Christmas List

Work Stuff
-Black flats (7)
-Nice Boots (7)
-Pretty Red Sweaters (M-L)
-GC---Smart Set, Le Chateau, Aldo, Sears
School Stuff
-Pens
-Backpack, not too big
-Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
-Laptop screen cleaner
House Stuff
-Good Vacuum Cleaner, used is fine
-Cordless Drill
-Ikea GC
-Pots with lids, used is fine
-Hand soap
-Extra-Long Twin, Flannel Sheets
-Nice Frames, with wall mount
Life Stuff
-Pyjamas (L)
-Ear Muffs
-Work-out pants (L)
-GC ---- La Senza, La Vie En Rose
-Canned corn
-Canned french cut green beans
-Microwave popcorn
-$ for British Citizenship
-Pepto-Bismol
-Stamps (mailing Canada local)
-$5 long distance cards (calling Canada)
Fun Stuff-Movies, DVDs
---Love Actually, 10 Things I Hate About You, Aladdin, Waiting (Ryan Reynolds), Wet Hot American Summer, Any James Bond, Any Eddie Izzard Stand-Up,
-TV Series, DVD
--Friends (anything but 2), Sex and the City,
-CD’s, burned is fine
--Beatles, Gone In 60 Seconds Soundtrack, Best of Louis Armstrong
-Books, used is fine
--Narnia Set (not from movie),
-Messenger Bag that can hold laptop (15” screen)
-World of Warcraft Game Time Card
-Chocolate bars
-Going out ‘Bar tops’ (M-L)
-American Apparel Cotton Spandex Jersey Bandeau Dress, any and all colours (XL)
-American Apparel Cotton Spandex Placket Legging, Black, (L)
-Hard Alcohol and Liqueurs

41 Texts

Above is a list that I have compiled of the texts I need to know for my British Literature II course mid-term exam. (Click on the image to see the list more clearly.) There are FORTY ONE different poems, essays, and novels. I need to know them all well enough to be able to identify an excerpt from them and give the title, author and a page of written analysis of the passage's significance. Also, this is just one of three exams that I have in two days at the end of this coming week. Not fun.

Party With The Newfies

I went with Jer to the Christmas Dinner and Dance for the Newfoundland Society of Ottawa. They recently became a 'Have' province and since Ontario is now a 'Have Not' I thought I should party with the new big shots. It was so much fun. The food was amazing and there was so much of it. I have been to a lot of banquets and Christmas parties where they try too hard to make the food fancy. They served turkey which was great since I didn't have it at Thanksgiving. Then there was dancing. So much dancing. The music was perfect, a good mix of oldies and classics, obviously a few Newfoundland ones thrown in. It actually made me miss my parents, I think it was the type of music they played or that there were a wide range of generations there. A really good time. I'm such a poser, but I really want to go again next year.

D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y

The correct spelling is definitely.
Not definately.
Not definatly.
Not definantly.
Not definetly.
Not definently.
And certainly not defiantly.
The correct spelling is definitely.
-From http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/ (Buy the mug)

Obviously I don't know the right spelling. Jerrica pointed this site out to me, as a very good speller she found it hilarious, though admits to having difficulties with 'definitely'. Interestingly, they didn't mention my usual way of spelling it, 'defninitly'. Goes to show you that I'm always unique, even in my flaws, and again proves that my issue is usually with the vowels.

Best Thing Ever

It is my turn to bring dessert to Girls Night tomorrow. We actually don't have any type of formal rotation, it is really just who ever calls it. Dessert is usually brownies or cookies. I decided to change it up a bit and wanted to make Rice Krispie Squares. When I was out grocery shopping yesterday I picked up supplies but I forgot to get marshmallows, which are a pretty key ingredient, so this basically means I went and picked up a box of cereal. I got marshmallows on the way home today and made a batch of squares. They are awesome. It makes a big full pan, was really fast and easy, tastes great, and was really cheap. They are also surprisingly low in calories and fat compared to other desserts. Seriously, they are the best thing ever and I want to make them all the time.

Twilight's Opening Weekend

Harry Potter > Lord Voldermort

Voldermort > Cedric Diggory

Cedric = Edward Cullen

∴ Harry > Edward

It is just simple math!

The movie Twilight just came out this weekend. It based on the first in a series of books about a vampire. Basically this teenage girl falls in love with a hot vampire boy. The books were the latest in pop-literature (think: The Da Vinci Code, The Time Traveller's Wife, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, or John Grisham) crossed with chick-lit (think: Shopaholic, Bridget Jones's Diary, Sex and the City, Marianne Keyes). I don't have a problem with either of these types of books and a combo of them would be really cool, I just haven't read it yet so don't understand the big fuss. What shocks me is that it keeps being compared to Harry Potter. I don't yet understand the comparison, whether it is in reference to the hype around the books or the movie or that both are fantasy like. I have a soft spot for Harry Potter and would be sad if the boy wizard was over shadowed by a vampire. The above math/logic comparison only works because the actor, Robert Pattinson, plays both Cedric in Harry Potter and Edward, the main vampire, in Twilight. Cedric is killed by Voldermort in the forth book and of course Harry finally beats Voldermort in the final book, so logically Harry is better than Cedric who can be equated to Edward since they are played by the same guy in the movies. Math proves it, Harry Potter rocks.

The Army Life

My parents went to Gage Town (yes that is in New Brunswick, tiny cities, lots of trees) to visit Little Brother Mike. He is out there training for another few months, then he gets posted to a base and starts his 5 year contract with the Army. He is hoping that he will get to stay in NB because he is really liking it there. I didn't get to go and visit him this time but am going to try to do a road trip during spring break. I don't know if he in this picture or not. My mom didn't say, so it could just be a random group of people at the base that they saw while visiting Mike.

If he is in it, there should be a little white arrow pointing to him, since they all look the same. Maybe that is the point. So how about a close up of him to get the full effect...Much better.

The Slow Climb

I haven't been doing very well with my school assignments this year, especially in my MCOM class. There were three over this semester and it started off really badly. I got a 6.75 out of 10, on a paper I thought was really well written. It was filled with comments about how much I sucked. I tried to use the comments to make the next one better and pulled off a 7.5. Still not happy, I went and talked to the TA that marks them to see what I could change before writing the third. I just got the third back and have finally pulled it up to an A, barely. 8/10 for the last of the three this semester. It was a slow climb up and has really pulled down my chances of doing well in this class. I don't know how the next semester of it will be set up but if it is the same with three written assignments worth 10% of our course mark each I hope I don't drop down again and can just move up from the 80%. It is a slow climb to greatness, and I'm not there yet.

Sucker For Shakespeare

I don't know how it happens but I fall for them everytime. Guy dancers, guy actors, guy actors doing Shakespeare. It sometimes even starts out with me thinking that their are no attractive male actors in the play but by the end I will always have some sort of crush on at least one of them. The cute members of the cast are not the only good thing in Sock 'n' Buskin's Shakespeare play this year. As usual the set was well done, direction near professional, and the acting was pretty good. Again, my usual complaint is that the costumes are never up to the quality of the rest of the performance. Their performance's are good, really good. Shakespeare is hard to do and they always do it well. The company tends to start off the season with one of his plays before doing a musical and Canadian play later in the year. I have been to three of the Shakespeare ones and loved it every time. This year's Much Ado About Nothing was no exception.

Flu Shot - Get It

It seems to be that time of year again. Flu Shot clinics are popping up everywhere. A lot of people are against vaccinations but I'm the total opposite. I get the Flu Shot every year, I got the Measles one in Elementary School, and Hepatitis C in Grade 8. I also got the HPV Vaccine last year which was fairly expensive, compared to the free Flu Shot. I have actually been thinking about getting the vaccine for Hepatitis A & B. I like disease prevention, if that means a needle with some chemicals every now and then I'm for it. People will talk about how they weakens us, cause allergic reactions, are unsafe, cause autism in children, and are solely used to further provide profit to the pharmaceutical companies. To that I look to my grandparents. I have a grandparent on each side on my family that had polio. Luckily it wasn't fatal for either of them but it did have quite a negative impact on their childhood and to a certain extent the rest of their lives. We don't have polio anymore, because we are vaccinated as children. The Flu Shot doesn't really even protect me that much, as I still tend to get sick, though it is usually a cold. It just stops me from getting sick from last years flu viruses but beyond that stops me from getting sick with last years flu and passing it onto someone vulnerable. I won't die from the flu, I won't even get really that sick from it, I hate the flu and it sucks when you have it, but I won't die. People do though, and I don't want to have been the person that gave it to them. So I'm getting it, good karma. You can get it everywhere: school, work, doctors or clinics in the community.

And Again

Piles of research:
Novels, textbooks, notes, post-its
Layers on the computer:
Document, reference, communication, clock
A cocktail of stimulants:
Coffee, chocolate, sugar, amphetamine
Pain building:
Back, neck, head, eyes
Physical reaction:
Fog, stress, terror, nausea
Reason for repetition:
Stupidity, habit, fear, procrastination
How am I here, again?

Top 10 Movies

The American Film Institute has created a number of Top 100 lists for movies. You can see the Top 10 for each genre on their website. I'm not doing very well with them, but I have seen all 10 of the Animation ones. I want to see all of the Romantic Comedies so am going to start working through them.

Sister Universities

I have discovered the secret to university research. -Get your books out at another university's library.- I'm always a little behind on my essays so when I go to get information on a topic everything is already taken out of the Carleton library because other people are writing on the same thing. At Ottawa U however, they probably aren't. I was able to get tons of books on my topic there today. I was also told by the very cute and bilingual check-out guy there that I can return the books to Carleton's library instead of trekking back downtown, since we are "Sister Universities." That is so handy! I also enjoy that the two universities are considered sisters and personified as female. Higher education depicted as a women, I don't know what I can read into that but I'm sure there is something to it.

Meh

According to The Ottawa Citizen:
"Meh", a word which indicates a lack of interest or enthusiasm, became the latest addition to the Collins English Dictionary in England. Though the word apparently originates from North America, Collins said it was now widely used on the Internet, and was increasingly seen in British spoken English. The dictionary entry for "meh" will say it can be used as an interjection to indicate indifference or boredom, as an adjective to describe something as boring or mediocre, or to show an individual is apathetic or unimpressed.

I use this word all the time, I both say it and type it. Though I don't think that it should be in the dictionary, now people will use it in Boggle and it so shouldn't be allowed.

6 Laptops

Die Höhle currently has six laptops. It is ridiculous they are everywhere and the powercords crisscross around the living room. What happened is My School Pet died (seen in the middle of the coffee table) and I got My Little Pet (the one where you can see what is on the screen). Jerrica was shocked at how cheap a decent laptop could be and was jealous of the webcam that came on mine. I don't know why because I have yet to use it. She had a super old computer last year but the powercord broke on it so she ended up getting a better one from a friend. That one is now with Emily who wasn't happy with her old one and Jerrica ended up buy a band new one. It is madness.

The Slow Fall

I'm slowly falling in love with my new laptop. It has been a gradual thing as I customize it and get used to everything. Now my heart is just so filled with joy and I'm glowing with love for My Little Pet (the name of the new laptop). It is so light. I have school books that are heavier. At first I thought that it made it feel cheap since My School Pet (the name of my old laptop) was so heavy and solid. Now I think that its weight is a huge advantage. I can take it anywhere, it is only 6.5 pounds!! It is black too which is strange for me because the other one was silver (alright, it was more like grey). Vista is going alright for now but I'm still not very comfortable with it. It doesn't really feel any faster or slower than the last one but the internet is a bit sluggish. I realise that this is because I'm in a cement block room in the basement of a building on campus and the internet connection is at only 2 bars of 5. What makes me happy is that it does have wireless which means I can get the internet anywhere now. I'm sure it will be just as fast if not faster when it is at my desk and plugged into the internet at home. So it is good, things with me and My Little Pet are good. I'm happy and in love.

Venti

I have always had an issue with Starbucks. This may stem from the fact that I once worked at a Second Cup, their Canadian competitor, or that I have always found it ridiculous to pay more than $1.50 on coffee. (I say this mere hours after getting a Caramel Macchiato on campus to help me get through my late night essay writing, so I obviously still buy drinks at Starbucks occasionally and am quite a hypocrite.) I just feel that the whole thing feeds into this snobby rich yuppy lifestyle that I don't like. On a side note - Anne and Erin used to call it *$ in e-mail as a short form when we all worked together this past summer, so cute. Anyway, I saw a clip for the movie Role Models with Paul Rudd and it had a scene in a Starbucks that made me laugh--
Paul: A large black coffee.
Barista: Do you mean a venti?
Paul: I mean a large.
Barista: Venti is large.
Paul: No, venti is twenty. In fact, tall is large. Grande is spanish for large. Venti is twenty. It's the only one that DOESN'T mean large. It's also the only one that's Italian. Congratulations. You're stupid in three languages.

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day. Each year, Canada marks Veterans' Week from November 5 to 11. It is a time to honour and remember all those who served Canada in times of war, military conflict and peace.

Yesterday one of my English professors was wearing a white poppy and someone asked what it meant. He explained and later I looked it up for myself. I am surprised how political the holiday and the poppy can be. According to the Peace Pledge Union, the organization behind the White Poppy, the red poppy conveys a specific political standpoint. The Peace Pledge Union is the oldest secular pacifist organisation in Britain. Since 1934 it has been campaigning for a warless world. They choose the white poppy over the red because they wish to disassociate themselves from the militaristic aspects of Remembrance Day, rather than the commemoration itself.

I don't understand the complete opposition to war and the military. I liken this to the strange difference in connotation between a firefighter and a policeman. There is a universal love and appreciation for the work of a firefighter. They are brave heroes who save us from terrible, and natural, disaster. While that is not the same for a policeman. People are annoyed by them, they get angry about speeding tickets and focus on police corruption. This stems from the idea that police deal with criminals and that crime is unnatural. Fire can start from lightening, something that we can do nothing about. While crime is evil and presumed be avoidable. This is not the case, crime is natural. Criminals have always and will always exist, it is part of human nature. I don't understand the perceived difference between a brave police officer who save us from danger, than a firefighter who does the same. This extends to soldiers.

There is this distaste by some against the Canadian military. The anti-war movement and desire to abolished the military is ridiculous. War is also, unfortunately, a part of human nature. There has not been a time in our history where the world has been free of war. It is just not possible. While I promote peace and believe that war is a horrible thing, I also recognize that it is a fact of life and am thankful for the soldiers who are willing to fight when necessary. So I wear a red poppy to remember and reflect on those who served and died protecting Canadian values. I not only pay tribute to all Canadian Veterans, but I also honour those who continue to serve our country in Afghanistan and other areas of conflict.

Born For The 80's

Photos by Stephanie Beach

(See Link on Right for more of her photography)

Steph has an assignment for a photography class where she needs seven different shots with the same person. Different lighting, poses, clothes, setting, etc. I agreed to be her model and I swear posed for over 500 photos on Sunday. I got to delete any that I hated and I left her with 143 pictures of me, I hope she gets seven good ones. These are three from a series taken of me with lipstick, hair down, wearing a white sweater, sitting in an open door frame, therefore with natural light. Most were taken either at the park near my house or in her basement studio. This series though (which was significantly larger, but these are the ones I like best) reminds me so much of the 80's with the big hair, bright lip colour, and cream cashmere sweater. (Canada's Next Top Model here I come!! Too bad I'm too old and too short - To enter, you must be between the ages of 18-23 and at least 5'8")

Marching In A Line

Gradually all of my friends are graduating. Anna just graduated for Carleton with Highest Honours and got her bachelors degree with a Major in Political Science and a Minor in Film Studies. Besides her amazing varsity fencing record, Anna has done alot of awesome things over the past four years at Carleton. Some of them are (not in any order): Getting a job working with statistical information at the Data Centre in the library. Meeting Wes, they started dating, and now they live together down the street with a puppy and kitty. She went to France to study at Sciences Po - Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris. She has travelled across Canada in both directions, across Europe and into the States. She was on the executive for the Exchange Students Society. She went and worked on Hilary Clinton's campaign and met her. She was Maid of Honour for her sisters wedding. Last, but not least, she lived with me for a while at Le Manior.

Mayfair Closing

It is really sad but the movie theatre that is just down the street is closing at the end of this month. I have been to it a bunch of times, even once for Rocky Horror Picture Show. It always shows double features and is independently owned, which is nice. I love the Mayfair Theatre, it is a beautiful old movie house. Supposedly the city granted the theatre a heritage building classification, but it is still closing as of November 30th.

History Is Broken

Proposition 8 was a Ballot Measure in California during this Tuesday's presidential election. Its approval resulted in an immediate change to California law, requiring the government to restrict marriage rights to opposite-sex couples only. While working families and the people as a whole scored a major victory by electing Barack Obama on Nov. 4, several states hammered the rights and equality of LGBT people. Voters in three states appear to have passed bans on gay marriage. California, Florida, and Arizona saw such bans put in place. In California this took away marriage equality rights already provided to California residents by a state court decision last summer. California and a number of other states will continue to allow civil unions, which is not the same, and there is no longer any states that preform same-sax marriages. This is sad and unfair. When is the States going to step up and truly be the land of the free?

History Is Made

No matter how the vote ended up in the US yesterday, history would have been made. A victory for one ticket would have given the United States its oldest first-term president (McCain, who is 72) and first female vice president (Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin). The other would see the first African-American (Obama) moving into the White House and the first Roman Catholic (Senator Joseph Biden) to win the vice presidency. I didn't know that old rich white men and Roman Catholics really felt like minorities that were underrepresented in power but I guess it has never been done before. It is the female and the African-American that are much more impressive, even if Palin is batshit crazy, and she is. Hilary was much more of a woman to be proud of. I would like to add that Canada has had a female leader, Kim Campbell. I know that she wasn't put in power from a nation wide election and that she was only Prime Minister for 5 or so months, but still!! It seems as though The States have voted for Barack Obama, which is awesome, but I won't believe it until I see him sworn in. I totally don't understand their political system down there and it always seems like things get switched around at the last minute.

Encore

This is the poem I recited last week at the Literary Society Recitathon:

Forgiven

By A.A.Milne

I found a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,

And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.

I put him in a matchbox, and I kept him all the day...

And Nanny let my beetle out

Yes, Nanny let my beetle out

She went and let my beetle out

And beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,

She said she wanted matches, and she just took off the lid

She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch

An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind

As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find

If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid

And we'd get another matchbox, and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,

And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,

And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:

"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"

It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be

And he had a sort of look as if he thought it might be ME,

And he had a kind of look as if he thought he ought to say:

"I'm very, very sorry that I tried to run away."

And Nanny's very sorry too, for you know what she did,

And she's writing ALEXANDER very blackly on the lid,

So Nan and me are friends, because it's difficult to catch

An excited Alexander you've mistaken for a match.

The Slutty/Sexy Costume

What are you sapossed to be?

I'm a MOUSE. DUH!

Halloween was this past weekend and it always surprises me how slutty girls can make their costumes. Luckily most of my friends are way more caught up in the creative and fun side of dressing up and don't use it as an excuse to be super sexy. This year I found it even more shocking as a party store in town was advertising pretty heavily on campus and I ran into their flyers everywhere. All the costumes they sold for girls were slutty. Most of them literally had 'sexy' in the title; sexy nurse, sexy cat, sexy vampire, sexy cop, sexy parole officer (I'm not making that up.) There was even a Wizard costume if you wanted to look like a character from Harry Potter, but it was midriff bearing and had an insanely short skirt. I think it was said best in Mean Girls: "In the real world Halloween was a time for little kids to dress up in scary costumes and get candy. In girl world it was the one night a year a girl could dress like a total slut and no other girls could say anything about it. The hard core girls just wore lingerie and some form of animal ears." I don't even really consider myself a feminist but this bothers me. At the same time I'm not totally immune to it. While my costume is rarely slutty, I tend to choose to dress up as something pretty, even my Zombie costume this year was more pretty than scary.

Diseased!!

My computer is in the shop and I'm waiting with bated breath to find out what is wrong with it. I have done some research into laptops on the market right now in case I have to replace it and I really haven't found one that is right for me yet. I really miss my laptop. I hope everything works out and I get it back soon.

A New Graduate

Teri is pretty much the smartest person I know. When we finished high school she got into this really amazing university program, it is a double degree from University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University with co-op. I never really realised it, but this meant that she had two commencement ceremonies. Over the last week she has graduated from both universities. She now has a Honours Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) from Laurier and a Honours Bachelors of Math (BMath) with Co-Op from Waterloo. It really is as impressive as it sounds!! She is now working for Research In Motion (RIM) the company that makes Blackberries. I'm so proud of her and can't imagine how hard it must have been. My best friend the genius.