| What I Did Today |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|04:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  patriotic | ] |
Is there anything more Canadian than wool socks and beer?
Happy Canada Day, kids. |
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| *Cough* |
[Jun. 17th, 2009|05:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  sick | ] |
I thought I had enough cough drops to last till the Second Coming.
I was wrong. Or else I missed the Second Coming.
In other news, I have finished Kissing in Manhattan by David Schickler and I am kind of at a loss for words. It's a collection of loosely linked short stories and I guess if you kind of squint you might say they're creepy and twisted love stories. And y'all know me - if I'm going to do love stories they better be weird and creepy. This book is awesome. And also disturbing. |
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| Books! |
[Jun. 6th, 2009|07:30 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bookish | ] |
I have a shiny new library card.
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| Cheater |
[May. 24th, 2009|02:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | complacent | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Dears | ] |
After considering the list of things I would need to buy to make real muffins (flour, spices, measuring spoons), I bought muffin mix instead.
They turned out better than I expected. |
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| I'm Still Here! |
[May. 3rd, 2009|02:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  nervous | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Starbucks Jazz | ] |
I am writing this at a Starbucks because as yet I have no internet at home (Thursday cannot come soon enough.) That's right kids, I'm one of those people hunched over a laptop in a coffee shop trying to look like I am writing a novel or something similarly cool. (Admittedly, not trying very hard.)
Anyway, it seems like I should have lots to tell you but really it's just all moving related stuff and you surely don't want to hear about me hooking up a phone and filling in change of address forms.
In other news, I start the new job tomorrow. Wish me luck. |
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| Well Read #2 The Virgin Suicides |
[Apr. 19th, 2009|08:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bittersweet | ] |
Well, I've been meaning to read The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides for a good long while and I finally got around to it. The best part was that my library copy had this post-it note stuck on the front page:
Yeah, it's gorgeously gloomy and all that. It's about the beautiful and doomed Lisbon sisters and the neighbourhood boys who gaze at them wistfully from across the street. There are dead flies, dying elm trees and it tells you right at the beginning that all the sisters commit suicide. So, not the kind of reading that really cheers you up.
But that's okay. What irks me, though, is that the sisters never seem to do anything other than be mysteriously beautiful and the boys never seem to do anything other than gaze dreamily at them. Why doesn't someone run away to join the circus or build a race car or climb Kilimanjaro? Why does Mrs. Lisbon think it's a good plan to hide them all inside the house? Hasn't she ever read any fairy tales? Locking up the daughters never ends well. There's the moral, if that's what you're after. |
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| One of Those Days |
[Apr. 16th, 2009|04:32 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  confused | ] |
So, I kept thinking to myself "The Internet seems kind of different today. What's up with that?"
Yeah, somehow I didn't notice that I had opened Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. |
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| Spelling Tip of the Day |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|01:11 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
Lose is the opposite of Win. Or find.
Loose is the opposite of Tight. Or, in some contexts, Chaste.
They are totally separate words but I see them mixed up so often I fear their feelings will be hurt. I know typos happen to the best of but, Dude, please be careful with those O's. |
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| Well Read #1: Cloud Atlas |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|06:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  thoughtful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Beth Orton | ] |
I've been kind of meaning to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell ever since it came out, mostly because I think the cover is cool. Yeah, I'm shallow like that.
Now that I've read it, I don't quite know what to tell you about it. It starts off with a nineteenth century American notary sailing home from Australia, jumps abruptly into a disreputable composer's letters to a friend in the 1930's, then into a story about an investigative reporter looking for her first big scoop and on from there until the end comes back to Adam sailing home. It's not so much intertwined stories as nested ones, like those Russian dolls. For the first half of the book you kind of have to take it on faith that you're reading a novel and not a series of false starts.
A few pages into a book, I generally have an idea what it's about - for instance, an orphan who is whisked away to wizarding school and has exciting adventures or a hobbit who has to get rid of a ring. But I've read all of Cloud Atlas and if you ask me what it's about I'll kind of stutter and say "Uh, it's about ... um ... stuff?"
Which is not to say that it's not as cool as the cover. Ambiguity can be cool. |
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| Help Wanted |
[Mar. 29th, 2009|02:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
You know, it seems I've seen a lot of job ads that make me think "If I had a PhD, 10 years experience, an Olympic medal and my own tropical island why would I want to work for you?" I am never sure if these are more amusing or depressing.
Today I can laugh though, because I got offered a shiny new job. Although, if you happen to have an extra tropical island to give away I wouldn't say no.... |
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| Well Read |
[Mar. 8th, 2009|01:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | geeky | ] |
Remember how back in January I said I was going to read lots of books? And then I didn't? You probably don't know, unless you have been spying on me with secret cameras, that a while ago I filled in This spreadsheet of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I have read 33 of them, for those of you keeping score. While I am not really planning to read the whole before I die - I feel I have read enough Margaret Atwood for one life - I saw a lot of books I wanted to read. And then I didn't
I have since happened upon The 1% Well Read Challenge. Now, the Internet will shame me into doing it. Thanks Internet! So, my plan is to read 10 books from the old list (apparently it's been updated) by Dec. 31. Off to check the library catalogue... |
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| I Have A Camera Now |
[Feb. 23rd, 2009|02:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  lazy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Wolf Parade | ] |
Well, I thought about writing something clever and witty, but thinking is as far as I got. Sorry. In the meantime you may admire this photo I took of some ducks. Yay! Ducks!
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| Why I Love the Internet |
[Feb. 10th, 2009|08:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
You can happen upon stuff like this. Fed this page into Wordle and got:
Looks like it was really into that chocolate cake recipe. Mmmmmmm......chocolate. |
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| The Professor's Daughter |
[Feb. 5th, 2009|06:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | melancholy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Thievery Corporation; Richest Man in Babylon | ] |
The term "graphic novel" has always bothered me. It always sounds pretentious, as in "these are real important and serious comics. But don't you dare call them comics." And they are not, to my mind, novels, and it just irks me for things to be wrong.
If you read cook books, you will occasionally come across some snooty passage about how white chocolate isn't really chocolate as if that means it is not delicious. Well, you can see where this is going.
I picked up The Professor's Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert from the library and whether you call it a comic or a graphic novel or a pile of pages really doesn't matter because it is gorgeous and funny and clever. It begins when the Professor's Daughter and his Egyptian mummy go out for a stroll and wacky Victorian London style hijinks ensue. |
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| The World Without Us |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|09:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bloc Party | ] |
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman was actually less depressing than I was expecting. Sure, there are pages and pages about how abandoned nuclear power plants are all kinds of bad news, about plastics and suchlike that essentially never break down, ever. PCBs will outlive us all, kids.
But it is also a book about nature's resilience - birds nesting at Chernobyl, buried rivers bubbling to the surface, trees growing up through cracked pavement. For years there was a place in my neighbourhood where a tree grew in the sliver of earth between a building and the sidewalk. It was taller than me by the time someone cut it down. But what if no one had? What if that was the first tree of many and Bank Street became a forest? |
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| Transit Strike: Day 40 |
[Jan. 18th, 2009|01:33 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  cabin feverish | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Death Cab for Cutie | ] |
Dude, if this was a biblical flood, it would be over right about now.
In other news, I have resurrected my forgotten Library Thing account to keep score of my reading this year. So if you are housebound, you can go gawk at my books to pass the time. |
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| Sulking. And a Recipe! |
[Jan. 9th, 2009|04:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | still kinda depressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Do you know how much 90s pop I have on my laptop? Neither did I | ] |
Well, despite all my good thoughts, still no bus for the foreseeable future. See, the problem with optimism is that it just doesn't work.
Incidentally, does anyone else find it a bit odd that we are all supposed to cut down on our driving because it causes pollution, traffic, etc. and yet the entire economy will apparently collapse if we don't keep churning out cars? So the answer is .... build cars to keep in our driveways as modern art? And then try to start them when transit strikes come around.
So, in an attempt to stop myself from completely giving up on life, I made some chocolate cake. And you can too!
( Mmmmm......Cake...... ) |
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| Scheming for Aught Nine |
[Jan. 6th, 2009|12:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | resolute | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Architecture in Helsinki | ] |
I have never really understood New Year's as a holiday. It always seems to me to say "Look, another year's gone by and you have accomplished NOTHING. Loser. Well, let's all get drunk." Even I know that sometimes getting drunk is not the answer.
Nevertheless, I am going to gamely make some plans for '09. Such as:
Knit Twelve Sweaters
I've knit a lot of socks over the last few years. I am over socks. This is the year of the sweater. For the purposes of this exercise vests count as sweaters. Not that I ever wear vests, but I am going to make one for my mom.
Read Lots of Books
Remember when I read 100 books in 2007? I only read about 50 in 2008. Weak. But I am thinking I should go for quality over quantity and read some Important Classics or something. I'm still thinking this over and in the meanwhile am reading The World Without Us because I got it for Christmas.
Work Out
Well, at least till my gym membership expires. You never know when you might be required to preform a feat of strength and/or cardiovascular endurance.
Get My Life to Stop Sucking
My life seems to be stuck in a rut going from bad to worse. Clearly, this must stop. I am still trying to work out exactly how to do this. Getting drunk just hasn't worked the way I hoped. |
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| You Know What's Hilarious? |
[Dec. 24th, 2008|09:09 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | merry | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The New Pornographers | ] |
Dogs in sweaters. That's what's hilarious. It makes my day whenever I see one.
Also, merry Christmas y'all. I hope your holidays are full of dogs in sweaters and other awesomeness. |
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| Mmmmm.....Ironic |
[Dec. 15th, 2008|12:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Hawksley Workman | ] |
I was in one of the trendy trinket shops in my neighbourhood the other day, when I saw some motivational mouse pad or something emblazoned with "Sometimes your only available transportation is a leap of faith." Google, incidentally, attributes this to one Rev. Margaret Shepard.
For those of you wondering why this is ironic, OC Transpo is on strike. I guess I'll be taking a leap of faith to work tomorrow. |
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