Sunday, November 26, 2006

seriously seriously having a difficult time with concentration

One.word.only.

1. Yourself: procrastinating
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): lovely
3. Your hair: brown
4. Your mother: devoted
5. Your father: supportive
6. Your favorite item: iPod
7. Your dream last night: syntax!
8. Your favorite drink: water
9. Your dream car: *shrug*
10. The room you are in: cluttered
11. Your ex: care?
12. Your fear: failure
13. What you want to be in 10 years? researching
14. Who you hung out with last night? bf
15. What You're Not? lazy
16. Muffins: orange
17. One of your wish list items: received
18. Time: quick
19. The last thing you did: read
20. What you are wearing: layers
21. Your favorite weather: warm
22. Your favorite book: Mockingbird
23. The last thing you ate: chips
24. Your life: busy
25. Your mood: nervous
26. Your best friend: dork (ha!)
27. What are you thinking about right now? consonants
28. Your car: golf
29. What are you doing at the moment? this
30. Your summer: beneficial
31. Your relationship status: involved
32. What is on your TV? n/a
33. What is the weather like? COLD
34. When is the last time you laughed? noonish?

I don't know if I ever posted a pic of this


doll7
Originally uploaded by himbly.
This was the first doll I knit. I was a b-day present for my bf and I knit the whole thing in 2-3 weeks without him knowing. It came from a drawing he made while talking to me one day.

Yes, I am aware of the crappiness of the doll. My first try, though. I'm currently sorta working on an octopus. Hopefully it'll be better.

what? It's like -30 out there?

Jebus!

It's totally cold out there! So completely freaking cold, and because I live in a cave and the manager has control of the heat for the whole cave building, it was freezing first thing this morning. Obviously it seems that it affected the manager finally as now I'm cuddling up to a fully blasting radiator. Well, not fully. When this baby goes, there's no need for toques and sweaters inside.

So, I don' tknow if it's the cold weater or just me, but this has been the weekend of sleeping and eating and goofin' around...so far. I spent yesterday doing nothing related to school - and I slept in until 11. These things are highly irregular for me, but I had a crazytime week. As soon as I'm done this, though, I start...reading and marking...marking and reading. The consuming will probably remain as I am sitting here with a bowl of Kettle Chips in front of me, a bottle of water, a glass of orange juice and a mug of tea. Ta da!

I also woke up with a cold sore on my lip. Gross. Ivana once gave me some Chinese medication for cold sores and this stuff works like magic. Whatever stage of coldsore-ary you're at, it seems to stop dead in its tracks. Bam! Right in your kisser.

I worked at the theatre on Friday (after a very long day at school) and there was a 'do' being hosted by some organic food company Planet Foods. Honestly, we've had a ton of people rent the theatre out but I"ve never seen such nice and generous people. You should have SEEN the gift bags they gave everyone...then offered us to take as many as we wanted. I got 4. Filled with all sorts of tasty organic treats...including this INSANE chocolate bar with kickinghorse coffee beans crushed inside. Holy effing crap! Sweet Jesus!

Then...after riding that little high, the sound system crapped out for the second show and I had to give everyone their money back. Wow. That was really not good times. Then, afterwards, we figured out that there was one little switch I didn't know existed that had tripped. Glad that we got crap running again, annoyed that I could have saved myself and 18 other people a lot of trouble if I knew that switch existed before things went South.

My blogging is seriously all over the place. I'm starting to see a pattern...procrastination pattern.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Things I wish my TA would have taught me...

It's past midnight and I've been marking since 1pm. I've got awhile to go before I'm done, too.

So, what better time to take a break while I give you hints for the undergrad...if any of you are reading this:

Firstly...the key thing to know is 'who is marking your midterm?' This leads to a couple of points:

1- watch your prof...what is he/she like? Match your answer to his/her teaching style.

I am TAing 3 (g-damn) classes this semester. 2 profs I work for will cut off marking if you give them the right answer ~somewhere~ (and advised me to do the same). The other prof, though? She deducts marks if you continue on to say stupid things. Sounds mean, but it isn't. What she looks for is the 'global' perception...she marks if you understand and gives you a small 'cuff on the ear' so to speak, when you are lazy or just keep rattling on so that eventually you'll make your point. Be mindful of that. Who's your prof?

2- it may be a TA marking your midterm. Your TA gets instructions from your prof, so see 1. But remember your TA is a student, too. Your TA has more work than you do, I don't care if you've got 5 classes. Your TA is up at midnight while her entire Saturday has passed her by, pounding out a blog entry so that she can take a few minutes away from her marking. Your TA has vowed to herself that she will try to get all this stuff done tonight (Saturday) so that she can use all of Sunday to work on her own crap...finally. Your TA, if she's got 3 TA posts, has been marking midterms for the past 3 weeks and is worried about a/ preparing for her own classes, b/ preparing for the other stuff she attends (reading groups, lab meetings, etc), c/ preparing for her thesis meeting on Monday. Because of you she has a/ no time to bring her car to the garage to get its tires changed, b/ no time to get groceries, c/ turned down 3 invites to hang out with friends, d/ seen her bf only as he walks past her desk to go to the kitchen and back, e/ felt guilty for turning down a friend who just left her husband and wanted to go for a hike tomorrow...etc. She's probably tired and a little bummed out and anxious to get to her own studies if not her own life.

So:

- study for your assignments and exams. Do ~me~ a favour and know what you're talking about.

- be quick and to the point. I just awarded someone full marks for saying everything she needed in a chart where others did it in several paragraphs. It was clear that she understood and explained it well. Done and done.

- don't use those damn covers! You know, the plastic ones that you think impress your prof?? They're sooo annoying!

- but dont' forget to staple your stuff! Paperclip at the very least.

Remember, most TAs really ~want~ to give you good marks. But they do mark hard. They worked to get where they are, so they think you should too. If you're supposed to mention something, mention it.

And go see your TA if they offer office hours. Get them to know your faces. In fact, make sure your prof knows who you are, too.

Okay, I gotta get back to it now...


UPDATE:

-'your TA' may mark one question at a time and order the assignments/tests according to the marks so far. This means that you're probably right next to the person you copied from, dumbass.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Yeah, I got stuff to talk about...

But I don't have time at the moment, so you get this:

oh snap!

Hey...I like Vincent Gallo. Aside from seeming more than a bit like a creepy prick, I think he's hawt. But the girls at Fug are right, and more than just a little funny. I suggest reading their page for good times while you're wresting with a paper or something.

But, really, I've read Vincent Gallo's webpage...he sounds like a dick. Loved Buffalo 66 but not that interested to watch Chloe S. give him a blow job in...whatever it was...I'd look, but time is running out.

I gots to get to school so that I can spend the next 3 hours "chasing the cow's tail" (as my friend Jacqui so beautifully put it) and collapse into a heap of doubt afterwards. Wish me luck!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I have just GOT to get my camera operational

No time these days. When I'm not reading, I'm writing. When I'm not writing, I'm in class. When I'm not doing any of these things, I'm either asleep or defiantly surfing the web for knitting patterns.

And I can hardly wait to start taking pictures of my yarn stash like the other knit bloggers do because I seriously go from blog to blog to see their yarn stashes. And that was not sarcasm. I like to see pics of yarn stashes and projects.

My iPod crashed today and I was bummed all day about it. Finally, it died (it was stuck on 'bright, shiney, and almost rarin' to go for hours)...


GODDAMN WHO'S YAPPY DOG IS THAT??? bet it's JB. You can hear his freaky little dog for blocks.

....anyway...my iPod's working again, but I did fret like a new and worried mother who's pediatrician was out of the office. I could hardly wait to hook my baby back up to it's tech-mother who would know how to soothe and care for it. My iMac is like the wetnurse for my iPod...jesus, was that an easy analogy to make or what??

If you were to take a cartoon...like, say Stewie Griffin, and use one 30-60 sec bit of footage of him talking (say, to Brian on the couch, like they do) and then just take the soundtrack off and put another one on, how much would you notice the lack of sync between the lip movements and what they are saying.

Joe...you could probably help me with this one.

And before anyone accuses me of getting high and thinking that up...accuse again. My prof, a classmate and I had a fairly decent conversation about this stuff today.

Jacqui, if you're reading this...you should have come in a bit earlier.

Don't you wish you were studying phonology? Again, not sarcasm.

Monday, November 13, 2006

running ahead like molasses in January

Why can't I do it?

I set aside entire days, y'all. I make lists. I check them twice. But I still end up sitting here doing the minimum to get by.

I intend to do so much on my days off. I plan to read ahead, get my assignments finished early, start on papers due next month...but I end up for hours surfing through blogs, getting knitting patterns, updating my iPod (love the iPod) and it's sooo difficult to get down to it. Yet...and yet...I know that with the work I've done tonight, I will at least not be in trouble Wednesday when I have to present the article I'm reading.

Another thing. The article I'm reading? Really interesting. Really interesting (to me, at least). Why, then, do I drag my feet so damn much?

The only thing I'm not dragging my feet in is my thesis prep. Dude, I am so far ahead in that. You know why, though? My advisor kicks my ass. I know that she knows that I know that she will not tollerate any bullhockey and so I get my shit done for her. Today she told me how awesome it was that we're so far ahead of the game and we plan for me to start testing babies by the summer. Dude...my lifelong dream of hooking babies up to machines is going to become a reality!

Actually...I regretfully have to admit here that there will be no hooking anything up to machines. It's just my little figure of speech which allows me for a brief moment to imagine I am creating a cy-baby. Damn...if only I could get the ethics approval on that.

Anyway...where was I? I drift off when I think of my own race of attack robots.

I have SO much to do. Seriously. It's crazy. I have no idea why I'm calm right now.

On other fronts, the car is fixed, and C and I ate the rest of my b-day cake in a frenzy of whipped cream and kirsch-soaked-chocolate-loveliness. Now, I resume my frequently faltering attempts back to health and fitness. I have been eating like a bulimic pig the past week and I know I've gained that sudden weight that kinda just one day is like POP and you look like you're a panda that just came out of the dryer on 'fluff' cycle. My bra hurts this week.

Whatever...it's going. Running and eating healthy. Here we go!

wheeze

I finished my second pair of mittens (more procrastination) ever and I am in love with them and plan on making a hat then marrying the three in a small civil ceremony. Really, I'm settling, though, because I've got an IKEA kids toybox full to the brim with better yarn than the stuff I made the mitts out of. I'm so accepting of faults. My boyfriend must be more accepting since he's wearing the first pair of mittens I've ever made. They are two different sizes and are also lame. I offered to make him new ones right away, but he insisted (since it was my b-day) I make myself a pair first. So, mine are kick ass and his are lame. Maybe that's why we're in love.

Oh! I got a camera for my b-day! I'll take a picture of the mitts and you can compare.

My thesis is kick ass, by the way, but it would take longer than I want to write tonight to explain it so I'll leave that for another day when I'm feeling more comfortable and expose-y.

I'm knitting an iPod cover right now that will be my first felting project. Am I lame that I'm excited to see how the two shades of blue in the yarn will look when felted? Yeah...thought so?

I'm writing because a/ I don't want to go to bed yet, b/ I don't want to do more homework, and c/ I feel like there's something I'm forgetting to say and if I keep going I'll eventually find it. Man, my thighs feel fat tonight.

Podcasts! I never knew how much I would love them. Every morning I download more crap than I can ever have time to listen to during the day. CBC and BBC have become my mistresses.

Dang...I'm just gonna give this up now. I should get to bed.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Kinda puts things in perspective...

Clearly, I need to travel more:



create your own visited country map



create your own personalized map of Canada

I realy haven't seen much of Canada. I know that with some people the argument goes, "I want to see my own country before I start traveling out to see the rest of the world", but I always thought that was a bunch of bull-hockey. I always felt, when I was younger, that I wanted to see other countries first because there's always time to see your own. You can do that when you're old, but there's some stuff you want to do while you're still young.

I haven't traveled for so long and looking at that map shows me that there's places I really wanted to see by now, but never made it. Huge continents I left unexplored because Europe is so easy to travel through. One day I'll get back on the road. But, I think I've outgrown hostels. Oh dear unexplained and misunderstood and perhaps non-existant power in this universe, please make it possible for me not to stay in hostels anymore.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Happy Barfday to me

Hey y'all, I'm back.

Oh, I guess it's a happy belated birthday to me. It was on the 9th. I've just had nothing to say until now. Actually, I've got nothing to say now, either, but Black Mana forgot again and I felt like being a bloggy asshole about it.

hehehehe.

Anyway, thanks for all those who ~did~ wish me happy b-day and holy crap have I ever eaten a lot in the past couple of days.

I also got an iPod and a digital camera. How happy am I?? Really effing happy. Overnight, I have become addicted to podcasts.

Update:

- I learned to knit mittens
- I've been academically humbled
- the clutch in my car went
- all these things have not damaged my spirit, somehow
- I am currently working on some stuff for my morphology class, so I'd better GIT!
- Strongbow tastes real good around your b-day. Even if you don't go out for it.

Back to it. Later.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Saddam sentenced to death.

Well, it's been decided.


I am not looking forward to the fallout from this one. Particularly from the bloggy-sphere.

Not that I don't think that this is probably a just verdict. Perhaps Saddam should die. Probably he should.

But I cannot stand the in-your-face jeering that comes about from these circumstances. Sure, from the people directly affected...but from those who are not I just wish they would quietly let it go.

They won't, though.

And no matter how just the situation is, I just think it's in poor taste to celebrate the death of anyone. Tyrant or no tyrant.

"I wish I knew how to quit you"...


booth
Originally uploaded by himbly.
...I said last night as I cleaned up the projector.

G-damn this is a difficult job to give up. Last night after some confusion surrounding my start time...

(he told me, "come in whenever you can, i know you're busy." but whenever I could meant for me around 7..."oh! no no no! you have to come in right away", he said -at 5 (an hour before I was even supposed to work). so I hopped into the car and drove down there. My boss has a 4 year old little boy who, although he is an adorable little bundle of cute is also spoilt rotten. Wait, I'll finish this where I was supposed to...)

...so I hopped into the car and drove sped over to the theatre. There, that's where the rest of that sentence should have gone. The whole way I practiced my "I-don't-think-I-can-do-this-job-anymore-but-maybe-I-can-just-go-on-as-relief" speech. I had it down by the time I parked. I was kind, yet determined...perfect. Right. In I go.

I marched...well, no, I didn't. I walked with confidence up the stairs and found my boss with his son in the office. My boss looked flustered and his boy looked repentant. My boss started to explain...and, being that he was obviously agitated and has a thick accent, I really couldn't make much sense of what he was saying but from what I could get it sounded something like his kid was interested in electronics and seems to have snuck all things electronic that was not nailed down ~somewhere~...from their house and from every nook and cranny of the theatre. All the evidence was laying at my feet and the kid who usually is a sweet little ray of sunshine was now standing with his head bowed and looking up at me with his big, sorry doe eyes. I didn't want to laugh as it seemed it would make light of whatever punishment he was receiving.

I went to the candy counter, laid out the midterms I am in the middle of marking and got to work. I had at least 30 min before the movie would let out. I just didn't have the heart to tell the guy I sorta quit when he was in the middle of trying to figure out what piece of equipment goes where.

He came down and we sorta talked about it. He "assured" me that things will be better now and that I can start coming in "whenever I feel like". I agreed and felt better. He left. I rethought the conversation and past events. Dang. Evidence has suggested that "whenever I feel like" does not match his idea of "whenever I feel like"...was I back at square one?

My boss is very nice and very very non-confrontational, so he didn't trick me purposefully by any means. What he probably did do, though, was set up an impossible or at least improbable situation that will end in me fixing it by coming in when I don't want to.

So, when it was all over and I was upstairs cleaning the machines I sighed and said, "I wish I knew how to quit you." It's okay, they're familiar with the source of that quote. They played it for weeks.
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