| Missing In Action No More |
[May. 16th, 2008|01:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  anxious | ] |
Yeah, I'm not around online much these days on account of I'm back at my parents' and any uncomplimentary remarks I may have made about their computer are entirely justified.
Anyway, I'm doing the job hunting thing, which sucks immensely. (I had an interview this morning. Cross your fingers....)
Also, I have a book from the library with 150 recipes for various kinds of chocolate cake. Mmmmmmm......Cake anyone? |
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| Two More Weeks! |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|11:45 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  crazy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | No Doubt | ] |
Kids, I am counting the days. St. Catharines is slowly driving me crazy. (I actually kinda miss living at home, which I'm sure is a sign of impending mental collapse.)
And it's kinda looking like I won't be sleeping much till next Friday..... |
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| Notice From the Department of Avoiding Needless Drama |
[Mar. 31st, 2008|10:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  apathetic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | LCD Soundsystem | ] |
If you don't want people to read stuff, for the love of God don't post it on the internet. |
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| Mystery of the Day |
[Mar. 22nd, 2008|08:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  pensive | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Fall Out Boy | ] |
I'm all for eating vegetables, but what would you do with an entire shopping cart of broccoli? |
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| Miscellany |
[Mar. 12th, 2008|07:28 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | lazy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Best of Gilbert and Sullivan | ] |
In theory, I am a believer in public transit. But when getting home involves waiting 55 minutes to catch a bus with a girl who talks about her orthodontia while sticking her fingers in her mouth, I start dreaming about cars.
Being a cold hearted person in possession of a good pair of gloves, I am fond of the cold. The sky is never so blue as on really cold days. I am working my way through Absolute Zero and the Quest for Cold by Tom Shachtman, which is interesting, although it is almost as much about heat as cold. Incidentally, I wish I had a thermometer by my window. I know the internet will tell you how cold it is, but it's just not the same.
Yesterday I got to the top of a wall that had defeated me several times. (Like at a climbing gym, not like sneaking into the neighbour's yard.) I am inordinately proud of myself.
I am wholeheartedly sick of school. Is it April yet? |
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| Now, This Sounds Oddly Familiar |
[Mar. 6th, 2008|09:26 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Joy Division | ] |
Dear Sir,
I am writing to inquire further on the matter we discussed earlier this year. I'm in my Business Letter Writing Class, which is taught by a flat-footed man so sad and unaware that I am certain he will give me an A on this assignment without reading anything but the first sentence of every paragraph. I could say anything here at all. For instance: A "baticeer" is a person who trains bats. I learned that in a poem I watched you read.
From the Beatrice Letters by Lemony Snicket. Have I mentioned lately how I love Lemony Snicket? |
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| Ah, Wintertime |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|05:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  wintery | ] |
I'm in Ottawa. There's actually snow here. Lots of snow. It is glorious. |
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| Spam Folder Fun |
[Feb. 21st, 2008|10:02 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Garden State Soundtrack | ] |
When I want to create the illusion of productivity I do things like empty my spam folder. And I find the names endlessly amusing. Some highlights of today's crop:
Floyd Carroll
Queen Romo
Cinnamon Nembhard
Matilda Dillard
Antwan Banks
Mantaj Mocha
Jebediah Heeralal
Leonel Moon
Fabrican Merrifield
I wonder if this is how novelists name their characters? |
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| In Defense of Food |
[Feb. 20th, 2008|05:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  swell | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Vines; HIghly Evolved | ] |
Oftentimes when I go to the supermarket I find myself wandering around, looking at things thinking Are you serious? That's food? Like the time I went looking for aluminum pie plates and discovered they have pie plates with the bottom crust already in it. I'm still not over that one. And why is there even such a thing as artificial cheese?
Well, Mickael Pollan figures that's not really food. The highly processed stuff, made sugar and simple carbs and additives even I can't pronounce,* that's a food product. "Eat food," he tells us. "Not too much. Mostly plants." And stop obsessing over diet advice. Which meshes pretty well with my personal food philosphy:
Don't eat things if you don't know what they are
Don't eat things that don't rot (if mould can't live on it you probably can't either)
Don't eat so many carbs that are white (white flour, white rice, white sugar...)
Eat things that are coloured (artificial colours don't count, naturally)
Eat every day
If you're going to eat junk food, go for the real stuff (low fat cookies just shouldn't exist)
Don't eat trans fats (also just shouldn't exist)
It's so relaxing reading books that tell you you're right. Although reading about the evils of processed food kind of makes me crave some Oreos and Doritos.....All things in moderation.
*And I have some experience wrapping my tongue around chemical names. |
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| It's All About the Half Price Cinnamon Hearts |
[Feb. 15th, 2008|08:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | content | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Greenday; American Idiot | ] |
Seems every Valentine's Day some well meaning soul tries to sympathize with me over my single state, which always has me blinking in surprise, even though I know it's coming.
I figure having a significant other* is kind of like having a tail. Some critters would be lost without thiers and start falling out of trees or whatever. Me, I wouldn't know what to do with a tail. It would throw me off balance and I would surely get it caught in a door in very short order.
To each their own. Have a cinnamon heart.
*Have I ever mentioned how I loathe the term "significant other"? It's so clunky and inelegant. And also vaguely insulting to everyone you're not sleeping with. |
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| Hooray For TDG! |
[Feb. 9th, 2008|01:08 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  observant | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | !!! | ] |
There is some oxidizing compressed gas parked in front of my house. |
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| The Owl Service |
[Jan. 28th, 2008|07:54 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  blah | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The New Pornographers | ] |
Having read Harry Potter, my first thought is that an owl service is some sort of postal service. But Alan Garner's The Owl Service has an owl dinner service (like, plates) that some kids find in the attic of a Welsh country house. Plates with an owl pattern and magical powers. I very much liked the first three quarters or so. There's a lovely subtle creepiness and the kind of tension when people are friends but not really. Then it all falls apart into a mess of personal angst and not entirely making sense. The fuck? Why owls? I still don't get it.
In other news, I have finally decided what I want to do with my life. What kind of salary do you suppose I could make knitting and listening to the New Pornographers? |
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| I Love My House |
[Jan. 17th, 2008|10:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Arcade Fire | ] |
Every time my housemate turns the vacuum on the lights flicker..... |
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| I Miss Christmas |
[Jan. 8th, 2008|08:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  melancholy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Bloc Party | ] |
I cut across the parking lot at the mall today and the spot where they sold Christmas trees still smells like pine needles.
In other news, there is no snow here. I was deeply freaked out when I got off the bus Sunday night. |
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| Windows 98. That Takes Me Back..... |
[Dec. 28th, 2007|10:25 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | okay | ] |
I am presently at my parents' house for the holidays. While they have many fancy things like grapefruit spoons and several electric drills, they also have a ten year old computer that is decidedly unco-operative. This does not, naturally, inspire a lot of internet time.
But I am here now. In the meantime, I have read 3.5 books, which brings my total to 99.5. So I am totally on the pace to hit 100. Just another 150 pages or so. Sweet.
I'm trying to think of some fun resolutions for 2008 now..... |
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| Counting Down |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|09:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | impatient | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The New Pornographers | ] |
When I was about 6 I used to count the days to Christmas. Then, after about 20 minutes I'd count them again and it would blow my mind that after all that time it wasn't any closer. Now I'm totally doing it again. I mean, this morning seems like it must have been at least a couple of days ago. And yet my calendar is stubbornly insisting otherwise. I'm so excited to go home you'd think I'd never been there before. Is it Friday now?
In other news, book 96 is The Beekeeper's Pupil by Sara George. It has a lot of bees and not a great deal of plot but I have an unwholesome interest in old timey science. If you have never given much thought to how bees have sex or start a swarm, you will after reading this book. Also you may start hallucinating that bits of fluff are actually bees. |
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| Keeping Busy |
[Dec. 9th, 2007|11:57 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  duly diligent | ] |
I have 6 exams this week.
And because reading novels and knitting are clearly the best use of my time:
Book 94: The Bird Artist by Howard Norman (one of those books where I just don't like anyone in it.)
Book 95: Survivor by CHuck Palahniuk (funny. And disturbing)
I started another cabled sweater. Y'all are lucky I don't have a camera or I would post nothing but pictures of cables. Seriously, I just think they're so cool.
And now, down to work. For serious. |
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| Mmmmm.......Candy |
[Dec. 2nd, 2007|04:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | busy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | my new roommate plays the drums | ] |
I was in Chapters today (on the way to the grocery store, so I was running errands, not idly cruising the shops.) I happened upon this textbook on candy making. Seriously, it's a textbook: it costs 80 dollars, weighs almost as much as me and has graphs. And I want it. Having pretty much mastered the baking thing, I find myself thinking a lot about candy. Kids, there will definately be fudge this Christmas. And it will turn out, too.
In other news, you know I should be doing work if I'm skulking around the internet filling out quizzes.
95%ALCOHOLIC
Drinks, anyone? |
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| Tantalize |
[Dec. 1st, 2007|06:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  stressed | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Radiohead; Kid A | ] |
Tantalize is a good word and I should use it more often. It is also a book by Cynthia Leitich Smith about vampires and italian food. And werewolves. Actually, werepeople in general. A werearmadillo makes an appearance. It's good times. Although part of the end is kind of obvious, there was a couple of things that surprised me. I love a book that has something surprising in it.
Now, here's a question: Would you order chilled baby squirrel for dessert? How about if it was simmered in orange brandy and bathed in honey cream sauce?
Incidentally, this is book 93. I was keeping count in my agenda until I lost it. I was trying to write in my planner instead of on scraps of paper that I will lose. Somehow I don't feel any farther ahead. |
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| Notes From Toronto |
[Nov. 25th, 2007|06:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Radiohead; Hail to the Thief | ] |
I didn't know there were so many cars in the world as there were on the QEW Friday night. If I were ever called upon to drive in Toronto during rush hour, I'd be hard pressed not to pull over and cry. The bus driver didn't look far from a meltdown and he's a professional.
I got to ride the subway. My delight over this makes me feel almost simpleminded.
Everything's decked out for Christmas, Santa seated in the mall taking requests, the whole deal. Dude, Christmas is still the 25th, right? It hasn't been moved forward or anything?
Since I moved to Niagara I've been trying to develop more of an appreciation for wine - I'm the kind of person who can tell white wine from red wine and that's about it. But I now realize the best kind of wine is the kind that's free.
When I got back I found a couple of subway tokens I'd forgotten about in my pocket. So I'll have to go back and use them.
My friends are delightful people. (I knew that before, but actually seeing them reminded me. It's been a while.) |
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