Uncommon Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss seems to get the most credit and recognition for just a few of his books: The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas being two of the most beloved. However, the cat in the hat can be considered comparably dull next to many of his other creations. If you like Dr. Seuss (or if you just like fun), try these other books.

Scrambled Eggs Super
--A young Peter T. Hooper gather eggs from birds all over the planet to create his amazing scrambled egg dish. You just know all those birds are going to have hilarious names.

Batholomew and the Oobleck
--Batholomew, assistant to the king, saves the day when his boss decides to have his magicians conjure up some new weather. The sky begins to shoot down sticky green oobleck that covers the entire kingdom. A touching story about being content with what you have and admitting when you're wrong (even if you happen to be royal)

McElligot's Pool
--Who knows what you might find in McElligot's pool. It might include wonderfully rendered cowfish, rooster fish or thing-a-ma-jiggers.

The 500 Hats of Batholomew Cubbins
--didn't know Dr. Seuss had recurring characters*? Well dear old Bart returns with a crazy assortment of head coverings.

*He makes it into one more Dr. Seuss story called The King's Stilts. If you grow to love Master Cubbins you may want to check this one out, too.

Other notable favourites: If I Ran the Zoo, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose (I don't know if the large-hearted Horton was pre- or post- Thidwick), On Beyond Zebra, The Cats Quizzer, I Can Lick 30 Tigers Today

Note: While checking the wiki-list to be sure that I hadn't missed any of his greatest I came across The Seven Lady Godivas....where none of them wears clothes. Apparently this was Geisel's one and only illustrated adult book.

Notable This Week

This week looks extra social. Mark and I are going from never calling or making contact with people we like to having almost every evening booked. Don't get me wrong, I like people! I'm pretty excited. But I also have to be sure to get some down time (people can get tiring when you're not used to having friends).

--I made scones from whole wheat flour this morning to bring on a coffee date with a wonderful hippie to talk gardens, composting and grassy organic butter.
--Mail received:



Apparently, if you register for a Petro Points card online, you can get them to send you mail under any name you desire. Unfortunately the card doesn't have a name, drats! Any Friends fan knows what the P. stands for (it should actually be P.C. Bananahammock)





--(not actually this week) Mark had an empty wall in his living room so we covered it with matte-vinyl in the shape of a world map. So classy. From etsy.














--Found green caterpillars eating my broccoli. Picked them off and threw them into traffic. Broccoli plants looking a little better.
--Lots of the cousins (and their respective parents) visited over the weekend. Played entirely too much Apples to Apples. The cousins are finally old enough to be treated like real people. Fun times were had.

3 days Free

This is the third day that I haven't ingested any mind-altering substances. Too bad the end of this 'high' is just coming off Effexor. I've been weaning myself from this stuff/crap since March or April. Wow. Could this take any longer? Even stepping down one dose at a time in month three week intervals is bogging up my brains. *brain shock* Cross my fingers I don't go emo any time soon but as of right now I feel ok. The brain shocks are all over the place and I'm a bit more emotional than before but nothing that isn't normal or can't be handled. I'm tired of putting money into the pockets of mega-pharm. Looking back I sometimes wish I hadn't chosen the drug route, that I would have been stronger and not fallen for the solution being offered to waaay too many people these days. But then again, it really did help.

That means two months to adjust to feeling all of my emotions again before the big challenge of heading off to school.

I hit up JC Penny the other night and scored some sweet deals. I'll be living in Toronto so I figured it was about time that I owned some skinny jeans. *brain shock*. The list of criteria for my sweet new place there that I haven't found yet is growing too:

-within walking distance from school
-gym in the building (no excuse not to go!)
-affordable (ha!)
-two or three housemates

Maybe it isn't the longest list but being cheap and having high expectations don't really fit together in downtown T.O.

You Just Know

One of the most annoying answers to a question lots of single gals want to know (I've asked it myself): How do you know he is the one?

When the most important thing is knowing you'll be together. For me it has been the (almost) sudden realization that, if it came down to it, none of those childhood fantasy weddings, or honeymoons, or diamond rings, or big houses really matter.

I don't need a big hall, or a big party, or an expensive cake, or a fancy ring, or lots of presents, or a big crowd, or a pouffy dress, or really any of those things. Although some of them wouldn't be accepted gladly. Of course I want to feel special but I've just realized that I can compromise and that I'd give up some of the glamorous things if it meant him being happy or us being together sooner. I've known for a while but this is just one other level of knowing.

Dead is the New Alive

At least for celebrities.

Just this week:

Farrah Fawcett
MJ
Billy Mays

They come from all levels of celebrity but still more or less household names. Apparently occult brain injuries are in too (Billy Mays & Natasha Richardson)

Expected today: Studying for a test. Mark visiting for lunch (yay!). Breakfast.

Unexpected today: Michael Jackson died.

This may be our North American Lady Di, although I doubt I'll remember where I was when I found out though (for Diana I wandered upstairs early in the morning because I couldn't sleep and my parents were watching the news). He pretty much had to die young, I don't think anyone could really believe him as an old man. His tragic metamorphosis over the last two decades had to end somehow (sadly, it wasn't with his upcoming comeback tour).

His music is almost universal. I'd guess that most people have at least one memory connected to one of his songs. My strongest association is Free Willy (also rocking to this with B.Mitts to the haunting drums).

Celebrating two Years

Mark and I have been an official couple for two years and 2 days. And we still like each other. And to celebrate we exchanged cards (his for me included roses) and went to a concert.

Marianas Trench to be exact. Emo pop-punk at its most talented. Actually. They are all classically trained singers (f'ing choir boys, according to the lead singer) and harmonize throughout their songs. The lead singer had underage girls grabbing every area of his body as he serenaded them with great feeling. One of the young'uns even interdigitated with his outstretched hand...who does that?

The lead singer seems to be the only true emo of the group who actually cries himself to sleep at night. He tried to end the show with a love song to his youthful addiction: heroin. But we weren't having it so they continued to the long-anticipated Shake Tramp. And with the bassist looking like David Boreanaz....oh yeah.

Earning my Nickname

My very first blanket has been completed!

Hoping this turns out to be a cheap baby gift alternative. And makes me feel productive when I do things like watch LOST on my computer.

Two weeks until the completion of my final undergrad class...so of course this is how I should be spending my time.

Not wanting to admit it

But I've officially become one of those girls who only hangs out with their boyfriends. I've disappeared. I never thought I would one of those people but it is so easy to do. Partly I try to fit in as much time with Mark as I can knowing that I'll be in Toronto very soon and missing him like crazy. Another point: I've just become socially lazy because I'm content with just Mark. Being with people all day at work and working with clients all day takes out my need for socialization at night. Funny how life can change so quickly. I always thought I'd be alone until I was in my 30s.

Just don't call me Late for Dinner

I've collected a few nicknames at my place of employment this summer:
Vixxen: a carry over from last year
Weird girl: this is my moniker during our lunch posse outs
Nonna: the most recent, translates as grandma in Italian. It stemmed from my habit of taking unfinished things in my purse for later (the can of juice I didn't open at a press release thing today. hey, free juice!). It could also be related to my garage-saling, gardening and crocheting....

Got put in my place

by a bunch of old ladies at my first yoga class tonight. Ok, well that isn't exactly the style of these people to "put one in one's place", but that is some crazy *beep*. Apparently not all the poses have easy names like downward facing dog but there was a cool one about being an beetle stuck on its back. I'm not sure if I'll go back. I wish there was exercise I could combine with my new relaxation found in crocheting. I'll put up a picture when I finish but my mother has been supervising my first work: a baby blanket in boy colours. 23 of 60 rows done. So far I've only had to pull out about 4 rows. This is going to be my new thing, it makes me productive when I catch up on LOST (what, all pregnant women on the island die? I'm that far behind). Plus it is a cheap baby gift alternative.

Other peaceful developments: the pea and carrott seeds are in the ground (no sprouts yet though!) and the broccoli, cauliflower, rosemary and spearmint have been transplanted into the garden...let's hope the current frosts don't get them. I'll be experimenting with my spearmint and chamomile plants once they become established to make fresh tea.

Physiology text book talks Farts

"To selectively expel gas when feces are also present in the rectum, the person voluntarily contracts the abdominal muscles and external anal sphincter at the same time. When abdominal contraction raises the pressure against the contracted anal sphincter sufficiently, the pressure gradient forces air out at a high velocity through a slitlike anal opening that is too narrow for solid feces to escape through. This passage of air at high velocity causes the edges of the anal opening to vibrate, giving rise to the characteristic low-pitched sound accompanying the passage of gas." (Sherwood, 504)

Making farts sound excessively scientific: what a fun writing assignment! I feel like writing resumes every day with high school students about babysitting is almost equivalent.

A note to self:

Order desired seed potatoes in March 2010. They sell out early! Why stick to boring varieties when the Andes mountains have created a whole spectrum of complementary tubers. Why not dig this out of the ground:

I would thrive on dinner parties where I served these unassuming outer-jacketed potatoes baked, only to have guests be blasted with different wavelengths of light when cut open.

118/70

My blood pressure. According to me that is. Reliability is an issue though. 50% of the time I have found my patients/victims to be heartless and pressure-less. Taking an online physiology course does have its benefits. Part way through the year they send you a big box of goodies to perform experiments with. A REAL BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF AND STETHOSCOPE!!! Needless to say that I brought that to work this morning and took all the ladies' blood pressures. Remembering to put the stethoscope in my ears forwards (not backwards) was my biggest hurdle as it limited my ability to hear the blood squirting through the brachial artery.
Other things in the kit:
-fake blood
-typing serum for said fake blood
-a stop watch
-reflex hammer thing (there are more reflexes than just those obvious knee ones!)
-an eye patch

Sadly everything eventually has to be returned. Most experiments require a guinea pig...poor Mark.

My most masculine attribute

probably has to by my handwriting/printing. It is just sloppy. I try to make it pretty and round and full but (especially if I'm writing a lot or the word is long) by the end of the word it is just a big jumble of bumps and lines. This is a stereotype attributing poor orthography to males but my experience has backed it up (I work with high school students.....)

Studying for a physiology midterm on Tuesday has caused me to focus on the shapes of my letters more than usual since I'm writing out key points (I just can't learn without writing it out!). Do you ever consciously alter aspects of your handwriting? I remember deciding in 2nd grade that 2's with the curly bottom were prettier and started to write them back. I returned to the less superfluous side back in high school. In university I adopted the flat-topped 3. Right now I'm in the process of assimilating the print-style 'a' (just like that one!). It is just so much more fun. I'm not sure how successful it will be since it is much more common than numbers so I often forget to form the shade-giving portion unless I'm focusing closely.

Maybe someone should have rapped my knuckles with a ruler when I made misshapen letters way back in the day, then others could read my writing now. Then I could read my writing now.

pet peeve

When someone gives a card without actually writing something in it (aka just signs their name). It just seems so impersonal. I mean, Hallmark is eloquent but I do know that all those fancy words were not written by the giver lol.

Anyway, this was not stemming from any specific experience except maybe Mother's Day having been yesterday. Lots of cards were given out, I hope most people put more than just their name in the cards for their moms!

My mom is pretty cool. She drove 8 hours to help me move back from school this year. TWICE! In one week!

This blog has been neglected for a few weeks. About as long as I have been home. Being back at work has been more stressful than I had anticipated, it saps a lot of my emotional/social energy. BUT I should really just keep reminding myself that I'm very fortunate to actually have a steady job right now. Times are extra tough here for students this summer. A lot of my stress comes from feeling like I'm not helping them enough!

Habituating Myself

To having coolness available at all times that is. I spent my morning touring my future campus and repeatedly reminding myself that I will, in fact, be able to acclimatize myself to the intimidating size of the grounds. I had been to areas so close to U of T before but had never actually been there. Even though the entire thing is actually quite impressive I will be spending most of my time taking all of my classes a few blocks away at the Rehab Sciences building. Apparently all of my classes will be in the same room. With the size of this school all of my classes are in the SAME ROOM?

I am already loving the fact that the campus is submerged within the city: be gone university bubble! The tour guide today was trained in historical tours but we mostly found out where to score free or cheap meals. There is even a haunting legend about a mason named Reznikoff (sp?) who finds out one of his workers is plotting to steal his money and his fiancee to which Rez retaliates by chasing him with a hatchet. You can still see the hack marks in the door which Diabolo used to shield himself.

The second reason for coming to the city before heading back to the Soo for the summer is to scope out some potential residences for September. So far I've found a pretty good deal at 40 min by transit and 30 min via bi-cycle. But I'd be sleeping in a loft bed. But the kitchen has black granite counters. But the room is small. But utilities, internet, cable...all included.
I still want to get a feel for places a bit closer to campus but this place may be my new home for a while.

After lunch with friends I wandered Kensington Market, bought a really neat-o fair-trade shrug and enjoyed some Smashing Pumpkins performed by two dudes on the street playing some punk cello. I would be infinitely happy if all of my days could include punk cello.

Completed

Just finished reading "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally As Possible" by AJ Jacobs (he also wrote a memoir about reading the entire encyclopedia).

He is genetically Jewish but lacks almost any sense of faith or religious affiliation to start but decides to take a year and try to understand how we choose which laws/advice from the Bible to follow and which to ignore. He doesn't do it haphazardly but reads the entire Bible, makes copious notes and gets regular input from a variety of Jewish and Christian sources.
The lesson: there is always interpretation regardless of how literal you're taking things. He does end up gleaning what he wants from it and leaving the rest.

Worth reading almost just for the snippet about his attempt to fulfill the law in the Old Testament to "pebble" adulterers.

My brilliant plan I envisioned while torturing myself with statistics for 5-8 hours a day has been to do book reviews via Haiku. Get some creativity a'flowin. It was going to be just haikus but I'm thinking, at least to start, they will remain supplementary.

Beard: Symbolical
Open Bible quest for truth
Simply agnostic

Things Haiku can teach me if I keep this up:
--how to make every syllable count (a whole book in 17 syllables??)
--how to choose only the extremely relevant

Appraisal so far: needs work lol

Bragging Rights

o

When I get bored I watch TV or read or go for a walk or call a friend....stuff. When my brother gets bored he turns a 6 string electric guitar into a 12-string. What? Not sure where he got his technical ability from but from me it was definitely NOT.

For those of you who understand instruments/music this is what he did:


-17 hours work totall
-total cost $20 (I only had to buy the strings, and a small file set)
-Got the idea from Jeremie, who was only joking at the time

First thing I'm going to address, the controls;
There is no pick-up selector switch, I took it out and put in 3 volume knobs. And yes that is a volume slider, the volume slider is a master volume. Each volume knob controls 1 pick-up, so that is how you select your pickups (this allows for very nice tone controll). That black button is a kill-switch (that mod was actually made BEFORE it was being turned into a 12 string).

Secondly,
That one machine head** (AKA tuning pegs) looks a little funny because there wasn't enough room on the headstock to actually fit it on straight. The nut alone (white thing at the top of the neck before the tuning pegs) took me 4 hours to file the correct size grooves for each corresponding string gauge. That bar on the headstock between the nut and the machine heads was a last minute mod I had to make to make sure the strings have enough downward tension to the nut.
I had the machine heads just laying around.

Third,
The neck is staying very straight under the added weight of 6 more strings, I don't know how.

Fourth,
The saddles on the bridge I actually just flipped over and cut 2 grooves in each one with a dremmel for the strings. Some are better than others, but they all work.


There are still a few problems with the intonation (if anyone knows what that is) that I can't seem to fix, but it's not noticable if playing below the 7th fret

A photo-grapher he is not but I think he'll be ok without that skill.

**the only thing I think about with Machine Head is the old Bush song.

A (possible) New Annual Tradition

What can you do with
1 piece of styrofoam
1 newspaper page
1 straw
2 ft of string
1 plastic bag
some duct tape ??

Try to keep an egg from breaking when dropped from a height. Not just an elementary school project.

LASTs

Yesterday was (sweet murphy brown let this be true) the LAST UNDERGRAD CLASS I will ever take. Yes, I still have 4 exams. And actually another class that doesn't end until mid-July. But those aren't classes and the other is online so not class! Ha! It only took me a lot longer than everyone else but I did it!

The deadline for acceptances is April 22nd. But mine was mailed two days ago. Why not? I know what I want and I wasn't taking any chances. There are still conditions: B+ in the last 4 prerequisites that I am taking. Not exactly crazy difficult but still a bit unnerving. I'd rather be unconditionally accepted but whatcha gonna do?

Some of us went out to celebrate last night. Some of us being people who went through the testing application process together and got accepted. Apparently McGill has made an oops and due to an "administrative error" all offers that were sent out over a month ago are still pending and won't be confirmed for another few weeks. Big mistake on their part. Especially because they didn't bother to tell anyone about the glitch until the day before the acceptance deadline. That doesn't sit right with me. Or with one of the celebrators last night who had McGill as a first choice but has now accepted UBC because she wasn't willing to let other offers slide if McGill couldn't give her a 100% offer. They are going to lose all their first round picks. Bad on McGill this year.

Another switch. Just a week ago I was stressing about whether I'd get THE email or not. Now I feel like the go-to person for advice on getting in.

ps. Happy --th Birthday on the 12th Mark!

Under normal circumstances Gigi (the cat) is NOT allowed in my room, especially not while I'm sleeping (her favourite things to chew are my laptop plug-in and my cell phone).
However, she managed to sneak onto my bed while I was grouchily responding to the idiot who rang the doorbell 7 times at 430am (thank goodness for peepholes). When I returned I didn't have the heart to kick Gigi out, she looked so cute! So she stayed.

And she purred. Purred for hours. Remember those FurrrReal pets? Ever notice how they made the purring so real by just putting plastic box with a marble inside into the cat's head? Just saying.

Something else I learned: she likes the taste of make-up I was too lazy to wash off before bed. Do't you love it when a cat grooms your face for you then grooms their, well, special area?

Completely UNrelated to Fooling in April

This morning I awoke to a email of glorious acceptance. Then I ate breakfast and returned to an even more glorious email of acceptance. That's right, TWICE! Including my top choice school. So I will be (barring any unforeseen circumstances) be living in Toronto and completing a masters to become a SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGIST. Something I said, or something my references said, convinced them that I am the right kind of material they are looking for. At both Western and U of T but I'll be accepting U of T because, well, it is a year shorter: pretty easy choice!

Never thought I would have the chance to live in Canada's largest city. Think anyone will suspect I'm not from around those parts? haha\

[Editor's note: Soon I will be an expert on Canadian/Ontarian universities. The University of Toronto will be the 5th university that I have attended/taken a class at. The rest of the list: Guelph, Western, Athabasca, Algoma (just look it up). In fact, although I never took a class there, I got to know the University of Calgary pretty well too. I'm a serial student. I have 5 student numbers! 5 Student emails!]

[Editor's Note #2: Wait-listed at Dal. Well, Toronto wants me, so there Halifax!]

Miraculously Sweet

There exists a berry (native to West Africa) that, when eaten, makes anything bitter eaten within a few hours after OUTRAGEOUSLY SWEET!!!! Sour lemons? Try Miracle Fruit. It has been on my radar some time and I (desperately?) want to give it a try. It has the novelty of breathing helium or optical illusions. I like things that mess with my senses (WITHOUT the use of illegal substances thank you). It is mentioned in the kitschy book "Fruit Hunters" by Adam Gollner. It will likely come out first in its most lucrative market for artificial sweeteners (all us obese North Americans who want to have our cake and eat it too, without it going straight to our guts, thighs or working out). Other potential uses: making food appealing again to cancer patients thus helping them to recuperate some strength and nutrients. Diabetics. What a funky berry!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! (tomorrow)

My 24th birthday was shaping up to be pretty pathetic. No real plans. Homework. Dinner (somewhat out of pity, let's be honest) with my boyfriend's sisters.

But Mark to the rescue! He arrived at my door at 2pm yesterday with no warning. I hadn't heard from him the night before or all day yet and was resisting the annoying girlfriend desire to message him constantly and call to see where he was. I'm glad I played it cool because his absence was travel related!

What a great birthday surprise! He's here until Tues to celebrate with me and even the most mundane birthday seems special now. It was completely unplanned on his end too (which adds to the romance in my opinion) he decided Friday night at 430 pm and left the next morning at 430am. 430 am! He must really love me. 4am blows.

I opened my gift a bit early too:

Lonely Planet: Best in Trave 2009 (we spent the afternoon planning our hypothetical round the world trip only going from west to east)
Bastard Tongues: all about Creoles....its perfect!
AND a nifty wide angle/macro lens attachment (which I still need to test)

The Best Spring Day is Made of....

Cruising in a red 1990 Mazda truck
Windows rolled down for the fresh air
Country music on the ever-so-slightly crackling radio
One-handed grip on the worn steering wheel
Glorious sunshine

Salt n'Peppa

With no experience to draw from I often wonder how I will handle the inevitable 'sex talk' with my future children. I know I want to be straight forward and just use the real words in an age-appropriate way. But I believe it is just as much about HOW you say it as what you say (kids will pick up if you are sweating with nerves and awkward about it.) Being uncool myself the suave sex-talk just doesn't seem likely to be something I'll excel at. Basically what I want is for not to have THE talk and that is it, I want everything to be open forum in my household.

Such a contrast from how I grew up. I don't actually think that my parents are total prudes who would avoid questions about sex but we just never talked about it. Somehow I picked up very early that asking about sex was embarrassing and awkward and I found anything I needed to know from my friends long before my parents thought to bring up the subject. Not just sex but (the possibly more uncomfortable) puberty topic.

The one conversation my mother and I ever really had about sex or puberty:

Mom is outside vacuuming the van and I go to offer some help.

Me: Would you like some help?

mom: Sure. So....do you want to talk about your period?

me: No. (turns and goes back inside).

I was about 11 and already had the info. Why can't we be more like Europeans? This topic came up while I studied and eavesdropped on a a gaggle of undergrad girls recounting how they learned about sex/what their parents told them. It seemed like the only one with a completely comfortable experience was the one who spent summers in Germany with family where everything was just matter-of-fact-of-life type stuff. Oh my poor first child...

Child's Geography

This may not be easy to explain now that I face putting it in words but I still remember some small parts of how the world looked to me before I really had looked at a map or connected the cartographic lines with actual places, places that I knew.

Let's see if I can make sense of this:
B.C. - now standing for the Province lining the west coast I used to picture it as a large land mass to the north. I also believed that is somehow stood for (the letters BC that is) the literal end of the world (meaning that is where the lemmings jump off, the world just ends)

Toronto: I thought everything was Toronto. We visited my aunt every summer in Georgetown, which I thought meant basically Toronto. Etobicoke too. Kitchener. Burlington. Gravenhurst (gravenhurst??? yep, Toronto) All pretty much Toronto.

Guelph: this place name really meant nothing to me until I applied to the university there but I do remember having an image of a town on the very bottom tip of Ontario on an island. Has to be on an island.

The first time I actually entered the city limits of Toronto would have been over Christmas break in grade 12, meaning I was 17. But I sure thought I had been there almost every summer for my entire life.

Reasons I could Lose my Mind

Thursday evening I have a midterm for 7 chapters of an online physiology course. I haven't had to work this hard to memorize so much material since high school!
As for the reasons:
1) does scurvy cause madness? I'm out of everything but eggs and can't go to the grocery store until late thursday
2) I thought doing the study guide as instructed would help...it does. But it also ELABORATES and gives more details than even the textbook...awesome
3) I emailed the T.A. for some reassurance and got none. Less than none. I have been informed that yes, all of those nit-picky little details about which protein allows doublets of microtubules in cilia to slide past each other (dynein) will be included. His exact words "It is exceptionally difficult, but doable. Study hard" Thanks.
4) Other classes can't be skipped to study because I have midterms in both of those classes next week.
5) I miss Mark.

Are those enough reasons? I could come up with more but those are the most pressing. I will be getting my nourishment in the form of knowledge these next few days (ok, i'm sure i'll grab snacks from the convenience store too).

Also, I realized that I routinely commit a heinous gym crime: visible non-white socks at the gym *gasp*. Acceptable: sockies that can't be seen above the shoe OR white sport socks
My socks: colourful flamingo socks above line of shoe (I have pants so this isn't a tall sock-with-shorts thing) but my workout pants do make me look like i'm waiting for a flood.

Walking Pathetic Fallacy

The weather has been like a woman in menopause lately (up, down, tears & hot flashes) and it is taking me along with it. I'm a sucker for a sunny day but drabness and rain get me down when I'm already a bit lonely or looking forward to two weeks with 4 midterms.

My distraction outside of homework this week has been Big Love. Yep, a tv show and it is all about polygamy. But it makes the characters so endearing (even the cute brunette from "He's just not that into You" is one of the wives). It focuses on a Utah family (one husband, three wives, 7 kids) trying to keep their lifestyle a secret while living in a normal neighbourhood and running a very public Home Depot-type store. All the sister wives just love each other (ok, they disagree, a lot). Just imagine this scenario with the genders switched: One woman bringing home the greasy bacon and three doting husbands all sharing the wife and submitting for the ultimate good of the family. Ha! I was going to get all huffy about the husband and how he is constantly in a state of indignation when he feels he is being lied to but pretty much constantly keeps his business dealings a secret (you know, wouldn't want to worry all those wives). How he blatantly went on dates with another woman (can't get into heaven without lots of wives). But, well, it is a show about polygamy......

Where is the show about polyandry?

Some People just Don't Know Funny

Joking around is my style, I just can't take everything too seriously. I typically get a kick out of my own jokes. Sometimes other people do too. Often people do not appreciate my humour.

Today in Spanish class we were working on vocab and the word was desdén (disdain). The prof asked us how we might show disdain/dislike for someone non verbally.
"Not talk to them"
"Not invite them to a party"
"Ignore them"

"Put flaming dog poo on their doorstep"
*silence accompanied by blank stare by professor*

Continuing on. I get a nudge from a classmate, "You would actually do that?"

Um, no, it was a joke.

I'll Hit 400 Posts Next Time

This weekend I: got to chill with a good friend (and together take my drunk housemates out for McDonald's, at least they were being responsible); go to my last volunteer Saturday for the language centre where I worked with children with communication difficulties; threw a bridal shower for a friend; had dins in St. Thomas for Mark's grandmother's 89th birthday.

About three of my Friday night hours were spent making these:

I can now make something impressive and all it took was a recipe for marshmallow fondant (because the real stuff is just way over my head for now). A few tips though: 1) have someone else around to help you add ingredients (your hands become encased in marshmallow pillows)
2) Plan for a few hours to do the decorating, at least until you get the hang of it
3) Have a tub of icing and use an icing bag (or ziploc with the corner cut off) to save time when applying the decorations (it doesn't stick without regular icing)


It is definitely no Bakerella but I'm on my way. It was fun, maybe I can combine my scrapbooking and cake decorating....that would be a challenge.

Just to Drive Mark a little more Crazy

Today was a study day. My chosen distraction was laundry and organizing my 'bookmarks' and revisiting pages I had tagged as interesting at some point.
This brought up The Name Wizard, a cool site that lets you see a name in many different ways. You can see a graphical representation of the popularity if (almost) any name using NameVoyager (Katie has a big spike in the 80s of which I was born smack-dab in the middle).
A person can look up a name and get a meaning, rank it on a series of attributes (How sexy is Barnaby?), see its international popularity and even common sibling names.

Speaking of names, I would have been Matthew Ryan had I had a penis. April was also considered but I'm pretty happy I dodged that one (I always associated with the sidekick girl in the horrible yellow suit from Ninja Turtles). Oh and Victoria (with obvious last name problems). My brother is David but I begged my mom to use Dmitri (I still love this) or Darcy. I guess she stuck with the "D" theme and we do still like to joke that he could have been a Vladimir (I think my mom really did toy with this one)

Another site that came up in my stumbling was I love you more than.com. Just a bunch of little hearts professing love using comparison (this would be a good exercise for beginner Spanish class: Te amo más que...) but they are sweet. I may have submitted a few myself but I won't say who for...

Longest Bus Ride of Life

340am: alarm goes off
405am: Mark and I leave for the bus station (yeah, he's pretty great)
430am: He leaves and I snuggle in on my double-seat
9am: forced off the bus in Sudbury to clean it (really? It was fine the way it was). I do the only studying of the day for my Wednesday midterm.
1015am: back on the bus but it is a little more crowded this time
1220pm: 'lunch' in Parry Sound (so I got a sundae at DQ)
1pm: bus breaks down outside P. Sound
103pm: bus starts again
106pm: bus stops again
----forget the time but we stall 5 times total
310pm: we get rescued by another bus (after the bus driver calls all emergency numbers given to him my Greyhound to find out that all were out of service)
431pm: arrive for the 430 connections and find the line for London outside the building and around the corner. You would think they would prepare for reading week....
510pm: we bounce
749pm: we roll into the station and my awesome housemate picks me up

Let's count them....right 16 hours since my alarm went off all spent in bus-related activities.
It's better when you're excited to get back.

On another note: long trips with nasty bus bathrooms mess up my regularity (if you know what I mean)

Staying Current

Right now I am reading three books: (see above)
Proust and the Squid: the Science of the Reading Brain
--very well-researched and almost as dry
--some interesting historical notes on the development of reading/literacy throughout history
Gulag Archipelago: I'm cheating and reading the abridged version (I don't need all of the torture details anyway)
--Add it to the Holocaust and the Rule of Mao in China and it seems like half the world's population was suffering (and dying) for communism in the early to mid 20th century. The Hitler also seems to be the most conspicuous and, terrifyingly, the least deadly.
All Families are Psychotic: my first introduction to Douglas Coupland and so far I'm enjoying myself

Since I'm currently reading three books that means I am daydreaming about what I will get to sample next. My current "-to-read" shelf on goodreads.com is almost 100 strong and, as of today, more organized. I looked into whether each one is available in the local public library and, if it wasn't and I thought it would be of wider interest, I requested it for purchase.

Go ahead, get involved with your local library. They don't have a book you are interested in? Most likely there is a link on their website (or ask the info desk) that allows you to suggest a book to be purchased. Maybe they'll buy it, maybe they won't but if they do, free books!

Books I requested today:
The Untelling by Tayari Jones
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson
Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp, Stephanie Klein (maybe my parents should have sent me to one of these as a chubby child)
The Last Days of the Incas
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
And 10 or so more....It can't hurt to suggest

Great Expectations

In my opinion that is. I have a little brother, we'll call him Boris (all his friends do anyway) and he is at that crucial period of selecting high school classes to determine the future of his education. I have been there, done that with school and, being 7 years older, my advice is 'clearly' always right. Clearly. I guess I am defining success for my brother how I define it for myself (high level of education, productive member of society, etc.).

Back up a second. Boris is freakin' smart. Really freakin' smart in an engineering/mathy type way. But he hates school. Recently I found out that he hasn't taken any of the university level science classes he will need to get in to university (read: study engineering and make his sister proud). He doesn't want to go to university he was to do a college course to get out of school as fast as he possibly can. He was not having any of it when I pointed out that university is 'better' (for him of course). To which he kindly pointed out the 'usefulness' of my sister's music undergrad and my many years floundering in the academic world for my niche; Touché.

Why does it matter so much then? Because I feel like I see this potential that he is wasting because he is lazy (yep, I said it, he only likes things that come easily to him). I want the very best for my brother. But it does reveal a bit of university vs. college snobbery I don't want to admit I still have. College is a great alternative, so practical, the chance to learn real skills; but for other people, not for my little brother. Uh oh, maybe someone is trying to vicariously correct some of her own mistakes? Poor kid.

ps. I did apologize and he already knows he can take a 5th to recover courses if he for some reason decides he wants to work really hard for 4 years and pay lots of money to do it.

Overshare

On the bus ride entertaining conversations around me sometimes keep me from losing my mind. In Sudbury the seat behind me was taken over by a cute little old lady (LOL) and eventually a young Laurentian student took the seat next to her as the coach filled. He was genial, kind to her and a total over-sharer. (This is all approximate wording, I'm not that good)

LOL: That's a nice cap you have there.
Oversharer: Thanks, my girlfriend bought it for me. It is the third one like it and all have ripped. But it is from Wal-Mart; so either my head is huge or those kids in China really need to step up their game.

(ok, that isn't over-sharing exactly, but I'll show you what is...)

LOL: What are your plans for the break?
Over-sharer: *indecipherable/uninteresting part* And of course I get to see my girlfriend. We'll be getting cuddling and getting naked and rolling around and doing more cuddling. And all that gushy stuff.

Um, what?! And yes, the lady next to me heard the same thing so I'm just hearing what I want to hear (I'm not sure why I would want to hear that). Who says that? I should have followed him after. I can't say this officially, more tests would have to be done, but he may be the Canada's Most Awkward Person. Does the Discovery Channel have that show yet?

Home

In about 17 hours I'll be back in the soo for spring break. 15 of those hours will be spent on Greyhound bus (or at least in a station during the stops). Luckily I have homework and two computer batteries for watching tv shows. The crappiest part is that it is raining very hard so I'll be totin' my giant suitcase to the bus stop in the drenchingness. Good part: I'll be home at noon tomorrow and Mr. Mark will be picking me up at the station.

Two seemingly unrelated thoughts

Julia and I feed each other's lust for chocolate. Today she started it by asking me to accompany her to the Hasty Market for Mini-eggs (need I say more?). When we left I had a Cadbury Cream Egg and a surprise bag (Berny's Surprise Bag to be precise; only $1, what a steal!). When I returned to my stats assignment I had only the surprise bag but hadn't eaten any candy yet. So I retraced the trail down the stairs, through the living room, past the shoes and right out the door (sans coat)....down the street, through the parking lot, past the Tan Factory and "Ahoy" right on the median in the middle of the road: My CREAM EGG! I hadn't really thought about the implications of having lost it outside when I was looking for it but I checked for wetness and damage of which there was neither. So I ate it.

Topic change (I hope these aren't related). It has been about two weeks since I dropped a dose of Effexor to 112.5. I'm supposed to hover her for another two weeks and then drop again to 75 when the real changes are supposed to occur. The closer I get though the more I wonder if I can handle it. The anxiety is slowly creeping back in. Right now it is definitely manageable. I still do laundry, still sleep through the night, still go to the bathroom if I need to.

However, like I said, it is creeping back. While I did go to the bathroom last night (most nights bring one trip) it wasn't without a bit of wariness. Wait until my eyes adjust. Check behind shower curtain for creepers. Go back to room. Turn on light to check in closet and under bed for creepers. That probably already sounds slightly pathetic to all you people who can just drowsily walk from bedroom to bathroom, pee while almost missing the toilet and sleepwalk back to bed, but for me it is minimal distuption.

So I will use an "ease of night time bathroom use" scale to track my progress. 1 being I barely even open my eyes and anything beyond 10 is me not even bothering to pee because I can't leave my room. Ok so right now we are at a 2.5. That is respectable.

Absentmindedness + Eggs =

......boom! Cooking tip: if you leave eggs to boil (and the buzzer on the stove isn't very loud) and you forget about them a few things will happen.

1) the water will all boil away
2) the kitchen will be smoky
3) you will be reminded about the eggs when they EXPLODE all over the kitchen one at time
--so much for my protein after the gym tomorrow

"Is this where the sex show is?"

The question I heard most frequently today while working at the parking booth across from Sexapalooza. Except it's not me asking, it was your (dirty?) uncle Bob or your grandpa or your mom. Most of the people I saw were easily over 40. Most of the vendors who came towing trailers of 'goods' had seen probably Elvis' first records at their debut and were also proudly sported disabled parking strips. I'm sure it was an interesting show.

And because I like to juxtapose my weather and my food I ate an Oreo Mcflurry on the way home.

150 Bones

In the mail. Today. From the Ontario government. They called it the Textbook & Technology grant.

Yes people, we are in a recession and the university students are getting rebates. While I appreciate the bank-account-bump, let's be honest, your tax dollars are paying for booze and weed. Not too many textbooks this time of year.

Motivation in the Form of Failure

This has to be the first, maybe the second time, in my life that I have actually completely forgotten to do an assignment. Just did not do it and did not hand it in. It was not really worth anything but that isn't the point. Hopefully this waste of marks will motivate me to be more diligent. Or maybe it had something to do with being away this weekend.

After having it good in terms of exams for so many years I officially HATE Western. At least how they schedule exams. One: they do not give a final, unchanging exam schedule until almost the end of the semester.
Two: There are exams on Easter Monday (which actually really interferes with my ability to celebrate Mark's birthday -- I have an exam at 9am that day)
Three: Exams go until the very end of April.

Something good: if the schedule holds I may just go home for 10 days in between exams (look for a job, hang out with novio & family, etc.)

The Toronto Experience

This is day 4 in the metropolitan capital of Ontario. Two days with Mark two days with Becks: all lovely days. The two met at Spring Rolls restaurant where they apologetically messed up a few times (like buzzing for us for a table twice when no table was available). The food and service were good though, no grudges held. Apparently Becky was expecting Mark to be considerably quieter than he was based on my description (yes Mark, maybe some of it is in my head, there you go. But may I remind you this is after 1.5 yrs of work).

Now I'm chilling in a taxi yellow apartment with sun warming my hair while making up ridiculous acrostics of the IPA chart* (International Phonetic Alphabet) to commit it to memory.

The Manners of Articulation
-Point Nine Ton (of) Toxic Flatulence Leak Among Losers
-Plosive Nasal Trill Tap Fricative Lateral-Fricative Approximant Lateral-Approximation

Place of Articulation
-Balding Ladies Don't Always Pull Rogaine Packing Vampires Under Pale Gazebos
-Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal

*this link allows you to click on any symbol and hear the corresponding language sound created. Many of the sounds cannot be found in the English language

Unexpected Motivation

Going to the gym isn't my favourite thing. Most of the time I am fairly adept at justifying my decision not to workout but lately I haven't had to. Western just opened its brand new gym and it is massive. Poorly laid-out but well-equipped. So I have been going 2 or 3 times a week (partly on the recommendation that exercise will probably benefit my progression off of the meds).

Monday morning I woke up excited to go to the gym between classes. Excited?! I even tried to talk myself out of it since it wasn't planned but I insisted on carrying my stuff around all day. I then invested $8 for a month of towels to encourage going (it makes a big difference not having to bring my own toalla=towel). So far I have used one (I need to use at least 8 in 30 days to 'break even' on my investment). Tomorrow I will use another between classes. Let's hope this is a wonderful change in lifestyle and not temporary insanity.

Muy Caliente

Before being warned by the director at my volunteer place I hadn't put much thought into Gigi-the-cat hitting puberty. Gigi-the-cat is 5 months old, so we should have had some time before the evening yowling began right? Wrong. She is in raging heat.

Do you know how to tell if your cat is in heat? Well, I had no idea but she has been acting very strange lately. Usually she has no interest in affection but she now lets me pet her for minutes at a time, she meows all the time at nothing (it seems like nothing to the humans). The tip-off that made me go to the trouble to google the symptoms was an odd stance she took on while I scratched her back: she crouched low and seemed to walk on the spot with her back paws. So I checked. According to this site she is all horned-up and ready to go; we have to start guarding the doors so she doesn't go get knocked up. This wouldn't even be teen pregnancy....toddler pregnancy? Creepy. She is just a kitten and she is already set up to reproduce.

I hope Gigi's owner takes some advice from Bob Parker and gets her pet spayed or neutered.

Today I pulled the "my-boyfriend-lives-far-away-and-I-never-get-to-see-him card"; and it worked! Whenever the topic of where I live and then where my boyfriends lives comes up in convo there is always a unanimous "wow, that must be so hard" and a "how often do you see him?".

Usually I try to play down the suckiness (or just admit that it really sucks and move on) since, you know, whatcha gonna do? Yesterday I decided to use it to my advantage and actually get to take a midterm a few hours earlier than everyone else because Mark is going to be in TO next week (for that library conference) and I want to get in early enough to actually see him. There really are benefits to smaller class sizes and knowing your professors.

New Era of Responsibility

It is only a few times in each person's life that they witness something world-altering. The last was over 7 years go in New York city. I saw the towers fall in world religions class. The future remains to reveal if 1/20 will be the new 9/11. As a voyeur I watch a nation that I do not belong to hand over their hope to one long-awaited man.

I am proud to be Canadian. Today was the first time that, although not faltering, my pride felt some envy. Our government and people need a renewal that is happening in the US. Just because we are smaller does not mean we have less of a need for responsible government. I long to see the day when Canada welcomes a person as deserving as Barack Hussein Obama. Time will show his true abilities but big promises have been made on this day.

"Our time of narrow interests and putting off of unpleasant decisions; that time has surely passed."

From the benediction, the best line ever:

"I can't wait for the day when Black won't have to get back
When brown can get around
When yellah can be mellah
When the red man can get ahead, man
When white will do what is right"



A promise to "do our business in the light of day" and not rely on "[their] power alone" to protect them or bully others.

He promised other nations "Your people will judge you on what you can build, not on what you destroy"

Admitting that I'm bored always feels like failure; like I'm not involved enough or have enough 'hobbies' to keep myself busy. But you know what, I'm BORED! And lonely. I guess the two go together. Usually when I have free time I would fill it with social activities and just plain-old hanging out. Not here though, I don't really have friends (yep, its true, I'm a bit of a loner). I feel like I'm working hard and doing what I need to do to get where I want to be but I haven't made any effort to build up a social network here. At least I won't be missing too many people when I leave.

It helps to have things to look forward to. Keeping my eye on the prize, if you will.

In two weeks I see Mark in Toronto (he has a library conference. A conference for librarians about libraries and books. How adorably nerdy is that?)
My parents are in Hawaii right now so I look forward to seeing the pictures, hearing the stories and, yes, getting the cool souvenirs. So far I hear that I'm getting a cool purse and a map. Neato!

Katie V for SLP

Has a nice ring. Although even a super-catchy campaign slogan will do little to actually get me into grad school, or get me a job after for that matter. Too bad because it keeps popping into my head making me sad that I have nothing to use it for.

Katie V for Diplomacy?
Katie V for University....?
Katie V for Community........?
Katie V for Eulogy....(ies).....I could start a business

La Tertulia

This basically translates as a discussion group...in Spanish. People sitting around discussing important world events and philosophical ideas....IN SPANISH! Wow, has my level of spoken Spanish taken a hit since I left Peru (now 13 months ago) but this is the perfect opportunity to gain back some ground. Every Wednesday night. I spent 2.5 hours there today talking about the current political situation in Colombia, the economic crisis and when it actually started, George Bush's decision to award a Liberty Medal to the Prime Minister of Colombia, etc.

Today was educational. Too bad I want to stop leaving the house at all unless the temp rises above zero.

Good/Bad

Going to Guelph: good (no, great!) for catching up with amazing people I never see
Riding the Greyhound: good for starting the book Three Cups of Tea that I got for Christmas. Bad for taking extra long
Volunteer position: good for a great new group of kids, double good for a bit more responsibility
This weekend: bad for feeling good about grad school applications
Seasons 6&7 of e.r.: good for spotting "before-they-were-stars" moments (adding to the count Paris from Gilmore Girls, Van & the ex-husband from Reba [different episodes])

Dues: Paid

After 4 months of being on the waiting list I nabbed an appointment with a counselor on campus. She was the first one to suggest that this is as good a time as any to wean myself from the mood-altering red caplets I have been taken for over 2 years now. Except we're just going to take it exceptionally slowly; like cutting the dose in half within the semester.

The main reason I am continue taking these babies is how amazingly not anxious I feel, but I don't want medication to be the permanent solution. The prob: in order to get off them I need to be able to manage the anxiety but to learn how to manage it I should probably feel some. We're going to go half way and potentially bring back a bit of the anxiety at a time then practice reeling it in without drugs. I don't really look forward to fearing the basement again (it is more convenient to be able to do my laundry whenever I want) but short term pain for long term gain. I drop down in a week or two then wait and see if anything changes.

Off to a Slow Start

Usually the first week of any semester is overwhelming. Usually. But with most of my extracurriculars not starting up right away and no real friends to catch up with the first week is actually proving somewhat boring.

My new classes look interesting (keeping Spanish & Stats, adding Child Development, Physiology and Phonology). I plan to attend a 'tertulia' on Wednesday nights which is just a discussion group in Spanish hosted by a professor here. Anyone can attend with any level of the language and the goal is to practice and improve.

With the slow start in mind I have been watching a fair amount of e.r. My emotions tend to keep themselves tightly packed inside, especially tearful ones but tonight I actually leaked a little. Not much but for me a little can be therapeutic. I was caught off-guard by the episode where Lucy dies. Most stuff on t.v. doesn't get me but Lucy being killed by her schizophrenic patient and bleeding on the floor while the staff celebrates valentine's day with loud music that covers her screams....it just, well, gets me. I wasn't expecting his episode for another half season. For future reference it is Season 6, episode 13.

Note: Lucy's murderer on the show now plays Prof Charlie Epps on Numb3rs. It causes some likeability issues for me.

Cookbook (Image) Perfect

I have never been an exceptional cook and that is still the case. But, to add to my lovely bread from a few posts ago I also made wontons for Mark and I the last week I was there. They were the most beautiful wontons I ever saw! So perfect and wrinkly-like-brains, they cooked well without bursting open like the first time I attempted vegetarian wontons in Calgary (with some real Asian cooks overseeing of course).

I think it was partly the bit of raw egg I mixed into the veggies are partly the fact that I did not over fill them. The innards were shredded carrott, broccoli, bean sprouts, green onion, garlic and some black bean sauce all sauteed together. Oh, but they were bland. So taste was a problem. A good idea would probably have been to use a recipe. However I would like to try to use other recipes as inspiration to spice up my boring wontons next time. And put more effort into the broth, which was just dull. But the basics are all there just waiting to taste really amazing!

How do you measure a year in a life?

The song 525 600 minutes from the Rent soundtrack asks this question. I don't have an answer but I like the sentiment that a year can be measured and counted as memorable by more than days. I don't plan on doing much self-reflection, actually. Maybe this is a symptom of still not having a 'grown-up' life but I don't really find the crossing to 2009 a significant milestone for me. At all. There is really no significance. Dec 29th: I submitted the last of my grad school applications. THAT felt significant. This coming April, once I have a yay or niegh from all of the schools, THAT will be life-changing (hopefully in a positive way).

Basically I don't feel like reflecting now. A year can be any grouping of 365/6 consecutive days.

If I had two cats maybe I would name them Hepburn and Higgins. A friend's cat who is lovely and lithe and dainty inspired this. I thought Audrey and Higgins would be the perfect combination (Have you figured out the reference yet? "My Fair Lady"). Oh, except my Nana was Audrey so my mom might be a little offended if I used her name for my cat. This same friend chose to name her cats Satine and Christian from Moulin Rouge. If I ever have two they are definitely getting cheesy famous duo names.

Nothing Better to Do

Mark was kind enough to drive me (through the white white blizzard) tonight to give away my 'lifeblood' (although I prefer to call it just blood). It had been over a year since I had to wait after going to Peru. The heart rate test was on the verge again but I squeaked past just below the cut off. It took some prodding but a vein was found, stabbed, and drained. 12 minutes. A little slow but nothing to worry about.
However, my flawless record of easy giving has been tarnished. I did NOT faint. But I may have been pretty woozy and I guess I looked it because one second I was sitting up and the next my head was down, my feet were up and I had cold cloths coming at me from all angles. A little rest, some orange juice and all was fine. I was very grateful to have Marky Pants there (that is his last name for blogging purposes), especially to drive me home.
Remember those boots from my last post? Yes, just scroll down one post. Everyone LOVED them! I felt like a violated pregnant woman except everyone was stroking my feet without asking and inquiring where I purchased the boots.
Note: drink ridiculous amounts of water two days before giving blood next time.

Christmas 2008

The week of Christmas has been completely relaxed and wonderful. Mark stayed to celebrate with my family and was awoken at 730 Christmas morning by my siblings so we could all open presents. You would think that would stop when your siblings are 21 and 16 but it doesn't. I got my dad two cases of beer for Christmas. Got Mark a sappy photobook. Rockband 2 for the siblings and some camera accessories for my mom.

These boots were a solid take-home for me on Christmas morning. Never will be feet be cold or unstylish again.

I baked 6 loaves of Finnish Coffee bread. It is something my mumu used to make but no one continued. We crushed our own cardamom seeds and made the house smell delicious. It is actually one of the only bread that is actually better the next day, not warm (but not cold). The recipe is surprisingly easy.

Consumer Alert

Not that you hadn't already guessed but SHAMWOW! is well, a bit of a sham.

See video here.

Does it pick up more water than a a towel of the same size? Yes.

Does it do the trick with the pop on the carpet? No.

My brother and I decided to experiment. A can of Pepsi was dumped (notice the use of passive voice) onto a piece of carpet and given a few seconds to soak in. Without pressing there was little result. With pressing we still had stains. It took lots of pressing and some AWESOME! (best carpet cleaner ever -- it got out the blueberry juice we spilled on the off-white carpet the other day) to get it all out. Careful what you buy from a crazy guy on TV.

Were you aware that....?

It has been bitterly cold here. Hibernate-order-groceries-on-the-phone-three-layers-pants cold outside here since I got back. This isn't a complaint, it is a fact needed to explain why my brother discovered that the sounds made by MSN (when you get a msg, when someone comes online, etc) can be changed to just about anything.

So far we have experimented with monotone "message", teen girl squad voices (courtesy of me), Rick Rolling oneself constantly, using only sound bites from Zelda (gamecube edition) "Hey, look over here". The microphone from the Rock Band set is actually quite good quality and works well for creating these sound bites.

A fun activity brought to you by 'nothern ontario cold snap 2008'

The Missing Piece

Even though I don't really take pictures anymore I still see myself self as "into photography". I have the DSLR, the regular SLR, although my favourite was my (now broken) Cannon Elph 1000. It took some of the best pictures and was easy to carry. Some of the lack of passion for me is just not being willing to lug such a conspicuous piece of equipment around very often.

The other one is developing. The digital revolution with cameras is perfect for me since I'm cheap and love to take multiple pictures and test out different settings. But there is something missing and I think that developing the pictures myself was a big part of the connection I felt with photography in high school.

Yesterday I woke up and half day-dreamed, half remembered the calm environment of the darkroom. Only mountains of books can make me feel more tranquil.

The best parts/what I'm missing:
-experimenting and seeing the results
-slapping the wet test strips up on the black board and tracking the changes as the photo emerges
-the grain in the grain finder
-watching it appear (90s developer, 60s stop, 90s filter. Wash)
-making contact sheets of the negatives
-the eerie orange dark and ticking of enlarger timers

At least for now, my own darkroom is a bit unrealistic. I don't have a space of my own (or, let's face it, money). I hope I get to develop again.

Really not willing to vouch for the accuracy

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a Self-Knowing Traveling Extrovert

Safe & Sleepy

I'm all snuggled in for a long winter's nap back home tonight. First time in a few months and it was taking a toll. I craved being home (maybe seeing Mark too, just maybe)

Today I:
-left way too early for the airport
-spent too much on too little food in the airport (food I barely touched or enjoyed)
-bought Proust & the Squid (a book about how our brains work and why some of us have difficulty learning to read)
-didn't get a chance to read much of it since my second flight included sitting beside a pilot with some interesting stories (try getting a turkey dinner in India!)
-both mom and dad picked me up at the airport
-finally saw Mark and, due to excessive lack of sleep (read: less than 2 hours), we just chilled with my sibs and watched a movie. Anything would have been good, and it was
-going to bed with the promise of cracking open a book about exotic fruits

Songs I can't believe I Like

(in order of "in-my-headness")

Poker Face, Lady Gaga

If I were a Boy, Beyonce (no, I'm not calling her Sasha Fierce)

Womanizer, Britney Spears (possibly my greatest shame)

One less thing to worry about

Except that --and I was proud of myself for this-- I had already decided days ago not to think about the GREs. I can't lie though, they were contributing to the stressful feelings.

It seemed at first that the weather was reflecting my doom. Multiple cars gave me a good soaking while passing me in the slush created by the rain as I trudged to the testing centre. Taking the test I was fairly relaxed and it went more smoothly than any practice test I had finished. The guy beside me stunk of b.o.

It was a surprise at the end that before my scores were revealed I had the option to cancel them, without ever seeing them, to avoid putting them on my permanent GRE record. I didn't feel especially positive about the tests but I could never just walk away without seeing my marks. To be honest I didn't even know what the scores I received meant but the woman at the testing place encouraged me to submit them (McGill takes GRE marks but does not need them for SLP, no other Canadian schools require them for the program). They have been submitted. I looked up the scores online after. Let's say I had a good stroke of luck and, thank apple pie, I will not be taking them again.

Most of my thoughts and stress and thoughts about stress have somehow been focused on grad school applications. I want to be a speech-language pathologist more than anything I have ever wanted to be (except maybe paleontologist from grades 2-6). By nature I am an uncertain person but this I have no doubts about. I have spent years trying to determine what I want to 'be' and now it is up to a bunch of committees to judge my worth based on 3000 characters of intent, transcripts, reference letters and volunteer experience. You know what, I would be an amazing SLP. How do I show them that over the other 300 applicants (for less than 30 spots).

Applications are going out to Western, U of T, McGill and Dal. I'm dropping money like it is hot; burning lava hot. The application fees seem like a money grab but protesting that now won't get me far in my career. Tonight I started biting my nails again for the first time since I decided to quit in September. It isn't the prospect of three more years of school or being away (although those things can be daunting) but the fact that I just don't know what will happen. I can get through more studies if they have a direct purpose, a specific goal I just have to tough out to reach the end goal. None of this education will be pointless but it will be so difficult to see the benefit if I do not get in. I don't yet have a back up plan except applying to colleges in the Communicative Disorders Assistant program to buy myself some experience. How do I stand out?

Old Question, New Answers?

An article in Scientific American* postulating the potential reincarnation of neanderthals with a new technology involving either Human or Chimpanzee embryos. The technique isn't what interested me so much as the implications. Bringing one of these creatures to life would be able to answer innumerable questions about how closely they resemble humans and how they interacted with each other. The curiosity in me says 'go for it!'.

Obviously there are way more implications to a move like this. It would challenge what we consider human and what defines us as different from animals. Just the uncanny resemblance to your hairy uncle Hank would make facing one in a zoo uncomfortable. What if they actually have the capacity for language? Do they then gain all of the rights given to humans?

Would it be wrong to keep them captive? We do this to chimps and orangutans in order to study them. Maybe they would be billeted to families, or request their own freedom to live in our world unrestricted. If they are/were self-aware, linguistic beings, where does God fit into this? Would he have created Adam and Eve only to make Gog and Lu in almost the same image?

*the article I attached is not the original one I read. I continue to search for it but the theoretical questions still intrigue me.

No humbugs here

This weekend swept past fabulously. The highlight was a visit to the apartment of Miss Mitts & Company to be whisked off to a delightful pub dinner and subsequent soulpepper rendition of 'A Christmas Carol'. A very talented group of actors, an intimate stage setting and wonderful company made my first real theatre experience very positive.

Sunday was spent in Belleville decorating a christmas tree and eating a glorious turkey dinner cooked by the fabulous Mrs. M. One last day of major lazy before the stress of finishing the semester kicks in.

6 more spanish quizzes
2 big exams
and one really scary GRE

They even have a Tori Spelling

It took a while but I found out some time this semester that the "Hills" people refer to in sentences like "I need to be home in time to watch the....." was not a cooler name for "One Tree Hill" that I was not privvy to. It is actually a show all on its own! So I have no seen an episode.

Conclusion: I don't get it.

Not my usual perspective

I don't intend this post to be an argument for abortion. Although, after much consideration (soul-searching if you will) I find myself more pro than con to choice.

What triggered this line of thought was a blog I read over a week ago that really bothered me. I won't link to it since it matters more what was said than who said it but basically this person thought they could never vote for Obama (or anyone) who supported abortion, regardless of their views in other areas. They did not say that they would automatically vote for the other candidate (if we're talking the US, yes just the one other anyone mentions) but either way it is not a vote for who otherwise may be the better candidate. Because of one issue.

I can't look at this from the perspective of a mother but I'll just say why this bothered me.

1. The traditional (but I believe fairly sound) argument that if abortions are illegal women will still have them but through much more dangerous means (The Worst of Times, Particia G. Miller).
2. This candidate that supposedly supports abortion could still have a bigger impact on the overall number of babies aborted in the long run depending on their other policies. Are they going to do more to make birth control more accessible? Lessen poverty? Maybe it is more important to combat the conditions created by society that allow for unwanted pregnancy (poverty, rape, no access to birth control/education, abusive relationships, etc. etc.)
3. this is purely subjective but it appears a bit....selfish? stubborn? To risk the future of an entire group/people/country based on one stubbornly held belief.

Maybe I'm wrong. This post seems to take the position that this person is the best candidate aside from this one belief. This hasn't been proven. I don't love the idea of women choosing to end a life (in the majority of cases that they indirectly or directly chose to create) but I do believe in giving people the option to choose, even the wrong choice. I'm surprising myself.

Not blogging about it

The situation in our house has become more strained in our house over the week. I struggle to determine the true reason behind the problems especially one person is having. There was an incident when a bunch of Guelph friends visited that, out of anger and frustration, I had written a blog about but then chose not to post. I erased it. It still feels that I can't give any more details about what is happening but it makes being at home somewhat uncomfortable at times.

On top of that, my freedom, due to the beater, has potentially been cut short. Driving to pick some books last night with my housemate another car pulled out right in front of us and I was forced to hit the breaks hard. Since then the breaks no longer respond much when used. Yes, they stop the car but are completely loose until my foot is almost at the floor and then the vehcile swerves while stopping. He is on his last wheels.

My housemate's grandfather was kind enough to take me to school today because I didn't feel comfortable driving without breaks in the snow storm this morning but this means no ride to dinner tonight, getting up at 6am to catch the bus on Saturday. Part of me wants to just risk it. I'll drive slowly.

Like a collander (meaning a little strained....haha)

The parents of the housemate I am closest with have gone to Rwanda for just over a week. Neither housemate nor her brother drive so I have been graciously lent "the beater" for the time being. It is a lesson in being prideful. The rust I can handle. The rubber from the wipers that trails when wiping? No big deal. No radio, ok. Doors that don't work, the obvious age (1991?), the dirt....hey, it drives right? But, the lack of a muffler. Now I'm not an especially prideful person but do I look poor in that car. The old girl likes to call attention to herself as she revs up the hills.

Being in the car with others makes it a fun adventure. Being in the car alone and my self-conscious, materialistic side comes out just a bit. This afternoon was amazing though. Housemate's grandparents treated us to the Mandarin (what is that place?) for lunch so we all (Housemate, Housemate's Brother, grandma & granpa with me driving) pile into the tin can and roar off to eat. Some of the best conversation I have had in months. I miss grandparents.

Clash of the Sirens

This is the first time in all my moving around that I have ended up in a house where personalities just ram into each other head first*.

One person in particular can only seem to communicate via written note on the refrigerator.
-Take out the garbage
-House meeting
-Don't use her plates and bowls (another difficulty with the house: a few people vehemently refuse to share, who has heard of three separate cutlery drawers???)
-This morning i got the pleasant: "Katie, do NOT use my pan. You scratch it up"
Ouch, considering I didn't use it. Ew, I have my own pan, with stainless steal: I'm afraid of Teflon!

The tension is creamy and has a bitter aftertaste. Adding to the mix are two cats (whom I love dearly) but are barely tolerated by one other roommate. Yes, this post is a bit whiny but I'm a bit frustrated. Yes, I actually do try to sort this out in a adult-like manner and talk to these people myself. This is step 2, when I'm alone in the house, and annoyed.


*While Calgary project had its share of petty disagreements it doesn't count for two reasons:
a) it was mostly pleasant
b) it wasn't exactly a living situation as much as a psychological experiment with that many females (read: hormones) living in such a confined space

Seamonkeys Day 1

A housemate was gifted a sea monkey kit this week so we promptly took it home, waited the 24 hours to let water sit out and added the smonkey powder at 3pm today. Right now it looks like slightly murkier regular water. Luckily they should be much less maintenance than a cat, not requiring their first feeding until 5 days after hatching. Disadvantage: little affection. Benefit: hours of intellectual stimulation. Since reading Archie comics with mail-away coupons for s'monkeys I have been fascinated with the idea and this will be my first glimpse of the flecks of shrimp eggs.

Also, tomorrow is my last midterm: syntax. Definitely a challenge, but interesting. I must also complete a stats assignment, my chapter of our Spanish story and the written portion of an interview for Spanish class to be presented on Thursday. After that I am mostly home free until exams and I will have access to a car (which I am told is a junker and embarrassing to drive) for about two weeks.

Maybe they weren't trying to be funny

This week I have come across some ironic stuff (or just regular funny?)

-a bake sale for diabetes (there have to be other ways to raise money!)

-Canada Post raising money for Mental Health

Clerk: Would you like to donate $1 to mental health?

Me: Sure. (thinking: yeah, I support mental health, why not?) What organization does the money go to?

Clerk: Um, I'm not exactly sure. Well, you can see this brochure, it is through Canada Post itself.

Me: Oh I get it, post office supporting mental health causes. Cute.

A vicious cycle

Since catching up on Bones (and now eagerly awaiting Wednesday night) I needed a new show to procrastinate with on demand. So I downloaded Man vs. Wild and Survivor man, not remembering which one was the coolest. Man vs. Wild. Bear Grylls is completely insane and that makes good 'reality' TV.

For those unfamiliar with the Discovery Channel show this guy gets dropped out of a helicopter over some inhospitable and/or dangerous habitat with a knife, a water bottle and maybe a flint. Oh and clothes, no he isn't naked (all the time). Then the show is over when he finds his way to help. Places I have gone with him so far: Costa rican rainforest, Moab Desert, French Alps (where he ate maggots and a live fish).

Three foods Mr. Grylls would take on a deserted island:
1) avocados
2) mayonnaise
3) chocolate

Three foods I would take:
1) chocolate (definite agreement here, but it has to be the milky kind)
2) my dad's chili (we obviously aren't concerned with how this will actually stay fresh)
3) clementine oranges

I'm assuming there will be pineapple and coconut there just hanging out so those don't need to be taken (not that coconut would be).