Can someone explain to me why, on the girl version of The Gays makeover TV show, all the girls are skinny with questionable hair? Like, am I REALLY supposed to believe these women are that much of a mess? Because I don't.
Really, I don't trust many people, least of all TV executives. They enjoy lying. They try to tell me I want to watch "reality" shows, even though they're totally fabricated. But I do like ANTM ("Your eyes... they're just, like, dead!") and I did actually watch an entire episode of "Rock of Love" with Bret Michaels. Gosh, it's dreadful. Those women are TERRIBLE. Next week I believe there is a throwdown of sorts. Tomorrow is "America's Most Smartest Model." The idea of watching it makes me feel dirty, like watching Jerry Springer. I'm really going to try not to. It shouldn't be too hard.
Unrelated (well, loosely, I suppose), I'm three days into trying to eat better. I was bloodletted on Monday because my general health seems to be in a decline, so thought I should consciously eliminate the bad crap, like processed sugar and (sob!) bread. Everyone is all excited about oatmeal lately (including my doctor) and, having never eaten it as a child, didn't get it. I'm two days into oatmeal for breakfast and... I don't love it. It is pretty good when it's really, really thick. I make it with quick oats (is that allowed?), soy milk, a touch of salt and a dash of maple syrup (I have a bunch of honey I would like to use up, but wasn't sure if it "went" with oatmeal). I'm hopeful I can keep this up. I do have to admit I had a shamrock shake on Tuesday night, but it was after 6 servings of fruits and vegetables so I felt OK with it.
Why are Josee Chouinard and Andrea Martin discussing fibre on TV? Fibre is neither skating nor humour.
OK, so I really have to stop buying glasses. I just got these. But they were SO CHEAP! Like, $50! Anita got me the "friends and family" deal, but even without they would have been $70 (I had a discount coupon from the last ones). They're just so easy to buy. I'm not going back until I have a big girl job. Or until they get new frames in.
Five weeks of school left. Eek.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
gettin' the hell outta dodge
I finally did it. I went into hock and bought 4 flights around eastern seaboard cities. Well, if you define seaboard as being near water that connects to the ocean eventually. If you don't... then I'm just flying around the east.
It's been a long time since I've taken any sort of substantial trip. The last time I was on a plane was almost 3 years ago, which is sad since I had been on a plane yearly since 1993. Not that I love flying; I just love being somewhere else. I haven't flown in/out of the country for 6 years, so this will be interesting. I hope they let me take toothpaste on board. I can't remember where airlines stand with those sorts of things. It's safe to say I won't bring knitting needles on, but apparently those aren't considered dangerous anymore anyway. Knitters seem like a bunch of pacifists.
Once I finish school, I'll have a couple of weeks to work (gots to get paid before I lose my job) and see as many bands as possible before flying out in May. (Hopefully I'll have paid off the flights by then. Please let my tax return be a huge one!) I'm going to New York, Chicago and Toronto for a couple of weeks, just a little teaser/tester to see if I want to live in any of those places. If you're in any of those places, let me know if you have time to meet up. Or, you know, if you have a place for me to sleep a night or two.
Right now the only things I have on my "to do" list are to visit the Met's Costume Institute library, take a CAF tour (possibly the river one if I'm feeling rich), visit the Art Institute, see if I can find my old supervisor at the ROM (Suzanne McLean, where are you?), eat burgers at the Shake Shack, see a rock show in each city (though the only things I could find so far in Chicago were Tokyo Police Club on the 5th and Black Kids on the 6th, which is disappointing because I can see both of them a week prior), and take as many pictures as I can fit on my camera and maybe try out a couple of toy cameras as well. Other things, too, but these are the shortlist right now. In addition to visiting friends, of course. That's just a given.
I'm pretty excited. The only flight that I'm worried about is the one I booked with Travelocity between New York and Chicago. No idea how reliable Delta is (didn't they crash a lot of planes in the '80s?), but it's stinking cheap. I'll come in just above my estimated/hoped for price, though without any fricking travel points. Bastards.
The silly thing is I still want to go to Chicago in the summer, so this may be a somewhat redundant trip. I just love Chicago a whole lot. Sigh. I need to figure out how to make it happen. And a trip to Edmonton for my dear friend Dulcie's wedding at the end of summer. And maybe a trip to Los Angeles. Or London.
Actually, for about 10 minutes I thought about screwing the trip to the triumvirate and going to London because tickets were so ridiculously cheap. But I need to do this trip right now.
Only 2 1/2 months to go.
It's been a long time since I've taken any sort of substantial trip. The last time I was on a plane was almost 3 years ago, which is sad since I had been on a plane yearly since 1993. Not that I love flying; I just love being somewhere else. I haven't flown in/out of the country for 6 years, so this will be interesting. I hope they let me take toothpaste on board. I can't remember where airlines stand with those sorts of things. It's safe to say I won't bring knitting needles on, but apparently those aren't considered dangerous anymore anyway. Knitters seem like a bunch of pacifists.
Once I finish school, I'll have a couple of weeks to work (gots to get paid before I lose my job) and see as many bands as possible before flying out in May. (Hopefully I'll have paid off the flights by then. Please let my tax return be a huge one!) I'm going to New York, Chicago and Toronto for a couple of weeks, just a little teaser/tester to see if I want to live in any of those places. If you're in any of those places, let me know if you have time to meet up. Or, you know, if you have a place for me to sleep a night or two.
Right now the only things I have on my "to do" list are to visit the Met's Costume Institute library, take a CAF tour (possibly the river one if I'm feeling rich), visit the Art Institute, see if I can find my old supervisor at the ROM (Suzanne McLean, where are you?), eat burgers at the Shake Shack, see a rock show in each city (though the only things I could find so far in Chicago were Tokyo Police Club on the 5th and Black Kids on the 6th, which is disappointing because I can see both of them a week prior), and take as many pictures as I can fit on my camera and maybe try out a couple of toy cameras as well. Other things, too, but these are the shortlist right now. In addition to visiting friends, of course. That's just a given.
I'm pretty excited. The only flight that I'm worried about is the one I booked with Travelocity between New York and Chicago. No idea how reliable Delta is (didn't they crash a lot of planes in the '80s?), but it's stinking cheap. I'll come in just above my estimated/hoped for price, though without any fricking travel points. Bastards.
The silly thing is I still want to go to Chicago in the summer, so this may be a somewhat redundant trip. I just love Chicago a whole lot. Sigh. I need to figure out how to make it happen. And a trip to Edmonton for my dear friend Dulcie's wedding at the end of summer. And maybe a trip to Los Angeles. Or London.
Actually, for about 10 minutes I thought about screwing the trip to the triumvirate and going to London because tickets were so ridiculously cheap. But I need to do this trip right now.
Only 2 1/2 months to go.
Friday, February 8, 2008
snug 'em up
At school, I often see boys wearing loose, almost comically huge pants. The crotches hang down to mid-thigh and leave everything to the imagination because there's nothing but fabric. Granted, I probably shouldn't be looking at boys that would wear something so unflattering (or boys at all, if we're going to be honest), those that may still cling to the rave wear of the mid-'90s, but still... It's really solidified my resolve that tight pants are the way to go.
I mean, seriously, no one looks particularly good in baggy jeans. I know boys wear that sort of thing to either hide their skinny legs or to store supplies for the winter, but it doesn't make it right. Remember that scene in "Clueless" with the back shot of a row of boys dressed abominably? Bad look then, bad look now.
It really makes sense that I have an affinity for tight jeans. Look at the facts:
1) I liked metal as a preteen (in addition to Duran Duran, who often wore snug-fitting pants and white jazz shoes, a look I can't explain yet still find charming) and all those metal boys wore tight, children-preventing jeans.
2) You already know I have a thing for male ballet dancers' tights and cups. Doesn't it make sense I would want to see variations of that at all times?
3) With no hips and straight legs, most boys have the types of bodies that can wear skinny jeans, which means they should wear skinny jeans if they can. Right?
Now that I think about it, skinny jeans are the metal jeans of the '80s. Which reminds me... I saw an ad for a new reality show where Bret Michaels from Poison makes out/fucks a bunch of rocker chicks. Looks dreadful, so I obviously have to watch it, if only to feel superior for a moment.
Also, I can't stop listening to Destroyer's "Foam Hands." It makes me think of OMD for some reason, though they really sound nothing alike and even if Dan's song had the addition of electronics it wouldn't sound even close to similar. I can't explain the connection, but it's there.
I mean, seriously, no one looks particularly good in baggy jeans. I know boys wear that sort of thing to either hide their skinny legs or to store supplies for the winter, but it doesn't make it right. Remember that scene in "Clueless" with the back shot of a row of boys dressed abominably? Bad look then, bad look now.
It really makes sense that I have an affinity for tight jeans. Look at the facts:
1) I liked metal as a preteen (in addition to Duran Duran, who often wore snug-fitting pants and white jazz shoes, a look I can't explain yet still find charming) and all those metal boys wore tight, children-preventing jeans.
2) You already know I have a thing for male ballet dancers' tights and cups. Doesn't it make sense I would want to see variations of that at all times?
3) With no hips and straight legs, most boys have the types of bodies that can wear skinny jeans, which means they should wear skinny jeans if they can. Right?
Now that I think about it, skinny jeans are the metal jeans of the '80s. Which reminds me... I saw an ad for a new reality show where Bret Michaels from Poison makes out/fucks a bunch of rocker chicks. Looks dreadful, so I obviously have to watch it, if only to feel superior for a moment.
Also, I can't stop listening to Destroyer's "Foam Hands." It makes me think of OMD for some reason, though they really sound nothing alike and even if Dan's song had the addition of electronics it wouldn't sound even close to similar. I can't explain the connection, but it's there.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
the mean reds and other bouts
Lately I haven't been feeling like myself. Something is off, not quite right. Increasingly I find myself dour, short tempered and humourless with very few glimpses of my former self. I can't quite pinpoint when I started becoming less fun, but it freaks me out that I have more bad days than good.
And I must apologise if any of you have read the blog for an extended time. Posts have not been as particularly charming as they perhaps once were. As 1972 David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust would say, I'm going through ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.
(It is at this point I realise I will be repeating the same post from various other days.)
After yet another troublesome conversation with one of my friends, I've decided I probably shouldn't speak to that friend for a while. All our conversations end in me curled up in the fetal position on the verge of tears, feeling as though I just sustained another kick while I'm already down. The last time I felt this was a couple years ago with a person I stopped speaking to at this time of the year, for virtually the same reasons. I don't like it when friends make me feel bad, like I'm not important or that I'm distracting from more important things. I'm just unwilling to eliminate this friend in the same way because I half-suspect it's just the stress talking. I tend to be a little high-strung at the best of times.
Perhaps the problem stems from my lack of drinking in recent months. I'm really not drinking as much as I used to, eliminating huge chunks of time that would have been spent socialising. I miss booze; she was once my semi-regular companion. I should visit with her more often.
Tenuously related, this week is the real start of the do-or-die this semester. I'll have stuff due weekly for most of February and March with three enormous projects to do by early April (two of which are group projects). Friday I finally got an email telling me to attend orientation for a student librarian position, so I'll have to fit another 4 hours (at least) into my schedule. In short, I'm feeling overloaded. And to top it off, I'm being a crappy friend to virtually everyone I actually talk to; others are needlessly neglected due to my inability to manage my time.
I'll be surprised if, by graduation, anyone is speaking to me.
Plans for the trip I want to take in May are still up in the air. I need to figure out how to buy inexpensive connector flights between either Chicago and New York, New York and Toronto, or Chicago and Toronto. And how to get cheap starter flights to any of those cities. (Any help/suggestions to make this all happen as cheaply as possible would be greatly appreciated.) I still haven't decided on whether or not to go to New York for sure because I want to have a few days in each place (a few extra in Toronto) and don't want to feel rushed the whole time. I just need to get the hell away from this city for a while; I'm going nuts here.
To recap, feed me booze and you will get both time with me and glimpses of my former self. Tempting, I know.
And I must apologise if any of you have read the blog for an extended time. Posts have not been as particularly charming as they perhaps once were. As 1972 David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust would say, I'm going through ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.
(It is at this point I realise I will be repeating the same post from various other days.)
After yet another troublesome conversation with one of my friends, I've decided I probably shouldn't speak to that friend for a while. All our conversations end in me curled up in the fetal position on the verge of tears, feeling as though I just sustained another kick while I'm already down. The last time I felt this was a couple years ago with a person I stopped speaking to at this time of the year, for virtually the same reasons. I don't like it when friends make me feel bad, like I'm not important or that I'm distracting from more important things. I'm just unwilling to eliminate this friend in the same way because I half-suspect it's just the stress talking. I tend to be a little high-strung at the best of times.
Perhaps the problem stems from my lack of drinking in recent months. I'm really not drinking as much as I used to, eliminating huge chunks of time that would have been spent socialising. I miss booze; she was once my semi-regular companion. I should visit with her more often.
Tenuously related, this week is the real start of the do-or-die this semester. I'll have stuff due weekly for most of February and March with three enormous projects to do by early April (two of which are group projects). Friday I finally got an email telling me to attend orientation for a student librarian position, so I'll have to fit another 4 hours (at least) into my schedule. In short, I'm feeling overloaded. And to top it off, I'm being a crappy friend to virtually everyone I actually talk to; others are needlessly neglected due to my inability to manage my time.
I'll be surprised if, by graduation, anyone is speaking to me.
Plans for the trip I want to take in May are still up in the air. I need to figure out how to buy inexpensive connector flights between either Chicago and New York, New York and Toronto, or Chicago and Toronto. And how to get cheap starter flights to any of those cities. (Any help/suggestions to make this all happen as cheaply as possible would be greatly appreciated.) I still haven't decided on whether or not to go to New York for sure because I want to have a few days in each place (a few extra in Toronto) and don't want to feel rushed the whole time. I just need to get the hell away from this city for a while; I'm going nuts here.
To recap, feed me booze and you will get both time with me and glimpses of my former self. Tempting, I know.
Monday, January 28, 2008
orgasmic food
This morning while I was eating Peace Cereal and reading the side of the box, I realised that, as it originally started, the cereal industry continues to function solely because of religion. Kellogg, a Christian fundamentalist, started making cereal to stop people from wanting to masturbate and/or want sex in general (seriously, he thought cereal would stop making people horny. Obviously he's never had morning wood... Though perhaps that's why cereal is largely marketed as a breakfast cereal). Quaker, obviously named after Quakers, makes a whole bunch of cereals. Relatively new, Peace Cereal is based on yogic beliefs of one Yogi Bhajan. Breakfast is solely based on religion. Bacon tastes like sin, it's so good.
This was all very amusing to me this morning, but probably because I didn't sleep enough.
Just home from a marathon day. I have an assignment due on Wednesday morning, so stayed after work to work on it (it isn't done, so tomorrow night will be a looooong night) until it was time to go to Parkside for my last Dine Out reservation. Last week I went to Chambar with a couple of friends and had a lovely late dinner of crab soup, roasted trout and pepper ravioli, and macha pot de creme with blueberry compote, with olives and poutine to fill up any empty spots in our bellies. Pretty yummy. Tonight's dinner was delicious as well: cheddar and onion pie with greens and York ham, veal scallopine with crisp sweetbreads and osso buco ravioli, and blood orange pannacotta. We all agreed that we should really put more effort into eating at nicer restaurants once in a while. With my influx of dresses, I should probably get dressed up and find somewhere to go so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of them.
Right now all I can think about is the dusting of snow outside. Hopefully enough falls tonight that school is cancelled in the morning. I've got a crapload of work to catch up on, and could really use the morning to get something done. I suspect we'd only need around 10 cms to shut the school, so I'm hoping for 20 cms for good measure. It really has to start falling in massive flakes for this plan to work, so cross your fingers for me.
This was all very amusing to me this morning, but probably because I didn't sleep enough.
Just home from a marathon day. I have an assignment due on Wednesday morning, so stayed after work to work on it (it isn't done, so tomorrow night will be a looooong night) until it was time to go to Parkside for my last Dine Out reservation. Last week I went to Chambar with a couple of friends and had a lovely late dinner of crab soup, roasted trout and pepper ravioli, and macha pot de creme with blueberry compote, with olives and poutine to fill up any empty spots in our bellies. Pretty yummy. Tonight's dinner was delicious as well: cheddar and onion pie with greens and York ham, veal scallopine with crisp sweetbreads and osso buco ravioli, and blood orange pannacotta. We all agreed that we should really put more effort into eating at nicer restaurants once in a while. With my influx of dresses, I should probably get dressed up and find somewhere to go so I feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of them.
Right now all I can think about is the dusting of snow outside. Hopefully enough falls tonight that school is cancelled in the morning. I've got a crapload of work to catch up on, and could really use the morning to get something done. I suspect we'd only need around 10 cms to shut the school, so I'm hoping for 20 cms for good measure. It really has to start falling in massive flakes for this plan to work, so cross your fingers for me.
Friday, January 25, 2008
tales of woe, etc.
Geez, things are falling apart around me.
The most basic thing: my oven. Still not working, still not replaced. I guess I'll have to call them again and find out what's going on with that. They wanted to look at the shower at the same time (loose tiles by the faucet likely means the whole shower stall has to be ripped apart and redone), so who knows what will happen with that.
Work is a total nightmare right now. I've been doing work sporadically above my classification for quite a while and now that the lower classification is being eliminated I have to take on more of that classification as well. Someone else is being brought in to do the higher classification work that I've been doing, which is sort of funny to me since I'm trained at that level and have been doing the work for 8 or 9 months. Because my hours are regular hours at a specific classification that's what I get paid at, regardless. And it seems weird to me that I have to train people above and below me, yet get no compensation outside my classification because it's less than 20% of my time. Though that may change since I have to train the high school kids that are replacing all my friends.
And I still haven't heard officially about that student librarian position, which sort of sucks because I'm being offered more shifts at a higher classification elsewhere that I kind of need right now and haven't taken because I'm waiting to see if I need to adjust my schedule to fit everything in.
And I'm two weeks behind in school already, with a greater gap about to befall me.
Nevermind my complete inability to organise socialising with people who have been waiting patiently for me to get my shit together.
In short, I'm fucked.
On the bright side, I'm not drinking as much anymore, which means, in theory, I could drop a bit of poundage from my belly. I could also forget to eat (or, as is the case lately, not be able to afford to eat) and cash in my U-Pass, forcing me to walk everywhere. I could probably use the money, since I'm not making enough to fund my lavish lifestyle right now.
This morning was a weird one. A woman on meth got on with a guy who could have been her father's age, and she kept trying to go down on him between her uncontrollable jerking and eyes rolling back into her head. Then a construction worker yelled at me because I ignored the signs halfway down the block telling me to cross the street. My feeling was, if I want to risk my life walking along a road without a sidewalk, that's my business. Just because half the block lacks a safe place to walk doesn't mean I'm crossing the street.
I've had better days.
The most basic thing: my oven. Still not working, still not replaced. I guess I'll have to call them again and find out what's going on with that. They wanted to look at the shower at the same time (loose tiles by the faucet likely means the whole shower stall has to be ripped apart and redone), so who knows what will happen with that.
Work is a total nightmare right now. I've been doing work sporadically above my classification for quite a while and now that the lower classification is being eliminated I have to take on more of that classification as well. Someone else is being brought in to do the higher classification work that I've been doing, which is sort of funny to me since I'm trained at that level and have been doing the work for 8 or 9 months. Because my hours are regular hours at a specific classification that's what I get paid at, regardless. And it seems weird to me that I have to train people above and below me, yet get no compensation outside my classification because it's less than 20% of my time. Though that may change since I have to train the high school kids that are replacing all my friends.
And I still haven't heard officially about that student librarian position, which sort of sucks because I'm being offered more shifts at a higher classification elsewhere that I kind of need right now and haven't taken because I'm waiting to see if I need to adjust my schedule to fit everything in.
And I'm two weeks behind in school already, with a greater gap about to befall me.
Nevermind my complete inability to organise socialising with people who have been waiting patiently for me to get my shit together.
In short, I'm fucked.
On the bright side, I'm not drinking as much anymore, which means, in theory, I could drop a bit of poundage from my belly. I could also forget to eat (or, as is the case lately, not be able to afford to eat) and cash in my U-Pass, forcing me to walk everywhere. I could probably use the money, since I'm not making enough to fund my lavish lifestyle right now.
This morning was a weird one. A woman on meth got on with a guy who could have been her father's age, and she kept trying to go down on him between her uncontrollable jerking and eyes rolling back into her head. Then a construction worker yelled at me because I ignored the signs halfway down the block telling me to cross the street. My feeling was, if I want to risk my life walking along a road without a sidewalk, that's my business. Just because half the block lacks a safe place to walk doesn't mean I'm crossing the street.
I've had better days.
Monday, January 21, 2008
distractable
I need all sorts of distractions lately.
Work is pretty chaotic right now, with new procedures implemented almost daily, seemingly in an attempt to get everyone to quit. It's working. I've lost three pretty close co-workers over the last month, all figuring there are better options elsewhere instead of losing their jobs with less than two week's notice. Today was the first day that I actually hated work for no other reason than I don't know who's going to show up for work on a daily basis; no one is particularly happy.
In light of this, I've taken to listening to CBC Radio 3 for a distraction at work, often without headphones because I keep forgetting to put them back into my bag. Today while listening one of the supervisors (the only one, now that I think of it, since we're so short-staffed) asked if I wanted earphones because I was distracting someone who was doing translations. I took offence to this because I've been alone for most of the day and I listened at a low volume so I wouldn't distract people, and it wasn't even loud enough to hear where the person was (I tested it). But now it's probably OK because I can't listen to people complaining and get a better sound direct to my ears.
The podcast for this week has a repeat of my friend Rachel's story on bands selling out. It's even better than the first time it played, and it sort of makes me laugh that indie bands selling songs for ads are even an issue anymore. Granted, when I was younger and more idealistic about this sort of thing I thought bands weren't worth listening to if they played outdoor festivals sponsored by beer companies and terrible radio stations. Now, though, I think bands I like should be making something off their skills, especially if they've managed to resist/avoid major label horrors. As my friend Tony said after his band sold a song to Telus, "A brother's gotta eat."
I just wish, like in Japan, the ads would feature an info mark like video channels used to add to videos (back when they actually played videos). I feel little shame about liking a song on a commercial. That doesn't mean I've lost my indie cred, does it?
Work is pretty chaotic right now, with new procedures implemented almost daily, seemingly in an attempt to get everyone to quit. It's working. I've lost three pretty close co-workers over the last month, all figuring there are better options elsewhere instead of losing their jobs with less than two week's notice. Today was the first day that I actually hated work for no other reason than I don't know who's going to show up for work on a daily basis; no one is particularly happy.
In light of this, I've taken to listening to CBC Radio 3 for a distraction at work, often without headphones because I keep forgetting to put them back into my bag. Today while listening one of the supervisors (the only one, now that I think of it, since we're so short-staffed) asked if I wanted earphones because I was distracting someone who was doing translations. I took offence to this because I've been alone for most of the day and I listened at a low volume so I wouldn't distract people, and it wasn't even loud enough to hear where the person was (I tested it). But now it's probably OK because I can't listen to people complaining and get a better sound direct to my ears.
The podcast for this week has a repeat of my friend Rachel's story on bands selling out. It's even better than the first time it played, and it sort of makes me laugh that indie bands selling songs for ads are even an issue anymore. Granted, when I was younger and more idealistic about this sort of thing I thought bands weren't worth listening to if they played outdoor festivals sponsored by beer companies and terrible radio stations. Now, though, I think bands I like should be making something off their skills, especially if they've managed to resist/avoid major label horrors. As my friend Tony said after his band sold a song to Telus, "A brother's gotta eat."
I just wish, like in Japan, the ads would feature an info mark like video channels used to add to videos (back when they actually played videos). I feel little shame about liking a song on a commercial. That doesn't mean I've lost my indie cred, does it?
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