we're bad people.

Hmm, and Justice League DVDs are muchly awesome. Also, I'll have a phone number in a couple days. If you're gonna be in Halifax around the 30th-31st and are not on council, leave me a comment and I'll e-mail it to you.

isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?

2004-08-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Going up to Lake Louise for a few days with the family, starting tomorrow. It should be fun, and since we're hiking I plan on taking a couple zillion pictures of the pretty scenery, in the hopes that a couple will turn out okay. But I can't post any, because I'm using the analog camera with its batteries that stay charged longer than a half hour. So really, only my Halifax folks will be able to see them, but my Calgary ladies and gentlemen are a tad closer to the mountains anyway, so they can walk. Er, drive.

And I bought the absolutely giant September issue of Elle, which has Jessica Simpson (gross!) on the cover, but pretty clothes inside. That should at least keep me occupied for the car ride up, if I don't get to drive. In other news, the girl at the Starbucks today was really nice, and gave me caramel sauce on top of my mocha which sort of made my day. A little.

don't go breakin' my - i won't go breakin' your heart.

2004-08-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

The scary-ass, backlit photo at left is me, before going to Cowboys. But not with Amanda, even though she was supposedly in town, because she did not call me. I'm expecting an e-mail next week, telling me she either forgot my phone number in Antigonish, or was in jail. One of those. But I'd never been to Cowboys, and it's fun on Thursday nights (although, I've heard, full of dirty old men on weekends) and they played some country. I did enjoy the music, which was a biiig perk and helped to distract me from the fact that some random guys had a barfight and one of them flung beer in my hair/down my shirt. Not on purpose, but.

Oh! The Shins CD I impulse-bought (don't ask) a while ago is awesome. They're like the Beatles, but much less dead, a little more electronic, and with lyrics that are less drug metaphors and more death metaphors. Okay, so not like the Beatles at all. Except for the track So Says I, which sounds reasonably close. Also, in other news, this looks cool, and is good money. (Like, $43 000 CDN.) Anybody want to do it with me, after graduation? Wow, and if you don't know that "this" is teaching in Japan, that sentence looks like I'm recruiting friends to start an exotic dance troupe.

I bought speakers for my computer today, since I'm too cheap to buy a stereo. But right after I bought my utility speakers, I saw the pretties I wanted in the expensive-ass Mac store. Still, I don't think they were worth the money, even if they did come with a giant subwoofer that would have been nice.

And I have a project. I may have to post some assignments later, but I'm going to make a trip to Toys R Us first, to cut down on the amounts of stuff, if any, I need to assign.

i spilled industrial bleach on my pants.

2004-08-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

. . .and by "spilled industrial bleach," I mean SEX. Actually, I mean the bleach thing. But I think I actually like my pants better this way, with the big pink spots. So I might splatter the back and tops and just wear 'em like that, since I'm quitting in a couple days anyway.

Which, yay! Three more shifts, and then I get to be a useless, scruffy, layabout for the rest of the month. Because, yeah.

come and keep your comrade warm - i'm back in the ussr.

2004-08-04T20:06:00.000-07:00

So, dude. I finally got my guitar back, which is wicked. And it's all shiny, with six whole strings and a shiny, fixed bridge. And. . .well, I still suck at playing it, but yay! Because instruments are the kind of fun that's also educational.

Speaking of education, I leave for Halifax on the 29th, and get in pretty late that night. Yay, school! And also, my mom bought a whole box'o'blueberries, and then used them all to make pie. And now I'm sorta mad because I don't have anything to eat for lunch, but. . .mmm, pie.

ch-check it out.

2004-07-28T21:55:00.000-07:00

Playing the sympathy card is always appropriate.

Tonight was unexpectedly awesome, because my schedule is shit. I have nine shifts left: four are closes, one's a counter-clean (till after midnight) and one is until 8. We're only supposed to work two of those a week. So I was complaining (I was also supposed to close tonight) and the girl I closed with felt bad about my schedule, so she sent me home early.

This was sweet, so I decided to make the most of my evening. By. . .going for a run, and having cake for dinner.

girlfriend in a coma i know, i know.

2004-07-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

People need to start reminding me not to go into HMV, because every single time I go in, I leave wretchedly poor. Like today. I spent zillions of dollars, and barely restrained myself from buying a $30 Rat Pack disc that I really, really wanted. I decided to wait and see if it was cheaper somewhere else, but it's tough finding one that's cheap, and has "Me and My Shadow" on it. 'Cause that song is awesome, and makes me want a martini. Except martinis are gross and vodka-y, so I really just want a martini glass with, like, milk in it.

Also, yum, pizza. I forgot how gross Domino's was until I ate some Pizza Hut. The Canadian pizza there is loads better than the Meatzza, plus it's easier to spell and doesn't have any weird phallic connotations. And speaking of yum (the pizza, perverts) I discovered that Sprite Remix tastes like purple Jelly Tots, and is wicked with rum in it. I'm very keen to unleash that one on Halifax, for sure.

you know instead of swimming, most of the people just walked through that shallow water over there.

2004-07-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

So, dudes. And dudettes, I suppose.

Lost my internet for, like, ever. Then I got it back, but I really want to download this episode of Six Feet Under and I think BitTorrent is what's crashing it. So I keep having to go downstairs and reboot the router (instead of just sucking it up and not watching the show because it doesn't come with basic cable) which is probably not good for it.

In the last couple weeks, I've also become a total junkie for the Amazing Race, which I'm sure is bad for my intelligence, and I'm irritated because Marshall and Lance deserved to get eliminated on grounds of being ridiculous, arrogant, overweight jackasses, and Military Dad and his daughter did instead. But Kami and Karli are in fifth place, which makes me happy because. . .they rock. And remind me of Amber and Jess because hey, twins!, and I can definitely see our ladies making a lot of the same silly mistakes.

Also, I hate hate hate my job with the fire of a thousand fiery suns. But I quit in 21 days, so. . .I still hate it.

And for those of you who don't have dial-up, (or are very patient), Decemberween in July! Oh, and I think my cat might be high from the fumes of repainting our basement ceiling. She's not quite stumbling and puking, but she's awfully friendly.

thank god it's friday night, and i just (juuuust) got paid.

2004-07-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

I hate my job. I hate my job. I hate my job. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob. Ihatemyjob.

Woke up at 5 in the morning so I could go to work the day after Warped Tour, because it never occurred to my boss that requesting a day off to go to a concert might make me tired the next day. . .and then I stabbed myself in the hand. Like, stabbed myself, the knife went through a tomato and into my palm as far as it could. Thankfully, it was a very short knife - the cut is only a half-centimetre wide - but it still went in farther than made me comfortable. Hopefully, I won't get blood poisoning or flesh-eating disease from handling raw chickens later in the same shift.

Then, after work, I blew half my paycheck on video games. I blame it on lack of sleep. But ooh, Spiderman.

if you don't know the words. . .make 'em up or something.

2004-07-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

Dude. Duuuuude. It's only a good concert if I end up soaking wet.

Warped Tour was wicked. Saw NOFX live for the first time, which was very sweet, as was the Alkaline Trio (I covet the guitarist's unfashionable trucker hat, for personal reasons). I also saw some of Bad Religion's set (it was sort of lost on me because I don't know a lot of their songs), as well as the Vandals and this sweet band nobody's heard of called Army of Freshmen. I was going to catch a bit of Taking Back Sunday's set, but they played last and there was rain and marble-sized hail starting, so we left as they were going on.

I still had to sprint two blocks from Anderson Station to the car though. Stepping off the bus was like having a bucket of ice water thrown on my head - it was brilliant.

In totally unrelated news, I can't hear anything and I'm poor.

we'll be real world bachelor jackass millionaires. . .

2004-07-10T23:01:00.000-07:00

I went to the Stampede today, and I won a pony because I'm good at darts. That was pretty much the big highlight, 'cause I was planning on chilling with my band geek peeps, but then they had a rehearsal. I, obviously, cannot rehearse with them. So that was a nuisance. But it was still a good time, I got to do some of the weird things I normally don't get to with my friends. Like watch the aggie events: group cattle penning is fucking gripping, yo.

I was planning on going to Aaron Pritchett, but due to bassackwards liquor laws in Calgary, the line was out the door and then some to get in. So I went to Sum 41. . .which was ok. Musically, they're one of the best bands I've ever seen live, and the place smelled like weed which was. . .oddly comforting. But my hat kept falling off, so I left and then rode the Skyride three fucking times waiting for my parents to come.

The day ended on a pretty sweet high though - I was walking past the Coke stage, like, an hour after the Sum 41 set was over, and their lead singer was out doing autographs all impromptu and celebrity-like. So I totally got him to scribble on my burnt-out ride pass. Raaawk.

don't worry, i won't let them rape you.

2004-07-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

So I was joking with Tim a couple days ago about reviewing King Arthur, because I mentioned I was going to go see it no matter what for the following reasons:
a) it's the summer Bruckheimer picture. Piiirates.
b) Kiera Knightley.
And I was saying "oh, I shouldn't write anything, my review won't be that good. It'll probably be something like, 'Kiera Knightley is pretty. Some other guys had swords. I like movies.'"

Turns out, that was an eerily accurate review. A lot of the reviews I read before seeing the film spent a lot of time bitching about how the movie wasn't true to the Arthur Legend, or whatever. As a science major, I have no idea what the Arthur legend was, other than a guy and his friends running around with swords and an old guy in a dress and some girl, or something. All of that is pretty much here. If you don't treat it as the adaptation of some really awesome legend, it's a pretty great film.

The story centres around Arthur and his band of knights: Lancelot, the French; Galahad, the Ambiguously Gay; Gawain, Galahad's Ambiguously Gay Boyfriend; The One With The Bird, The One With Kids, and The Prematurely Dead One. They beat the crap out of some forest people, but then Arthur starts dating one of them and they decided that maybe, they should work with the forest people to beat the shit out of the Saxons. And that's the entire plot. Well, there's some stuff about Rome and ethics and God, but take off all the icing and that's what you get.

The "king" part should maybe be taken off the title, since Arthur doesn't actually do a lot of ruling until the last five minutes of the film. And I had kind of a headache, so it was a little loud at the end. On a scale of The Last Samurai to Pirates of the Caribbean, I'd give it maybe a seven. Or if Kiera Knightley's what moves your furniture then, like, an eight-point-five.

honey, i was you. but with better shoes.

2004-07-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am such a girl. I get my day off, and what do I do? Go shopping. I bought these shoes, which are sooo pretty and way too high to be practical, and some five dollar flip-flops. I'm not telling how much the pretty ones cost.

it was tuesday. . .no, it was saturday, and the weather network was forecasting rain.

2004-07-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

And lo! The heavens opened, and a mighty clap of Zeus' thunder shook the earth. Incidentally, it also flooded the bakery. That was kind of exciting, we had water up to the bulk candy section and closed the store for about a half hour. Also, some guy's car flooded (in the parking lot) which was kinda funny since it wasn't my car.

Oh, plus it turns out I'm not fired (for those of you who aren't Tim, and hence missed the drama, my manager forgot to put me in the schedule for this week and I thought I was) and I get the day I wanted to go to Stampede off work without even having to ask. Plus, I get a cherry paycheck for this week since I had to work Canada Day. (Cherry is my new word, it means the same as "cake." And I'm trying to work "streudel cake" and "muffin" in as terms of endearment.) Also, I really like this picture of me. God damn, the vanity.

Tim: Froth is still down. I assume you know this, but you told me to harass you.

a man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything.

2004-06-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Apparently, even though dollies full of raw chickens have wheels like a scooter, there's a reason we're not supposed to try and ride on them like a scooter. See: the bloody chunk out of my shin. I had this really disgusting picture of it, but then I realized that I hadn't shaved my legs in a while and you could see hair. Which, surprisingly, was grosser than the cut itself, so I decided to post a picture of my lovely face. Cause also, vanity.

I don't have a lot to say other than, like, what I ate for breakfast this morning or what the weather's like in Calgary, and. . .nobody cares. Even I don't care. But since the Bulldog seems to be. . .missing? Gone? Anyway, even though it's missing, I still have inane opinions about books and movies and stuff, and. . .gosh, everybody cares about those.

Right now, I'm watching Sean Penn and Naomi Watts have loads and loads of sex. It's a movie - not a kids' movie, for a change - called 21 Grams, which is one of the most depressing things I've ever watched. It's good though, really really brilliant, and I can't seem to turn it off. Basically, it's about three people - the third one is Benicio del Toro, who doesn't have sex with anybody - and they're all horribly depressed, and throwing away their lives, and there's ominous accordion music, and it's all connected. Which is cool, and it plays with the sequence of events so that I don't really know how it ends except that at some point, Sean Penn gets shot. Everybody should see it, it'll broaden your horizons and make you glad that you're not a tortured, Jesus-loving ex-con. There's a much more interesting review of it here, which is part of the reason I rented it. Anyway.

the clerk is closing up and counting loonies trying not to say, "i hate winnipeg."

2004-06-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

People are weird.

This lady (and her big cowboy of a husband) came by the hot case today to let me know that while she wanted to pick out a chicken, she'd just had her (obviously) plastic nails done and didn't want to melt them, so could she please have a napkin.

look at this rope. this robbery can only be the work of ninjas!

2004-06-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

Ahh, there's nothing like an old man rapping to lift the cranky spirits.

Also, dudes and dudettes, I just got the first five episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on DVD. Pizza time!

don't judge me.

2004-06-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

Which Horrible Affliction are you?
A Rum and Monkey disease.

wow, imagine shelling out all that dough for a snazzy hotel suite and then - well, i suppose it wouldn't be good wherever that happened.

2004-06-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, dude.

I was just watching MuchMusic, saw the video for what I assume is these guys' new single, called "The Reasons." So, while I listen to some sweet alternative rock and watch guys dance all showtunes-style through police station, I says to myself: "hot damn, do I need to spend some money on their CD." The band is The Weakerthans, they're from Winnipeg, and contain former Propagandhi bassist John Samson. But they're not punk, their sound is more educated, chill folk-alternative-country-pretty-electric-guitar music.

Also, in the vein of music, which is something I can talk about that doesn't end up devolving into what I ate for breakfast and catty dissertations on my co-workers, there's a band from Calgary called Out of Your Mouth that have managed to pull off a pretty sweet cover of Madonna's "Music."

believe.

2004-06-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

no stranger to the fifth grade, the biggest child i'd ever seen.

2004-06-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

Everybody needs to download Small Towns, Big Dreams by Paul Brandt. Or buy his CD, 'cause he's from Calgary, but I don't honestly expect any of my friends to spend money on country music. Still, it's the greatest song, ever, especially if you can find the version where he says "Calgary" in the slow(er) pretty(er) part.

Friday night was my friend Ellen's 19th birthday, so we went to Tequila's, where I got ID'ed. . .twice. Once at the door to get in, and one more time when I went to the bar to buy a drink. The second time was really intimidating too, he whipped out a blacklight thing and took a good five minutes to look it over. Because, I'm twelve. But I didn't get kicked out, so that was neat, and the music was ok.

The Flames won - sorry, I mean lost last night. I just keep thinking Gelinas' goal counted, must be something wrong with my eyes. I'm kinda glad though, 'cause I had to close that night and would have missed all the wacky partying on the Mile if we'd won. I get off work at six tomorrow, and game seven is gonna be wicked awesome regardless of how we do. Even without the hockey though, last night was shitty. I had to close by myself, because the girl I was supposed to close with never showed up. She called us today to say she "fell off a truck," and didn't know she was supposed to be working that night. Which may or may not be bullshit. I swear to god, the people I work with. . .I could write a soap opera.

I know there's been other stuff, I just need me a moment to think of it. I finally broke down and shelled out, like, a gazillion dollars for a Flames jersey, which I will wear to my grave. It's real purty, and I got the white one because: away colours, Halifax. . .get it? And thanks to a store down near my house (just West of the Mile, which is down the hill from my house for those who don't live in Calgary and are fascinated by the geography) I've discovered the joys of loose tea. It makes me feel really classy and English, plus it tastes good.

Oh, and I look all bedraggled and weird in the picture because it's coming down like a motherfucker outside, and I just walked my dog.

we can't wait to hear about your round of golf, and we like hooters' for their hot wings, too.

2004-06-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Again, not a lot has happened in my life, since I've been working. But I've discovered more things I don't like about the deli that I think would make for an interesting read. For instance, there are three meats that will instantly cause the deli girl (myself) to lose absolutely all respect for you. One of these is head cheese, which can politely be described as meat jello. It's clear gelatin, with chunks of animal suspended in it, that people like to pay money for. The other two are meat that, before slicing, is square. I will tell you right now, there is not an animal alive that has a square part in it, yet somehow we manage to get both square chicken and square ham.

The last couple of days have been good to me, I haven't had work so I've done some random fun thigns. Tuesday I walked downtown, and visited the music store, which was neat. I also got an application for the library and a neat hippie coffee shop, so I can see about getting another job. Oh, and I bought the fifth season of Buffy on DVD (nerd, nerd, nerd) yesterday, which was awesome. I was actually hoping to buy the first season, but it cost nearly as much as the fifth one did and has half the episodes. So I decided against that. . .

Oh, and I discovered a very awesome country song. It's by Big & Rich, who I've never heard of, but it's called. . ."Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)". The title alone is incentive to like it, but it's actually a pretty reasonable tune. It's got a very big-budget sound to it, a la Toby Keith, and is not at all hurtin'. Everybody should download it. Now. Do it. I also discovered Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," which is a very trippy, sad song that I interpret to be about heroin addiction. But I love Alice like I love pirates, so it works for me, and if you don't pay attention to the lyrics it's just a fun, chill song to listen to.

What else? Hello Jenny, because you said you read my blog, and I don't talk to you enough. My friend's turning 19 this weekend, so I'll order a Prairie Fire at the bar. Wait, just did a quick Google search, and that's tequila and hot sauce. No I won't.

so make your thighs like butter, easy to spread. then we can make 'sandwiches.'

2004-05-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Guess what I did at work today? And if anybody has actually heard that song before, I'll. . .make you a 'sandwich.' Oh. Another word of advice for those buying food at delis: they cheap out on the meat the put in the pre-packed sandwiches, 'cause otherwise they lose money on the meat. So, yeah. In other news, I have nothing to talk about, since I worked for 11 out of the past 24 hours, and slept for another 8. Plus, I have a very boring life.

In a really juvenile vein:

Which Extremity of the World Are You?
From the towering colossi at Rum and Monkey.

our economy is g- oh, look at the kitty.

2004-05-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

So, in my three shifts at the deli, I've discovered three things I hate. The pizza oven, which is terrifying. Making sandwiches: if I'd wanted to work at Subway, I would have applied to Subway. And also, people are stupid. The little sign above the deli counter with the container sizes on it indicates how big our containers are.

I actually don't mind my job that much, I'm just tired. For the first time since finals, I kinda want to take a nap.

In other news, there's a thunderstorm, which is very neat. And I'm halfway through my book, which is also of the good. Oh! And WestJet just mailed me my Dalcard. A few days ago I got a phone call, saying it had been found in the Montreal airport. Which is interesting, since the last time I was in the Montreal airport I was thirteen. But they said they'd send it to me, so I have it back. And that's nice.

Also, this is my cat. Her name is Muffy, and she's thirteen.

what we could use right now is some vaseline and a catcher's mitt.

2004-05-23T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ooh, shiny! Mister Martin calls an election, and I can vote! How neat is that? (Answer: Very.) I think I may be one of those damn socialists, though. That probably makes me a bad Albertan.

I worked my first shift at the deli today, too. Please, if you ever go to buy meat, ask the girl to slice it extra thin for you. They love having to rummage through the back for your meat, and then running it specially through the slicer just so you don't have too much meat on your sandwich. Actually, it wasn't too bad, although I do smell like meat. And I had to put in the chickens, which was sort of weird. Putting them into the oven is like playing with little, drippy hand puppets, and this thing kind of goes up their bums to hold them in place. Tomorrow I get to learn about pizza, which is cool, and I get double pay because it's a holiday. Which, means I have to work on a holiday. . .

The picture I posted today is weird. I look like Summer Glau.