in Philadelphia write:

Japan, Hong Kong, Boston

2010-03-23T18:22:00.002-04:00

Hi friends. It has been a very long time since I've posted here. I feel like the blog has wound down fairly permanently, but I decided I would post in case you happened to look here. I could update many friends on Facebook, but I currently have a deep hatred of fb and am trying to give it as little traffic as possible.

So what's exciting? Some travel, some moving. Dude, I just checked at is was November that I put anything up here. Well, in December, I was in Barcelona for a conference. So, Spain is awesome -- at the conference dinner each place setting had like 5 distinct glasses (one for Cava, white wine, red wine... perhaps a water glass, etc.). I was hoping for some relief from the Canadian cold there, but 5 degrees feels really cold when you don't have your winter coat and it's windy.

But up next is a 3 week trip to Asia at the end of June. I'm going to Japan, and Hong Kong. Thoughts?

Finally, I've moving to Boston for about 10 months, going to be a visiting student at MIT for the 2010-11 school year.

Updated.

Daddy's fancy-boy

2009-11-29T21:06:00.003-05:00

Cuzco?

2009-09-21T10:28:00.007-04:00

(Photo taken in Montmarte)

Hey there, sports fans. I know I'm a terrible blogger, terrible friend, terrible human being. I'm not sure I'm quite in the head space to regale you with all my Europe antics right now, but you know how I love music, and love copping out by posting youtube videos. So I've embedded some "videos" of some songs I've been listening to lately. Some are not new in general terms, some are, but they're all upbeat and I would say fun. I make no claims about the actual associated videos posted, as far as I care you can push play and go to another tab to get back to your email or... work. Some of them are just picture videos anyway, and one just an mp3.

Anyway, let me know if you have any music you want to share with me, b/c I really love music and its not particularly easy to find new good music out of the wild blue yonder.

I owe posts on Europe, and the continuation of my "what the heck is linguistics?" If I could stop napping in the afternoon I'm sure I could find the time.

Gorillaz: DARE

Metric: Help, I'm Alive

MIA: 20 Dollar

Peter Bjorn & John: I Want You!

Download bài hát I Want You

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Dull Life

Scandinavia

2009-08-26T05:48:00.003-04:00

Hi, its been an unforgivably long time since I've posted something decent. And I'm guessing it will be longer. I have to do the 2nd part of my trilogy in 5 parts about Linguistics and grad school for humanities students. My first part was a big hit, it seems, so no promises on the next ones.

I'm in Sweden right now, got to Uppsala this morning, spent about a day and a half in Stockholm, but will go back there later. I was in Paris, Copenhagen and the south of Sweden before that, so there's pictures from the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/u5875869987

I took a lot of them.

In the News

2009-06-25T20:38:00.001-04:00

So it was a big day for celebrity news. Farrah Fawecett lost to cancer, Michael Jackson’s heart gave out. Very sad indeed, and the latter is quite shocking – and despite what your opinion is of the character of the man, he was a pop music genius. But some other news concerns me much more closely and deeply, and that’s the update on the Pickton trial appeal.

A very brief summary of the matter, Pickton is a pig farmer in BC who murdered women from the streets of Vancouver and hid their dismantled bodies on his farm, and also fed the pieces to his pigs. He’s charged with 26 murders, but there were more that couldn’t be conclusively pinned on him.

He lost an appeal today (by a split ruling) that claimed the judge responsible for the trial mis-instructed the jury. But what this also means is that he gets another appeal at the Supreme Court of Canada.

When I lived in BC in 2002-03, every week I went with a group of students from my school to the downtown eastside of Vancouver, which is notorious for the drugs and sextrade. We walked around with big things of hot chocolate in oversized blue jackets giving away hot drinks, as well as candy and various other useful items (gave away the mittens I was wearing once, who could say no to that request?). I was part of the group (comprised only of women) who spoke to the women on the street. We gave hot chocolate to those who wanted it, left alone those who had no interest in us, and talked to those who would. Despite what you think about this kind of outreach, it has made a huge difference in my life, mainly because it allowed me to simply interact with these people. They are me, they are exactly the same – what is different is that I was born into a stable, loving middle class family and they were exposed to situations either of poverty, abuse, or other unfortunate circumstances. Talking to these women I learned of their hopes and dreams, which are like yours and mine. One woman wanted to be a marine biologist, others just wanted to care for their children and make sure they were ok. It seems to me that the drugs and prostitution are effects of the crap they’ve been given in their lives, but the hope and the smiles show the wonder of their human hearts and triggered compassion in me. They are the same.

Many of the women we interacted with knew other women who had gone missing from East Hastings. They knew those women who were brutally murdered by Pickton. Some were afraid, because it could have easily been them.

So I read the story about the appeal on CBC news and it really brought me to frustrated tears. Leaving Pickton himself aside, I’m astonished that there are people who are willing to be his lawyers and defend him so vehemently. I know that everyone deserves defense, and all that stuff, but the scale of evil we’re dealing with makes me forget what the logic behind these laws is. He is an unbelievably evil man, and should be in prison for the rest of his earthly days. Those women deserve whatever tiny shred of justice we can muster up for them. They deserve infinitely more. Remember that they are you and me, they did not deserve to die, they deserved to be loved. Remember that when you think about people on the streets, when you think about prostitutes. Please don’t condemn them in your mind, because we don’t know what they’ve had to deal with in their lives. Remember that they have children, they have friends, and they have dreams. Think of the dream to be a marine biologist.

Linguistics: I'm gonna tell you what it is

2009-06-10T12:30:00.005-04:00

(1) What linguists actually do/care about

Random linguistics thing to start out, I usually type in “inphil” to get to my own blog, which I always correlate with Infl, you know, like InflP? Ok, so we’re not there yet.

To start, if you haven’t studied linguistics, you do not know what linguistics is. I don’t care if you think you do, because you really don’t. And if you’re one of those people who meets a linguist and then starts talking non-stop about everything linguistic you know, we hate that, b/c what you’re talking about is 99.9% of the time NOT what we do. If you think the Cyrillic alphabet is interesting, and that every modern English word can be traced back to Greek, or that technology will quickly lead to the abysmal end of all civilized communication, that’s nice for you, but that’s not linguistics.

There are several subfields, and major divisions can take labels like “theoretical”, “applied” and “experimental” – really we’re not that different from other more traditionally scientific fields, we just don’t get credit for our scientific inquiry (and if psychology can pass as a science, linguistics is 5 times the science). What I do is theoretical, but applied and experimental are much more salient to the non-completely abstract minded.

Sociolinguistics interests many a layperson, and involves the interaction between language and society (its like some sort of genius fit it all into one word or something!). Socio (for short) addresses things like how dialects of a language differentiate from one another, which can involve geographic and political factors (fun fact: Hindi and Urdu are the same language but b/c of political/religious reasons have different names and use two different writing systems Devanāgarī/Arabic). The usage of “like” in English (And he was all like, I’m like totally like going crazy… like), the frequency of thinking vs. thinkin’, and various words, phrases, intonations and sounds all fall under socio, correlating them to socio-economic class, age, gender, etc.

Some experimental linguistics includes language acquisition, like watching babies and seeing how they start to talk – what sounds they can say first, what sentences they form and how old they are when the put it together. A classic example is the U-curve (I think that’s what it’s called…. I’m not an acquisitionist). This is where kids acquiring English, for example, will say something like “The rabbit went,” which sounds like a perfect sentence, but will a little later say “The rabbit goed”, and then again later return to “The rabbit went.” What this pattern is meant to indicate is that early on a child has rote memorization of verb forms including irregular ones (e.g. be/are, hold/held, teach/taught), but that in the second step the child has learned that if you add –ed to the end of verb you can make past tense (e.g. walk/walked, jump/jumped). This is actually a step forward in their development b/c the kid understands the base form of the verb and that it’s a separate piece of stuff, –ed, that makes it past tense. Then the final stage is where the child has sifted through the regular and irregular verbs to talk like a normal adult crazy English speaker.

Having TA-ed an intro class is coming in handy here.

Ok, but I don’t do those kinds of linguistics. Theoretical breaks down into syntax, semantics, morphology, phonetics and phonology. Phonetics is the sounds that we make with language, and phonology is the sound patterns or systems of a language (for accessibility, pretty much all my examples will be from English here). For example, ever notice how you say “an iron” rather than “*a iron”? I’m sure you’re aware that you have to say ‘an’ before a word that begins in a vowel (if you’re the kind of person who says “an historic”, please leave my blog immediately), which is part of phonology – we don’t like to say too many vowel sounds in a row so the ‘n’ at the end of ‘an’ breaks it up. This subfield also includes things like stress patterns. Assuming you do trisyllabic laxing, say “divine”, then say “divinity” (serene/serenity, school/scholarly, profound/profundity). Same word, different sound (pay attention to the vowels – try saying “divine” normally, then add –ity the end, it’ll be weird). This is phonology, and you can predict how the sounds will change based on the number of syllables in the word and the nature of if suffix (e.g. –ity) that is added to a word.

Semantics is the meaning of language, slash the meaning of sentences. It tries to address how to get the meaning of a sentence by compositionally putting together all the words to get a truth value – closely related to philosophy. Again for examples, consider “Georgio bought an expensive BMW.” At first glance the sentence seems straightforward enough, but it really has two meanings. Meaning(1): Georgio bought theee most expensive BMW on the market (760il?). Meaning (2): BMW’s are expensive in terms of the average car, but Georgio actually bought the cheapest BMW money can buy. And semanticists care about how we get the two meanings, blah blah blah.

Taking a breather at this point, understand that if you thought, for example, that sociolinguistics is the most or only important area of study in terms of language, you’re wrong. You need the theory behind it to even investigate such things. If all you’re interested in for language is how people use it, and what is meant by different usages, you and I are different people. You’re allowed to be interested in that but you are NOT allowed to think that the aspects you’re not interested in are unimportant, or even less important. Unless you want to be a huge jerk times a million forever. I personally don’t really care about how people use language in society, meaning I don’t spend any time researching it. Other people have got it covered as far as I’m concerned.

What I work on is syntax and morphology. Morphology is the structure of words, like in antidisestablishmentarianism. This is multimorphemic word, meaning it’s made up of small pieces/affixes that all attach to the root, which is establish:
anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism
One question in this subfield is how do we restrict what affixes attach to which root. –ity, for example changes an adjective into a noun: stable/stability. But it can’t attach to just any adjective root: tall/*tallity. (It turns out –ity only likes the Latinate roots).

Syntax is looking at sentence structure and word order (to the exclusion of meaning), which gives the following as a grammatical sentence even though it doesn’t have any clear pragmatic meaning:
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. (props to Chomsky)
To understand a little syntax, and why I study it, I have an example with the contraction “wanna” for “want to”. One can say things like “I wanna go to the store.” Or “Do you wanna leave now?” It would seem that wherever you have “want to” you can replace it with “wanna”. Not so! One can form the question “Who do you want to go home?” from something like “I want Tim to go home.” But you CAN’T say “*Who do you wanna go home?” That’s b/c where Tim used to be (after ‘want’ and before ‘to’) before we turned him into ‘who’ and put him at the front, there is a gap, and you can’t make a contraction over a gap. Neat, eh? So syntacticians look at the underlying sentence structure, b/c if we just looked at the surface structure there’s no reason ‘wanna’ should be bad anywhere ‘want to’ occurs. Does this make sense?

To finish off, a few things that many people think pertain to linguistics but don’t:
-We do not necessarily speak 12+ languages (although some do, but don’t ask me)
-We do not correct peoples’ grammar dependent on what your grade 10 English text book said you should say. We are interested in how people actually talk, not how some stuffy librarian tells them to speak.
-Pretty much anything to do with spelling doesn’t apply to the average linguist – its not language, its orthography, i.e. a conventional representation of language.
-Most of us are not judging how you talk when you’re in conversation with us, if we’re paying attention at all we’ll probably just find you fascinating.
-We don’t discuss which languages or dialects are better than others, b/c we believe that all languages and dialects are equally complex and good – they all form natural languages.
-NO, I do NOT speak Tolkien’s elven language, or Klingon, or Esperanto – linguists are not about FAKE languages, we study REAL languages, and the fake ones never come close to cutting it in comparison with the real ones.
-We’re not translators.
-I’m sure there’s more, but I’m drawing a blank.

We are concerned with how all languages are similar to each other at some level, and how language is represented in the brain. Language is specific to humans, and b/c of how children learn it so quickly and perfectly suggests that our brains are prewired to acquire any natural language. Me, I’m into patterns (getting back to my pure math roots), and systems and all such manner of thing.

Questions?

http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/

Wow

2009-05-26T20:08:00.000-04:00

Also, I joined facebook.
*hang head in shame*

Mostly Harmless

2009-05-20T18:33:00.000-04:00

Whew! Its been a whirlwind ladies and gentlemen. When was the last time I talked to you? Meh, I’m not going to check right now. Many things have been happening in the world of linguistics. Some that made me feel pretty certain that I wanted to quit; others that at least partially re-motivated me to hang on. I was thinking this weekend (as I’m wont to do) about how pretty much everyone doesn’t really know what I do, to the exception of my colleagues/peers who do the exact same stuff. And this is not your fault, no, it is my fault for neglecting to take the time to attempt an explanation of the abstract and nuanced world that I submerge myself in daily. So, in full on geek-copycat blogger style, I will present to you a trilogy in five parts:

(1) What linguists actually do/care about (i.e. don’t treat us like English majors, we promote splitting infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition)

(2) How our grad program works/is different (and why it’s useless to compare it to grad programs within your general scope of knowledge).

(3) The deal with linguistic conferences (they’re basically parties that we get universities to send us to at various coordinates on the surface of the globe)

(4) Intra-linguist relations (because you know how warm and fuzzy we can all be)

(5) How linguistics relates to/affects you (or more clearly, that it doesn’t)

Hopefully the trilogy will set you up for an appreciation, or at least a clarification, for we linguists, and get you to stop asking how many languages we speak.

But back to breaking news. I went Harvard & MIT for a conference this weekend. Two very different schools, for being 25 minutes walking distance from each other. Apparently MIT only has 10,000 students, and 7,000 of those are grad students, which I think means it’s a bigger achievement to be an undergrad there. Also, Cambridge/Boston has a sickening number of Starbucks (but I was reminded several times that the west coast/Washington-Oregon has waaay more), which sucks b/c Starbucks is really not my favourite (their coffee I got in the airport on Thursday was bitter and required an unnaturally high ratio of cream and sugar) and they seem to have eked out the smaller franchises and independents there. But Harvard is super fancy, as expected, but the campus has much less of a collegial feel than I expected. It was, however, painfully clear that pretty much everyone walking around Harvard Square was soaked in super saturated money water. I laughed out loud with a student who was helping at the conference expressed concern about the “cutbacks” that Harvard had to make because of the economic crisis. So don’t care! The Harvard kids will be fine – maybe they won’t have central air in their on-campus lockers or free foot massages or that new super high tech multi-media classroom, but I waste no tears for them.

And MIT is less about the class and more about “what’s the craziest building we can create barely within the confines of physical laws?” I have pictures, I’ll have to upload them to my computer and share them (but if you’re impatient, google-image search the Stata Center).

Today I had a defense for a major paper (first out of two) that I had to write for my program, and I passed! Yay! Now on to all the other work that needs to be done. So much fun.

But keep an eye out for my super exciting series coming up. I’ll try to be faithful in writing it in good time.

you make me touch your hands for stupid reasons

2009-05-05T16:07:00.002-04:00

Thanks, Lisa. Screw the hipsters. Emo is what I says it is.

Emo playlist

2009-04-22T12:42:00.004-04:00

Recently emo has been coming back to me. I may have encountered much of the genre in high school, but it has that undeniable junior high quality to it. Its the kind of music that gives you free license to feel sorry for yourself for whatever real or ridiculous problems you're having, and it makes me feel better to feed that completely self-involved part of myself. If you're not in the mood for it, it can come off at totally pretentious and juvenille, but like I said, jr. high. There's even new stuff these days that maintians the late 90's/early 2000's emo tinge (yes yes, I know it started in the 80's, but then we just called it Punk), and it takes me back. I feel like a lot of music is reminding me of my younger years, before I could drive, when I was even worse at dealing with my hair, when I was too shy to talk to a clerk to find something in a store.

I remember being in my friend's basement at her 15th birthday party and someone had a mix tape that had 'What's my Age Again?' that we kept rewinding and replaying... that's such an awesome song. One line is "nobody likes you when you're 23", and last year I took special note to that sentiment being in the midst of 23-ness. But I'm not sure I acted in the same manner as the blink boys at that age.

Anyway, a small sampling... I'm sure many potential readers will wince and say "I know craploads more about emo and punk than this lame chick", and honestly I'm completely ok with that. I don't claim to be an expert or connoisseur. Its the sound and the corresponding response of the music that I'm referring to. Disagree with comments at will.

Screaming Infidelities - Dashboard C
Uploaded by s_tancredi

But what all this reminiscing really tells me is that I'm getting ooold. Some of the music I've been remembering is from 10 years ago or more. I make random 90's pop culture references to some of the students I TA, and I can't tell if they're laughing b/c they get it or b/c they feel sorry for me and the reference goes over their heads. Most people around me tell me that 24 is not very old, but when I was 17 I would have been like, dude! That is like so old! Its all relative.

Anyway...

204 extravaganza!

2009-04-13T01:39:00.000-04:00

I didn't do anything particularly fun for the 200th post, and so I'm going to do a little bit o' that now for the big 204! What a momentous number. I wonder if there's anyone out there who has read them all... I can only think of one possible candidate other than myself, but perhaps I flatter myself.
If you're happy and you know it say a swear:
The theme will be... media! Including media I like, and random internet media (which are not actually non-intersecting subsets of media, but whatever). I know that I'm not a media guru compared to many, but I do have a pretty extensive music collection. If my iPod is any indication I currently have 3283 tracks, and I haven't added about 12 albums of music I got from a friend yet. Beginning with planet Beth's iPod (yes, that's what pops up in the iTunes sidebar... I already used up "Magnum" on my cell phone...) here are the top played songs, with associated play counts:
boobs!
1. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (PC 145)
2. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service (PC 128)
3. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades - Sufjan Stevens (PC 112)
4. Optimistic - Radiohead (PC 109)
5. The Avalanche - Sufjan Stevens (PC 108)
6. ...Off By Heart - City and Colour (PC 105)
7. Mr Brightside - The Killers (PC 103)
8. Like Knives - City and Colour (PC 102)
9. Concerning the UFO Sighting - Sufjan Stevens (PC 97)
10. A Message - Coldplay (PC 96)
11. Kid A - Radiohead (PC 92)
12. Everything I Am - Kanye West (PC 90)
13. Warning Sign - Coldplay (PC 88)
14. Brand New Colony - The Postal Service (PC 87)
15. Got to Sleep (Little Man Being Erased) - Radiohead (PC 87)
hiney!
Mittens!
Ok, so clearly I'm a creature of habit. But let me explain. First off, I do love The Postal Service 'Give Up', but another reason for the multiple high play count is that this was the first album I put onto my iPod. And for a while I only had like 5 albums, and that was the one most befitting of my mood during such a time period. Clearly the overwhelming winner is Sufjan Stevens, and only from two different (yet closely related) albums. I make no apologies for Casimir Pulaski Day, and if you knew it you'd know. But again I think this has something do with the fact that 'The Avalance' and 'Illinois' are also some of the oldest albums on my iPod (relative to the iPod, of course). I assure you my whole music collection is much more diverse than these top 15. Which I will now prove with 5 songs chosen faithfully from shuffle:
"Cheese eating surrender monkey's" is a derogatory term for the French.
1. Dum Diddly - Black Eyed Peas
2. Last Flowers to the Hospital - Radiohead
3. Smile - Weezer
4. Objects of my Affection - Peter Bjorn and John
5. Minus - Beck
And it took me a second to get the fishsticks/gay fish joke... it helps if you say it outloud
I do love my alt rock... or whatever it is that I've been calling "alt rock". I remember when 'Jagged Little Pill' and alternative was all the rage. But I was in grade school, so I just pretended to know what the cool kids who were in touch with current music were talking about. Music I actually knew when I was a kid was stuff like the Beach Boys and Patsy Cline that my parent's had. Also there were some Boney M and Puff the Magic Dragon records in there somewhere. But collecting (good) music is awesome. But never ask me what a song is "about", b/c its almost guaranteed that I have no freaking idea. At best I'll have some vague notion: "Love? No wait, a breakup... political commentary?"This is because the value I place on music is the actual sound of the music rather than the lyric portion of this medium. Some people look down on others for projecting some deep interpretation onto the lyrical value of a song, only to later find out that the artist who created those lyrics had something rather shallow in mind. But when I projects, its as a true observer reappropriating the artform to my own purposes. Its how the sound makes me feel, and how I relate to the sound rather than the direct message a lyric might be trying to send. At least a lot of the time, not all of it.
You know who I've always loved? Phil Collins.
Recently I'm on a total 80's kick. And by total I mean Joy Division and The Smiths, both of which turn out to be awesome. A friend of mine, who's 80's experience is much more salient than mine said "The 80's are simply the best". Which makes me chuckle. I don't know anyone else who would utter that statement, given the general perception of that decade of music. I'm a little more up on the 90's music (does anyone remember how good Third Eye Blind was? b/c its really good) and I can actually tie those singles to my life experience. Like hearing "Hey Leonardo (she likes me for me)" and "She's so High" at Canada's Wonderland on a sweaty hot teenaged day.
I'm effectively procrastinating. Huge due date in 3 days. Going to die.
A small collection of things I've come across, such as webcomics and yoube-tube videos. The day I started writing this post seemed to be a good day for some of comics I frequent, at least at the time:
I secretly feel like an idiot when I don't get the math jokes, like I don't remember anything from my math degree anymore.
For the previously unconnected Rollover: Police reported three dozen cheerful bystanders, yet no one claims to have seen who did it.
On the PhD front, this is an issue almost every student I talk to has. My strategy used to be to avoid the use of a name or title altogether, until I got embarassingly called out by my supervisor who said his name is not 'Hi,' or 'Hello,'...
Right, so you know how I'm irrationally obsessed with Stephen Colbert (possibly on par with my irrational fear of a certain limbless animal), so I found this mega old clip from his Chicago days. I think Paul Dinello is trying to play some kind of teenager, but the squeak in his voice makes me believe.

Kinda hott, no?
Makes me laugh. C'mon, don't be so uptight.
Watch Strangers With Candy if you want to see Colbert and Dinello get their lovin' ooon.
Another kind of media (*brilliant and seamless segue*) is like newspapers! We get the Montreal Gazette for free at the gym (oddly, no one ever has been able to find it free anywhere else on campus... its only for those who, um, pay the gym membership? maybe there was a newspaper subscription somewhere in the fine print of the not-contract we didn't have to not sign). I used to get the Toronto Star for free at U of T, which is where I started doing SuDoKu. It took me a couple times to actually figure out how it works, but don't worry, I've caught up to basic human functioning by now. And U of T's weekly the newspaper had normal SuDoKu as well as a squiggly/kid one and a monster one (like 12x12 or 16x16, which takes way long, but the time is directly proportional to the feeling of satisfaction obtained).
I posted a completed hard monster sudoku on the ling lounge fridge.
Anyway, I've been planning for a long time now to write an angry letter to the Gazette editor because the SuDoKus are way to easy. Even the ones that are 'very hard' would only be so if the challenge was to do it in under 4 minutes, but I think I could still swing that. I don't even have to write little number in the corner for theirs. It makes me very angry. You can ask my office mates, they've heard the repeated rants. dailysudoku

Hugh Jackman is a beautiful man.
And my brother exposed me to The Show, which I wish I knew of at the time, but I'm a loser and am not up on the current type things. Here's one I like. theshowwithzefrank

I think I'm still missing "books". Honestly I haven't read any books recently, because linguistics articles are all the reading I get to do during the school year, but summer I usually catch up. Hmmm, what book should I tell you to read today? If you've never read Dickens, here's your chance, and if you want someone to mess with your head do up some Crime and Punishment, and if you want to feel completely desolate and hopeless read A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, and if you want a crazy book with some humour but an underlying message that is serious and penetrating read Slaughterhouse V, and if you want to feel like shooting yourself read the 200 page account of the battle of Waterloo buried in Les Miserables, and if you want to the same plot cycling around itself, each time only undergoing minor detail alternations, read Pillars of the Earth, and if you want to suffer the terrible writing of an evil "philosopher" who can justify murder by industrial ideology read Atlas Shrugged.
I don't like "The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime"... I don't understand the kid's problem with synonyms...
But if you just want to read a really good book read Lord of the Rings. That's right, I said it.
You know Samwise is the real hero. And that Pippin's accent is way sexy.
Happy 204. If you take out the "0" that's how old I be.

"Talk about your gigantic time-wasters"

2009-03-17T18:48:00.004-04:00

Anyone wanna play frisbee? Lets run around in the park and not do work. Yay!

Also, I could really go for a mango based smoothie. And another 6 week backpacking trip. I'm totally in touch with reality.

I wore my green hoodie today. SC is irish so this counts as fake holiday particip-action.

Hal Johnson and Joanne Macleod. Oh wait, that's Bodybreak.

Today I am not a Linguist

2009-03-03T22:33:00.000-05:00

It goes up and it goes down. I find that at least once a semester (since probably 2nd year) I have to console myself with the most comforting thought of dropping out. Now those of you who are caring and kindhearted people, fret not! Such thoughts never materialize, and in fact I stay in school until the end of all time. Its weird b/c yesterday and Sunday I actually thought “I’m in a really good mood.” Granted I was hella tired, but I spent Sunday walking around in the sunshine on the dry streets of Toronto. I honestly had to remind myself that it was not some kind of summer/spring hybrid day, although I felt like it was (between snow drifts piled into alleys) and that made me happy. Part of what brought on this contentment was reading week, where I got one of my rare releases from my life of academia to roam where the normal people roam, and to eat the normal people food. And to watch TV on a TV. The not doing work every day thing is sticking to me right now, so being back in the haze and craziness is not sitting well. Also I’ve had a few rejections come my way recently, which is part of the fully disclosed raw deal I agreed to, but still sucks. So today I feel more sad, but you know “sad is happy for deep people.” Aligning with this mood I’ve decided to watch Gattaca, which I love so much. It’s brilliant, and the last scene is just beautiful. LOVE. I’m just sorry Ethan Hawke is a jerk in real life. But pretend its 1997 and all we really care about is Gattaca and the geeky roommate from Dead Poets Society. We’ll let him off this time.

I also came across Warning Sign by Coldplay on my iPod. It’s probably still my favourite song of theirs, and it makes me sad too. And when you’re in that kind of still, quiet, sad-like state, you want things that will feed the swirl of the paradoxical stillness to let it sink deeper so that you are in fact even happier in eddying sad. Ya know? Radiohead is good for that too. If it weren’t cold outside I might have gone for a slow walk under the winter trees by the damped sounds from the nearby ice rink. But it is cold, and I am tired. I could have fallen asleep in class today, which could have something to do with the lights being off for the power point, but also because I haven’t been giving the effort to care about classes recently. But don’t tell my prof, he’s a good guy who’s passionate about what he does.

Now why would I tell you all of this… to satiate myself, to feed my own self-evaluation as someone who is insightful and entertaining. Usually my amusement factor comes from me being a dork and watching to see if you laugh while attempting to maintain a straight face. It’s funny when you make fun of yourself, but not in a depressing “I clearly have low self-esteem way”, more of a “I don’t give a crap what you think of me” delivery.

I never understood those people who, in their mid 20’s, say moron things like “this is the way I will be, I’m not going to change now.” That’s total bull and you all know it. I’m a different person every year, perhaps even every month. In some ways I’m more clam, able to speak to store clerks in a non-frighteningly awkward manner, but in other ways I’m more of a freak out (although I’ve come to terms with the bus) and get hyper before I TA and have to resist the urge to do cartwheels down the aisle. But I change everyday, you change everyday. That means we never have an excuse saying we can’t change, because we do. Don’t be a wuss.

If you haven’t seen Gattaca, you should. And if you think you’re too cool to admit to liking Coldplay, you’re not, you’re too lame. And if you take yourself too seriously, trust me, no one else does. Go find and eat some Easter candy, get a roll-up the rim coffee from Timmy Ho Ho’s and try to remember the last time you gave Ethan Hawke a thought. I bet it involved “Reality Bites”.

Superman: Senior Year!

2009-01-31T13:55:00.003-05:00

Hey folks. It’s been a long long time. Many reasons for that, but I’m sure you won’t be convinced by any of them.

The biggest news is that I now have a niece where I had no niece before. Her name is Anna, and all test results say that she’s perfect in every way.

Ain’t they sweet? Finnan is clearly the protective and supportive big brother so far. I can’t wait till the sibling torture begins. So that is very good news.

Yes, as for the title, I used to watch Smallville (which may appear in old posts, I don’t remember). Tom Welling is really hot, and a little bit o’ sci fi/superhero is good for you. Makes you believe and in magic. (“Hey Oprah, wanna see a maaagic trick?”) Anyway, I bring this up because Smallville is still going. They’re in season 8, so with my useful science degree I did a little math. Season one involved freshman superboy (as many hopeful teen shows do – wanna get the most high school out of their main character). 8 years later I deduce that Clark should be rearing up for college graduation from good old Kansas A&M, or some other believable fake school name. I don’t watch the show anymore, as I age my enjoyment in/tolerance for cheese-corn decreases. But I still love the theme-song:

Maybe a recap on Christmas. I was in the Sound for about 3 weeks, but the first week was all work. I did field work at the Cape, which is always awesome to do, it’s so neat to talk to the native elders at the reserve, they have such great stories and the more I talk to them, the more I understand. They’re really nice people, constantly working for the good of their community. And then I had a paper due so that was some more work after that. But then it was Christmas.

My mom gave me a rice cooker, which is absolutely and totally magic (maybe magic is the theme of my post!). I will tell you why it’s magic. For one you just dump rice and water in it and it makes you rice (who knew!). For another, it knows when the rice is done! Ok, so this is amazing because you can have different amounts, different kinds of rice, and it just knows! The brown rice takes longer than the white rice, but the all knowing power of the rice cooker takes care of that. I seriously do not know how it works. There are no sensors inside where the rice is, and it can’t be a change in weight measurement. But I may have figured it out. There’s a little green man that no one but the rice cooker can see (like in the Flinstones) that flies into the pot and checks the rice and tells the cooker to shut off when its done. I told you, magic.

Christmas weather kinda sucked. We had a bunch of snow storms in a row, and then it rained and everything melted. The park was completely flooded and there was a bridge from the path into a lake of water.

Since I’ve been back at school it has been crazy busy, and I’m not exaggerating. I’m taking a couple classes, TAing one, applying to 6 conferences, doing a proceedings paper, and I’m supposed to be working on my big research paper due in April. I think things will calm down slightly now, but that will only be for a short time.

Another fun fact is that I got a really bad cold right before Christmas, and then I was sick a gain a week ago. But that gave me a good excuse to buy Ben & Jerry’s, ya’know, to soothe the throat and all. Although I think they should have a Cookie-dough/screw-the-chocolate-chip ice cream flavour. Mmmmmm, cookie dough.

Right on. Well, that’s it for today.

200th Post!

2008-11-25T12:19:00.003-05:00

Maybe I'll do something special for 204.

Finally, its all coming together.

Booty Quake

2008-11-21T14:54:00.006-05:00

- Thrust - Booty Quake - Thrust

Marie Curie sure is a good dancer!

George Michael - Faith
Uploaded by zocomoro

Did you notice the volume of butt closeups? Man, the 80's sure was a corny time.

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot

2008-11-16T13:01:00.014-05:00

This is a kind of shout out to my brother, but he knew this was coming anyway. Pretend, for like 7 seconds (more or less dependent on how fast you read) that it is still November 5th. And I give you this:

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up the King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Ok, so maybe a little longer than 7 seconds on average. To be honest, the only reason I know anything about Guy Fawkes is because of V for Vendetta which, because of its close kinship to the Matrix, I totally love. There's a certain kind of movie/story that I get really excited about, and I would label that type epic (although I don't know if the literature people, who actually know what they're talking about, would argue with me). But not just epic, epic with hard core action and crazy surreal (surreal? I'll run with it) concepts woven deep into the plot. Anyway, if you haven't seen V for Vendetta or the Matrix, then we can't be friends. Call me when you've caught up on your awesome movies from several years ago. Please note that when I say "The Matrix" I'm refering to the "The Matrix" and not necessarily "The Matrix trilogy". The first one is by far the best, and people have varying opinion on Reloaded and Revolutions, but I don't want to get into that today.

Ok, now for a few more seconds, we'll head back to Tuesday, which was Remeberance Day (au champs d'honneur les coquliqots sont parseme de lot en lot -- really bad spelling, I'm sure). I like to wear a poppy to represent for rememberance, but this year I could not find one anywhere. I didn't see any at the cash counter at any stores, I didn't run into any veterans with the boxes of them on the street, I had no access to the little plastic/velveteen flowers. I usually lose them, too, in years past when I have gotten my hands on the poppies, always before Rememberance Day so I look like a terrible ignoramous who has no respect for the sacrifices of previous generations. But its not true! I try, oh how I try. So this year, on November 10th, I drew myself a cute little paper poppy and pinned it to my coat. From far away (like 27 metres or so) you totally can't tell that its just one that I made. I made the middle part green, b/c they all used to have little green centre parts, but then several years ago they changed it to black for some reason. Is it more botanically acurate? I'm not up on my poppies, at least not my non-opium ones. That was a joke. It is appropriate to chuckle/groan at this point.

So today my back really hurts, I'm not entirely sure what I did, but its difficult to get up and down, pick up things off the floor, not wince and slight, normal movements, etc. My dad told me to get some Robaxacet to de-knotify the muscles, so if I can actually make it to the Pharmaprix or the Jean Coutu then I'll try that out. You know the marionettes for Robaxacet? Apparently this is the original commercial, before they sold out and started doing it CG style.

Wow, school keeps me really busy. Well "school", it more like school/my full-time job. When I cross the border they're like "are you coming here for personal or business reasons?" And I'm like "Business." They're all like "What do you do?" And I say "I'm a PhD student in Linguistics, I'm going to present a paper at a conference." So then they're like "So its really for study, not business." And them I'm all "But my school is my business (and besides, the only options provided were 'personal' and 'business', so I didn't have much choice)."

Did I tell you about how I keep on getting chosen for random survey/searches by the American customs? Back when I was in Ottawa and flying to Santa Barbara for a conference, chich at the metal detector asked "Can I do a random search on you?" And its not like you can really say no, because then its suspicious and you end up getting tazered. So I give an enthusiastic "Sure!" Unfortunately, the customs guy is like 3.7 m from security in the American part of the Ottawa airport, so when I get over to him after getting a hand metal detector grazed over my entire body and having to unpack and repack all my luggage he says "They sure were taking an interest in you over there" implying that I was indeed suspicious and dangers to "Homeland security" (I hate that term, its so brainwash-y). I said "Dude-man, I was just a random search." And then it happened again when I went to Minnesota a few weeks ago. Guy comes over and pegs me for a "survey". I'm not sure what the Americans are looking for, but aparently blonde Canadian grad students are a big concern. Me and my carry on of books on linguistics are very suspicious. Survey-man tries to make small talk with me, which I find very awkward b/c I always feel like I have to be so serious and careful when going through customs. And again he asks me what I do, so I have to say linguistics, and people always think they know what linguistics is and then start explaining it to me. As if I didn't now. So I laugh and smile and try shrug off my threatening german milk-maid persona so that he'll let me board my flight. I wonder if they choose me b/c they know it will be easy, and they just need to fill their quota for random searches.

Anyway, I do love Canada, and I love living in Canada, but I think in about 3 or 4 years time I'm going to have to break out of the Canadian bubble and actually live somewhere else. This is part of the transient in me. Sure, I travel and have been different places around the world, but nowhere I've actually lived.

Perhaps I've babbled on long enough. I think I'm going to look up some quasi-relevant pictures and tack them into the post in the hopes of keep you, the readers, interested.

Galatians 5:12

2008-11-09T22:22:00.003-05:00

Look it up.

Teehee. 30 rock.

"Sarcasm isn't a quirk. It's a skill." This was me, this summer, in response to my friends' observation of my character. I'm so clever.

"History in the making"

2008-11-05T01:01:00.002-05:00

We were watching the election coverage and thought that it would be the perfect environment for a drinking game. Some phrases invoking shots would be "hope", "future", "change", "bless", and the number one inebriation inducing utterance, "history in the making" (and perhaps shortly after the results, "history made"). Its all so very cliche in the reporting, and Peter Mansbridge had quite a few flubs on CBC this evening. He said something to the effect of "and that's another point in Barak's O'column, sorry, Obama's column." I thought it was funny. Also there was this old reporter man in Washington DC saying (paraphrased, except for key phrase) "Students are gathering outside the Whitehouse for a demonstration, they have gotten on the text-messaging machines to inform one another of the event..." We couldn't stop laughing at that one.

Jokes aside, I am so happy that Obama won. Maybe McCain is not the worst guy ever (clearly better than Bush, because to be worse would literally be breaking world records -- the Bush approval rating is now 20%, and they already reported it as a record low when it was 35%), but you want to vote for the BEST man for the job, which was so not McCain. And Palin is scary. And pretty stupid. So now she can go back to Alaska and gaze at Russia through her bay windows and deal will all those people who are suing her.

Now we have to wait for Obama to get the troops out of Iraq and invest in their own country. There was a lot of "America is the best place in the universe" stuff during the acceptance and conceeding (conceedence?) speeches, which is hella annoying, but I think the States will be less and less hated now, and get back to their status in the Clinton years. Whether that's impressive or not doesn't matter, Bush is a mass murderer and really there's nothing worse for a reputation. (and yes, that is honestly what I think of Bush).

A final piece of election reporting, I'd like to give a shout-out to a few "battleground" states. My props to Ohio, Virginia and Florida. Good on ya for not getting duped for 3 elections in a row. Specifically you, Florida. I guess with Jeb having lost his foothold, the cheating has been less rampant.

So I watched the most recent episode of the Office last week (yes, I watch it regularly now), and I couldn't help but notice that they're huge stealer copy cats, specifcally from 30 rock. Dwight walks in wearing a Cornell sweatshirt, which bunches up Andy's underwear who declares that only true Cornell men can wear such sacred sweatshirts. They battle and Andy even pretends to be a beet farmer (something that Dwight is, to my understanding) and things escalate. Now hold up, am I have a weird Matrix glich moment of deja vu? No, no I am not. I saw this last season on 30 rock. Frank comes into the writer's room one day wearing Harvard paraphanalia and Toofer freaks out, as the representative Harvard man. Eventually, Toofer starts dressing up like Frank, i.e. with baseball caps with catch phrases and ill fitting t-shirts and jeans. Thus, escalation. Direct carbon copy. In the same episode of the Office, Holly gets transferred faraway, and so her fledgling relationship with Michael is put in Jeopardy. They make plans to meet geographically between their two locations, but are disappointed to find there is nothing there but a creek. They then break up because the distance is just too hard (*sniff*). Oh wait a second! This already happened, on 30 ROCK! A full 2 episodes before the Harvard incident. Total ripoff.

I want you all to keep an eye out for primetime shows that leech directly off other main stream media and think no one will notice. I know there's a lot more of it out there, and I'm not pointing out anything original, but 30 Rock is sacred in not yet cancelled good tv. You just don't mess with that.

Day of the Dead

2008-11-01T11:47:00.001-04:00

Happy DotD everyone.

Guac-tastic

2008-10-07T10:08:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my B-day. Yes, I have now officially entered my mid-20’s at the ripe old age of 24. But seriously, if you ask like a random 15 year old they will tell you that 24 is hella old. Better yet, ask a 6 year old, and you might get a blank stare saying “Is such a thing even possible?!?” It is true, I have reached this tremendous landmark and will never be go back to the good old days of early 20’s. Depressing. Sorry.

But, what I really wanted to tell you is how AWESOME my friends are! I got emails, phone calls, cards, chocolate, a picture frame and packages and an awesome, totally fun night at the Mexican restaurant. Complete with guacamole (in a crazy heavy lava rock bowl, like the one in the picture), enchiladas, a strawberry daiquiri and a huge-mongous slice of chocolate cake with a really skinny yellow candle in it. I also got calls from my family, including a little improvised birthday song from my nephew who will be 2 in like a week and a half. SUPER CUTE!

Birthday success, now I get to go back to normal you-ain’t-so-special-today life, except from now on I have to do this as a 24 year old. Keeping in like with last year’s post, my prime factors are now 2 and 3 (2^3*3=24). I’m out of the full on prime numbers until I turn 29. But seriously, we’re not going to talk about that now.

Worth a no-effort post

2008-09-30T14:53:00.001-04:00

Prone to Obsession

2008-09-22T23:22:00.005-04:00

I am the kind of person who gets ridiculously excited sometimes, like a little kid, freaking out for some reason or another. Apparently not everyone is like this, but I don’t care, its what I’m like, and I’m the one who can see my nose from the other side that YOU will never get to see it from. I feel particularly obsessed with several things at the moment, so I’m going to list these, with a little embellished commentary.

Numba 1: Coldplay
Today I bought tickets to the Coldplay concert in Ottawa on October 20th. I’ve seen them twice in concert before – Toronto 2003 and Montreal 2005. They’re amazing, they’re so freaking good. Even if Coldplay isn’t exactly your favourite band, you’d still like them in concert b/c they put on a good show. The lights, the energy, and let’s be honest, the music can’t hurt. I really love their new album “Viva la Vida or Death and all his friends”, it’s a very happy album, which is unique for Coldplay. Many have pegged their songs as melancholy and depressing, which, let’s face it, is a sure fire way to make good music. And no, I’m not actually being sarcastic with that remark, I LOOOVE depressing music. But now, when I’m walking down the street and “Life in Technicolour” is playing on my iPod, I just feel so happy, so good. Its AMAZING.

Munber 2: Radiohead
Still in the realm of British bands, I love Ropiohead. Like blogged previously, I saw their concert here in Montreal back in August. Incredible, really incredible. There’s something almost indescribable about big live concerts (with good bands, of course), it makes you feel part of something, and you experience the music, you don’t just hear the music. Wow. I am so deep. I hope they never stop making albums, as long as Thom Yorke is avoidant and anti-social, the quality of music will never decline.

Nummer 3: Stephen Colbert

One of the early posts of this blog was dedicated to my love for Stephen Colbert. That love remains, never ending like the motion of the tide. He recently won the Emmy for comedy writing. You’d think that a man who shamelessly plugs not only his own show, but really just himself would become unbearably annoying. But for some reason, we eat up his narcissism. I still think he’s pretty attractive for a forty-something. Love.

If you need a movie suggestion, go get Strangers with Candy. Very R-rated, very strange, very very funny.

Number 4: Brad Pitt

Another forty-year-old. Come on people! He is hott! Hott with two t’s! HE’S HOTT!!! I love Snatch. This is Brad Pitt’s hottest movie ever, where he plays this Irish Gypsy bare knuckled boxer guy, and he’s got his shirt off with the tattoos. If there’s one thing he’s got, its abs. If he was completely stupid and couldn’t act at all (which perhaps is the opinion held by some) he’s still got the best abs ever. Drool. (TIFF pic.)

Bummer 5: Adrien Brody

There’s a new movie coming out next month “The Brother’s Bloom”. Its another Wes Anderson flick, but the real reason I want to see it is Mr. Brody. This man is gorgeous. Yes yes, many have been surprised by my assessment of this lanky man, but look at his face. The dark brown eyes, the crooked nose – gorgeous. And there is no arguing that he can act. I mean he won the Oscar for Best Actor when he was 29, the youngest person to win this. Every time I see a movie that he’s in, my obsession is refreshed and I search imdb again seeing what new projects are coming out. I just can’t get enough (there’s something about you….. Name that lyric!).

Noomber 6: Arrested Development & 30 Rock
In a way, 30 Rock has been the replacement for AD since its been canceled. They share certain features, but remain unique. I think AD will never be equaled, but 30 Rock is its whole own thing too. I can’t wait for the new episodes to come out. I’ve seen every episode of AD at least 5 times, and every released episode of 30 Rock probably 3 times. I’ve mentioned before that it takes a bit for me to get into a new show, thus the tendency to rewatch things I know I like.

Numma 7: David Tennant

I know I’m a lot of things. You’ve probably tagged me as a nerd, as many of my so-called friends have tagged me. They pull out some logic about me be a grad student, and only nerds would do that, but whatever. Anyway, in 2nd year, which was my first year at U of T, my friend Mich got me to watching Doctor Who – the new season started by the BBC in 2005. I actually really like the show, especially that first new season with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. If you think its just a low budget sci fi show then I cannot help to see past your snobbishness to the core entertainment of the show. Anyway, on to the obsession part, the 2nd through 4th seasons feature David Tennant as the Doctor. Although these seasons don’t really match up with the one that directly preceded them, DT is sexy. Also, even though he fakes the British accent on the show, his natural Scottish accent (I am partial to Scots, for obvious reasons) is really hot.

Enough with the numbering. I get excited about and obsessed with things all the time. One such instance is Tolkien. I read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings when I was a teenager, before the movies came out. When you read a good book, you want to get to the end to find out what happens, but its so sad when it actually ends. The movies are fine, but it’s the books that really do it for me. I had a similar experience before then when reading the Chronicles of Narnia, which is also superb.

I think my excitement and obsession comes from the high you get from feeling a part of something big or exceptional. Although past my formative years, my imagination is still quite impressive and so I can imagine myself in association to these people and things that make one feel a part of something big and famous and exciting. My life is way more exciting than it actually is.

On that note, Samurai Jack:

2008-09-18T19:57:00.005-04:00

I'm a little tired right now. I've started TAing an intro linguistics class this semester, and it makes me get up earlier on Thursdays than I do on most of the other days of the week. I'm not convinced that I'm a good teacher as of yet, I don't have the intuition for it. I go over the problem sets thoroughly, try to make sure everyone understands, but I don't get a ton of questions or dissent. That might be more interesting. I'm trying to keep in mind what it was like for me as a student back in the day (i.e. 2 years ago) and the things you always sit there thinking about the TA, like, "why do they always do this?", "Do they realize that they got a chalk line across their butt when they leaned against the board?" and "could she have any worse of a lisp?" Now I don't have a lisp, and have been able to use my fluent English in the class, but I have been talking ridiculously fast. I guess it must be because I'm nervous, and I try to slow myself down, but that only takes me from really fast to slightly less really fast. I'm hoping as time goes on I'll get the hang of this teaching thing. Its not terrible now, the kids aren't mean or rude or anything like that, some of them are kind of sweet at always say "bye" at the end of the conference. But most of them are so little, as little as my little brother. I shouldn't say to much about this, b/c this was me, 6 years ago. I was also 17 when I started university, so they're no younger than I was. But they were born in 1990. Shiver.

Other things, interesting things, some-things..... hmm.

So, things happen, sometimes I witness them. Sometimes I even participate in them. Often I walk to school. After about 25 minutes of this type of walking, I usually arrive at the Linguistics building, get out my keys and enter my office. I check my email fanatically. Seriously, send me something, its like a beautiful, wonderful, otherworldly drug. Other times I read. Articles, computer screen, emails. My eyes, they are dying in the reading. The tiny letters, the big letters, the 100 time photocopied letters, the symbols among the letters, the diagrams and useless ramble within the letters. My eyes, oh gosh my eyes. They are dissolving down into little pools of bluish gray pixie dust. Out over my lids, onto my cheeks, like tears, but not tears. More like pollutant sludge, leaving a vacant, colourless hole where my eyes used to be.
Too much?

Continuation of the Gilmore Girls discussion. I actually like Jess. I know, he doesn't always do right by Rory or Luke, but he's one of those rough exterior-heart of gold types, who is secretly a genius. My major qualm with Jess is that he appears very short on the show. I looked up Milo on imdb and he's listed as 5 foot 9, so I am taller than he is, but only by a little bit. And yes, Paris deserves her recognition. She's crazy insane and intense, but sometimes you feel sorry for her. Her parents don't seem to care about her, so we can't blame her for too much of her lack of socialization. Also I feel the need to defend her since my lovely friends (sarcastic tone inserted) decided that if I were any GG's character, I would be Paris. I'll try to construe it in my mind somehow to make it a compliment, but my hair is curly, and I am waaaay taller than Paris is. Just so you know that we're no so similar.

I've been watching Project Runway, and I'm a little confused. The whole goal of PR is to get to Bryant Park at the end of show and do the whole official runway show. It was my understanding that the fashion week shenanigans occur in February, or some such wintry month, but this season started in July, and the final show has already happened (although not aired). Maybe its a different, summer/fall fashion week. At first I thought Kenley was cute, but now she's just crazy psycho attitude teenager type. I think Leanne will win.

As a guilty pleasure I've also been watching the new "cycle" of ANTM. I hate this show more and more every second I watch it. Tyra is so ridiculous and retarded. I can't even tell you how much she annoys me. Acts like the freaking guru of all things fashion and worthwhile in life.

Tired still. Peanut butter? No, that was yesterday. I wish I had some smartfood. It think I will forgo these and just get some fruit juice. I do have microwave popcorn. Not the same. Lacks the white cheddar powder. I miss the pesto from Cinque Terre, it was unbelieveably good, no exaggeration, seriousness.

Why I Love/Hate the Gilmore Girls

2008-09-11T20:33:00.003-04:00

I started watching the Gilmore Girls (henceforth GG) during the good old days at U of T. Actually, I don’t even think I touched the show until 4^th year when I needed new shows to watch since DC++ allowed all students in the know to watch entire series, in sequence. I had seen all the Smallville episodes, and various other shows I watched (it actually takes a lot for me to get into a show), so next came GG. I had previously trashed talked the brown-haired, blue-eyes, since it is one of those girl shows, but now I’m fairly sure I have seen every episode, possibly only missing a couple from the terrible 7^th and final season.

I thought I’d chronicle some of my feelings about the GG’s. Yes, sometimes I do love them, and enjoy the distraction they provide from my own non-Connecticut life, but so so often I hate hate hate them.

Love – I love how hot and tall Dean is.

Hate – I hate Logan the jag and his half open eyes.

Love – I love that Lorelai and Luke are meant to be together.

Hate – I hate that the show clearly complicates their relationship in ridiculous ways just to let the series continue. I mean, long lost 12 year old love child? I know April is supposed to be a genius, but could she talk through her nose any more forcibly?

(Note: It may be the case that you will only follow this post if you too Love/Hate the Gilmore Girls)

Love – Kirk. What more could you ask for in outlandish comic relief? Naked running night terrors, driving through buildings, plummeting to earth from a plane, recording himself in a practice date, leaving rotting eggs in the town square, and on and on it goes. I wonder what the actor is like as a real guy. There’s no way he’s normal, no one acts that well.

Hate – Taylor. I know he’s some kind of plot-moving-forward character, but he never does anything new. It’s the same annoying crap every time. NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK, TAYLOR. GET A FREAKING LIFE.

Love – Lorelai more than Rory.

Hate – Rory more than Lorelai.

Love – Lane’s blue rainbow shoulder sweater.

Hate – That Lorelai expects everyone to do everything she asks. She torments people until they give in. Its like that “pretty girl” syndrome, where no one ever says no to them, so they think they can do whatever the hell they want.

Love – Rory’s short hair in season….. 3? 4?

Hate – The stupid puffy shoulder, short sleeved jackets that Rory wears in EVERY episode of season 7.

Hate – How bad an actress Emily (grandma G) is. Also those weird, rectangular jackets she wears. She allegedly has impeccable taste, but all I can see is shoulder pads, floral print curtains and poufy hair.

Hate – Pretty much all the rich people portrayed on the show. Even the endearing ones.

I think the thing I hate most about the show is how nothing bad ever happens to Rory, and how everyone around her can’t stop telling her how perfect she is. The worst thing that ever happens is that she steals a yacht and decides to drop out of Yale. This doesn’t even count as “something bad happening to her”, since she does it completely to herself. I’m not going to feel sorry for her because she’s not sure what her identity is anymore. Everything always falls into place – she gets into Chilton, she’s class vice president, valedictorian, gets into Harvard, Princeton and Yale, becomes editor of the Yale Daily News and has various other achievements. The second “worst” thing that happens to her is that she doesn't get the job at the New York Times, oh no! BUT, this misfortune lasts for like an episode until she gets a killer job as a journalist for a magazine following the presidential race. She’s so whiny and selfish, and tramples on many a boy, including Dean who’s nothing but hot. Everyone tells her how pretty she is, how crazy intelligent she is, how nice she is (although its very clear that she’s the worst kind of nice, the nice that isn’t really nice at all but mean and spiteful without realizing it). There’s so many other things I hate about Rory, especially post 4^rd season Rory (when she becomes a homewrecker), but its making me angry just thinking about it so I think I should cut myself off here.

Lorelai in comparison to her daughter is a saint. But she needs to get it together. Once you’re 40 you should be able to solve your problems without throwing temper tantrums and blaming it all on your parents.

What are your thoughts on GG? Maybe you Love/HATE it more than I do.

My butt looks great in these jeans

2008-08-28T22:20:00.006-04:00

I love my Silvers. Anyway, that’s not really what I’m going to write about. Wait I forgot what I was going to write about. Its worth it to spend money on jeans, b/c if you’re like me you wear them until they die a slow, horrible, holey death. I may have a bit of a g’donk g’donk, doesn’t mean it can’t look good.

Classes start next week, which is pretty crazy since I’m still not done the work I was supposed to finish this summer. Some of it is done, so I’m not a total slacker.

My new favourite Montréal coffee place is Java U. I didn’t go to it much last year b/c I thought that a place with such a corny name couldn’t be that good. But now I have seen the light, also there’s one close to me in my new neighbourhood. Their coffee is really good, and their lattes are incredible. Much better than Café Depot, even better than Second Cup and Starbucks. I think there will be many an article read at Java U this year.

Party at my house this Saturday. If you live in Montréal you should totally come.

Ok, I forgot everything interesting I could have possibly written.

Europe Pictures

Florence: Accademia, home of the original David. So David here, carved my Michelangelo, is a solid slab of concrete that Mr. Sculptor man found in a church yard or something like that. He's like 12 feet tall or more. I had half a mind to post the PG picture of him I have (waist up), but I'm sure you're art appreciating people. It really is a masterpiece. I couldn't stop staring at it.

Monaco: Left to right its Christian, Meghan, Roz and Ryan. I, of course, am taking the picture. This is just outside the huge, expensive, fancy casino.

Salzburg: This is at the monk brewery, Augustiner, which is supposed to be the best beer in Austria. This shot if of Roz's mug to show that she drank a full half pint! I had to drink 2 pints because Meghan was feeling sick, and isn't that much of a beer person anyway so I drank mine and hers.

Paris: As mentioned in the previous post, these are the pictures of us outside Notre Dame. Fig 1, self portrait. I think its a hilarious photo, all our faces are doing different things.

Fig 2, a nice picture taken by a nice boy.

Where have all the cute boys gone? Long time passing…

2008-08-16T22:29:00.000-04:00

I suggest you don't miss the Radiohead post, below.

As promised, here’s some discussion of my time in Europe. I’ve lived in several different places across Canada, each place begging the questions, “Where are all the cute boys?” They seem to be nowhere. They weren’t in Vancouver, they’re all nerds in Toronto, they’re definitely not in Ottawa. This mystery continues from sea to shining sea, and maybe I’ve missed the cute boy deposits in North America, but I don’t think so. Now, I have my answer, and an answer for you, single ladies o the new world, they are in Europe. They’re much cheekier there too.

It all begins in Italy. My friends were convinced that I was getting hit on the most in Rome, I’m not sure what trip they were on. The only incidence I remember pertaining to such a ridiculous conclusion was a waiter calling me “bella” or something generic like that, which absolutely doesn’t count since he was clearly just trying to get us to spend money at the restaurant. I don’t remember what else went on there. In Florence one of my friends got a “Hey, baby face!” which is clearly hilarious, and also a “Ask for me, get a free drink.” We don’t know where we were supposed to ask for “me”, though. Florence also had cute gelato guy, really adorable, and gave us bonus dollops of gelato of a random flavour. Moving up from boys to men, the proprietor/waiter dude at the fancy restaurant we went to for a multi-course lunch was quite saucy and flirty. He asked us about Canada, made these little faces at us, made us giggle sickeningly. Not that we’re complaining.

In Venice there were these 2 Argentinean guys who were eating at the table next to ours, and were obviously drunk. They asked me what nationality of guy was my favourite, I said I didn’t have one, but I was tempted to say “definitely not Argentinean.” Then one of the dudes started talking in a southern American accent and said he could be anyone. So I piped up and said, “Hey, can you be Canadian?” To which I got the reply, “I can if you marry me!” Yeah, real winners there.

Then Germany. In Munich me, my two friends, plus an extra (German) friend had all gotten ice cream and were sitting under a monument infront of city hall (big square, Glockenspiel, etc.). First of all, this random guy asked if we could take a picture of him and the fancy city hall building, which I did b/c it’s the give and take code among tourists, you see. Then he came back over for like half a second, snapped a picture of the 4 of us, smiled, waved, and ran off. Weird, but harmless. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves surrounded by crowd of guys standing around us, asking us why we were sitting on the ground. I don’t see why it was so confusing for them, we needed a place to sit and enjoy our ice cream, the ground was basically the only option since there were no free range chairs around for us. One of the guys was Canadian, with whom we had a pleasant and civil conversation. This dude from Saxony (I really think he was part vampire from Transylvania) kept asking us to go with their group to a beer hole (I think that’s what they’re called) and tried to be “charming” – shoot and a miss. And there was this other loud, random guy who came over every 10 minutes or so and said “Hello, get up, please, and follow me!” We ignored him.

In Paris there were more random acts of flirting in the streets. These things are odd for a North American, the forwardness, the interaction with people passing on the sidewalk… we just don’t do it up like Europeans do. Guy on the street made this really long kissing noise at one of my friends. Oooh, but we did meet a really nice guy at Notre Dame (I think he was American, North American at any rate). He saw us trying to take a picture of ourselves with the church, at which we were unsuccessful, resulting in a hilarious self-photo, and offered to take one for us. We took one for him in return. He said the photographic technique of the one we took was better, but that the one of us was prettier, I think b/c of the subject matter. So he managed to flatter us doubly, and of course we liked him. There were many others, but I can’t remember the anecdotes right now. Meghan has all these things catalogued. There were a lot of up-downs received by my two hott friends.

This brings me back to my encounters with flirtatious males in my own country. You see, I don’t get this kind of attention from guys my age, or ones that might be cute or friendly, or anything not creepy. No no no, I always get the weird, creepy old guys making inappropriate comments in my direction. Like the guy who followed me down Yonge street for like 6 blocks and only started talking to me after about 3 blocks. No, sir, I will not tell you where I’m going or where I live. I’ve seen the last 3 minutes of Care Bears and I know a little better than that! And just yesterday, I’m riding my bike to Canadian Tire and this cab driver, waiting at a light beside me starts yelling, “Sophie! Sophie!” as if it were my name. I ignore him, so he changes it up to “Isabelle!” Who just tries random names? Then it was “Ma belle!” and I covertly shake my head, and he says, “Ok bye!” a few times, until finally the light changes and I gun it out of there. Reminds me of going out clubbing in T dot for one of my friends birthday, and who tries to pick me up? It’s the 45 year old man who just walked in and decides to tell me “You’re absolutely gorgeous.”

These are just a few of the wonderful moments I have collected. And no, I do not feel flattered by these ones, where creepy old guys find me approachable enough to violate my personal space. I’m not sure what it says about me that I don’t get friendly comments from guys my own age, but I shouldn’t say that b/c the random lines by weirdos in the street is not every girls favourite thing, even if dude is age appropriate.

Anyway, I should move to Europe. Do me a solid for vanity.

I love Rope-iohead.

2008-08-14T21:53:00.002-04:00

It was a week ago, and I'm very slow on the uptake, but the Radiohead concert was superbly amazing. Really. There wasn't a lot of band/audience interaction, like "Hello Montreal!" type chatter, but what can you say. We love Thom Yorke because he's just plain weird. This was my absolute favourite song of the night, the sound at the concert was ethereal, I felt like I could listen to the sound of it for decades.

Reckoner

It was raining like a mofo when we got to Parc Jean Drapeau, we were soaked, the grounds were really muddy. However, I am a supreme genius, lord over all the intellectuals, and actually brought a garbage bag which allowed me and my friends to sit down. Even miserable rain couldn't ruin a Radiohead concert, it would have to be a hurricane to make me leave.

In Montreal they have these firework competitions, which begin at about 10pm and go until 10:30. It also happens to be the case that the site of the fireworks and that of the concert are right next to each other. So, Faust Arp is a soft, beautiful song off in Rainbows...

Thom Yorke cracks up part way into it b/c of the fireworks, made some comment during the night that fireworks are most appropriate at the end of something. It was a nice moment.

Anyway, I was caked with mud for about 37 hours after that, totally worth it. I wish I went to more concerts, and I guess I could go to smaller more local ones. But there's something about those big events with the really intricate light shows that gives you this feeling you can't get when its just the music that's preforming. I've never seen Ropeiohead before, and I will see them every chance I get after this. I'm not that far behind, I do have all their albums.

Remember the memories

2008-08-01T10:36:00.004-04:00

Now that I have about 1000 new photos, I was tempted to scroll through some of the other pics that made it on to this computer. I feel like I've posted these particular pictures before, but I can't confirm that. Anyway, its probably my favourite series of photos of all time.

Oh, LR. I love you guys so much. This is an effective shout out.

Maybe some of you are wondering, "Hey? Didn't chick just go away on a huge trip for which she only posted like 2 times?" Maybe not, maybe you're wondering, "Do they still make those spicy Cheetos?" Either way, I think I'll try and do some posts about Europe, trying to remember all the crazy antics that went on in certain places. I can't really tell you about the whole trip all at once since we went to so many places.

Tada

2008-07-30T14:15:00.002-04:00

I have uploaded pictures to my brand new Picasa Web Album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/u5875869987

I tried to use Flickr, but it kept organizing things backwards and had too many restrictions. So google it is, fits with blogger I suppose.

We're number 2!

2008-07-29T23:23:00.003-04:00

Best. Fireworks. EVER.

2008-07-27T08:26:00.000-04:00

Here we go:

Roma

Pompeii

Firenze (i.e. Florence)

Pisa

Cinque Terre (I can do this… Riomaggiore, Manorola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterroso)

Nice

Monaco/Monte Carlo

Venezia (i.e. Venice, via Padova)

Innsbruck

Salzburg

Munchen (i.e. Munich)

Paris

Versailles

Amsterdam

London

So these are all the places I went on my trip. I tried to put them up there with their actual names, weird English variations in i.e. parentheses. I cannot for the life of me figure out why we say “Florence” when its “Firenze”.

Right, so I’m back in Montreal, where there’s a whirlwind of things to do, send me good wishes to get it all done. I’m moving today, but my new roommate is very kind and is helping me so it should be fine.

To the post title. When I started formulating this post in my mind, which must have been 2 weeks ago now, it had the title “Worse. Parade. Ever.” On July 14^th, which was Meghan’s birthday (a traveling companion, for those out of the know), but it was also Bastille day and we were in Paris, the best place to celebrate France as a country. The day started very early with us walking downtown to the parade, which we though started at 8:30 but really started at 10:30, and so we were standing in a huge crowd of people until noon. Long time. The problem with the parade was that you’d normally expect marching, but there was this ridiculous “inspecting of the troops” which takes for frickin ever and parts of the “parade” didn’t happen where we were standing, although some things did. And all the marching, once we finally got to it (we weren’t sure if the French got the whole point of marching in a parade, but they do, just much delayed) it was fine, all the different sorts of troops and stuff. The coolest thing was that the aircrafts flew over and the first 3 planes spat out red blue and white cloud and made a French flag in the sky. Also, at the end some paratroopers dropped out of the sky.

Ooh, more importantly, I fell in love at the parade. There was this gendarme who was incredible GORGEOUS, and packing heat. I kept staring at him, I wish I had the nerve to take a picture of him, or whistle at him, or something, but you don’t want to be too daring around a bunch of guys with guns. But seriously, in love.

Anyway, back to the fireworks, we watched the fireworks from the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, and they were the best I have ever seen. Last year I saw the Canada Day fireworks in Ottawa, which are most likely the best for Canada, but in Paris it was way better. It was really long, and the fireworks were set to music, I can’t even describe why they were so amazing. But getting on the metro after that was so insane, people were getting squished and trampled, and I got molested by this guy behind me, but we made it home safely so that’s all that matters.

Many more things to tell, but I have to finish packing my crap now. I’ll get to the pictures soon, I hope.

Mozart Balls

2008-07-07T08:03:00.006-04:00

Here are some random pictures, that I´m finally able to upload. I can´t see what they are, so I´m putting up arbitrary ones chosen from my camera´s memory card.

Rome

Venice

Innsbruck

So I´m in Austria, and everyone thinks I speak german, I guess that´s the germanic look about me. And not just people in stores, randos coming up to me on the street start spouting in German, looking directly at me and not at either of my friends. To keep life interesting, I have now almost completely lost my voice. No, I have not been screaming or shoving forks into my vocal chords, its just a cold Meghan was so kind to share with me. We´ve been telling Roz she´s next. It was really hard today in the shops, sometimes I opened my mouth and nothing came out. Sometimes weird, terrible squeaky noises. Not only can I not speak German, I can´t speak anything. Oh well.

New post. Soon.

2008-07-04T08:31:00.001-04:00

In the alps now, went to Venice. I´ll try and write an actual post soon. Is no one reading this? Or is no one commenting? Its nice to know that people remember you at home, even if all I get is a corny Hiya.

Naked people. Everywhere.

2008-06-29T15:52:00.002-04:00

Oh, zee French. Lots of topless people at the beach, there's no false sense of modesty here. We've been saying "speedos for all!" Because, seriously, the bottoms seem to be all that count, if they even do. I had a bank crisis yesterday, they froze my account after I took out some money in Florence. Even though I told them, they said they didn't know and froze my account "for my protection." It was mostly annoying to find out at random that I couldn't access my money, and I had to sit in the hot sun at a pay phone, with the grody receiver to my ear for like an hour, by far most of that time on hold. But now that is fixed, and I can breathe easy. I was concerned my pay check wouldn't get through, but its ok, and came in a surprising amount anyway. I don't know what this means.

Today we went to Monaco/Monte-Carlo, and it was way cool b/c we never even planned on going there. But its only like 20 mintues from Nice (where I am until tomorrow when we head to Venice). We met some Canadian guys the first day we got here and they came with us to Monaco. We saw the palace and the hundreds of really nice yachts, the super expensive cars, the pebble beach and the really fancy casino, which we couldn't get into b/c we weren't dressed nicely enough. I guess they don't want people losing their money there if they don't have very much to lose.

I haven't had a shower yet, and it was soooo hot today. We were dying a little bit for most of the time. I just stuck my feet in the water, but my friends went swimming. I just hate being salty when I dry off. Our hostel here is really nice, and the AC in our room works really well, so its super cold. Works for me. I felt like I had more fun things to tell you.

Oh yes, one more. We walked through this park yesterday on the way to the shore in Nice, and there was a book fair going on. I walked past this booth and there was a cardboard cutout of this author with his book "Mes Amis, Mes Amours." Then, by chance, I look slightly to the left of the cutout, and I'm like, that's totally the same guy. Apparently he was there doing a book signing. And also, I saw another poster today that said this book was now a movie. So this random author guy could actually be kind of famous, particularly on the French scale, and I saw him in the park.

Ok, I have to pack and get ready for a crazy day on the trains tomorrow. Wish us luck, we need it. Booking in advance didn't work for us... little bit stressful.

Noice, Nice

2008-06-27T11:20:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, I just got to France, we're in Nice now. Its pretty humid here and I'm totally wired and very tired. No, that is not a con tradiction. My hair is in french braided pigtails, which are awesome. I'm using Meghan's special skill while I've got her captive. When did I talk to you last? Rome?

Ok, so sorry if I repeat myself, but you'll figure it out. We went to Pompeii, and don't worry mom, we skipped Naples where the garbage fires and rioting is supposed to be going on . The train station was fine. Pompeii is just this whole ruined city dug up from under the volcano ash. We only saw a couple of plaster casts of the people who were caught in the lava, creepy but insanely cool. There's one of a dog biting at its chain trying to get away. Its crazy how they were all frozen in position, and lots for so many hundreds of years. That day was also mega hot, and I wore jeans which was as ba-ad idea. Then we went to Florence, which is very historical, with a cool marked. We saw the big huge Duomo church, which is 100 times better from the outside than the inside. We went to the Uffizi gallery, and I totally saw stuff by Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Also other famous people like Lipi. I saw the original Spring and Birth of Venus, which is actually really beautiful. It bothered me to see some of these things on postcards after because its so not the same.

We went to Accademia where the David is (Michelangelo, of course), and seriously, it was so worth the 10 euros it cost. Absolutely stellar. The pose, the muscles -- just stunning. There were replicas of David around, but the original is just so much more. Like I said before, these statues have to be seen in person for you to really get the wonder and the art. See it if you ever get the chance.

I remember in high school, at the old OS, there was this joke about "Michelangelo's Dave" , centered around Dave Hamilton. I'm sure my brother knows what I'm talking about. Tehe.

We just came out of Cinque Terre which are these 5 villages on the West Coast of Italy on the Medateranean that you can walk between. Some of the hikes are super easy, and some of them are super hard with mega steps that are not your friend in the glaring sun. I had the best pesto of my life from this little market too, I could have eaten it by the spoonfulls. I got sunburnt at the beach, even though a lot of high spf sunscreen was involved, so I'm going to try and protect my pasty pasty skin better.

I don't know what else to tell you right now. Other than I feel guilty for not doing research, but its too late for all that. I might post again soon b/c this hostel has free internet, you're just supposed to use it in small doses.

Ciao!

ROMA!

2008-06-18T13:36:00.002-04:00

First off, Bernini is amazing.

Ok, so I'm desperately trying to upload pictures to show you guys, but this computer will not register my USB thingy with my camera card in it. I already have like 200 pictures, I'm not sure if I will ever be in Rome again so I have to record when I can.

We went to the Vatican a couple days ago, saw the museums and the Sistene chapel. It was waaay smaller than I thought it would be, but the ceiling was cool, saw the super famous God reaching out to man one. Much smaller than you would expect, its just one block in a whole bunch of them. And before you get to the chapel you see a bunch of painted ceilings, which took some of the umph out of it, but still cool. We went to St. Peter's Basillica, which I'm pretty sure is my favourite thing in the world. Its so insanely huge, bigger than I ever thought it would be. And its beautiful, many sculptures, beautiful ceilings, you need to go.

Yesterday was the Colleseum, Palantion and the Roman Forum. Its weird being in a gigantic structure that's impossibly old, and that you've heard about forever. Of course everything is not is pristine condition, but its amazing the scale of it and the precision of construction. You can actually see the basilica from the ruins in the forum. Its a paradox, really. From the place where they killed early Christians you can see the centre of Roman Catholic Christendom. What an odd history Rome seems to have.

Today we went to this park and the Galleria Borghese. The galleria was way cool, many sculptures, busts, paintings. I was walking around and there were a few sculptures that really caught my attention, and this one that I stared at forever. And later I was like, who did those? Because, being the blonde that I am, I didn't actually check the first time around. They were all Bernini, who is apparently super amazing. The most amazing one was "The Rape or Presepione" (I think that's the Latin one for Persephone, Hades is the guy in it). Now, its a disturbing title, but really the emotion and the pashion and the art of it was incredible. I have a post card, but its something you need to see in person, to get the perfection of how it was crafted and see it in 3D.

We also went to the Pantheon today, which is also amazing. The oldest too, its from 31 AD, I believe. The columns are great, the perfect half sphere is also great. I appreciate geometry.

Since I have no pictures for you now, I leave you here. Hopefully the next place I get on a computer will enable my USB dealy.

Comment!

Onatrio, BC, and back to Quebec

2008-06-06T17:41:00.014-04:00

Correction: So apparently I already posted pictures from the Cape.

Hey dudes. I'm still in almost exclusive photo sharing mode. I've been to Ontario where I did field work on Ojibwe with a colleague (hehe, colleague sounds all "professional" and stuff), which was cool. This means going back to the Sound and staying at home. So I saw my family and some friends who also happened to be at home. I tried to go see Prince Caspian with my brother, but the stupid small town movie theater decided to relegate an epic and symbolic chronicle of Narnia to the drive in, only on the weekend, later than the general release date. I guess I should have taken him for ice cream instead. Anyway, here's a few pictures from the Cape:

And then I went to Vancouver Island to hang with my best friend. We went canoeing on a river that connected into the ocean and saw eagles, sea lions, little bitty jelly fish and sand-dollars.

And we also went surfing, or tried to, in Tofino. I couldn't stand up on the board for the life of me, but by the end I was getting half decent at the body boarding, which is way fun.

I love this picture.

Bear claw! And not the tasty treat...

We saw some waterfalls, did a couple of little hikes, and went horseback riding! I hadn't been on a horse since I was like 12, but I had a really nice, well-trained horse so it was all good.

Apparently I didn't get the horseback riding pictures from my friend. Oh yeah, goats on the roof!

Then I went to Vancouver (UBC) for a conference.

I have a bunch more pictures, but I'm sure you can only take so many. A week from today I'm leaving for Europe for 6 weeks. I think this will be the 2nd best summer ever! Hooray!

On Vancouver Island

2008-05-23T10:59:00.005-04:00

Hello all! (and by all I mean whoever is taking a chance by checking this blog, just to see, since I haven't posted for exactly one month)

I'm in Courtenay on the Island right now. Its pretty great, I can see a mountain with snow on the top right now. I left Toronto yesterday and had to sit in a middle seat where this jag beside decide that the world was his oyster of elbow space. Seriously, you give concessions to the person in the middle seat, you respect their usage of the arm rest, you DO NOT lean over into their space while you're flipping through a magazine! I almost flipped out at this guy, b/c I also have a cold and was incredibly exhausted. I tried several times to give the signal that he should move his freaking arm by putting my in an appropriate place on the armrest, which I will have you know was not impeding on his actual seat space, so yes I am better. But then he wouldn't move, and I really didn't want to sit there touching his arm, gross. Jerk face. So angry about that. Yes, still have a cold, still tired. I caught the bus from the airport to the ferry (praise God I got on the one that left like 4 minutes after I got my luggage) and took the ferry to Nanaimo. The water was beautifuly and it was super windy, but now I'm here and its a week of Island Fever coming up. Or something.... I don't know what I'm talking about.

I left Montreal at the beginning of May and was doing field work with a colleague in Cape Croker. I'll add some pictures.

Then I stayed in OS until I went to the T dot. I really love Montreal, but sometimes I miss Toronto a lot. They're incredibly different cities, and there's something homey about Toronto. Perhaps b/c its the place I lived in the longest since moving away from the Sound.

Next week I'm presenting at a conference in Vancouver, and I need to work on my presentation more. But that also involves listening to the tapes of field work which is an exercise in extreme patience and concentration. I'm not sure I can do it with a clogged sinus, especially since I can't hear as well and won't be able to pick up all the sounds properly.

Well, I'll try to post again soon, but I make no promises.

I went to Germany

2008-04-23T10:15:00.015-04:00

Here's some pictures. There's a lot so I hope you have high speed.

Nighttime building

Sunset

Cool ceiling in Leipzig University Library

Snail on handcrafted gate handle

Typical street

Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology
(where the conference was)

Crazy mirror elevator in my hotel
(you can kinda see me)

Bach's grave (I think.)

Gold plated church thing

Cathedral where Bach played a bunch of concerts

Hauptbanhof - Central train station

Picture out of the vandalized train window of the area outside Leipzig (its very flat)

Arial view of Leipzig

So I went to Germany for 3 days, gave a talk (which went well) and then came home to Montreal in the snow and slush. That part was depressing. I wish I spoke more German, I felt an idiot, especially since people assumed from my last name that I would speak German. If I see you in person I might tell you some anecdotes.

We're here for a good time, not a long time

2008-04-13T13:26:00.001-04:00

And its going to get a little longer.

I have lots of things to post about, lots of picture and little anecdotes (although I am a terrible story teller, so maybe the anecdotes aren't as good as I would hope). And I will get to all that, eventually. Its that stressful time of the year and I feel like crap on top of it. So when I finally get back, I'll tell you about going to the sugar shack, about Germany and about the crazy travelling-ness of my summer. Seriously, I'm going to be all over the place. But for now, I just share this comic. So so true. How many times do we succumb to such flawed logic?

Out to Away

2008-03-26T10:43:00.003-04:00

I really love being a grad student. I know I complain a lot, and get super stressed out and paranoid and everything, but really I do love it. I don't want to be doing something else right now. I love school, more specifically I love university. I like being around people who use the same crazy jargon I use, and people who are from crazy different places around the world with diverse life experiences. I love it!

As you might be able to deduce, I'm in a pretty good mood right now. I leave for Germany tomorrow, which is very exciting, but also very nerve racking. I got some euros today, so I won't have to hitchhike downtown Leipzig from the airport, that could have been very tricky with my appaling lack of German language skills.

Eeee!

Super Mega Post

2008-03-21T12:34:00.015-04:00

Good Good Friday everyone. There's something about Easter that is so much more real and down to earth compared to Christmas. Christmas is so commercialized and secularized and overblown by get-togethers and vacations. But Easter is one simple extra long weekend right before exams (at least when I was in undergrad) where I can actually focus on what the holiday is really about. Good Friday is a solemn kind of day, when you think about Christ dying on the cross. I think I like Good Friday more than Easter Sunday even though the latter is all about the swaying back and forth and shouting out "Hallelujah!" with the choir. That's fun times too, but there's something extra profound about today and what it means.

I haven't been posting so much recently. My life has become super stressful, and right now there is a lull which will last a very short time, but I will use it anyway. I hope you're not on dial-up because today is all about PICURES! (No spelling error here.) And a one, and a two, and a one two three four!

*LUNAR ECLIPSE!*

There was a total lunar eclipse a few weeks ago. This was my attempt on caputring the magical moment, but I have a very shaky hand and its difficult to get a good picture of the moon standing in the street of a light polluted city. To describe it to you instead, it looked red. That was mostly it. I didn't stay outside to watch very long because it was FREEZING cold.

*MOUNT ROYAL!*

These are taken from a lookout a little more than halfway up mount royal. Inthis picutre you can seen the Olympic park with its crazy tower. The white dome beneath is the Biodome, which we will get to in a few pictures down.

This is just a picture of the city scape. I've seen it in the summer and it looks a little more lively. I'm still not super familiar with Montreal's skyline, and if I'm way down south down town it takes me a while to figure out where I am. Its not like Toronto where all you need to see is is the CN tower or the BMO building and you're perfectly oriented. (Notice the use of oriented rather than *orientated? That's because orientated is not a word, since there's already a word for that, and its called oriented.)

*BIODOME!*

Some friends came for their March break, which of course means doing touristy things you wouldn't do otherwise. This included the Biodome, which used to be the Olympic stadium, I believe. I actually have been once before, so I think I'm all Biodome-d out, and if you come and visit, I probably won't go with you. The picture above is supposed to be of some adorable tiny monkey on the branch. You can kind of see them behind the branch. Click to make bigger.

These are some pretty pretty parrots. I think the sign said the kind of parrots whatever they were were the largest parrots in the world.

This is an alligator (or crocodile, I have no idea, did you know the Spanish word for crocodile is a text book example of metathesis?: cocodrillo) with a little buddy tortoise by its tail. The tortoise was cuddling up, inch by inch, to the alligator and I began to fear for the little guy. But I'm guessing they let the two types of animals in together b/c it was safe. The shell of the tortoise is probably to large and hard for the alligator to get through anyway.

The three above picutres were from the rainforest area of the dome. You walk in and its super humid and warm. I had issues with my camera lens fogging up.

This little treasure was in the Laurentian forest section, which is right after the rainforest. This means, you go from tropical to cold winter Canadian woodlands. I don't know what the point of having Canadian type forests in a biodome in Canada is. Anyway, there's a porcupine, just in case your dog has never tried to bite one and you're unfamiliar with the porcupine concept.

I think the bidome is probably most well known for the penguins. Here in the arctic section this little tub-a-lub just lay on the rock, and once in a while wiggled his legs and wings as if he were trying to swim. But clearly, he had to move an entire metre to make to the water where he could actually swim.

*MICROWAVE!*

I got a new microwave. My last microwave was bought in August, but it decided to short out and stop working a couple months ago. Since my friends came with a car, they were nice enough to drive me to Canadian Tire to get a new one. People are often like, "What do you need a microwave for? Don't you cook?" Well actually, I do cook, thank you very much. Do none of you know the level of difficulty involved in reheating food without a microwave? Its ridiculous. So you may not judge me for needing a microwave.

*SCHOOL/DEPARTMENT SPIRIT SWEATER!*

We got sweaters. They say "McGill Linguistics". Totally awesome.

*VIEW FROM MY WINDOW!*

Dinah recently posted the view from her window, and mine is pretty cool, so I'm sharing it.

I can see Mount Royal from my window, and when I'm falling asleep there's the Cross that lights up at night. I like it.

Have you ever read an Archie comic book? If you notice, every sentence that does not end with a question mark (or a ... I suppose) ends in an exclamation mark. I dare you to find a single sentence that ends in a period. Trust me, I've tried.

This is the end of the Super Mega Post.

Ibiza?

2008-03-19T19:46:00.000-04:00

Let me know the MIN:SEC you got to.

Happy Leap day

2008-02-29T21:55:00.003-05:00

I pity the Pirates of Penzance antics that await every child born today.

Let me try and remember some Dr. Zoidberg quotes:

Hermes: Baby needs a new pair of shoes!
Zoidberg: To hell with your spoiled baby, I need those shoes.

Woop woop woop woop woop.

I've been making fine jewelry for years, apparently.

Now open that mouth and let's have a look at that brain. No no no no no! Not that mouth!!
(This is funny because a doctor who's an expert on humans, or so we're told.)

In my experience boxes are usually empty. Or maybe with a little cheese stuck to the top, and one time pepperoni! What a day that was!
(This is funny because Dr. Zoidberg lives in crippling poverty.)

80's guy: There are sharks, and there's sheep. Sheep will be fired. Who's a sheep?
Zoidberg: Uh, which are the one's people like to hug?
80's guy: Gutsy question. You're a shark. Sharks are winners, and they don't look back, cuz they don't have necks. Necks are for sheep.

And a little video snippet, to really get the feel for our favourite crustacean.

Watch some Futurama, you'll thank me. I got hook ups if you need them.

Midnight train... well, bus

2008-02-28T23:11:00.002-05:00

Heya. What to tell, what to tell. I went to Ottawa this weekend, which speaks against previous statements found in posts below about how boring and dull the capital is. But hey, I have family there, so my excuse is that I wanted to hang out with my cousins. Which I did, and I did. We even went to the canal on Sunday. I didn't skate, in fact only my one cousin was skating, but it was nice anyway. We had beaver tails, and I had the maple syrup one which is seriously an outside only snack. When I had finished the ice beneath me had a spotty coating of maple drip off and my hands were a little sticky, but its all part of the Canadian winter experience. Or something like that.

I had Smartfood while in Ontario as well, because, as I may have mentioned before (I'm not actually sure if I have) I cannot find Smartfood in Quebec. I was craving it, and am now satisfied. But who knows for how long.

I had a dual purpose for the trip, and I spent Monday at the U of O working on some stuff for a paper since my co-author remains in Ottawa. But it was pretty nice, there's something about the linguistics department there, I just feel like I can focus. That's something I'm not getting from the McGill linguistics building, so instead I just procrastinate all the time and never get anything done. I had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant that I used to frequent -- they have the BEST veggie burgers EVER. Seriously, the best. And I saw a friend from last year there, and we chatted and had some coffee after lunch. All very civil and victorian.

I went out for a pint with a friend after all the photocopying and paper discussing was finished. By the time I got to the bus station it was 9:45 so I caught the 10 o'clock bus and got home a bit before 1 am (that factors in the walking time from the Montreal station to my house).

So, I guess its just a life/weekend update. I'm not coming up with anything funny (or at least not anything I think is funny, and you might not find this blog amusing ever anyway) or intriguing. If you know where Quebecers get their name brand white cheddar popcorn, lemme know.

Picures

2008-02-20T21:57:00.008-05:00

Finally, I've decided to show you some pictures taken with my *New* Digital *Camera*!

Here's the little man himself. The epitome of mini charmingness.

Here's my brother feeding my nephew a lemon. The face says no, but the asking for it again and again says yes.

I've been colouring. My little brother gave me pencil crayons for Christmas. I have another geometric design, but I haven't taken any professional quality photos of it yet. Look closely, you will see that the picture is sitting on a binder, carefully placed on my bed. I've got some awesome blue sheets.

On Friday night me and people I know (is it friends you call them?) went to this cultural night a U de M. There were these acrobat people who jumped over each other and did crazy balancing stuff.

This little treasure we nicknamed "The coke angel". As you can see he has a darling set of featherish wings strapped to his bare torso. Whenever he wasn't upside-down or catapulting off someone's shoulders, he was hopping with this crazy grin on his face. Coke angel.

The cultural night included a Balinese gamelan. This is some chick in a dude's costume doing the creepy Balinese dance. I maintain that its creepy because its all this small, sudden movements and the mask freaks me out.
Ok, that's it for now. I was just outside checking out the lunar eclipse. I took some pictures, but you can't really see anything. The moon looks red. I didn't stay outside to keep watching because its really amazingly cold.

Sacramende

2008-02-14T22:39:00.002-05:00

I might have some pictures in future posts. I've been colouring with the pencil crayons my little brother gave me for Christmas.

So, there were two things I wanted to talk about. Only one I remember right now, let's start with that. I was on the treadmill in the gym the other day and the TV most central to my field of vision had pro wrestling on it. I've decided its ballet for men. Really, we all know its choreographed, but the guys seriously don't even touch each other. You can see the guy getting punched throwing himself backwards on his own volition. Its not even good fake. I can't handle it. Coincidentally, the most recent episode of project runway the designers had to make ring costumes for female WWE-ers. They had to buy their material from "Spandex House". Quality all round.

What was the second thing? Not a clue. Back to how a hate presenting, I have a presentation for the PF reading group tomorrow. I'm going to shine the light of my MA thesis on them such that they may bask in its insight and be at a lost for suggestion and criticism. Maybe not quite, but we'll see how it goes. I'm guessing my phonology prof from last semester is not going to be impressed with my feature geometry defined by c-command rather than dominance. Its something I have to look more into, but it might not be as bad as it sounds.

Right, Valentines is a fake holiday. It was only minimally acceptable when we were little kids and we were forced to give cards to everyone and eat cinnamon hearts in class. But now, its a waste of flowers. And I don't really like chocolates that much either, so I can't benefit from such things. Flowers on random days, or your birthday, are nice. But for Valentines its so cliché. Don't you just think of romance and love when you think of February?

Old Fort Cheese

2008-02-06T18:13:00.000-05:00

Of all the cheeses in the world, I think old Canadian cheddar is my favourite. Sure, you can get a fancy brie, or a nice dry parmesan, even and nice melted provolone, but there's something about that unearthly orange glow that enhances the taste of the local cheese. In case you're wondering, Canada has pretty excellent cheese (we're not comparing with France or something here), in relation to certain parts of the world at least. India has pretty unimpressive cheese, and the UK is decent, but their good cheese is like the imported stuff, some of which is from Canada.

Exciting news, I get to go to Germany at the end of March. I got into the conference, which is pretty cool, so I get to go argue with the Europeans about my analysis and see if I can't convince them of some of crazy ideas. I'm also hoping to learn a little sum'n sum'n while I'm there. I've never been to for reals Europe before, only to Britland, so I'm pretty excited. I'm wondering if I might have a problem with people assuming that I speak German, though. My last name is Austrian and I look very germanic. I'm sure my North American attire will give me away somewhat, and perhaps the Canadian flag on my backpack.

I stole a vacuum from the hallway this morning. I've been planning on asking the superintendent if I could use the vacuum for a while now, but I haven't worked up the courage and haven't seen her at an opportune time to actually ask. This morning when I left for class, there's was a vacuum in the hallway. Very stealthily I moved it into my apartment and locked it there until this afternoon when I came home. I'm hoping someone wasn't worried about where it went, but now my floor is dust free and noticeably cleaner, and I figure it was worth the harsh reprimand known to follow vacuum theft.

I feel like knitting something. But I won't, because I'll work on it for like 3 days and get tired of the scarf. It would be a scarf because I can't make anything else. Also, I don't need more time wasters to draw me away from my work, I'm bad enough as is.

My Special Skill

2008-02-04T22:28:00.000-05:00

I've been called a "pack mule". Yes, it sounds like a nasty insult, but all it really means is that I'm good at carrying crap. Its very useful on canoe trips, I'm good with a canoe on my head. Today I bought a pile of groceries, and I got to lug them all back to my apartment. Thus my pack mule skills. I'm hoping I won't need more for like two weeks, other than a few fresh vegetables and some milk. I bought Shreddies, which I think I haven't had since I was 5. But I remember liking them when I was 5. If I'm not mistaken, my mom stopped buying them for me and my brother because we would leave some stuck to the sides of the bowls.

I've been working on some abstracts for conferences. I think I have about... 5 papers on the go right now. There's IS, NI, Wh, Case... ok 4 but I have to write an Obv paper as well. But some exciting/terrifying news, I submitted my article, to a pretty high up journal. I submitted to that one because I was told to, and I'm getting an "experience", even if I get rejected.

I watched Hot Fuzz. It was actually pretty good. Sort of a cop action/thriller, which is a quasi-unique blend. And it was British, which is always a bonus. Its the same guys as Shaun of the Dead, so if you saw that you would also like his movie.

I feel like queen of the slackers. I've been wasting huge vats of time for no particular reason. There's somewhat of a lull in the semester, but I should really use the time because it will become crazy quickly and then I'll be mad at myself for not using the time I had.

Nothing interesting to say.

Kinda funny?

2008-01-31T10:21:00.001-05:00

(click to make bigger)

This week has been fairly tiring. We've been having classes moved to 9 am (from more manageable hours) to accommodate some job talks that have been going on in the department. I know 9am isn't technically "early", but you get used to a certain frame of time within which you are awake, and that you might call day. When I worked at Monroe I had to get up really early, I had to be at work at 7:30am and I had to bike there most of the time.

Not really that interesting. Give me a break, I just got up. I need to shower. I hate showering, but I'm forced to do it by the demands of "social acceptability". Also, if unconstrained, I might walk around barefoot all summer, and push those people who wear those stupid stelleto "winter" boots. I know, what an unfathomable rebel.

Online Shopping

2008-01-23T17:51:00.000-05:00

I've been looking for new boots for months. I actually bought a pair a few weeks ago, but I had to take them back b/c the first day I wore them they leaked, all over the freaking place. I've never bought anything you wear online before, but I tried on these Timberland boots in a store, and the only size they had was one too big. So I took a chance, and ordered a size smaller. These are my new winter boots:I have the brown ones. They're way nicer than the ones I got before, better construction.

Tomorrow I get to pick up my Amazon order, consisting of:

And:

As long as they shipped the right thing, my January online shopping will be a success.

Speaking of Chomsky, I had a presentation in Semantics today. It was Chomsky's 1957 "Syntactic Structures". I hate presentations. They make me want to quit Linguistics and live in an isolated cabin far away from people who can see me... with their eyes. I felt really awkward, because I was basically teaching the class. There were a lot of pauses and me saying, "Um, so do I make any sense?" I said some things that the prof liked, but when he said them back to me, I think he was actually reading into my presentation what he wanted me to say. Ho hum.

Syntax reading to do.

The dangers of mercury

2008-01-21T19:58:00.000-05:00

I made quesadillas for dinner tonight. I wish I had guacamole, but avacados take forever to ripen and I'm allergic to the pre-prepared stuff for some reason.

I disclaimer about the previous post. I like the new series of Doctor Who, mainly because Mich forced me to watch episodes with her in 4th year. It take a lot for me to get into a show, so I've just been keeping up with what I've been properly introduced to. The problem is, people equate my like of Doctor Who with a general science fiction knowledge. A lady on the train (it was a 7 hour ride, which was supposed to be 4 hours, so we had to amuse ourselves) was like, oh, if you like Doctor Who you must be a huge Star Trek fan as well. And I resent that. I do not like Star Trek. I have not seen most of the Star Wars movies in full. I don't watch the Space channel, or dress up to see Lord of the Rings, of read a wide range of comics, or do do anything else that would qualify me as a sci fi geek. So please don't assume, its insulting. And if you happen to like all those things, you must have reconciled yourself to being a geek long ago.

Another thing, I'm a nerd, not a geek. Geeks are people who have a passion or devotion for a specific thing. So you can be a sci fi or comic geek, or a geek for a certain band or genre of music, or for cult films or something like that. I am a nerd, defined by the majority of my time spent of academic endeavours, and reading jargon littered articles. It is debatable whether I'm a dork or not, I'm guessing you all think that I am. But I would like to point out that I only wear pants that are actually long enough for me, so the flood pants category checks off in the "not-a-dork" column.

Just to get that clear.

The Smiths

2008-01-20T17:42:00.001-05:00

I found this random video, involving The Smiths and David Tennant, AKA the current Doctor Who. I like some of the dance moves, they have that British subtlety that makes them amusing. At the end one of the police officers looks like John Barrowman, AKA Captain Jack, but I don't think its actually him.

Enchiladas

2008-01-19T19:34:00.000-05:00

I really love Mexican food, and slowly slowly slowly I acquire the skills to make a new dish. I thank Tom for showing me the bean burritos, and Stephenson House for the beginnings of the recipe I’m going to share with you now. Mmmm, Mexican food, so good, so easily vegetarian.

Step 1

Cut up a crapload of vegetables, such as the following:

-zucchini

-carrots

-a few onions, or one big one

-red/yellow/orange pepper

-green pepper

-other types of weird named peppers (some like it hot, teehee)

-diced garlic

Put some oil in a pot and fry em’ on up, till the onions are clear and the peppers are quasi-soft.

Add some fresh tomatoes once everything else is almost done frying.

The first stage of spicing takes place now. A little salt, a bunch of pepper, and Italian seasoning is good (which is mostly oregano). I say you go through the spice cabinet and add stuff that looks good.

Step 2

Dump in a bunch of cans of crap, such as:

-black beans

-kidney beans

-chick peas

-whole kernel corn

The trick for enchiladas (in which this formula differs for vegetarian chili) is not to strain any of the canned things, just pour in all the beans alongside their questionable looking juices.

Then you need to add:

-one of those big cans of diced (possibly seasoned) tomatoes

-a whole little bity can of tomato paste

(These individual steps are getting away from me, perhaps I should break it down more…)

The trick for any such recipe is indeed the tomato paste. No matter how much I’m making of whatever, its always a whole can, no partial cans will do. And you cannot forget the tomato paste, or the whole thing goes to hell.

Second stage of spicing… NOW! You need like at least 3 tablespoons of chili powder (unlike I previously thought, its not actually spicy, so don’t be afraid). Add some cayenne pepper and some hot sauce for the spice that you desire. As a rule, I never taste things until they’re completely done cooking, but I’m sure you’re different from me in this way.

Step 3

Simmer the now very full pot for like 20 minutes (simmer means medium temperature, right?), but its not particularly necessary to cover the pot. Stir it so you don’t have a layer of burnt bean snot on the bottom.

Spice more here if you want. Its your last chance.

Step 4

This is the tricky part, I guess. You have to strain out the sauce from the rest of the stuff. You can hook up a bowl/strainer system and ladle stuff in, and pour the non-sauce stuff back into the big pot. Or you can just use a strainy spoon when the enchilada assembly takes place.

Step 5

So you need a bunch of tortillas, like a 10 pack or something. As an added touch, spread a little bit of cream cheese on like half of each tortilla. You also need like a lasagna type pan to put the enchiladas in. Ok, so take your tortillas, spoon in a few spoons of bean/veggie stuff, put in some grated cheddar cheese, and roll up the tortilla, shove it in the pan (which you may or may not want to line with tinfoil, depending on how good you are at scraping off baked cheese). You’ll have a line of rolled up tortilla things in your lasagna type pan and it should be filled, up to some sense of the word.

Now the fun part! Pour the strained out sauce back and forth over the tortillas, add a CRAPLOAD of cheese on top, put it all in the over at 350 degrees for like 20 minutes and you have enchiladas!

So maybe I’ve made the recipe 20 times longer than it should be, but I think it has my own cooking flare added. The enchiladas do take several stages, but they’re really good. Its better if you’re making them for a bunch of people, b/c the recipe makes a lot.

I’m fairly convinced none of you will cook this, but if you ever come to my house I can make it for you. Right on.

Errata

2008-01-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

Apparently its "6 degrees of Kevin Bacon/separation."

7 degrees of Kevin Bacon

2008-01-16T21:28:00.001-05:00

I said that to my prof last year, he's like "Oh, that's very clever" (because it sounds like "7 degrees of separation", just to keep you up to speed). I had to explain that I didn't make it up. Anyway, here's a Kevin Bacon related clip, although I think this little video might be 40 seconds too long.

If you thought that was even remotely entertaining, you'll like this even better. You can trust me on this. Oh, I'm so sad that no one who would get my Doctor Who obscure references ever visits my blog. Where's you Austrian rez friends when you need them?

I get to meet a fellow U of T-er who is checking out our little department under the shadow of Mount Royal. Oh, and I started a google analytics thing, so visit often! And when you travel, make sure you visit from there, so the whole world map lights up! I'm looking at you, Andy, although I'm sure you'll never read this because you don't really love me.

I think the flaw in the analytics endeavour is that I don't have interesting content, and so people a) don't check it, and b) don't search for things that relate to my blog. I got one hit from some little place in Pennsylvania, on account of "Philadelphia" being in the title. Maybe I should add some words to make my blog seem more appealing on search engines:

Stephen Colbert
Cocaine
The Canadian Dollar
Manifest destiny
Uruk-hai
Sex romp
Coldplay
K-Y
Phil Collins
Rhyming Cockney slang

Help me

2008-01-13T19:00:00.000-05:00

Argh!!

Anyone who knows anything about computer hardware, I call on you now. My DVD ROM has decided to not read any discs any more. I stick em it, its spins a couple times and NOTHING registers. Gah, freaking computers, its not even an old one either. I've reinstalled every related driver and gone through the whole Windows trobuleshooting crap which obviously does not work. I don't know if its the internal cable, but Windows keeps saying there isn't a problem. Please help me! I'm begging you! I'm about two restarts away from flipping the laptop over and undoing the screws, which is not good because I don't know what I'm doing.

Right, in other news, new semester, new classes, new mountains of reading. Ah, the life of a grad student. I bought winter boots, which are guaranteed not to leak, and they leaked on the first day I wore them. Bummer, so I have to take those back and go through the long drudgery of finding another pair of boots. Its a difficult task b/c my feet are ginormous and I would prefer girl boots over hairy man boots.

I saw Juno with some friends on Friday, under the recommendation of my dear friend Dinah. It was sweet, I like Michael Cera, and all his hairless Canadian charm. I suggest you see it, but its a little bit of a girl movie (just a little), so if you're too macho maybe you won't allow yourself to enjoy its "offbeat-ness".

Ok, that's all. But please please please help me. I'm going crazy here. I have programs to install and CDs to rip for my iPod.

I don't care if you don't like youtube

2008-01-06T20:19:00.000-05:00

Say what? Nuclear Fishin!!! (1, 000, 000 for the first person who names that reference.)

I'm sure you're now asking yourself, "Why don't I watch Clone High?"

too oh oh ate

2008-01-02T19:00:00.000-05:00

My puppy.

I got a digital camera for Christmas.

I am everything you want

2007-12-17T09:22:00.000-05:00

I am everything you need.
I am everything inside of you that you wish you could be.
I say all the right things at exactly the right time,
But I mean nothing to you and I don't know why.

Sesame Street!

2007-11-25T01:47:00.000-05:00

Furry Happy Monsters!

This helps me learn my letters. I suspect drugs were heavily involved.

I have never forgotten the 12 song. I think kids shows were better in the 70's and 80's.

I always thought Bert had a stick up his butt.

Shot through the heart

2007-11-18T00:16:00.002-05:00

I wish I had something exciting to write about, but that is not the case. My life is pretty much doing school and freaking out about how much school work I have to do. Let's see, I have a final Semantics homework (guaranteed to take at least 20 hours to do, and no, I'm not exaggerating), final Phonology assignment (ooh, Mexican Spanish), a Syntax presentation, and then a paper write up of the Syntax presentation. I also have a big paper to write for my "guided study" course, which I have beent hinking about but nothing is actually written yet. There's a conference I'm presenting at on December 7th, and I haven't looked at the material for that in a while. Its a new paper, but its a works in progress type conference, and hopefully it will go alright. So that's the school front, one of the only fronts I have going on right now.

Seems that I'm getting out a little more often than I used to. Last weekend I went to a house warming party, and then we went to the Village (that's right, you know what the Village is) and hung out there. There was this drag queen sitting outside this one bar with this super huge ridiculous cardboard hat-type thing. I don't even know what it was, other than interesting (*shifty eyes*). Yesterday there was a talk in the Linguistics department, which is traditionally followed by a wine and cheese, at which I ate a lot of cheese. There was this really good dry parmesan-y cheese, and the wine wasn't too dry. But we went out to the movies after and I saw the Assassination of Jesse James. It was a good movie, but two important words come to mind: Hot Men. Namely Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck (there were a few others as well) who I didn't know about before, but he's better looking and a better actor than his brother Ben. We went to a Portuguese bistro after, really good.

Hmmm, this is all so fluffy. Something deep, something deep.........
Nope. Just fluff.

151

2007-11-09T23:32:00.000-05:00

I don't really feel like writing, still. So I have more YouTube. I suggest you watch, especially if you're bored or need a 4 minute distraction. It picks up, so don't give up right away.

So many things to say, so little space on the internet. Although, doesn't "Indian version of Napoleon Dynamite" pop into your mind?

I will reminisce about how this video reminds me of the subway in Calcutta which had music videos playing while you waited for your train. Bollywood is one of the great mysteries of the universe.

Tho Awethome

2007-11-05T17:55:00.001-05:00

The 90's was a magical time.

I feel educated now.

And if you need some perspective:

Hooray on my 15oth post.

Acou-tas-tic

2007-10-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

I've been looking for some new music lately, particularly for acoustic type music. I have all kinds of alt-rock and other non-mellow stuff on my iPod and sometimes I need the yellowish tunes to de-stringify my state of mind. So here's a couple things, nothing too ground breaking in that you're probably familiar with everything I'm tacking onto my blog here.

Note: Its not about the video, its about the music.

Alexi Murdoch - Orange Sky
Love his voice.

Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski day
So sad, so serenely beautiful.

Jose Gonzales - Heartbeats
This is actually an acoustic cover of this really strange 80's type indie band called The Knife. You can find the cracked out video of the original on youtube.
I love the motion and reserved feel of this song.

Tegan and Sara - The Con
I know this isn't acoustic, but I love the weird harmonization. When I heard their stuff intially I wasn't into it but I might be changing my mind.

Now I'm asking for viewer participation. Let me know about acoustic or interesting music I need to check out. Its time for a serious trip to the big ol' HMV on St Catherine street where they have some of the more obscure stuff as well as the main stream albums. And they have fracophone music, so we're not limited to English.

A-dorable

2007-10-23T20:15:00.000-04:00

My nephew turned one last week. Mmmm, we should all enjoy cake so much.

Doorknob

2007-10-16T21:20:00.001-04:00

Something you didn't know about me: I hate using cash at the grocery store.

I will let you laugh at me. I've been sitting on my bed with my laptop doing work and procrastinating at intervals. My phone rang, and for some reason I usually jump with surprise at the vibration of the phone, I have no idea why. So I get off my bed to answer the phone sitting on my desk only to fall sideways. I try to get up again and fall to the floor again. It took me a second to realize my leg was a little asleep, so there was a crawling motion over to the phone and a conversation from the floor.

Forget forgotton

2007-10-12T18:20:00.000-04:00

I felt like I should post.

Oh busy busy life, I'm trying to wait for it to let up, hold on just until the end. Then I should by all reasonable guesses explode at some excruciating point in the future in the painful slow death kind of way. I exaggerate, I have been much busier in the past and so much more stressed out. I feel like I'm not doing as well as I should, I got an A- on my Semantics assignment -- this must be remedied immediately before the D's start rolling my way. You laugh, you think me ridiculous but a fail is a C in grad school and I just cannot explain to you in a way you will find rational my expectations of myself. I realize I'm hard on myself, but if I'm not hard on myself, who will be? That's a misfortune I'm not going to take my chances with. Are these even grammatical English sentences? Reminder: I am not an English major, I am not obsessed with prescriptive grammar -- as far as I care, if people can say it then its grammatical. Its called descriptivism. See how I did that? A little switch from prescribe to describe. Subtle, I know, but what a difference.

I have a conference next weekend at York, which is good in terms of spending a few days in Toronto. I will miss my friends who have moved away from Toronto (I'm looking at you, Dinah) and it will be like a hole shot through the memory of my former life, but I will hold on. I will let those who remain in our province's capital (province = Ontario) spread inwards from the edges of that gaping hold like fibres in around the torn knee hole of a much loved pair of jeans. Maybe I'll have a big face tattoo when you see me, maybe I will have jet black hair. Maybe I will speak with an eastern Australian accent. How could you yet know? You haven't seen me in a while. Perhaps I have taken to wearing really long t-shirts with a belt around the waist. They go well with my knee high alligator skin hooker boots with that lovely rosy tinge that makes you think of a guy who has been punched in the face and has spit out his bloody saliva on the sidewalk for you to step around the next morning.

My phonology homework awaits. I am attempting to break wide open the wonders of feature licensing in a couple of Bantu dialects. The phonological world won't know what hit them when I come along, with my predetermined data set, and fully answer the questions I am obliged to answer for my mandatory course work.

Have you had enough yet?

Good-bye prime factors 11 and 2, Hello prime factor 23

2007-10-05T10:00:00.001-04:00

That's right, today is the last day of my youth. Mock me if you will, point out the fine lines around my eyes and the graying hair on my head. (Actually, I do have some white hair, but that is not age related, who can tell with the blonde anyway?) I'm not planning on anything special happening this year, but perhaps this is the point people stop caring about your birthday. Actually I'm just not in the mood right now, I shouldn't pawn it off on other people. There is some consolation in my brother turning even older a few days later (he always was older than me....).

And I felt like playing around with the blog template. I know its still blue, but I just don't like other colours as much. My eyes are blue so when I see blue things they are compatible with the iris filter while other things get morphed into pukey colours, so can you blame me for liking blue? I have to respect it, my eyes provide the only discernible colour on my face.

I became very upset with Linguistics this week. I heard some work from various people that just reminds me of all the bad Linguistics out there. People who only take into account one construction in one language and ignore generalizations made for other reasons thereby creating completely useless analyses. Its because of these people that the field is still Arts everywhere and hasn't been able to even break into the soft sciences (I mean, if psychologists can get science degrees its ridiculous that linguists don't). I want to do real Linguistics that actually means something, that actually gets insight on NATURAL language, and if anyone else asks me if I study Esperanto or Tolkien's elven language again then I just might freak out and give a drop kick followed by the sonic elbow.

Disaster.

2007-09-29T21:46:00.001-04:00

I was at a conference this weekend at Concordia, so not very far away and easy to budget for. I though it would be ok, I saw a few people that I know from Ottawa, including both of my MA supervisors. I was presenting a paper I wrote with one of my supervisors this summer, and we're presenting this paper again at another conference at York. So presenting isn't my favourite thing in the world, there are many things I do hate about. Despite what some of you may think of me I do have a very shy side, but even worse I suffer from stage fright. Sometimes I am amply able to overcome my stage fright and I have been able to give even decent presentations in the past. Today this was not the case. I started our presentation, and my heart was pounding when I started but I could speak and get the words out, and it was relatively ok. As I kept talking it go soooo much worse. I turned bright red (as I always do), but I've learned to accept that I'm just someone who turns red and I'm generally ok with that. The main problem was that my voice started quarvering, I mean like rolling into big trembling gasp type sentences and this caused a problem for conveying the idea of our presentation. It was like when you're super upset, and you're about to cry and your voice goes and there's nothing you can do to control it. Now, I wasn't going to cry, but it was so difficult to talk, and I tried to take some breaths, but I didn't want to stop in the middle of my talk and do a big "Inhale. Exhale." That would have been even more embarrassing. I just did what ever I could to get to the end of my section where my co-author was supposed to take over. It was truly awful, I am so embarrassed. I felt bad b/c people in the audience felt bad for me. I took some time to recover while my coauthor was talking b/c I was supposed to take a few sections later on, but he forgot this and presented them himself, then remembered a couple sections later and asked if I wanted to do that part. I answered no b/c by that point we were on a section that was his speciality, although I was hoping to redeem myself after gaining some composure. The discussion was fine, I am much better at addressing questions, I think because it's more like a conversation and less like a performance. But I feel terrible. I apologized to my coauthor and promised this wouldn't happen at our next presentation. I don't even know why I went crazy, it was a friendly audience in a comfortable setting. I just lost it.

When I was a kid (and a young teenager) I used to play violin in the Kiwanis festival. I hate that stupid festival. It was ok when I was playing in an ensemble or orchestra, I could focus on what I was doing and blend in with the other performing with me. But I also had to do solos, where I stood up on the stage with no music and had to remember the whole song and hit at the right notes infront of an audience and an adjudicator who was scoring me. I remember once completely forgetting part of a song and freezing -- terrible terrible memories. I was never meant to preform, it is so not my forte. Unfortunately presentations will forever be a part of my life in this career. I've had a few good presentations, so I'm hoping that kind will become more and more frequent.

Today is a bad day

2007-09-24T14:22:00.000-04:00

I was getting coffee in the student centre and this girl walked past me and bumped my bag and my elbow while I was holding the coffee. It splashed back and forth, so I thought it was ok, but they she continued her trek past me (and trust me, there was plenty of room for us to coexist contact free) and bumps me again, knocking my backpack off my shoulder and making me splash searing hot coffee everywhere, including on hands and on my pants. The worst part about this is that she didn't even turn around. She didn't care that she'd bumped into someone, and because of this did not see the disatrous effects of her gross lack of courteousy. What a freaking jerk.

My day was not stellar to begin with.

Why Georgia?

2007-09-23T11:10:00.001-04:00

I’m going to try and post now, even though I don’t particularly feel like writing now anymore than I did before.

So vegan week was done a long time ago, and it really wasn’t bad at all. The first day after it was over I had pizza (and not very good pizza) but it was still sooo good, I do love cheese. The hardest thing was having to read labels and make sure there weren’t modified milk ingredients in things. I’m not sure how vegans go out to eat, that’s even worse. The soy latte was fine, but I got some soy milk so I could eat my cereal, and that tastes like chalk. I still have half a litre that isn’t going anywhere now that it has to compete with the skim in my fridge.

I’m presenting at a *surprise* (at least to me) conference on Saturday at Concordia. I guess this is one of the quirks of having a co-author. It’s all good though, since me presenting at anything is experience for me at this point. My fellow baby PhD-ers think I’m so experienced b/c I went to 2 conferences already, but I was like them 5 months ago so its really not a big deal.

I’m getting really nervous about submitting my article for publication b/c I saw what some reviewer marks are like and they can be way HARSH. I like my paper, but I can also see where people can pick holes in it, but I’m already at the page limit so I can’t really flesh out every forseen concern at this point.

I have to buy a new kettle, mine tries to electrocute me when I use it. No lie. I’m kinda scared to make tea now, even used a pot of boiling water instead. I drank more tea in Ottawa b/c my roomies drank more tea and would always offer, but its nice to have something warm to hold, and wait for 20 minutes to cool to non-tongue-burning temperature. I used to not let the water boil when I made powdered hot chocolate but my crazy death kettle boils in 24 seconds flat.

Maybe I’ll write more another time.

Deco

2007-09-20T10:01:00.000-04:00

I have things to post.

I just don't feel like writing.

GTW!

2007-09-18T13:51:00.001-04:00

Does it look like me?

In View

2007-09-10T19:46:00.000-04:00

I bought 100 watt light bulbs today, which have made a huge improvement on the lighting situation in my apartment. The floor lamp that is meant to provide visible light for the majority of the volume came with the lowest wattage possible in a standard size bulb. I tried to find out exactly how many watts its taunting dimness emanated from, however it was completely blank, no brand no nothing.

Make fun of me if you will, but I’m going vegan this week. I’ve wanted to try it out for a couple months there but haven’t had a quasi acceptable span on time where I could feed myself the appropriate plant based only food products. Originally I was planning on going for a month like an old housemate of mine (in fairness he did it annually during February since it’s the shortest months) but I thought that might be too long for a first time veg-O like myself. I’m starting today since I finished my yoghurt yesterday – I had to wait until the dairy products were used up in my fridge. I bought a crapload of veggies and other vegan delicacies such as hummus and its been ok for today. I’m thinking within a couple days I’m going to be going crazy for some cheese. At least its not like I was a meat eater, so its only one food group being eliminated.

I went to the McGill bookstore and semi picked out the McGill hoodie that I will wear for days on end this winter. I didn’t buy yet because there were huge line ups b/c all the undergrads are still buying their text books. How I don’t miss those days. I picked the gray hoodie with the red embroidered letters. You may think grey is boring but it was incredibly soft and the other colours weren’t much more exciting. Black and navy blue are boring (and I couldn’t cheat on my U of T hoodie with another navy one for a school whose colours don’t even include blue – go Varsity Blues!*). Anyway, I think it’s a decent grey, very academic.

Ooh! And I should be in Toronto near the end of Toronto, so if you’re one of my friends who still lives in Toronto you might be seeing me on your couch. I was accepted to the Algonquian conference at York. Yes, I know, York, where the subway tunnel dare not approach, but I think the buses still go there. Its not like I’m getting an art degree (because I have no ability to do so) just going to the mall school** for a little conferencing.

Yes I did change my profile picture. It got a little distorted in shrinking à la blogger which gave me a little of the crazy eyes.

*No one goes to U of T for sports.
**As a U of T-er I am constitutionally required to bash York at every opportunity. Its surprising the reactions you get for bad mouthing York (which will accept you if you can use a fork) when not at U of T, a huge contrast to the “Ye-ah” you get on the St. George campus^†.

^†Also UTM and UTSC are not real U of T. This is also required from me, coming from downtown.

Boot to the head

2007-09-06T21:41:00.000-04:00

This morning I had a feeling that today was going to be a good day. Last night I went out with some Linguists and Philosophers to a pub just down Sherbrooke from me. That was fun, it was nice to get out and not to just be by myself, wandering around my little apartment, washing dishes and putting things away for lack of more interesting things to do. I met some cool people, got to talk other who I already knew. There was an interesting discussion on the use of oral and written language for divine information to be passed throughout time and between peoples. The argument was that such a method of correspondence runs the risk of being eliminated from the face of the planet by loss of all physical text and people who know the stories and that it should be possible for us to start again from the beginning again. I assume this is fully possible since the whole people of God things started before written text and holy stories passed on between generations.

Anyway, it didn’t turn out to be a good day like I had hoped. Just because of reasons….

I talked to the head of graduate studies in the Linguistics department today trying to get more novel courses on my course list semester. It could turn out that I will end up doing work outside a course framework which could be really good anyway and give me a chance to write and learn about some things independently rather than being constrained to strict curriculums.

I went with a couple of other new linguistics students to grad orientation at the grad house. It was super boring. Just old people droning on and on mostly about things that were common sense. It would have been equally beneficial to give us all the info packets and let us go, but the lollipops were pretty good.

I like Montreal a lot better than Ottawa, and I’ve devised a reason for that. I have realized that my main problem with our nation’s capital is it underlying, yet undeniable, feeling of exclusivity. If you’re not from there then you don’t know where’s fun to go, and its very difficult to get in as an actual friend of an Ottoweenie amonst their Ottowanish comrades. I’m sure this is not true in every sense, but I am really not the only person who has made comments to this effect. Montreal, on the other hand, just feels very open and free, like its ok for you to be there. Perhaps this stems from the greater cultural diversity and size of Montreal over Ottawa, but I’m presently tempted to consider Ottawa snot-city. Toronto was somewhere in between. I wouldn’t say it was terribly welcoming and warm when I first got there, but it did not persist in its coldness for 12 months like Ottawa did.

Now my apartment smells like fried onions.

Silmarillion

2007-09-01T20:48:00.000-04:00

Despite so many years of resistance, the circumstances have finally converged and I have a cell phone. It was either a cell phone or spend the same amount on a landline. From experience I know that the cordless phone doesn’t work much more than 50 feet away from the house, so instead of getting fuzzy calls that fade out as soon as I start making my way to class I opted for the cell phone.

I’m having a little trouble trying to practice my French. I start out saying “Bonjour” or answering “oui” to the question “ça tout?”. If it so happens that I am talking to a fellow non-native French speaker I continue the conversation with the opportunity to say things like “d’accord” and “bonne journée”. However, if I happen to be facing a real quebecois, they have this incredible skill of discovering from the first half syllable that comes through my mouth that I am in fact a stupid Anglophone. I’m not saying I think I sound like a native speaker, but seriously, my pronunciation isn’t that bad. Give me a chance people! It just makes me nervous for subsequent times trying to speak French again. The reason I am not yet fluent is because of my crippling embarrassment of saying something wrong why I try – this is so not helping. I’ve been told my comprehension is very good, so I’m not a total lost cause. I’m not sure where I’m going to be able to construct comfortable environments to hone my skills in this area unless the Quebecers give me a chance.

There is no Grand and Toy anywhere within the normal limits of Montreal. I checked, the closest one is way out by the airport. Similarly, the only “business supply” places that show up on a yellow pages search for the downtown area are pen stores. And I was hopeful that “Pens Ltd” and “Stylo’s R-us” would actually have binders and paper and, call me crazy, pencils, but no dice. No, I had to go to the undergrond central rail station where this is a Bureau en gros (that’s French for Staples, well, kinda, a direct translation would be Egraffeuse… sp… actually, that’s stapler, give me a break). There they sell binders for like $6.50 for some reason. Just cuz you print heavy duty on the side doesn’t justify a 237% markup. But I bought them, because I wasn’t going to trek out to the airport to get the ones I really wanted.

It also took me a long time to find a drugstore so I could buy some conditioner. There’s no Shoppers around, there’s this place called something like Jean Coutou instead. I just don’t automatically think drugstore when I hear Coutou, must be a sound meaning association lost on me in the early stages of my language development.

Anyway, if you want to call me, email me and I’ll give you the number.

Dans la belle province

2007-08-26T20:08:00.000-04:00

Bonjour mes amis, je suis dans Montréal mainment, seule. So you’d all better comment. This coming week I have the Linguistics department meet and greet, course/program registration and ID card getting. It’s fairly depressing. I don’t have any friends, I have to go make them, but that will take a long time. And I don’t have any roommates this year so that makes it harder, I’m not sure living alone is something I should be attempting. I should be excited, but I’m too tired and worn out from the move, and of course I have become hopelessly nostalgic about years gone by and all the people I used to know. I’ll be ok, maybe after I get a few days of rest.

Its been a while since we sat over some black tea and had a chat, so I’ll catch you up. I left Ottawa at the beginning of August and went to Port Hope and attending a wedding party. Then I went with a couple other friends for 4 days into eastern Algonquin and canoed up a storm. I like going to the middle of nowhere once in a while, it makes you think about things in a different way, remember that civilization ridden life isn’t all that goes on the world, and its definitely not how it always was. So that was good, then I went home to the Sound. This involved much sleeping and reverting back to a useless sloth who can’t make her own food or bed.

I was at home for a week and a half, I think, and I saw some friends, went to the beach a few times and watched the sunset. That’s one thing I will always love about my home town, in highschool we would go to the beach in the evening and watch the sunset and play Frisbee. Then we’d get ice-cream and do it all again the next day. I missed that so it was great to go back and see it all again. This past week I was at our family cottage which involved more sleeping and a lot of reading. I’m over 700 pages into War and Peace, I’m hoping to knock off a few hundred more before classes start otherwise I won’t finish it till June. There’s only like 600 pages to go.

And now I’m here in Quebec, unable to speech French because I became so tired from moving and then arranging all my crap that the second language section part of my brain has been unable to boot up properly. I go out and wander about the streets in a daze, I don’t know what people think of me. Its not like I haven’t been resting excessively (because I have) its just that the past few days were a little more exhausting than average.

Enough about current events, I should tell you something interesting, the only question is what…. Yeah, I have no idea.

I don’t have internet in my apartment, but there’s lots of wireless café’s so you may hear from me soon, that is, if you want to.

La la la

2007-07-31T17:15:00.001-04:00

Hey guys! I’ve officially passed my MA thesis and I’m done my summer job and now its time for canoeing and Sauble Beach! Ye-ah, I haven’t tossed the Frisbee around forever, last time was when my brother was home and I was home, and we were all at home playing Frisbee. No one ever accused me of being a good storyteller.

I’ve decided to live in grad housing in Montreal since I’m nauseated by the whole house hunting thing. I think it will be ok, but it will mean me living by myself and going insane for lack of social contact. I’m hoping I’ll have friendly, non-annoying neighbours (since I’m the only annoying neighbour any single floor of a building can handle). This reduces my stress and lets me enjoy the end of my summer such that I might be able to recover from my MA before starting my PhD. Why do I do this to myself? Wait, I know why. I like to see how shocked people are when they find out how “young” I am since they don’t expect a 22 year old to be doing a doctorate. But I’m not just 22, I’m a person too!

I’m going to be home for a while, which means lots of torturing-my-little-brother time. I have big plans, mwhahaha. But I get to see some friends in the Sound and go back to all my old haunts. I’m guessing I will be bored in about 3.27 days, but it’s not like I have a lot to do in Ottawa. (Besides packing and saying goodbye to everyone here… whatever.)

C’est tout.

I woke up this mornin'

2007-07-27T18:22:00.001-04:00

My lexical entry of "grow" is intransitive, making it ungrammatical to say "We grew our profits by forfty-eight percent." I would require the causative as a valency increasing operation in such a situation (i.e. "We made our profits grow by forfty-eight percent.")

My roommate and I (girl roommate, that is) have a favourite set of commercials this summer. If they come on TV we call to each other to run in and watch it and to sing along. I think the little farmer dude is adorable.

Ok, I can't find the one where he's in the karaoke bar, but it is also very good. Remember the Ontario foodland song? Let me jog your memory:

This is what childhood memories are made of. That and Heritage minutes. And Polkaroo.

You're going to think less of me

2007-07-23T15:46:00.000-04:00

But there's Queen, jazz hands, suspenders, and fuschia and turquoise spandex. What more could you want from a reality show?

Miss Attractions

2007-07-18T22:00:00.000-04:00

Well, when did I talk to you last? Right, told you ‘bout my thesis. So I went to Montreal on the weekend and operation find-a-house was unsuccessful. After a few days of moping and feeling super depressed about it I’ve semi convinced myself that its going to be ok. I have to go again this Sunday and check out some more places. If it doesn’t work out this time I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess I’ll have to live on the street, because whatever happens I have to go to McGill, that is not debateable. I could try and live in my office until I get caught and then give a whole sob story about my homelessness.

I’m almost done all my stuff here at the University of Ottawa. I might be sad about it if I weren’t so tired and preoccupied with other urgent things. I really like the Linguistics department here, but I will be glad to live somewhere a little more lively than our nation’s capital.

I was going to write more. But I tired. No make sense more.

Degree #2: Check

2007-07-13T14:35:00.000-04:00

Or should I say check plus? I handed in my memoir (its really a thesis, but I don't have to defend it) and I'm done my masters degree. I invite you all to call me Master, it is now an appropriate form of address and and will be expected.

Actually, just kidding. Although I'm done the MA grunt work my degree won't actually get conferred until October, but in all praticality its done. Unless they fail me for some reason, that would be super upsetting. But it would be a good excuse to throw a public tantrum....

I know what you're all thinking, "That means you're free for the rest of the summer!" So not even close to true. I'm writing an article with my prof, and I also have a research assistantship this summer. There's linguistics yet to be done. But I'm planning on going easy for August, during which I must move to Montreal, and I think I have to report to McGill on the 26th or something for this "mandatory" introduction session. They told me I had to go.

I'm going to Montreal tomorrow to hopefully find a place to live, yeah, its a little important. Wish me luck! I'm very nervous about finding a place, I just want this to be over. It better be the case that one of the places I visit this weekend is where I'll moving into in August.

Go team Masters!

(All I need now is an MA from CGNU.)

7-7-7

2007-07-07T19:25:00.001-04:00

This week I went to see TRANSFORMERS, it was robots-in-disguise-tastic. To be completely honest, I don’t remember that much about the 80’s cartoon, which now makes sense b/c I looked it up on imdb.com and it came out in 1984, and I wasn’t born till later that year, so its not my fault. But yes, friggen awesome, a very fun movie. However, I will say that the movie that I was the most crazy excited about when I left the theatre was V for Vendetta, Transformers didn’t scratch that, but will give it a break. The Wacowski (sp?) bothers were not involved.

Happy July 7^th, 2007 everyone! Isn’t it crazy it landed on a Saturday? Remember last year when a bunch of horror movies opened on June 6^th, 2006? People are so clever.

I started reading War & Peace, I’m like 10 pages in. Expect a post about this time next year when I will either declare that I have finally finished said cliché long book, or will have gone mad with the attempt to do so.

Ling-tastic

2007-07-06T17:49:00.001-04:00

Click to make it bigger.

The Village

2007-07-03T10:55:00.000-04:00

According to those Heritage minutes, that’s what Canada means. GO TEAM CANADA!!!! Happy Canada Day everyone! (even though it was on Sunday…)

Right, events update. Last week I went with my roommates and some of their friends to see Live Free or Die Hard. I wasn’t going to go, and was instead going to sit at home and do the work I sorely needed to do. Man, would that have been a HUGE mistake – this movie was wildly entertaining. You see the succession of bad guys, and you just sit there and wonder, “What crazy method will Bruce Willis use to kill this guy?” Because they can’t just simply be shot unless there’s a super unimportant character. The best was when he drove over a fire hydrant and the water shot up, taking out the helicopter directly above. AWESOME. I also like Justin Long, he’s funny, and everyone thinks its so appropriate that Mac would be a computer hacker. I’ve never actually seen a Die Hard movie before, but its not like a running plot line, so blonde little me was able to make it through the subtle complexities of the story.

And then it was Canada Day weekend! My mom and brother came and we ate lots of food and joined in festivities. If you do recall I have complained in the past that Ottawa is boring with not a lot going on, and that I miss Toronto. But if you’re going to be in the capital for one day in the year, make it Canada Day b/c it rocks. I’m just sad the rockingness doesn’t transfer to greater portion of the year. Ottawa is very beautiful in the summer, but all that beauty if green and trees, which does not show up in the winter and so I wouldn’t particularly say that winter-Ottawa has the same charm.

Anyway, there were people everywhere (usually the streets are empty, even on the weekends and Friday night and stuff) and there were all kinds of booths and stages on parliament hill and surrounding area. The Via rail tent was cool, b/c they gave everyone a little sapling red maple tree (hmm, I wonder why a red maple?) to plant and a balloon. I specifically requested a blue balloon even though the girl only had red and yellow in her hand, but I saw the blue ones. So we wandered around, met up with my cousins, watched a few jazz numbers and such.

The fireworks were incredible. So worth the millions of Canadian tax payer dollars, dead serious. Really big, really sparkly, there were even these ones that exploded in the shape of hearts. And the crowd was really vocally reactive to the display, you could tell which ones they were really impressed by. Oooh, awww, woah! The final fireworks were these red and glittery white ones, for good ol’ Canada. My favourite fireworks have always been the ones that give off a massive *BANG* and you can feel the force of the sound in your chest, love it.

Also, I got a pair of Chaco’s! For you out of the know, those are completely awesome sandals. We went to MEC and my mom found a pair that were on sale and that were my size (incredible, b/c I have issues with finding shoes the right size, they’re even womens sandals!) so now I have my very own pair. They are very pretty. But now I’ll spend a week or more adjusting the straps until they’re perfect.

Now I have to catch up on the work I didn’t do last week or this weekend. I have until 2pm to get it done, either that or I have to tell my supervisor I need more time. But I did make grand promises of having everything done last time I saw him, I’m not sure why…..

CANADA

Monster Sudoku

2007-06-25T12:03:00.001-04:00

On Friday I was at a going away pub-party for a professor who is moving to Germany, and for some reason I started remembering some things I liked when I was a kid, but as of late paid no attention to (not surprisingly). I know everyone is quirky, but I seldom even notice my own quirks, I usually only find out about them when other people point them out to me. Like how I can’t sit still – which I am now very aware of, but didn’t notice at all until my friend told me in 3^rd year and I confirmed the fact with many other friends shortly thereafter. My office mate told me that I sometimes click my tongue when I’m thinking.

What made me think of this is that at the pub the nachos came out with some moist towelettes. I used to collect them when I was really little and dry them out and fold them back together exactly as they were folded in the package. I put them in my little teapot and pretended they were tea bags, I think I liked the lemony smell. And then I realized today that I love to use of all the ink in pens. I have several pens in my pencil case, but I almost always use the same one b/c I want it to be completely used before I go onto the next one. I’m also like this with paper. I have several different kinds of lined paper in my binder. You can tell they’re different b/c some says Hilroy and some doesn’t, some have thicker, blurry lines, some have greeny rather than bluey lines, and some is more see-through than other. They all come from different packages. I have an idea of which paper is better and which is worse, and I always try to use the worse paper and save the good paper. Not like it makes a big difference. I’m the same way with candy. If I have a package of Smarties I’ll save the green and blue ones (not the red ones) till the end b/c they’re the colour I like the most, and I always eat my favourite candies last. Like the red and white gummy bears come last, and the bananas and strawberries in a box of Runts.

I also really like colouring things in, especially with gel pens where the ink flows out in a very satisfying manner. When doodling in class (when I’m not drawing different geometric patterns) I’ll often draw plains squares or block letters just to colour them in. My mom sometimes buys me these paint things that you can make window decorations with and I love just drawing outlines and then filling them in. I know they’re for 5 year olds, but it doesn’t matter.

A few other things. When taking notes in class I always take out at least 2 (and sometimes 3, but not more) sheets of paper and write on the outside of my binder. One piece is not thick enough and makes the writing look scratchy. 4 pieces is too thick and squishy to write on.

I also have a mild fear of getting stuck. Some people might call it claustrophobia, but that’s not what it is, I’m fine with small spaces as long as I know I can get out. But if I’m in an elevator and a bunch of people get on after me and I get stuck at the back of the elevator, I get nervous that I won’t be able to get out at my floor b/c there’s too many people to weave through. Same thing with the subway or the bus and trying to get out at my stop, it stresses me out. I also get nervous if I’m somewhere, out with people, or at someone’s house and I feel like I will not be able to make my way home whenever I want to, or that I won’t have a ride and I’ll be stuck there. I similarly don’t like getting stuck in social situations, like someone comes and talks to me and I quickly find out that I’d really like an escape plan from such a person but I have no way of getting away without a serious social faux pas. I just don’t like getting stuck.

I get nervous in new situations when I don’t have really specific directions/instructions. If you tell me, “Meet me at such a place at approximately such a time,” and I get there and figure out that the place is bigger or more complicated than anticipated, I will probably start to worry that we won’t find each other b/c we’ll be waiting in two different places. Or when people tell you how to get somewhere, but they give directions using landmarks instead of street names and exact addresses. I hate landmark instructions, b/c if you get lost you can’t be like, “Do you know where the McDonald’s with the big oak tree out front is? There’s a produce store next to it? I need to turn left there.” Its better if I can ask the exact street and address b/c its much more universal. I know people think girls do better with descriptive instructions, but I am not one of those girls.

Anyway, you knew I was quirky and weird already.

Red and white, read and wise

2007-06-22T12:06:00.001-04:00

"However I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."
-Acts 20:24

Engraved in stone, on Mount Pleasant, overlooking the glittering blue bay. June 24th makes me remember Canada Day, Canada Day is hardly about Canada anymore.

JFP

Everyone needs a little hip-hop in their life

2007-06-20T11:31:00.001-04:00

One plus 6 out of 7.

Thomson

MacDonald

Johnston

Jackson

Harris

Fitzgerald

Carmichael

Yeah Vic

2007-06-18T10:22:00.000-04:00

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

If you graduated from U of T today, that was for you (or should I say 'congratumalations'?). You know who you are, and if you don’t you don’t read my blog so you can suck it. Since I know they do read my blog, an extra I’M SO PROUD OF YOU to Dinah and Pyweon. I hope you guys have fun getting the piece of paper that you’ve been working for for 4 years (how many fo(u)rs can you jump?), and that somehow the prettiness of the paper makes up for all the pain, all the nights you decided to stay in to write about Husserl, all the night classes across campus in the winter and all the times your roommate wouldn’t stop pestering you or freaking you out by putting their head under the divider curtain which is really more creepy than you’d think (ok, that last part wasn’t so much for Dinah).

I went shopping this weekend! With my roommate’s girlfriend, who is a very lovely person. I got new perfume, since the days of Green Tea over-spritzing have been long lost. I got a shirt and a hott pair of Silver jeans. Kinda expensive, put really nice and comfy, and did I mention hott? I haven’t had a pair of Silvers since high school when my parents bought every piece of clothing I owned and I could convince them once in a while to go all in on the jeans. I also ended up in HMV at one point, which I told my shopping buddy was dangerous. At one point I may have had at least 7 (I think more) CD’s in my hand, but I was determined to limit myself to 2 so I got one of the 2 for $25 deals, now I have the new Incubus and Weezer’s green album. Many things were put away :(. I have a problem, and that problem is finding new good music – you have to search pretty persistently to find it.

Added comment: Guy in 2nd cup was totally chatting me up. He was pretty cute too! Hurrah Silver jeans.

Heroes in a half-shell

2007-06-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

I have rediscovered online radio! I realize now that my less than awesome previous experience were most likely due to the dependence on Windows Media Player. I am muchly satisfied with the iTunes take on the whole radio thing. It began this week after I was getting very tried and frustrated with the Ottawa radio station I normally listen to and have my morning alarm set to. It’s the AtlRock station, which is music that I like, but the morning people are full-on tools and don’t even seem to like the kind of music they have to play for the station. Also, the repeat factor on this station is insane, and some of the stupid songs get played like 15 times a day. (Like that stupid “I’m not paralyzed but I seem to be stuck by you” piece of crap, what is it, Finger 11? As if anyone thought Finger 11 could actually make it past their first single….) On my little radio I am now trying this pop station, which is kinda fun b/c it plays N’Sync, Destiny’s Child and the Spice Girls, and all the other things that make me feel like I’m grade 9 again. But I’ve only been listening to it for a few days and, again, it’s the friggin morning show that I just can’t stand. Also, the commercials they play are baa-aad.

That brings me to now, on my computer listening to actual AltRock, and a bunch of stuff which I haven’t heard before. So much better, can’t even tell you, and most of the internet stations don’t have commercials or DJ’s, it’s like the sweetest deal ever.

More exciting news in my life: I did laundry yesterday! Since our washing machine (which was obtained at no cost) broke like 2 months ago its been way more of a hassle to clean my clothes. I’ve had to load up my tripping pack and walk to the Laundromat – but our dryer still works so I get to carry home the wet clothes while people give me weird looks from their cars, wondering whey someone is backpacking around Ottawa. But the cleanness of the clothes feels amazing, clean towel and everything. Now that I don’t have to wash sweaters the loads are smaller and easier to lug around.

I’m totally putting off the things I need to do. I’m actually using my thesis writing to not do the more imminent little things. I’m supposed to have a revised abstract of the presentation I did in Santa Barbara done for June 15th – what is that, Friday? – and haven’t done anything for it. It won’t take long, I just don’t want to do it. I also have other applications and reimbursement request to complete. Apart from all this I still need to find somewhere to live in Montreal. It sucks, but I’m hoping that I will find a good place and won’t have to move for 4 years! As if, that doesn’t sound like me at all.

"I have the Jew-fro, what's yours called?"

2007-06-09T13:17:00.001-04:00

A little afternoon mild entertainment.

Who wants to be my sugar daddy?

2007-06-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

Cuz I could really use one right now. You know, to buy me... sugar.

Thesis is going well, I'm going to MEC tomorrow which always makes for a good day. That is, I'm going if the weather report isn't cunningly lying to me by telling me its going to be sunny. I need a new bike seat. But I have to ride my old bike seat to get the new one.

Don't be a Dorkon

2007-06-01T22:50:00.000-04:00

I write to you again from our nation’s capital after a travel stint. I am now sick of airports and layovers and don’t intend to fly for a few months. Since April I have been at the following airports:

Ottawa
Toronto

Chicago
Los Angeles
Santa Barbara
Phoenix
Philadelphia

Winnipeg
Saskatoon
Calgary

And that’s not listing the repeat airports (mostly Ottawa and Toronto). But this is what I get to flying to places that are not as major as they come thereby necessitating connections.

Last time I talked to you I was sick, and I’m still not completely better, but much better than I was. There’s still some sore of mucous phlegm thing going on in the throat nose area, but landing and the pressure change wasn’t as insanely painful as it was when the cold was in full swing. Now I don’t have a good excuse to not do my work and I have to get back to it all, I haven’t been writing my thesis for many weeks now so its time to shift back into gear – wish me luck.

I did my presentation in Saskatoon and it actually went pretty well. I didn’t turn red until halfway through my time, there were several good questions and I think I gave pretty good answers to them. One more thing to tack onto my CV to make myself seem like a real linguist. Saskatoon isn’t that exciting, but I knew that before I got there. I was there from Thursday until Wednesday, but at least I got to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, even though it wasn’t the best but it did provide some much needed quality time with Johnny and Orlando.

Before I went to Saskatoon I went home for a few days and I got to see my nephew! He just gets cuter everyday. And he’s a really nice baby too, not fussy or particu-lar, just like the best baby to have ever existed.

I thought this was going to be a long post catching you up on all the witty things I had to say, but again I have misjudged my writing skills.

Boo food

2007-05-18T14:50:00.001-04:00

This cold has made me lose my appetite and its really hard to work up enough energy to go get something to eat. I really hate those people who have a cold and they’re only really sick for like one day and then they bounce back. I’ve been pretty sick for like 5 consecutive days now, and I will be at least kinda sick for another week. Not that its better today, still in the pretty sick stage. So lethargic.

I’m at the office today b/c the weather has gotten mild again and my apartment is miserable and cold and I was home all yesterday, which made me unhappy, so now I’m just sitting in the dark with my head on my desk. Enough about being sick.

I get to see my nephew on Sunday! Also my sister-in-law and my brother, but I doubt they’ve changed as much as the baby-baby. I hope I’m well enough by then to hold him and not risk getting him sick. Maybe I’ll get one of those snazzy masks that people wore during the SARS outbreak. Those were the good old days.

Nothing is getting done. My brain is completely incapable of processing intelligent linguistic thought, which is not going well for me. I really wanted to have a good outline of the syntactic half of my analysis for my MA thesis so I could present it at the conference in Saskatoon. I still have a little time, but I’m a little worried about it.

I took an online IQ test (b/c it’s the kind of crazy thing I like to do for fun) and it came out with a modest 141 and said I was a “Creative Theorist”. Maybe if I retake it at full mental capacity I’ll do better. I usually find it easy to get genius status on the online tests, which doesn’t say much, just that I have a logical mind, which probably helped a little with the math/linguistics degree. Makes sense to me. These tests never tell me I have outstanding people skills or that I’m impressively socially adept, I figure it all evens out. Oh online quizzes, the internet time waster of the early new millennium. I’m undergoing some kind of throwback, I guess.

But seriously, I have to find something to eat. I have no idea what. Most of the food vending outlets on campus are closed for the summer which means extra energy needs to be expended to locomote to somewhere people still eat. So not hungry.

Optimistic

2007-05-15T13:43:00.000-04:00

Its time for blog recap of my weekend in Santa Barbara, California. Let’s start with how I feel right now: like crap. But its ok, I had it coming. Major league sore throat, with lots of phlegm which makes me cough, but it hurts to cough. I could describe all my symptoms, but that’s just me whining. I haven’t gotten sick for like a year (I think a year exactly) and it was time, so I’m ok with it, I just hope my brain will keep working at a satisfactory rate so that I do the mass loads of writing that need to get done this week.

A few thoughts from my trip:
I hate American money. Frickin dollar bills.
How do they fill the void left by the lack of Tim Hortons?

In the Chicago airport:
I might like America – it makes me feel thin.
They probably assume I’m one of then, oh wait, there’s a big Canadian flag on my backpack.
At least I’m not wearing something so unnecessarily unflattering.

I flew out of Ottawa Thursday morning to Chicago, to connect to LA, to finally fly to Santa Barbara. I loved all the different vegetation, they have some really beautiful trees, and I’m not really talking about the palm trees, they have the ones that shed their bark and are really smooth. On Friday I went to UCSB, got hopelessly lost on campus, finally found the building and stood around awkwardly while they were setting things ups. Watched a bunch of presentation, realized how functionalist all these people were. I’ve come to the conclusion that I like functionalists because they do very important and useful work. They collect the data and figure out the distribution of different morphemes and provide grammars on numerous little known languages. But I don’t want to be one of them. Not the data collecting part, its just that what they call their “analysis” is something I would put in the introduction of my paper. Explaining how something works in a language, because as someone who is doing generative linguistics the analysis is the underlying mechanism that connects different cross-linguistics to some kind of universal or at least an accepted structure.

Friday night I went to the beach, and just walked for a long time with my fee in the water. I saw lots of seaweed, and a few surfers. It was very nice and relaxing, made me feel like I could actually see the world again, since, for a while it wasn’t being filtered through the mess of my mind preoccupied with academic things.

On Saturday I gave my talk, and I think it went ok. I was nervous, of course, but I had gotten sunburnt from being on the beach the night before so my turning red wasn’t a big contrast from what I was looking like in general that day. I wasn’t really shaking, and I think I talked slowly enough. People told me it was a good talk, and then when I told them it was my first talk ever they changed it to “fantastic”. Everyone was really nice and encouraging.

I tried to eat a variety of Mexican food. I had this massive veggie burrito one day for lunch which had like a half cup of guacamole on it. It was interesting there because it was like a parallel to bilingual Ottawa, only the other language is Spanish instead of French. The people at the university still had class too, they’re on this quarter system (as opposed to semester) and they don’t finish till mid-June. There were crazy bike paths ALL over the campus, and you had to be careful not to walk on them b/c you would get run over.

On Saturday night we went to a party at a professors house (who also happens to be a pretty famous linguist) and there was pizza and good times. I made myself introduce myself to people and not be too shy. People whipped out the guitars and had a little ho-down, how cute. On Sunday I went to be a tourist in downtown Santa Barbara, which is actually really nice, but by this time I was sick and spend a lot of the day just sitting and people watching.

My flight home involved leaving Santa Barbara at 6:30pm to fly to Phoenix and wait for 3 hours to catch the overnight flight to Philadelphia, to wait another 3 hours to finally fly to Ottawa so that I could catch the bus and make my way home. I pretty much took yesterday off, which I hope you can all understand.

Right, so just an account of the facts. If I recall any of my painfully witty insights about the states I will be sure to share them with you.

(Always assume a certain level of sarcasm, which is often lost in written language.)

Tequila Sunrise

2007-05-11T23:40:00.001-04:00

Half Aspie

2007-05-07T13:00:00.001-04:00

T-3 days to Santa Barbara.

I saw SPIDERMAN 3. I really like what’s his face… smooth face blue eyes, you know, the guy who plays Spiderman. Not Topher Grace, he was Venom…. I can see his face, Tobey McGuire. Wow, I actually couldn’t recall the name. Mild anomia I suppose. Nonetheless, a very entertaining movie, I like comic book heroes. I also watched the first half of Center Stage with my aunt and cousin yesterday. Super excited to find out that they owned it.

I think the world is a little spinny and dizzy today, it doesn’t seem to want to stay still. Walking to school was more of a challenge than usual. It was even spinny when I woke up this morning. I’ve been drinking more coffee than I usually do, I think my body is getting used to the caffeine, maybe that will mean that I can drink coffee like a normal person and not crazy go nuts for hours afterwards.

Did you know that its speculated that way more boys than girls have autism b/c girls don’t show the normal symptoms? Girls natural linguistic superiority cover up the underlying disorder. So really, there might not be the boy-girl divide, just girls who get on ok without the help.

There’s also a thing called Rhythmic Movement Disorder. I found that very interesting, indeed.

The first section of my thesis is done, in first draft form. Now I’m waiting to meet with my supervisor so I can start the next section. I took all of yesterday off, hanging with the cousins, eating the good food, sitting on the comfy couches. My one cousin braided my hair in pigtails, and I was super cute. I have my moments.

My face is hot, my head feels funny, like its having a hard time staying in a normal upward position. I don’t want to go home, its cold there. Its warm here in the office. Now my hair is all crimpy and fluffy. You know milkweed? I used to love that stuff, actually, I still do, if I recall last fall when I kept playing with it on a hike through Gatineau park. I remember as a kid wanting to collect a whole bunch and stuff a pillow with it, I think I even tried it once. Its so silky and soft.

Radiohead is my soulmate

2007-05-04T12:22:00.000-04:00

“We hope that you choke.’

Hooray for being sick and lethargic, I love it when it takes 5 times longer to complete simple task and approximately 30 seconds of prethought before I can compose a coherent answer to a casual question asked in passing in the hallway. I’ve been preparing for my FIRST CONFERENCE EVER which is next weekend in Santa Barbara. It’ll be fun to go to Cali but I’m very nervous about the actual presentation, especially since I’ve never done it before (well, in the professional sense at least).

I made the brilliant decision of have a medium coffee (which used to be the large size) from 2^nd cup this morning, you know, because I was having trouble focusing and getting down to my work. Clearly ingesting half a litre of liquid stimulant is how you get yourself to sit quietly at your desk and write a syntax paper. I hate how Microsoft Word underlines the Canadian spellings of things (colour, labour, litre, centre, etc.), and don’t tell me to change it to the Canadian spell checker, because I’ve tried that and it does NOT work. Either it resets everything and still underlies the words in question, or it doesn’t underline anything and it’s a crazy whirlwind of spelling free-for-all.

Anyone have a clever title for my MA thesis? Its on the Ojibwe inverse system. I don’t care if you don’t know what that means, just give me a title! I've asked this before, and you sit there, in front of your computer screen pondering, talking to yourself, "I'm only one person! How could I ever come up with a label worthy of theoretical linguistics?" But I'm here to tell you that you can! Anything is possible! I don’t want to use my presentation title, which is “Argument Organization in Ojibwe: A quasi-morphological approach,” but would rather have something new and catchy. I haven’t done laundry in a really long time. Its such a hassle since our machine broke and I actually have to go to a laundromat. Who wants to do that? But its getting to the point where its not a choice anymore and my sense of annoyance has no weight in the decision any longer. I especially need clean clothes to go to a conference, at least one would think.

I’ve completely lost the sense of days of the week or even time of the year. If this were last year then it would be all about exams being done, summer starting, rejoining the workforce once again. But now it’s a kind of smooth continuum of school year for the full 12 months where classes have ended but there’s still plenty of work to do and things to procrastinate from, and feel guilty about. Its all the fun of school without those pesky night classes, like the perfect situation. Or something.

My apartment is cold, they turned off the heat like a week and a half ago. I don’t think this is helping me being sick. I thought I might have had something interesting to say today, or at least could say something in a funny way, but that sense has quickly disintegrated.