I was thinking about what to write today and I could have gone with something like Zelda (which I actually played at a friend's place when I was little on what N64 because we didn't have a game console at home), but I don't know much about the game and I'm not feeling particularly interested in gaming tonight. Instead, I think I'm going to talk about two things: The zipper and the creation that is the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz (and its amazing creator).
So, zippers.. We use them everyday, don't we? I know for a fact I've worn 4 different zippering articles of clothing today: two pairs of pants (work pants and jeans), a jacket, and a hoodie. These awesome little toothed devices pull sides of fabric together, and I've always heard that they were invented by a Canadian. However, I've had a hard time finding evidence for this online, so I'm going to leave it as a question for anyone who may care to answer: Who actually invented the zipper as we now know it, and where are you finding this information? As an English person I feel like I should be able to find this stuff, but I just caaaaan't tonight. It may be the 8.5 hours of work and then hockey I just watched (Canucks lost. Again.), or I may just be dumb tonight, but I'm unable to find this stuff. Anyways, zippers...
They're wonderful! and we use them in a lot of different ways, including that stereotypical nerdy joke that we all hear in highschool Biology that helps us remember something from the course (if you don't know this joke, really? How've you not heard it). It was originally presented to me in 12th grade as a reallly horrible pick-up line, but I've heard a multitude of variations. Basically though, it's "Hi, I'm DNA helicase and I'd like to unzip your genes". But zippers aren't used only in these ways. Did you know that the first airtight zippers were created by NASA for pressure-suits, and were later adapted and used for space suits and (now) wet/dry suits in swimming?
Zippers are produced in the vast majority by the Japanese company YKK now, and with the 'double zip' (you know, the zipper that opens from the top and bottom that is often included in newer jackets and stuff) they're appearing all over the place. Disappearing are buckles and buttons, emerging are zippers. Actually, the zipper is probably the most widely used fastening device in the world today. Scary.
Anyways, I promised to talk about the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz today too, and basically what I wanted to do was leave you with something fun. Being the English-y person that I am, I thought I'd leave you with a 'Z' that was fun and meant a bit to me, and because the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz is a Seuss creation, it's always going to mean something to me. I was brought up on Seuss's books; some of the first books I ever read on my own were his, and Are You My Mother will always be a super cute favourite. I'd also, however, like to point out that though his books were fun and cute and educational, they weren't always over-the-top educational; they were a good way to teach children to read and write (remember, things that rhyme will stick in our minds for far more time, and a rhythm is always helpful too!), but they were definitely filled with impractical things, such as the Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz. He's not going to appear on a spelling test any day soon, but he sure is a good way to teach children to say and write out their 'z's. Education and fun-always a good thing to put hand-in-hand!
So yeah, this has been my month (minus Sundays) in blogs. I may do something like this again, we shall see. However, if I do maybe next time I'll do it with more of a theme in mind. I'm off to watch some Doctor Who and go to bed though now.. I've got to be up at 6:30 tomorrow morning to go to work *gags*. I won't say goodbye forever though, as I can pretty much guarantee that I'll be back at some point in time. Ciao, it has been a slice!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Yeti
Yupp, I decided to go there. You know, the abominable snowman or the Meh-Teh? Yeah, they're all kinda the same thing. Big, white, monstery things. Specifically they're said to inhabit the Himalayas but I've seen one, and I've never been off the continent. What about you? Have you seen a Yeti? I can share my story about seeing the Yeti if you'd like.
(If you don't care, disregard the next little bit. Otherwise, carry on)
So, I went with my family and we took this sort of slow pace up to the top of the mountain, seeing some stalactites and stalagmites on the way up, and ice and stuff. Then we started heading down, and it was dark. We're rushing down the inside of a mountain by this point, in the dark and cold, and then we see eyes. We get separated from the people slightly ahead of us, and then it comes. There's this Yeti looming over us screeching, and we whiz past it and it's gone. That's my only encounter with a Yeti, and if you haven't guess, it was on an attraction. A specific attraction, actually: The Matterhorn Bobsleds in Disneyland Park.
I honestly don't remember much about the first time I went on this ride (I was 12, okay?) but I do remember that it was darn cold. And the Yeti scared the beegezus out of me; it was big and lit with strobe lights and it was terribly loud and sprung upon you. It was terrifying to my 12 year old self for a few seconds, until we were whipped around a corner and I was laughing again. The second time I was on that ride it was just funny (I was nearly 17 by this point, and was on a trip with my school. Everything is much more awesome when you go with your friends!) and enjoyable, although the person I was riding in the sled with was slightly uncomfortable about the situation.. He wasn't thrilled about sitting behind me in the sled. Oh well, not my fault! The third time I went on the ride I was 18 and with my family and the sled was a little squishy, but otherwise the ride was still fun. This time we went on it at like, 11:30pm and the park was nearly empty. It was so much fun, and the Yeti was probably the highlight of that trip. With the complete darkness brought on by the absence of the sun the strobes surrounding the Yeti were just that much more epic, and the glowing lights were even more penetrating. The general feeling of surreal surroundings was increased by the strobes hitting the white walls and 'ice' and creating a glimmering, beautiful effect set off totally by this hulking ape-like cryptid.
I would compare and contrast Yeti sightings to further this blog post, but to be honest I'm only really interested in the Yeti I've seen. The myth is always fun to hear and it something to listen to and all, but I've never been faced with anything to prove the existence of a Yeti, and so I will continue to believe that they only exist in things such as Disney rides, stories, and as people spotting Spirit Bears and being totally off track in thinking that they appear ape-like. Giant white apes are on the list of things I would believe in, but abominable snowmen are not.
** Oh my gosh guys, I can`t believe after I finish this post off (very shortly) There`s only one left to write! This month has flown by, and this summer is just getting ready to pick up. I realize these blogs haven't been the most amazing things ever, but I'm enjoying myself. If you want quality writing, check out my papers or turn to someone else's blog; this one's for fun, freedom, and venting. However, it's not over yet! So, while I leave you to mull over my random musings (I've just realized I could have done this whole blog and referred only to things Disney, which would have been SO much fun!... Maybe next time), I'm off to enjoy my new Summertime Rooibos tea (which is essentially strawberry-rhubarb tea and tastes like warm ice cream, or pie. I call it 'magic tea' or 'crack tea' because of its addictiveness) and enjoy my evening. Lots of love! <3
(If you don't care, disregard the next little bit. Otherwise, carry on)
So, I went with my family and we took this sort of slow pace up to the top of the mountain, seeing some stalactites and stalagmites on the way up, and ice and stuff. Then we started heading down, and it was dark. We're rushing down the inside of a mountain by this point, in the dark and cold, and then we see eyes. We get separated from the people slightly ahead of us, and then it comes. There's this Yeti looming over us screeching, and we whiz past it and it's gone. That's my only encounter with a Yeti, and if you haven't guess, it was on an attraction. A specific attraction, actually: The Matterhorn Bobsleds in Disneyland Park.
I honestly don't remember much about the first time I went on this ride (I was 12, okay?) but I do remember that it was darn cold. And the Yeti scared the beegezus out of me; it was big and lit with strobe lights and it was terribly loud and sprung upon you. It was terrifying to my 12 year old self for a few seconds, until we were whipped around a corner and I was laughing again. The second time I was on that ride it was just funny (I was nearly 17 by this point, and was on a trip with my school. Everything is much more awesome when you go with your friends!) and enjoyable, although the person I was riding in the sled with was slightly uncomfortable about the situation.. He wasn't thrilled about sitting behind me in the sled. Oh well, not my fault! The third time I went on the ride I was 18 and with my family and the sled was a little squishy, but otherwise the ride was still fun. This time we went on it at like, 11:30pm and the park was nearly empty. It was so much fun, and the Yeti was probably the highlight of that trip. With the complete darkness brought on by the absence of the sun the strobes surrounding the Yeti were just that much more epic, and the glowing lights were even more penetrating. The general feeling of surreal surroundings was increased by the strobes hitting the white walls and 'ice' and creating a glimmering, beautiful effect set off totally by this hulking ape-like cryptid.
I would compare and contrast Yeti sightings to further this blog post, but to be honest I'm only really interested in the Yeti I've seen. The myth is always fun to hear and it something to listen to and all, but I've never been faced with anything to prove the existence of a Yeti, and so I will continue to believe that they only exist in things such as Disney rides, stories, and as people spotting Spirit Bears and being totally off track in thinking that they appear ape-like. Giant white apes are on the list of things I would believe in, but abominable snowmen are not.
** Oh my gosh guys, I can`t believe after I finish this post off (very shortly) There`s only one left to write! This month has flown by, and this summer is just getting ready to pick up. I realize these blogs haven't been the most amazing things ever, but I'm enjoying myself. If you want quality writing, check out my papers or turn to someone else's blog; this one's for fun, freedom, and venting. However, it's not over yet! So, while I leave you to mull over my random musings (I've just realized I could have done this whole blog and referred only to things Disney, which would have been SO much fun!... Maybe next time), I'm off to enjoy my new Summertime Rooibos tea (which is essentially strawberry-rhubarb tea and tastes like warm ice cream, or pie. I call it 'magic tea' or 'crack tea' because of its addictiveness) and enjoy my evening. Lots of love! <3
Thursday, April 28, 2011
'X'
So I could be stereotypically nerdy and write about X-Men or something, but to be honest my knowledge of the X-Men is highly limited. I also can't be bothered to look more into it at this moment, as I'm playing lazy and just don't feel like it. I have, however, finally come across a topic to write about today for X: The lack of dictionary entries starting with 'X' in my dictionary.
There are actually only 9 definitions in my dictionary for words starting with the letter 'X'. 9. I don't have like, a new dictionary or the most super awesome dictionary out there, but I've got a Collins Pocket Reference English Dictionary published in Canada in 1998. I'm assuming therefore that it has all the entries in it that could be considered imperative or pertinent. However, only 9 entries? That's slightly sad. And you know what the entries are? Obviously not if you're there and don't have a copy of the dictionary in front of you, so I'll tell you: 'X', 'Xe', 'Xenon', 'xenophobia', 'Xerox', 'Xmas', 'x-ray', 'xylem', and 'xylophone'.
The biggest disappointment for me was that I went into this whole "let's check the dictionary and see if there's a cool word I can talk about" thing totally stoked to learn a new word, and I didn't learn anything new. It may sound pathetic, but with only 9 words, there wasn't really much to learn. And honestly, after studying Biology and English Literature as I have, the only words that could have been questionable ("Xe", "xenophobia", and "xylem") have cropped up in lectures on more than one occasion. 'Xe' is the chemical abbreviation of xenon, 'xenophobia' is the fear or hatred of people from other countries (which my Lit prof for 18th century novels liked to point out occurred quite a bit in some of our assigned readings), and xylem is the plant tissue that conducts water and minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant.
Wow, looking over that it makes me sound extremely boring and nerdy, but I suppose one of the two is at least slightly correct. I'm a bit of a nerd, I'll admit it. However, that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed. I may have to go out and buy a better dictionary for myself soon. You know, one of those ones that looks like a gigantic tome, and when you pull it out people kind of gape? Yeah, I definitely want one of those! It'd be like when the guy in my Archaeology class pulled out a quill to take notes, but even more awkward. Yupp, it'd be great.
I feel like I haven't done a great job of talking about anything to do with 'X' today, but with only 9 entries in my dictionary how can I? It's not like I need to learn anything new... Xenon is bad to play with in large quantities, Xerox is a brand of copy machine, I can play the xylophone (though not amazingly, it's a skill I was taught in elementary school - ukulele, marimba, xylophone, recorder), 'X' is used in multiple ways (wrong, unknown, etc), x-rays are something I've had far too many of, and the others have already been explained. Oh well, I guess there's not really much more I can discuss.. I'm off to nerd out, I guess. Or watch hockey. And I'm going to eat some salmon dinner soon too, then have a glass of tea. And tomorrow I'm going with Ray-Ray to her last day of classes! :)
There are actually only 9 definitions in my dictionary for words starting with the letter 'X'. 9. I don't have like, a new dictionary or the most super awesome dictionary out there, but I've got a Collins Pocket Reference English Dictionary published in Canada in 1998. I'm assuming therefore that it has all the entries in it that could be considered imperative or pertinent. However, only 9 entries? That's slightly sad. And you know what the entries are? Obviously not if you're there and don't have a copy of the dictionary in front of you, so I'll tell you: 'X', 'Xe', 'Xenon', 'xenophobia', 'Xerox', 'Xmas', 'x-ray', 'xylem', and 'xylophone'.
The biggest disappointment for me was that I went into this whole "let's check the dictionary and see if there's a cool word I can talk about" thing totally stoked to learn a new word, and I didn't learn anything new. It may sound pathetic, but with only 9 words, there wasn't really much to learn. And honestly, after studying Biology and English Literature as I have, the only words that could have been questionable ("Xe", "xenophobia", and "xylem") have cropped up in lectures on more than one occasion. 'Xe' is the chemical abbreviation of xenon, 'xenophobia' is the fear or hatred of people from other countries (which my Lit prof for 18th century novels liked to point out occurred quite a bit in some of our assigned readings), and xylem is the plant tissue that conducts water and minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant.
Wow, looking over that it makes me sound extremely boring and nerdy, but I suppose one of the two is at least slightly correct. I'm a bit of a nerd, I'll admit it. However, that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed. I may have to go out and buy a better dictionary for myself soon. You know, one of those ones that looks like a gigantic tome, and when you pull it out people kind of gape? Yeah, I definitely want one of those! It'd be like when the guy in my Archaeology class pulled out a quill to take notes, but even more awkward. Yupp, it'd be great.
I feel like I haven't done a great job of talking about anything to do with 'X' today, but with only 9 entries in my dictionary how can I? It's not like I need to learn anything new... Xenon is bad to play with in large quantities, Xerox is a brand of copy machine, I can play the xylophone (though not amazingly, it's a skill I was taught in elementary school - ukulele, marimba, xylophone, recorder), 'X' is used in multiple ways (wrong, unknown, etc), x-rays are something I've had far too many of, and the others have already been explained. Oh well, I guess there's not really much more I can discuss.. I'm off to nerd out, I guess. Or watch hockey. And I'm going to eat some salmon dinner soon too, then have a glass of tea. And tomorrow I'm going with Ray-Ray to her last day of classes! :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Words!!
Look, it's Wednesday night and it's 'W'! I'm excited! Lol, but really today I've decided that I'm going to talk about words. They're wonderful and they help us to communicate. We all use different words and we all use them in different ways, but we can all communicate in some manner; even if you don't go into a place knowing a language you'll know at least a few words by the time you leave (even if they're cusses or things like 'washroom', they're words!).
And there are so many great words. I'm going for a short post tonight because I've put basically no thought into what I'm going to write as I relaxed this morning, looked up some skating stuff, went to work, hung out with some friends, and ended up here. However, I can share some of my favourite words with you today it you'd like. (hears no replies).. I'll take that as a yes!
So, I love the word 'awesome'. I know it's over used and fully girly sounding, but it's a nice sounding word; it rolls off the tongue nicely. I'm also a fan of the word 'skookum'. If you've never heard it you're obviously not from the West Coast of Canada, but basically it's another word for great. The word 'whisper' is also pretty great; it's one of those words that sort of comes out sounding like what it means.. If you have ever said it in the right tone you'll understand what I'm talking about.
But really, I think that's all I'm going to get up to tonight; my brain has stopped functioning fully so I'm going to go catch up on watching the vlogbrothers, then it's off to bed. G'night!!
And there are so many great words. I'm going for a short post tonight because I've put basically no thought into what I'm going to write as I relaxed this morning, looked up some skating stuff, went to work, hung out with some friends, and ended up here. However, I can share some of my favourite words with you today it you'd like. (hears no replies).. I'll take that as a yes!
So, I love the word 'awesome'. I know it's over used and fully girly sounding, but it's a nice sounding word; it rolls off the tongue nicely. I'm also a fan of the word 'skookum'. If you've never heard it you're obviously not from the West Coast of Canada, but basically it's another word for great. The word 'whisper' is also pretty great; it's one of those words that sort of comes out sounding like what it means.. If you have ever said it in the right tone you'll understand what I'm talking about.
But really, I think that's all I'm going to get up to tonight; my brain has stopped functioning fully so I'm going to go catch up on watching the vlogbrothers, then it's off to bed. G'night!!
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Voices
So, I had a difficult time choosing a topic to write about again; 'V' is such a difficult letter for me. I could write about my personal victories, but that just gets far to personal and emotional and all that (plus, what I consider a victory is way different from what some others may consider a victory); I could write about old friendships etc, which this letter of the alphabet bring to mind, but that could get messy and possibly vindictive; I was considering writing about VISI (Vancouver Island Skate International) which used to be one of my favourite competitions, but that's just going to bring up skating memories and such, and I don't feel like doing that tonight. No, tonight I'm going to talk about voices.
Not the voices in my head (although I will acknowledge their existence; they get upset when I don't), but the variety of voices I actually use. You see, I have my collection of work voices, school voices, speaking with children voices, and acting adult voices. Then I have my 'normal' voice and my singing voices; it would appear that I use a large variety of voices. Oops.
So I thought up this topic at work when I realized that in the last 5 customers my voice/tone had changed 5 times.. It started rather sweet with a really sweet elderly couple that came through my till; they're regulars, and they always have nice things to say and encouragement to offer, so I like them. I used my sweet voice for them, and chatted. Then things began to pick up and my half harried, but still pleasant voice came out. With this voice, you can tell I'm slightly distracted and am talking to you and listening/responding, but it's also clear that I'm paying a great deal of attention to my work as well. The third voice that I used with the third customer was a pleasant voice, and then I noticed the small child she had with her, and my talking to children voice came out, which is a bit higher than normal, and I use the words "buddy" and "sweetie" more. My fourth voice is the one that takes the cake.
I have this voice that I reserve for "problem customers"; you know, the ones that argue with you about prices, are never satisfied with what you've done, and say that they'll never come back, but 3 days later they come through your till again and are all smiles. Oh yeah, they get their own voice (and smile). Because of performance I've got this smile that I can basically pull out of my pocket that makes it appear that I'm genuinely having the best time. With a few tweaks this smile can be tailored to make it look like I really care what is being said or that I'm sympathetic. Also with this tweaked smile comes my 'compassionate' voice when really I may want to smack the person I'm talking to. Those of you who've seen this will know what I'm talking about; it's not until my eyes look like they're turning black and my smile takes of a slightly vicious appearance that you've got to be careful. Anyways, got rid of my "problem customer" and then had a "young gallant" and his friend through my till.
He was nice and pleasant, and it was weird.. He asked how I was, made small talk, and when he went to give me his money he like, made a small bow over my hand. And then when I gave his change back he bowed in acceptance.. But I'm talking about voices, and by this time things had calmed down a little bit so I was using my relieved/happy/work voice. You know, the one where it sounds like I'm happy about everything and if I'm not careful I can be accused to flirting. However, I'm pretty careful with this voice at work because a). most of our customers are far too old for me, b). if they're not too old they're either friends of mine, people I went to school with, friends of my sister, or are decidedly unsuitable, and c). I'm not interested in meeting someone while pushing their groceries at this moment. Finally I got rid of them, competed my night, and ended up here (again).
And now I'm munching slowly on a piece of home-made (by myself even) citrus cheesecake, talking to Ray-Ray and another friend, listening to the hockey game (Go Canucks!), and debating making tea. But really, that's all I've got to say tonight; Talk atcha tomorrow (hopefully)! :)
Not the voices in my head (although I will acknowledge their existence; they get upset when I don't), but the variety of voices I actually use. You see, I have my collection of work voices, school voices, speaking with children voices, and acting adult voices. Then I have my 'normal' voice and my singing voices; it would appear that I use a large variety of voices. Oops.
So I thought up this topic at work when I realized that in the last 5 customers my voice/tone had changed 5 times.. It started rather sweet with a really sweet elderly couple that came through my till; they're regulars, and they always have nice things to say and encouragement to offer, so I like them. I used my sweet voice for them, and chatted. Then things began to pick up and my half harried, but still pleasant voice came out. With this voice, you can tell I'm slightly distracted and am talking to you and listening/responding, but it's also clear that I'm paying a great deal of attention to my work as well. The third voice that I used with the third customer was a pleasant voice, and then I noticed the small child she had with her, and my talking to children voice came out, which is a bit higher than normal, and I use the words "buddy" and "sweetie" more. My fourth voice is the one that takes the cake.
I have this voice that I reserve for "problem customers"; you know, the ones that argue with you about prices, are never satisfied with what you've done, and say that they'll never come back, but 3 days later they come through your till again and are all smiles. Oh yeah, they get their own voice (and smile). Because of performance I've got this smile that I can basically pull out of my pocket that makes it appear that I'm genuinely having the best time. With a few tweaks this smile can be tailored to make it look like I really care what is being said or that I'm sympathetic. Also with this tweaked smile comes my 'compassionate' voice when really I may want to smack the person I'm talking to. Those of you who've seen this will know what I'm talking about; it's not until my eyes look like they're turning black and my smile takes of a slightly vicious appearance that you've got to be careful. Anyways, got rid of my "problem customer" and then had a "young gallant" and his friend through my till.
He was nice and pleasant, and it was weird.. He asked how I was, made small talk, and when he went to give me his money he like, made a small bow over my hand. And then when I gave his change back he bowed in acceptance.. But I'm talking about voices, and by this time things had calmed down a little bit so I was using my relieved/happy/work voice. You know, the one where it sounds like I'm happy about everything and if I'm not careful I can be accused to flirting. However, I'm pretty careful with this voice at work because a). most of our customers are far too old for me, b). if they're not too old they're either friends of mine, people I went to school with, friends of my sister, or are decidedly unsuitable, and c). I'm not interested in meeting someone while pushing their groceries at this moment. Finally I got rid of them, competed my night, and ended up here (again).
And now I'm munching slowly on a piece of home-made (by myself even) citrus cheesecake, talking to Ray-Ray and another friend, listening to the hockey game (Go Canucks!), and debating making tea. But really, that's all I've got to say tonight; Talk atcha tomorrow (hopefully)! :)
Monday, April 25, 2011
University
So, this topic was actually suggested to me; the first thing to my mind was umbrellas, and I have had bad experiences and luck with those, so I decided that that topic wasn't appropriate. When I asked my mother what to write about she suggested 'underwear' and I decided that could get a little too risqué; Ray-Ray suggested unicorns, and I was very sorely tempted. But you know, it's sad. I didn't even think to talk about Universities, and I'm AT University. Well, was. I've just finished off another term, and now I'm (as you really should know by now) on SUMMER VACATION! (which means I'm picking up as many hours as possible at work and applying for additional jobs).
But hey, University - I love it. You know, it's actually not all that different from my high school as I expected it to be (probably because I went to a "self-directed high school" which is a nice way of saying that I could get away with skipping so long as I did my work. Basically. Not that I ever actually did this; check my attendance record :P *sweet smile*); I go to class, go do some work, hang out, and hand stuff in. Oh, and I have awesome, random discussions and meet incredible people!
Not that my high school friends aren't awesome, but the people I've met at University are awesome as well; I think it's a novelty thing, and the fact that I see them more than I see my friends from high school. However, my besties are high school friends :). I'm off track again though, aren't I? Yup. So, University and conversations, etc. Well, because of the upcoming election (Yay! I get to participate in democratic activities again.. Boo! We had to have ANOTHER election this quickly) I've had political debates at school, and have actually participated in political discussions and understood what was going on. This has never happened before, but it may have something to do with the fact that the first discussion I participated was prompted by this video. However, it's not just that; I've met people with similar interests to mine, spoken many words with other English majors, and have thoroughly enjoyed all of it.
Now, as many of you know (or not), I started as a Biology major. BIG MISTAKE. I know some people really love it, but it turns out it just wasn't for me. Now, I'm nearly done my English major and I'm regretting those lost 2 years; I could have taken so many amazing classes! My University offers Latin and ASL and Greek and Roman Studies and Germanic Studies and.. I could go on, but you get the ideas: I didn't take the courses that now sound to absolutely thrilling, and I'm sad. Maybe I'll come back to University as a senior, I hear it's free...
I know there are a lot of people out there who think that University is all about the social life, but with a schedule like mine, it can't be. I had the Breakfast Club (no, not the movie) and a few others that I hung out with, or members of the Breakfast Club at different times of day, and I had my friends from home and that was about it; that's all there was time for with 6 courses and a part-time job (not to mention commuting/napping, sleeping, eating, the gym, and occasionally cooking dinner and going to skating 2 times a week... holy carp, I sound like a drone >.<).
However, I thoroughly love my University life. It's liberating and educational and honestly, even though I feel like I spend 90% of my time studying/working and 100% of my time sleep deprived, I love it. I love the people I know, I love my campus, I love my studies, and I even find myself loving some of the work. Heck, I picked up a couple late Victorian novels to read over the summer because I want to, not because I have to. That's how much I'm enjoying this stuff!
And so, before I go do something else (alright, I'll admit it: it has taken me almost an hour to write this much because of youtube, convos on MSN and bubbles, so really this has been the 'something else') I'd just like to encourage everyone to find something that they love to study, sign up for University, and meet amazing people. Because I have, and I certainly love them all (also, I'm going to miss them this summer and the years coming, for those that are leaving)! Tons of love all, I'm off to find some tea, think about what courses I want to take next September (Germanic Studies courses, English, maybe some Greek Mythology...), talk with Ray-Ray, and blow more bubbles in mah bedroom! :)
Ta!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Telephones
Wow, looks like I'm back to my "normal" blogging hours - night times! That's because I was with my parents watching movies until about half an hour ago (we flipped between Alvin and the Chipmunks and 2Fast 2Furious because that's how cool we are!) when my mom turned to me and basically said that if I didn't go to bed she wouldn't leave me chocolate (okay so it was actually something about going to bed or the Easter Bunny couldn't visit but I think that I may be able to see through that after over 20 years. I hope.). So I ended up here again my lovelies, and am hoping to squeak this post in just before it's Sunday to keep up with my nearly perfect Blogging A-Z April Challenge record (for the record it's now 11:33 pm).
So, today I decided I would talk about telephones. They're pretty amazing, I mean you can now talk to someone across the world in "real time" without leaving your living room, or you can walk around the house and chat to them while doing laundry. Or you can call your parents while they're in the house and you simply can't find them; actually, the only time I've ever called home from home was for a really good reason. Now I guess I have to tell that story, eh?
Alright, so in the old house (before we moved obviously) I had about a quarter of the basement to myself as my bedroom and the door had a lock on it. Standard, right? Well, no. The doorknob had been put on wrong and the lock was actually on the outside of the bedroom, so you could lock the door from the outside. Since the doorknobs didn't match, once the door was locked it couldn't be unlocked from the inside; there wasn't a keyhole or even a mechanism to unlock the door, and I wasn't in the habit of keeping screwdrivers in my room at that point (after this happened I started keeping one in my skate bag, haha). Normally the stupidly locking door wasn't a problem, but on this particular summer day it apparently was. My little sister had been playing with the door and inadvertently locked the door. Then she proceeded to come into my room with me and shut the door; I bet you can see where this is going.
So we're in my room goofing off or whatever and I go to leave. And the door's locked. So of course I spend a while freaking out, then my eyes fall on my lamp/telephone (honestly it's the best combo-it's a lava lamp, but the base is a telephone. Not cordless or anything, but I love it. And it's blue!). My bedroom windows were open and I could hear music playing out back, but I knew that I couldn't yell loud enough to be heard and because the screens on my windows were older and I was weak (minded) I couldn't get them out to crawl out the windows (which were on ground level). So I called the house number! Well, eventually my parents picked up, came, and let us out, but not until they'd soundly told me off for not picking up the phone!! Telephones-they're wonderful, and they're weird.
The actual patent for the first telephone, as we all know, went to Alexander Graham Bell. However, there are several controversies surrounding who invented the telephone first. Which I'm not going to get into either; I just found it sort of interesting that there seems to still be so much controversy over it. Even though many people have moved onto cell phones (I myself use my cell far more than my home phone; no one calls my house anymore if they want to talk to me), I still love my original telephones. Those great huge ones with multiple pieces that were mounted on the wall in the early 1900s? Those were gorgeous pieces of work, but I'm not sure I could deal with the open lines system they used to have in some communities; nope, I like my privacy on the phone.
And the phones with the dials? Those are pretty awesome too; actually, we have one in our house. The power goes out a lot here so it really pays to have a land line instead of just cordless phones (which we all know are essentially useless when the power is out), and so my Dad brought this huge old dial phone back from his parents place last month when he, Bug and Mom helped Grandma move. This thing's great. It's black, very square, has the old dial on the front, and even has the classic ring; I love it (probably because it's so ancient looking, haha).
Telephones; they're great, and they help to keep us all together. Cell phones may be more convenient now, but they wouldn't be here without their precursors. Long live telephones! But now it's time for me to say goodnight; I have 5 minutes to upload this before I miss my 'deadline'. Until Monday then. Goodnight!!
So, today I decided I would talk about telephones. They're pretty amazing, I mean you can now talk to someone across the world in "real time" without leaving your living room, or you can walk around the house and chat to them while doing laundry. Or you can call your parents while they're in the house and you simply can't find them; actually, the only time I've ever called home from home was for a really good reason. Now I guess I have to tell that story, eh?
Alright, so in the old house (before we moved obviously) I had about a quarter of the basement to myself as my bedroom and the door had a lock on it. Standard, right? Well, no. The doorknob had been put on wrong and the lock was actually on the outside of the bedroom, so you could lock the door from the outside. Since the doorknobs didn't match, once the door was locked it couldn't be unlocked from the inside; there wasn't a keyhole or even a mechanism to unlock the door, and I wasn't in the habit of keeping screwdrivers in my room at that point (after this happened I started keeping one in my skate bag, haha). Normally the stupidly locking door wasn't a problem, but on this particular summer day it apparently was. My little sister had been playing with the door and inadvertently locked the door. Then she proceeded to come into my room with me and shut the door; I bet you can see where this is going.
So we're in my room goofing off or whatever and I go to leave. And the door's locked. So of course I spend a while freaking out, then my eyes fall on my lamp/telephone (honestly it's the best combo-it's a lava lamp, but the base is a telephone. Not cordless or anything, but I love it. And it's blue!). My bedroom windows were open and I could hear music playing out back, but I knew that I couldn't yell loud enough to be heard and because the screens on my windows were older and I was weak (minded) I couldn't get them out to crawl out the windows (which were on ground level). So I called the house number! Well, eventually my parents picked up, came, and let us out, but not until they'd soundly told me off for not picking up the phone!! Telephones-they're wonderful, and they're weird.
The actual patent for the first telephone, as we all know, went to Alexander Graham Bell. However, there are several controversies surrounding who invented the telephone first. Which I'm not going to get into either; I just found it sort of interesting that there seems to still be so much controversy over it. Even though many people have moved onto cell phones (I myself use my cell far more than my home phone; no one calls my house anymore if they want to talk to me), I still love my original telephones. Those great huge ones with multiple pieces that were mounted on the wall in the early 1900s? Those were gorgeous pieces of work, but I'm not sure I could deal with the open lines system they used to have in some communities; nope, I like my privacy on the phone.
And the phones with the dials? Those are pretty awesome too; actually, we have one in our house. The power goes out a lot here so it really pays to have a land line instead of just cordless phones (which we all know are essentially useless when the power is out), and so my Dad brought this huge old dial phone back from his parents place last month when he, Bug and Mom helped Grandma move. This thing's great. It's black, very square, has the old dial on the front, and even has the classic ring; I love it (probably because it's so ancient looking, haha).
Telephones; they're great, and they help to keep us all together. Cell phones may be more convenient now, but they wouldn't be here without their precursors. Long live telephones! But now it's time for me to say goodnight; I have 5 minutes to upload this before I miss my 'deadline'. Until Monday then. Goodnight!!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Sunshine!
What a wonderful way to greet my summer vacation; the sun has come out and after sleeping in this morning (okay, so I didn't go to bed until after 3 and initially woke up around 7, then dozed off and on until something like 10, but I 'slept in'), watching some Modern Family with the friend whose place I crashed at last night, and saying goodbye to her and her roommate (and wishing them a safe flight home to England) it was time to grab some lunch with another friend (the one I talked about in the 'Reunions' post). Then I drove home through an interesting part of town, saw a lot of flowers, and savored the sunshine!
And by savored the sunshine I mean that today, I hid inside but sat in a sunbeam.
It was an extraordinary, gorgeous, sunny day. However, it felt an awful lot like it was still winter; sunshine is wonderful, but I sort of wish it had brought some heat with it today. Not to fear though, they keep telling me that summer's on its way. I mean, it must be, it's like, the 22nd of April. Late May and early June are when it starts to get really nice around here, so it's almost here! (Late May and early June specifically because I can remember being stuck in classes and wishing that I were outside those months while in high school). And even then, "really nice" means that the sun comes out and the temperature peaks above twenty degrees Celsius. I guess this is better than a lot of other places though; we don't have to worry about it getting too outrageously hot (although we've certainly hit mid 30s in the summers, and that's nice!), but we need not fear freezing (or frost-there's a frost warning for tonight. Again.).
I dunno, I'm rambling but that's alright. I think that today's blog post is going to have alot (yes I'm aware of the 'typo) of nothing in it, which is fine. I'm on vacation, I can be free and not say anything important. Or at least that's how I feel today. And with that said, I think I'm going to leave you all with my random ramblings about nothing, head off for a cup of tea, maybe watch some Doctor Who, and sleep before getting up for work again tomorrow. Ciao!
And by savored the sunshine I mean that today, I hid inside but sat in a sunbeam.
It was an extraordinary, gorgeous, sunny day. However, it felt an awful lot like it was still winter; sunshine is wonderful, but I sort of wish it had brought some heat with it today. Not to fear though, they keep telling me that summer's on its way. I mean, it must be, it's like, the 22nd of April. Late May and early June are when it starts to get really nice around here, so it's almost here! (Late May and early June specifically because I can remember being stuck in classes and wishing that I were outside those months while in high school). And even then, "really nice" means that the sun comes out and the temperature peaks above twenty degrees Celsius. I guess this is better than a lot of other places though; we don't have to worry about it getting too outrageously hot (although we've certainly hit mid 30s in the summers, and that's nice!), but we need not fear freezing (or frost-there's a frost warning for tonight. Again.).
I dunno, I'm rambling but that's alright. I think that today's blog post is going to have alot (yes I'm aware of the 'typo) of nothing in it, which is fine. I'm on vacation, I can be free and not say anything important. Or at least that's how I feel today. And with that said, I think I'm going to leave you all with my random ramblings about nothing, head off for a cup of tea, maybe watch some Doctor Who, and sleep before getting up for work again tomorrow. Ciao!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Reunions
Before I get into my topic today, I'd just like to take a moment to celebrate; I just finished my last exam of the semester, and that means that I'm officially done with my third year! I'm pretty excited about this, as it means not only have I come this far from when I graduated high school and went into the wrong faculty (yeah, Science wasn't for me), but I'm that much closer to achieving my goals; I'm only 1 year away from obtaining my first (hopefully of 2) degree! :)
And now, onto topic: reunions. We've all been to them or had them, right? I'm about to be reunited with summer "vacation" (as soon as spring decides to show up at least), or we've all been to that great big gathering of a bunch of people that we haven't seen in a while, right? Well, I've decided that reunions can be a good thing and a bad thing; even reunions happening for unpleasant reasons can turn out to be good things.
And now, onto topic: reunions. We've all been to them or had them, right? I'm about to be reunited with summer "vacation" (as soon as spring decides to show up at least), or we've all been to that great big gathering of a bunch of people that we haven't seen in a while, right? Well, I've decided that reunions can be a good thing and a bad thing; even reunions happening for unpleasant reasons can turn out to be good things.
For example, recently (okay, so a few months ago - it feels recent though!) I went to a family reunion of sorts when I attended my grandfather's funeral. Funerals aren't really a pleasant time, especially when they are being held for people that you love, but it was a chance to see the part of my family that I don't normally get to see, which was a nice thing. I even got to meet my new cousin (err.. my cousin's daughter; I'm not exactly sure which relation she is to me technically) which was awesome because I have several relations all under about 4, half of whom I've actually met. I also got to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins, and people that I basically consider my family but actually have no blood relation to that I almost never get to see because we live in different provinces; for this reason, even bad things can turn out to be alright.
A more positive reunion (or form of reunion) would be a high school reunion, or an annual family reunion. I'm not going to either of these any time soon (so far as I know), but I do get to be reunited briefly with some of my friends! Now that the bulk of exams and classes are over (I'm done! But I have a friend who doesn't finish exams for another week or so, and Ray-Ray isn't done classes until the month's end because her school decided to be dumb) I have friends returning home to see people (like their families and myself and many many others) before jetissoning off to interesting places that I wish I were living in for the summer. They're off to take part in co-ops, etc while I'm stuck here (maybe?) where it's still not really spring. But that's besides the point; they're coming home for about a week each, and I'm going to get to see them!
I'm ridiculously excited about this, because I need to get out more. However, it's a chance to catch up in person instead of online (oh hey, remember that post?) or through texting, and this is what excites me. Reunions truly are wonderful things!
I think I've exhausted all that I really wanted to say today, which I'm sure you're relieved about; I'm off to find some lunch or a spot to read (or both) before I hit the rink and then head out to a friend's going away party (reunion? not really, since I won't know many of the people there; just party). Hopefully I'll manage to keep my record in tact tomorrow by updating at some point, but we'll see how that goes.
Bye!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Questions
Questions; we use them every day, whether or not we realize it. They crop up in our thoughts and our conversations, and they tend to drive us towards things. When you're looking for your keys you ask yourself (or others) where you've put them; when you meet someone new you may ask them their name; and if you're like me, you ask people multiple questions many times a day like "are paper bags alright" and "do you have a card? Debit?". They're all questions, and they all deserve answers. All questions deserve answers, right?
(oooh, super trick-that's another question! *gasp*)
Well, I'm not sure. My grandpa always says that there's no such thing as a stupid question, only a stupid answer, but is this really true? I mean, when you ask me if my slacks are black, it initially comes across as a stupid question, but if I reply with something like "no, they're a darkly tinted grey" that's a stupid answer, because I'm just being picky - my pants appear black. But honestly, DO all questions deserve answers, or just acknowledgement? Let me know what you think!
And now, on with the show. I have some questions that I have been wondering about, and I thought maybe I'd type them and their answers out so that we could all learn these things together. Just so you know though, my main sources will probably be Wikipedia and Google, or myself, so be prepared!!
What books should I read this summer? (The answer to this is partially provided by the stack of new used books I just bought and Christmas presents): Robin Hood, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Moonstone, Sabriel, The Druid's Tune, The Time Machine, Cold Fire, and Whispers Across Time. I'd like to get my hands on the Hunger Games books as well. Any more suggestions, please let me know!!
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (Now I'm just being mean) The riddle answer is "Why, a woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood", but really it varies and depends on the individual woodchuck and a bunch of other factors.
And one that I can't answer, but maybe you can for me: Why did they stop making Chargers and Challengers the same as they did in the late 60's/early 70's? I mean, aside from the obvious upgrades and technological advances, why'd they change the body?
What's you favourite car?? (Mine's the '69 Dodge Charger, if you couldn't tell.. Dukes of Hazzard (tv series) FTW)
Time to pack up, finish my tea, and go to bed; my last exam is tomorrow!! Ciao!
(oooh, super trick-that's another question! *gasp*)
Well, I'm not sure. My grandpa always says that there's no such thing as a stupid question, only a stupid answer, but is this really true? I mean, when you ask me if my slacks are black, it initially comes across as a stupid question, but if I reply with something like "no, they're a darkly tinted grey" that's a stupid answer, because I'm just being picky - my pants appear black. But honestly, DO all questions deserve answers, or just acknowledgement? Let me know what you think!
And now, on with the show. I have some questions that I have been wondering about, and I thought maybe I'd type them and their answers out so that we could all learn these things together. Just so you know though, my main sources will probably be Wikipedia and Google, or myself, so be prepared!!
What books should I read this summer? (The answer to this is partially provided by the stack of new used books I just bought and Christmas presents): Robin Hood, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Moonstone, Sabriel, The Druid's Tune, The Time Machine, Cold Fire, and Whispers Across Time. I'd like to get my hands on the Hunger Games books as well. Any more suggestions, please let me know!!
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (Now I'm just being mean) The riddle answer is "Why, a woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood", but really it varies and depends on the individual woodchuck and a bunch of other factors.
And one that I can't answer, but maybe you can for me: Why did they stop making Chargers and Challengers the same as they did in the late 60's/early 70's? I mean, aside from the obvious upgrades and technological advances, why'd they change the body?
What's you favourite car?? (Mine's the '69 Dodge Charger, if you couldn't tell.. Dukes of Hazzard (tv series) FTW)
Time to pack up, finish my tea, and go to bed; my last exam is tomorrow!! Ciao!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Potter
Well, with a title like that I could be writing about several things, couldn't I? I could be talking about the potters you refer to when you're talking about the people that make pots (ceramics maybe?); I may be mentioning the wonderful creator of Peter Rabbit, Miss Beatrix Potter; or, I may simply be talking about the best book series out there: Harry Potter. Which I am.
Yupp, you've caught me: I'm a Harry Potter fan. I've read all of the books, seen all of the currently released movies, and also own Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which were rather enjoyable to read through. However, let's not go all crazy on this- Harry Potter is still only a book series and is not actually truth; but bloody hell, if it were real I'd certainly prefer to be a witch. I'm not going to give you a run-down on the books because if you haven't already read them you most certainly should. But I'll tell you a little big about my Harry Potter experiences, if you'd like (none of which are overtly thrilling, but I rather enjoy them!)
So the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997 (so I was about 7 when it came out), and shortly after this I found it on the shelves of the school library. It took me a while to slog through, but after reading it I was hooked. When it came time in the 6th grade (years later) to do a book report on it, I was set. For the first time in school, people were actually seeking me out to be in their groups for work. This wasn't because I was popular but because I had read the book and knew the material; however, I was elated and will always fondly remember the first book and some of the things that came with it. Heck, I can still remember that it was raining most of the time I was reading the book (it rains a lot here)!
The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I don't have as many pleasant memories about, but I most certainly do remember when we went as a family to see the movie! My little sister doesn't like spiders and was about 9 when the movie hit theaters, but we went to see it anyways. We were sitting in a sold-out theater with my sister and I between my parents, Bug beside mom, and Aragog and co. became heartily present. Well, as soon as Aragog appeared on screen that was it! Bug shrieked and jumped, landing in mom's lap (this also happened later on when the Basilisk was introduced - she's a mite jumpy, but I love her!). I'm never going to forget how terrified she was, and though I feel bad for her, I can't help but think back on it an laugh.
Prisoner of Azkaban doesn't bring forward many memories about reading or seeing the movie that aren't related to the plot, but let me just say: I really liked this one, and the Dementors are freakin' gross. Goblet of Fire doesn't inspire too many memories either, except that at ten I read the entire thing in less than a week the first time, and about 3 or 5 days the second (I skimmed more the second time it would seem.). I also received GoF for my birthday, so that was awesome.
Order of the Phoenix took me about a week to read the first time as well, but I heartily enjoyed it; I spent a whole week out in the summer sunshine, hiding in the shade and languishing in the sun alternately, reading. Who wouldn't have enjoyed themselves?! Then out came Half Blood Prince, and that took about 2(?) days to read, and I enjoyed it. Deathly Hallows though is where my nerdiness comes out: I bought it at Costco while we were camping and it was pouring rain, and I read it in a night. Yeah. I stayed up all night reading Harry Potter on a family vacation, and I loved it.
Actually, I could have finished most of the later books in day if I hadn't had to be responsible and like, go to work the next day or something silly (or skating. I used to skate in the summer and have to be up early; I was cool, eh?); those were the days: books could be read for hours, and there was sunshine. Right now I'm sitting in my room after a day in which it was sunny, rained, and freakin' HAILED. The weather has been nuts, and I can't wait until summer. But, I'm off. Gunna finish off a Harry Potter Fanfic I've been reading, and head to bed. Work at noon shall be... Fun...
Goodnight, internet!
Yupp, you've caught me: I'm a Harry Potter fan. I've read all of the books, seen all of the currently released movies, and also own Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which were rather enjoyable to read through. However, let's not go all crazy on this- Harry Potter is still only a book series and is not actually truth; but bloody hell, if it were real I'd certainly prefer to be a witch. I'm not going to give you a run-down on the books because if you haven't already read them you most certainly should. But I'll tell you a little big about my Harry Potter experiences, if you'd like (none of which are overtly thrilling, but I rather enjoy them!)
So the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997 (so I was about 7 when it came out), and shortly after this I found it on the shelves of the school library. It took me a while to slog through, but after reading it I was hooked. When it came time in the 6th grade (years later) to do a book report on it, I was set. For the first time in school, people were actually seeking me out to be in their groups for work. This wasn't because I was popular but because I had read the book and knew the material; however, I was elated and will always fondly remember the first book and some of the things that came with it. Heck, I can still remember that it was raining most of the time I was reading the book (it rains a lot here)!
The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, I don't have as many pleasant memories about, but I most certainly do remember when we went as a family to see the movie! My little sister doesn't like spiders and was about 9 when the movie hit theaters, but we went to see it anyways. We were sitting in a sold-out theater with my sister and I between my parents, Bug beside mom, and Aragog and co. became heartily present. Well, as soon as Aragog appeared on screen that was it! Bug shrieked and jumped, landing in mom's lap (this also happened later on when the Basilisk was introduced - she's a mite jumpy, but I love her!). I'm never going to forget how terrified she was, and though I feel bad for her, I can't help but think back on it an laugh.
Prisoner of Azkaban doesn't bring forward many memories about reading or seeing the movie that aren't related to the plot, but let me just say: I really liked this one, and the Dementors are freakin' gross. Goblet of Fire doesn't inspire too many memories either, except that at ten I read the entire thing in less than a week the first time, and about 3 or 5 days the second (I skimmed more the second time it would seem.). I also received GoF for my birthday, so that was awesome.
Order of the Phoenix took me about a week to read the first time as well, but I heartily enjoyed it; I spent a whole week out in the summer sunshine, hiding in the shade and languishing in the sun alternately, reading. Who wouldn't have enjoyed themselves?! Then out came Half Blood Prince, and that took about 2(?) days to read, and I enjoyed it. Deathly Hallows though is where my nerdiness comes out: I bought it at Costco while we were camping and it was pouring rain, and I read it in a night. Yeah. I stayed up all night reading Harry Potter on a family vacation, and I loved it.
Actually, I could have finished most of the later books in day if I hadn't had to be responsible and like, go to work the next day or something silly (or skating. I used to skate in the summer and have to be up early; I was cool, eh?); those were the days: books could be read for hours, and there was sunshine. Right now I'm sitting in my room after a day in which it was sunny, rained, and freakin' HAILED. The weather has been nuts, and I can't wait until summer. But, I'm off. Gunna finish off a Harry Potter Fanfic I've been reading, and head to bed. Work at noon shall be... Fun...
Goodnight, internet!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Online (my mind's wandering, and it may not make sense!!)
So, I'm sitting here in front of my computer earlier, staring at a blank blog post and wondering "what starts with 'O' that I can write about". Not only was I thinking about it, but I texted some friends for suggestions (because I'm that brain dead tonight, again), so there were a few of us thinking about roughly the same topic and this one never came up: online. How I failed to think up this (rather open) topic earlier I'm not sure, but I'd like to thank Youtube and Brad Paisley for their inspiration, haha.
So, online. Broad topic, right? Well, guess it's going to stay fairly broad, and I'm just going to talk a bit about it. For example, I'm "online" right now in more ways/places (I suppose) than one. I've my msn open to chat with friends (because I'm old school like that, and skype hates me. But I have that too lol), I`m 'online' on facebook, and I'm 'online' in the sense that I'm on the internet; not to mention any other devices I have that are connected to the internet currently (like my ipod).
But I'm not here to tell you how many windows I've open on my computer right now (if you're wondering, it's 7), I'm here to talk about online. That void, that digital (?) place that we all end up in/at at one time. It's amazing the things that are available online: the music, videos, documents, photos... All those things that we post in "private" that make their way out to the general public, etc. It's an amazing place, and if you know how to navigate online, you have access to almost anything (so I hear; I'm computer illiterate). However, even if you're computer illiterate you can find a multitude of things. Heck, forget trying to FIND things, you can create things. Yupp. You can make "new" things. Like people.
Well, technically you're not actually making a new person (hello Frankenstein?), but you can create an alternate ego. I've done it before, but I can't actually link you to it because my friend had the link, and it's like, 7ish years ago, and I don't even know if it's still out there. But it was fun; I was more alternative than my truly preppy self, and I was definitely more outgoing. It was all in fun too, so there was no fear of anyone taking it very seriously; it was also clear it was all in fun.
What else can I say about online? Not much tonight because I'm sort of out of it-I'm listening to Brad Paisley/ watching the Dukes of Hazzard, drinking tea, and eating chocolates after a long, painful day, so yeah... I'm going to go wallow and enjoy it.
(p.s., what do you use to go online? Google chrome, internet explorer, firefox? whatt?? I'm on Google Chrome atm..)
But I'm not here to tell you how many windows I've open on my computer right now (if you're wondering, it's 7), I'm here to talk about online. That void, that digital (?) place that we all end up in/at at one time. It's amazing the things that are available online: the music, videos, documents, photos... All those things that we post in "private" that make their way out to the general public, etc. It's an amazing place, and if you know how to navigate online, you have access to almost anything (so I hear; I'm computer illiterate). However, even if you're computer illiterate you can find a multitude of things. Heck, forget trying to FIND things, you can create things. Yupp. You can make "new" things. Like people.
Well, technically you're not actually making a new person (hello Frankenstein?), but you can create an alternate ego. I've done it before, but I can't actually link you to it because my friend had the link, and it's like, 7ish years ago, and I don't even know if it's still out there. But it was fun; I was more alternative than my truly preppy self, and I was definitely more outgoing. It was all in fun too, so there was no fear of anyone taking it very seriously; it was also clear it was all in fun.
What else can I say about online? Not much tonight because I'm sort of out of it-I'm listening to Brad Paisley/ watching the Dukes of Hazzard, drinking tea, and eating chocolates after a long, painful day, so yeah... I'm going to go wallow and enjoy it.
(p.s., what do you use to go online? Google chrome, internet explorer, firefox? whatt?? I'm on Google Chrome atm..)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Night-time
That would be what time it is now; nighttime. As I sit here typing this in my kick-ass Tinkerbell pajamas (which I love, minus the fact that I've ripped one of the seams partially open in the leg - ventilation?) the only thoughts running through my head really are about what I did today, how much comfy my bed looks, and how I've got to write a supposedly thrilling blog before I can be off to bed because I somehow managed to forget that I was doing this until 11pm. And I have to be up in little over 6.5 hours for work >.<
So, what'd I do today? Well, I managed to sleep in until 8am (gasp, I know. It's super late, eh>), lounged in bed until 10, got up and had breakfast, cleaned up, showered, and dropped Bug off at work (because she's playing Gotcha and currently has a stalker, she's trying to avoid using her car, I gather). Then I headed into town to cruise used book stores in the April sunshine!!
It sounds totally nerdy, but I love a good used book store. The first one I visited today (yeah, I went to two) I hadn't actually intended to stop into originally, but I remembered seeing a sign for it as I went by on the highway a while ago, so I went in. And came out with 6 books for $21. I'm stoked! I'm now going to be reading (or re-reading in some cases) Robin Hood, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Sabriel, The Moonstone, and The Druid's Tune over the summer, for sure. This place had shelves and shelves of books, and since it was also an antiques store it was really neat just to wander through. Then I headed over to my intended destination (which is going to undergo renos this summer and will no longer have as many thousands of books. Sad.) and perused the shelves. Here I didn't hit as much luck, but it very well could be due to the huge number of books that they have. They've got oodles of them! I came out of there with The Time Machine and Cold Fire; the first I`ve never read and am super excited to after reading War of the Worlds this year, and the second is an old favourite that I`ve taken out of the library dozens of times. And then I headed out the doors to the street market.
One of the things I'd forgotten about the area that I was visiting was that they have a "farmer's market" every Saturday for like, 4 hours. I was on my own so I probably looked either like a loser or slightly pathetic, but I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around all the different little tents and looking at things. I even bought some really nice smelling handmade goat's milk soap to use for the summer. Needless to say, I love street fairs. Especially when they come with a live band like this one did. It was the perfect blend of good literature, folksy music, sunshine, and just general happiness all around. Then I came home, read, went grocery shopping, read, ate dinner, read, and watched Tron with my parents, and now I'm here.
In actuality though, my bed is totally calling my name, and since I now have to be up in significantly less time than before (because I got side tracked writing this and ended up on facebook and twitter because I've not been online all day) I think I'm going to set my alarm, plug my phone in, and curl up under my fun, circle be-decked duvet. Goodnight lovelies!! (And I haven't had a single cup of tea today! But I did have a glass of Nestea Iced tea. Does that count?)
So, what'd I do today? Well, I managed to sleep in until 8am (gasp, I know. It's super late, eh>), lounged in bed until 10, got up and had breakfast, cleaned up, showered, and dropped Bug off at work (because she's playing Gotcha and currently has a stalker, she's trying to avoid using her car, I gather). Then I headed into town to cruise used book stores in the April sunshine!!
It sounds totally nerdy, but I love a good used book store. The first one I visited today (yeah, I went to two) I hadn't actually intended to stop into originally, but I remembered seeing a sign for it as I went by on the highway a while ago, so I went in. And came out with 6 books for $21. I'm stoked! I'm now going to be reading (or re-reading in some cases) Robin Hood, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Sabriel, The Moonstone, and The Druid's Tune over the summer, for sure. This place had shelves and shelves of books, and since it was also an antiques store it was really neat just to wander through. Then I headed over to my intended destination (which is going to undergo renos this summer and will no longer have as many thousands of books. Sad.) and perused the shelves. Here I didn't hit as much luck, but it very well could be due to the huge number of books that they have. They've got oodles of them! I came out of there with The Time Machine and Cold Fire; the first I`ve never read and am super excited to after reading War of the Worlds this year, and the second is an old favourite that I`ve taken out of the library dozens of times. And then I headed out the doors to the street market.
One of the things I'd forgotten about the area that I was visiting was that they have a "farmer's market" every Saturday for like, 4 hours. I was on my own so I probably looked either like a loser or slightly pathetic, but I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around all the different little tents and looking at things. I even bought some really nice smelling handmade goat's milk soap to use for the summer. Needless to say, I love street fairs. Especially when they come with a live band like this one did. It was the perfect blend of good literature, folksy music, sunshine, and just general happiness all around. Then I came home, read, went grocery shopping, read, ate dinner, read, and watched Tron with my parents, and now I'm here.
In actuality though, my bed is totally calling my name, and since I now have to be up in significantly less time than before (because I got side tracked writing this and ended up on facebook and twitter because I've not been online all day) I think I'm going to set my alarm, plug my phone in, and curl up under my fun, circle be-decked duvet. Goodnight lovelies!! (And I haven't had a single cup of tea today! But I did have a glass of Nestea Iced tea. Does that count?)
Friday, April 15, 2011
Motivation
So I don't know about anyone else out there, but lately it's been really hard to find the motivation to do my studying - I just want school to be over, the heck with all these exams! But alas, I had 6 to write (I say 'had' as I now only have one less to write), and I finally found motivation to study. Or at least to work on the last remaining course I have, haha.
How did I find this motivation? Well, I wrote an exam this morning.
There's someone out there that's extremely skeptical as to how this could possibly help me find my motivation, but I swear it makes sense. Let me explain: I wrote my psych final this morning, and it was pretty much the easiest final exam I've ever written. It was 80 multiple choice questions and we were allotted two hours in which to complete it. Because I've been studying throughout the term, and because I find the work to be somewhat easy and repetitive, I completed this exam in something akin to forty minutes. Me. I finished a final exam (worth 90/200 points of my grade) in under an hour. That's not the scary thing though. The scariest bit? I found it incredibly easy.
There's someone out there laughing at me again but I'm serious. The ease with which I completed this exam not only gave me vast amounts of confidence, but it gave me the motivation to study for my next and final exam. The fact that the last exam is an English exam doesn't hurt. Nor does the fact that I have yet to finish the assigned reading... Which isn't as bad as it sounds; I've only got two novels to finish off. About 70 pages in Maria Edgeworth's Belinda, and then all of Opie`s Adeline Mowbray and then I`m done, so I'll be able to do it before the exam :). And then it's just reviewing notes and getting my arse out of bed at 6 am again after working afternoon shifts all the week prior. Yuck.
But I'm out, this took far too long to write and I'm going into town to pick up take 'n' bake pizza for dinner with Dad. Luvs!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Limits
When I say limits, this may be what comes to mind for some:
Personally however, I do not think of that for limits. Well, I do to a certain extent in that I took calculus and I hated it, and thus limits draw to mind bad experiences (or thoughts of The Big Bang Theory) and near failing grades. That's not what I was going to refer to tonight though. Tonight I'm going go talk about personal limits and how I'm beginning to think I've reached one of mine.
Everyone has certain limits, si? Like a limit to how much alcohol they can hold before they are sick, or a limit to how long they can go without sleeping. Well, I'm beginning to reach my stress limit, again. Which is fine because it's the end of term, but it still stinks because it basically means I'm exhausted. I came home from school yesterday and had a nap because I was so tired - I don't nap. I don't like napping, it takes time out of my day, and that's valuable time that I could be spending in better ways. Or rather, I nap selectively because I will admit that if Daddy's driving me home from the city (because we carpool when possible) I nap. And if I'm getting a ride somewhere at 6 am and nothing's happening, I nap. But that's about it, besides yesterday.
Not only am I reaching my limit with my exhaustion, but I'm also tired because I'm stressed. I'm stressed because I've written 4 of my 6 exams so far, with another tomorrow morning. This will be alleviated soon, as will my sleep deprivation so really, I'm only approaching my limit. And this limit is not going to be reached if I can help it!
Yay limits. Stressful as they can be, they're still really helpful in making sure that I'm me. They define me. And so, now I'm off to get a cup of tea and relax before I go to bed. Short, boring blog tonight because I've very little energy. Ciao!!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Killing Kisses and Kerosene
Here's our grammar lesson for the day: commas are important! Without them, as my title is written, you may expect something about killing kisses such as a write up about a Dementor's Kiss. For two reasons however, this will never be. The first is that a Dementor's Kiss doesn't actually kill you, the Dementor simply sucks out your soul (so much more pleasant, eh?), therefore not technically killing you; the second is that that could be fairly depressing, and I did depressing yesterday and don't want to again tonight. As for Kerosene, well, you'll see where that comes in shortly.
(And for all you Vancouver Canucks fans out there wondering why I'm not watching the playoffs, there's also two reasons for that: I'm not a gigantic hockey fan, and by not watching I'm supporting them. You see, every time I watch a Canucks game, they tend to lose. The same with the Olympics - every time I turned to the TV during the Gold Medal Game, the US scored. Thus, I'm hiding from hockey in order to support it. Convoluted logic, but it seems to work nonetheless.)
When most people try to think of words that start with 'K', I can see Kiss coming up. I can also see Kick, Kangaroo, Kung-Fu, Kill, and Korea. This is not where my mind went though. Instantly I can up with "Kill", "Kiss", and "Kerosene". Kiss and Kill are a little more typical, but Kerosene? Really? I seem to have this mental though process that comes up somewhat disturbing words if you connect them all. These three in particular though, wow.
If you put these words together and tried to work something out revolving around them you'd probably come up with some crazy twisted drama murder plot involving a lot of leather, relationships, murder, and arson. At least that's where my mind went when I realized these were the first three words I thought of when someone said "name a bunch of words that start with 'K'". You know what's worse though? It took me a while to come up with words past those three.
I was standing in the kitchen at like, 6 am planning out my day when I realized today was another blog day, one in which I'd have to write about something to do with "K", so I started thinking. I'd had weird dreams last night, so "Killing" came up. I was getting ready to leave for my exam, and went to say goodbye to my parents so "Kiss" came to mind (because I was not going to kiss them goodbye, they're ill and I have no time to be!), and we have an oil burning lamp in our living room (or rather, 2) that I love, so "Kerosene" came to mind. However, after thinking up those three, I was stumped. Stumped. I couldn't get past 3 for words that start with "K". And I'm an English major. I was pretty ashamed, then I tried to piece together the words that I'd thought up and was a little bit alarmed. So I thought I'd share.
Guess this is all from me tonight, I'm going to study a bit of Psych before I catch up on the hockey score and then watch Criminal Minds. Later Gator!! (Sorry, not picture today - I don't know what type of visual aide I want to include!! Luvsss!)
(And for all you Vancouver Canucks fans out there wondering why I'm not watching the playoffs, there's also two reasons for that: I'm not a gigantic hockey fan, and by not watching I'm supporting them. You see, every time I watch a Canucks game, they tend to lose. The same with the Olympics - every time I turned to the TV during the Gold Medal Game, the US scored. Thus, I'm hiding from hockey in order to support it. Convoluted logic, but it seems to work nonetheless.)
When most people try to think of words that start with 'K', I can see Kiss coming up. I can also see Kick, Kangaroo, Kung-Fu, Kill, and Korea. This is not where my mind went though. Instantly I can up with "Kill", "Kiss", and "Kerosene". Kiss and Kill are a little more typical, but Kerosene? Really? I seem to have this mental though process that comes up somewhat disturbing words if you connect them all. These three in particular though, wow.
If you put these words together and tried to work something out revolving around them you'd probably come up with some crazy twisted drama murder plot involving a lot of leather, relationships, murder, and arson. At least that's where my mind went when I realized these were the first three words I thought of when someone said "name a bunch of words that start with 'K'". You know what's worse though? It took me a while to come up with words past those three.
I was standing in the kitchen at like, 6 am planning out my day when I realized today was another blog day, one in which I'd have to write about something to do with "K", so I started thinking. I'd had weird dreams last night, so "Killing" came up. I was getting ready to leave for my exam, and went to say goodbye to my parents so "Kiss" came to mind (because I was not going to kiss them goodbye, they're ill and I have no time to be!), and we have an oil burning lamp in our living room (or rather, 2) that I love, so "Kerosene" came to mind. However, after thinking up those three, I was stumped. Stumped. I couldn't get past 3 for words that start with "K". And I'm an English major. I was pretty ashamed, then I tried to piece together the words that I'd thought up and was a little bit alarmed. So I thought I'd share.
Guess this is all from me tonight, I'm going to study a bit of Psych before I catch up on the hockey score and then watch Criminal Minds. Later Gator!! (Sorry, not picture today - I don't know what type of visual aide I want to include!! Luvsss!)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Jump Rope and Ju Jubes
You have no idea how hard it was to decide what to write about today (unless you're one of the people I asked for ideas)! There are so many things that come to mind when I think of "J", and I had a super hard time deciding. First I thought of jousting, then juries, and jumps/jumping, juggling, and someone suggested journals and jackhammers, jack sh!t, jolts, joules... Finally, Ray-Ray's suggestion won out and I'm talking about Jump Rope and Ju Jubes.
I actually didn't think right away that I would choose this topic because it seemed kind of vague and difficult to write about, but when I actually thought about it it became clear just how imperative to my up bringing ju jubes have actually been (sound lame, right?). Ever since I was little being at my grandparents' house has been a huge part of my life - when I was little they moved up here to live nearer us than an hour - and I still spend as much time with them as possible with them.
[I had about 2.5 more paragraphs about ju jubes and being at grandma's here that were really sentimental and contained a bunch of fond memories, like how I used to squish the ju jubes up and make them all sticky and messy before eating them, and how I'd take so much time to pick just the right ones, but my computer has decided today that it hates me, and thus they were erased. I'll suffice it to say that now you'll never know the depth of my history with ju jubes, but that it's really rather extensive. Sorry, but technology and I aren't great friends, and today (s)he seems to be hating on me. Let us move forth.]
Even today I still eat ju jubes. On occasion I eat them at grandma's house, but not nearly as frequently as I used to; I don't have them every visit! But I've taken to munching on sour ju jubes while I study, and though I know it's a bad habit - it helps. I'll just make sure I remember to keep going to the gym (when I'm not so exhausted) and working hard!!
I was going to write about the various uses of jump ropes, but as I'm tired and listening to country music, drinking tea, and currently have tears threatening to poor out of my eyes (because of the memories associated with the song that I just turned off) I find it sufficient to say that they have multiple uses, from keeping you fit to keeping you restrained, and that they were much easier to use for their intended purpose when I was little. Did you ever do Jump Rope for Heart? You know, when you took pledges for the Heart and Stroke Association and then attempted to jump rope for hours? Well I did, and it was a hugely fun event - we jumped rope for hours (in teams), played jump rope games, and got ourselves ensnared in double dutch ropes - and I know I probably couldn't do it for as long as I did then now. Someone out there's probably saying I'm lazy or large or whatever, but I swear I'm not. I'm just not a crazily active little kid anymore (oh how I wish I was!), and I don't have the energy I used to.
Wow, this all sounds rather depressing :( Guess it's time to turn on the charm and say "I hope y'all have a wonderful day tomorrow and that the sun shines (though it probably won't, with our track record); I'm writing a Victorian Lit exam and studying Psychology, so I probably won't be joining you" *bats eyelashes* "Goodnight lovelies, I'm sure tomorrow will be a new, exciting day!"
(photo courtesy of this link: http://potd.chrisempey.com/2008/07/13/13-jujubes/)
I actually didn't think right away that I would choose this topic because it seemed kind of vague and difficult to write about, but when I actually thought about it it became clear just how imperative to my up bringing ju jubes have actually been (sound lame, right?). Ever since I was little being at my grandparents' house has been a huge part of my life - when I was little they moved up here to live nearer us than an hour - and I still spend as much time with them as possible with them.
[I had about 2.5 more paragraphs about ju jubes and being at grandma's here that were really sentimental and contained a bunch of fond memories, like how I used to squish the ju jubes up and make them all sticky and messy before eating them, and how I'd take so much time to pick just the right ones, but my computer has decided today that it hates me, and thus they were erased. I'll suffice it to say that now you'll never know the depth of my history with ju jubes, but that it's really rather extensive. Sorry, but technology and I aren't great friends, and today (s)he seems to be hating on me. Let us move forth.]
Even today I still eat ju jubes. On occasion I eat them at grandma's house, but not nearly as frequently as I used to; I don't have them every visit! But I've taken to munching on sour ju jubes while I study, and though I know it's a bad habit - it helps. I'll just make sure I remember to keep going to the gym (when I'm not so exhausted) and working hard!!
I was going to write about the various uses of jump ropes, but as I'm tired and listening to country music, drinking tea, and currently have tears threatening to poor out of my eyes (because of the memories associated with the song that I just turned off) I find it sufficient to say that they have multiple uses, from keeping you fit to keeping you restrained, and that they were much easier to use for their intended purpose when I was little. Did you ever do Jump Rope for Heart? You know, when you took pledges for the Heart and Stroke Association and then attempted to jump rope for hours? Well I did, and it was a hugely fun event - we jumped rope for hours (in teams), played jump rope games, and got ourselves ensnared in double dutch ropes - and I know I probably couldn't do it for as long as I did then now. Someone out there's probably saying I'm lazy or large or whatever, but I swear I'm not. I'm just not a crazily active little kid anymore (oh how I wish I was!), and I don't have the energy I used to.
Wow, this all sounds rather depressing :( Guess it's time to turn on the charm and say "I hope y'all have a wonderful day tomorrow and that the sun shines (though it probably won't, with our track record); I'm writing a Victorian Lit exam and studying Psychology, so I probably won't be joining you" *bats eyelashes* "Goodnight lovelies, I'm sure tomorrow will be a new, exciting day!"
Monday, April 11, 2011
Imagination (also known as the reason I have trouble studying?)
My grandma always told me when I was little that "boredom is simply a lack of imagination" and being the little kid that I was, I never actually understood what she meant. I wasn't often bored as a kid because I had school and friends, books, dance, skating, my sister to deal with, and imaginary worlds to dream up and participate in both myself and with my friends. When I repeat this to myself as I get older, I for sure know what it means, and I can appreciate just how much I should take these words to heart. We should all take words like this to heart.
I'm not saying we should all go around thinking about unicorns, palaces, space fights and royalty like I used to, but we should use our imaginations in a multitude of ways. I like to think "Dream, believe, and achieve", and I feel like this fits in with imagination really well. If we all envisioned (or imagined) a peaceful world, higher efficiency transportation, environmentally stable and friendly products, etc. and found ways to realize these imaginings, wouldn't the world be in a better place? I'm not trying to take away from the importance of using imagination as a way of escaping problems and reality because I think this is one of the intended applications of imagination, but I'm trying to bring out some creativity; it's not always going to be someone out there telling us what to do, one day we're going to be in charge, and we'll have to have ideas.
It's imagination that we use to come up with stories and movies, and imagination that leads us to some of our goals. Sure, there's probably someone out there directing how we go or what we strive for, but ultimately it's up to us - We are the future, and we are the dreamers.
(My imagination is also most of the reason I have a hard time studying - like now. I can read something, start thinking about it, and - boom - my imagination takes hold and elaborates and all of a sudden I'm daydreaming. Like now. Ah, the heck with it, I'm going to get another cup of tea and try to concentrate on my Archaeology study stuff. Exam tomorrow!!)
I'll catcha lata!! :)
I'm not saying we should all go around thinking about unicorns, palaces, space fights and royalty like I used to, but we should use our imaginations in a multitude of ways. I like to think "Dream, believe, and achieve", and I feel like this fits in with imagination really well. If we all envisioned (or imagined) a peaceful world, higher efficiency transportation, environmentally stable and friendly products, etc. and found ways to realize these imaginings, wouldn't the world be in a better place? I'm not trying to take away from the importance of using imagination as a way of escaping problems and reality because I think this is one of the intended applications of imagination, but I'm trying to bring out some creativity; it's not always going to be someone out there telling us what to do, one day we're going to be in charge, and we'll have to have ideas.
It's imagination that we use to come up with stories and movies, and imagination that leads us to some of our goals. Sure, there's probably someone out there directing how we go or what we strive for, but ultimately it's up to us - We are the future, and we are the dreamers.
(My imagination is also most of the reason I have a hard time studying - like now. I can read something, start thinking about it, and - boom - my imagination takes hold and elaborates and all of a sudden I'm daydreaming. Like now. Ah, the heck with it, I'm going to get another cup of tea and try to concentrate on my Archaeology study stuff. Exam tomorrow!!)
I'll catcha lata!! :)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
(Your) Highness
So, I'm going to see a movie with a friend tonight, and I have to work all day so I thought I'd leave you with just a quick message today. 'Your Highness' is not only a term I use (often in derision or sarcastically), but it's the name of the movie that I'm going to see tonight. Because I'm working an 8.5 hour day today and then am going straight out for dinner with Ray-Ray and then to the movie, it'll probably be Sunday by the time I get home. Thus, I leave you with a quick apologetic blurb and a trailer for the movie.
Lots of love and hugs!!
Lots of love and hugs!!
Friday, April 8, 2011
Gum
So I went out to dinner tonight with my momma, and was talking about my blog. I asked her what she thought I should write about for 'G' and her reply instantly was "gum". So I guess today I'm writing about the mundane topic of Gum, because I've no better inspiration (however, before I could do this I had to find and put back on my glasses, so I maybe could`ve written about that, but it`s even more mundane).
Coming into this I figured maybe I should know a bit more about gum than 'ìt tastes good for a little while, and then the flavour goes away' and 'sometimes it's super sticky, and sometimes it's only kinda sticky', so I Googled it. My Google search for "Gum" returned 83,500,000 hits in 0.14 seconds. What? Do we really think about chewing gum that much? Wow... So, being the shirker that I am, I clicked into Wikipedia first and they had quite a wealth of information. Did you know that some form of chewing gum has been around since the Neolithic Period?! I mean, I knew that it was old, but.. Apparently someone out there found 5,000 year old tooth imprints in some chewing gum like stuff made of birch bark tar that maybe had antiseptic properties and other health advantages. Wouldn't it be great if our chewing gum had those advantages?
I actually knew about the Ancient Greeks and their mastic gum, which is from mastic trees, and the American Indians chewing resin, so those weren't surprises for me. However, the first "mass produced" chewing gum using paraffin wax as an ingredient (1869) I found rather gross. And then I learned about the chicle gum. Chicle is this natural latex product that was exported from Mexico to be used to replace rubber originally, and it ended up being used in chewing gum instead because it held flavour better and was smoother than the wax concoction that was in use at the time. Now we use all sorts of chemical substitutes containing aspartame and all that gunk, but originally it came from a wax substitute. I also discovered that 'Chiclets' gum has been around since 1899, which I thought was kinda neat (because I'm dorky and because I happen to like Chiclets, even though the flavour doesn't last all that long).
That's about all the research I've done into gum because that's all I was willing to do, but I thought I'd letcha know :) If anyone wants to see where I got my information, it was here. I'd just like to add that though I know chewing gum isn't necessarily beneficial to my health and that it annoys some people to no end, I rather enjoy chewing gum. I also normally need to have either chewing gum or hard candies while writing exams, so it turns out this post was fairly relevant as I wrote my first of six exams today.. One down, five to go. However, I'm off to find a cup of tea and relax for the night. Goodnight and always always always dispose of your gum responsibly. If it's not biodegradable, find a trash can! :)
Coming into this I figured maybe I should know a bit more about gum than 'ìt tastes good for a little while, and then the flavour goes away' and 'sometimes it's super sticky, and sometimes it's only kinda sticky', so I Googled it. My Google search for "Gum" returned 83,500,000 hits in 0.14 seconds. What? Do we really think about chewing gum that much? Wow... So, being the shirker that I am, I clicked into Wikipedia first and they had quite a wealth of information. Did you know that some form of chewing gum has been around since the Neolithic Period?! I mean, I knew that it was old, but.. Apparently someone out there found 5,000 year old tooth imprints in some chewing gum like stuff made of birch bark tar that maybe had antiseptic properties and other health advantages. Wouldn't it be great if our chewing gum had those advantages?
I actually knew about the Ancient Greeks and their mastic gum, which is from mastic trees, and the American Indians chewing resin, so those weren't surprises for me. However, the first "mass produced" chewing gum using paraffin wax as an ingredient (1869) I found rather gross. And then I learned about the chicle gum. Chicle is this natural latex product that was exported from Mexico to be used to replace rubber originally, and it ended up being used in chewing gum instead because it held flavour better and was smoother than the wax concoction that was in use at the time. Now we use all sorts of chemical substitutes containing aspartame and all that gunk, but originally it came from a wax substitute. I also discovered that 'Chiclets' gum has been around since 1899, which I thought was kinda neat (because I'm dorky and because I happen to like Chiclets, even though the flavour doesn't last all that long).
That's about all the research I've done into gum because that's all I was willing to do, but I thought I'd letcha know :) If anyone wants to see where I got my information, it was here. I'd just like to add that though I know chewing gum isn't necessarily beneficial to my health and that it annoys some people to no end, I rather enjoy chewing gum. I also normally need to have either chewing gum or hard candies while writing exams, so it turns out this post was fairly relevant as I wrote my first of six exams today.. One down, five to go. However, I'm off to find a cup of tea and relax for the night. Goodnight and always always always dispose of your gum responsibly. If it's not biodegradable, find a trash can! :)
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Figure Skating
It's what I do, and it's what I love. I first got into skating at a really young age (my momma took me public skating at age 4 and had to carry me off the ice kicking and screaming, so she enrolled me in lessons at age 5, so I've been recently informed), and I haven't missed a year since. When I started at University I skated about once a week, and did the same up until this year. Now I skate about twice a week, once through the University and once through the local skating club.
As much as I love skating, it's not a career. It's not even something I'm particularly amazing at, but I love it. It's a time and place where I can relax and be myself, and lately it has become an opportunity to meet new people and have a bit more of a social life (if you haven't noticed already, I'm a bit of a home-body). It's also a method of exercise and stress relief. However, there are a few... Things... About skating I would like to clear up.
We're not wimps. You go out there, fall out of the air onto your butt multiple times in a manner of minutes, and say we're wimps. Or do a 4 minute program full out and say that we're not athletic. Figure Skating is not always a team sport it is a sport. And there are teams out there - synchro is fairly popular (although after having multiple concussions because I was flung into the boards off the end of a line, I'm not a fan of doing it myself), and we have competed as individuals in a team (Highschool competition, for example. Which was a blast!). Also, we don't do "leaps and turns", we do "jumps and spins" although there are turns that we do (three turns, mohawks, brackets, counters, etc). The salchow is not the only jump out there (though it seems to be the best well known). And we do trip over our toe picks, just not as often as some people might think.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that figure skating is a huge part of my life, that I love it, and that there are a few misconceptions out there that need not be there. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them!! :)
Farewell all
As much as I love skating, it's not a career. It's not even something I'm particularly amazing at, but I love it. It's a time and place where I can relax and be myself, and lately it has become an opportunity to meet new people and have a bit more of a social life (if you haven't noticed already, I'm a bit of a home-body). It's also a method of exercise and stress relief. However, there are a few... Things... About skating I would like to clear up.
We're not wimps. You go out there, fall out of the air onto your butt multiple times in a manner of minutes, and say we're wimps. Or do a 4 minute program full out and say that we're not athletic. Figure Skating is not always a team sport it is a sport. And there are teams out there - synchro is fairly popular (although after having multiple concussions because I was flung into the boards off the end of a line, I'm not a fan of doing it myself), and we have competed as individuals in a team (Highschool competition, for example. Which was a blast!). Also, we don't do "leaps and turns", we do "jumps and spins" although there are turns that we do (three turns, mohawks, brackets, counters, etc). The salchow is not the only jump out there (though it seems to be the best well known). And we do trip over our toe picks, just not as often as some people might think.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that figure skating is a huge part of my life, that I love it, and that there are a few misconceptions out there that need not be there. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them!! :)
Farewell all
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Energetic (short and sweet today!)
That's how I feel right now, and I think it's because I finished at the gym about half an hour ago. Does this ever happen to anyone else, or is it just me? I'll go to the gym or a dance class (or the gym coupled with Zumba, a current favourite!) or have a really intense skating session, wear myself out, and half an hour later I'm totally wired and ready to go again. Don't get me wrong, it's kind of great, but it's a little mystifying for me. I mean, I just worked my a$$ off for 45 minutes (because I extended my Curves workout that little bit longer:P), got petrol, and now I'm ready to go out and dance. But I can't, because I have to eat dinner in a little, so stretching and dancing around my room it is lol.
But yeah, this whole energetic thing, it's amazing. It also always makes me think of this song. Possibly because it has such a dance-able beat. Or because I'm that odd. I could go on to talk about more things to do with 'E' that are unrelated to anything, but to be honest I had a hard time thinking of what I was going to write about today. I considered a lengthy post about Evelina, the book that I've recently finished reading (which was alright for an Eighteenth Century social novel), and I also considered writing about eclecticism, electricity, or Europe. But I decided against all of those when I sat down at my computer today with all of this energy - none of those seemed to be things that I could wrap my head around at the moment. Especially since I've been studying Canadian History and Archaeology all day >.<
And so, today's is going to be a short blog because I just can't bring myself to say much more about being energetic without doing something somewhat productive or interesting; I'm off to do some stretching and dancing and such. However, I'll leave you with this clip to do with 'E', if you'd like...
But yeah, this whole energetic thing, it's amazing. It also always makes me think of this song. Possibly because it has such a dance-able beat. Or because I'm that odd. I could go on to talk about more things to do with 'E' that are unrelated to anything, but to be honest I had a hard time thinking of what I was going to write about today. I considered a lengthy post about Evelina, the book that I've recently finished reading (which was alright for an Eighteenth Century social novel), and I also considered writing about eclecticism, electricity, or Europe. But I decided against all of those when I sat down at my computer today with all of this energy - none of those seemed to be things that I could wrap my head around at the moment. Especially since I've been studying Canadian History and Archaeology all day >.<
And so, today's is going to be a short blog because I just can't bring myself to say much more about being energetic without doing something somewhat productive or interesting; I'm off to do some stretching and dancing and such. However, I'll leave you with this clip to do with 'E', if you'd like...
Because this song always seems to make me smile. And the dancing is pretty neat. (also, it seems to be a BoA day around here)
;)
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Disney and Dreams
Come on, you knew it had to be coming (especially if you actually know me!), and here it is. Today I want to talk about Disney. Not necessarily the man himself (although he and his family did amazing things), but my relationship with Disney (again, not the man!), and why it is as it is. For me Disney is a beacon of hope and dreams. They're about dreams and dreaming, and they are always making someone's dreams come true. Disney is the symbol of hope and cheer on a gloomy day, or the thing that can pull me out of a slump. I find myself dreaming about Disneyland and reliving the wonderful memories I've had there when the going gets tough, and this helps me to push forwards because I realize that though those memories are in the past, there is plenty of time left to find new sources of wonderful memories.
Disney also represents to me youth, childhood, and play. It doesn't matter how old you are, when you start talking about Disney memories of when you were younger come up (often in association with the movies), and as you get older you get more into the mechanics of Disney (or at least I did!) and how it all works. For example, I now know some facts about the actual location of the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland that I wouldn't have dreamed of knowing when I was younger, but this has ruined nothing for me. Actually, it has made me admire even more the abilities of the Disney Corporation, and want to learn more. The diversity of jobs that Disney offers and the opportunities that they offer seem to have no limits; Disney owns multiple corporations (including ABC television - or they're highly affiliated, I'm not sure which is proper to say) and outlets, and as they evolve they seem to gather more ground. Not only do they have their parks, television channels, and merchandise (including movies, clothing, etc), but they are slowly adding to their web domains. For example (and this is where my Disney nerdiness comes out) I follow Disney on both Facebook and Twitter, and also read their blogs (of which there seems to be more than one). They have several different websites for different things, and because of their fan base even sites not affiliated with Disney contain tons of information about Disney. They've grown to be accessible almost anywhere, and they're still growing.
And all this came out because one man had a dream. I don't admire Disney because they've grown and taken over so many different mediums, but because of the dream aspect. I'm a dreamer, always have been, and because of this I feel like I can connect with Disney. My dreams are different (I'm not thinking up movie ideas and such), but they're there and they're magical. Disney is similar - it's there and it's magical, and "it all started with a Mouse".. Or an idea, which evolved.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Disney isn't just a company and mass producer, it's a way of viewing life. I realize we can't walk around with our heads in the clouds, but without a dream, where would we be? Personally, I'd be pushing groceries for the rest of my life, possibly miserable, and not nearly as happy as I currently am. There are three steps that I see in life, and these three steps are always evolving: Dream it, Believe it, Achieve it.
Start with a dream or a goal, believe in yourself and your abilities, and apply yourself. Then, with perseverance and hard work, you will be able to achieve your goals. Or if you don't, you'll be able to say that you tried your hardest. Remember though, we're not out of time until the end of our lives, and there is still always time to dream.
Disney also represents to me youth, childhood, and play. It doesn't matter how old you are, when you start talking about Disney memories of when you were younger come up (often in association with the movies), and as you get older you get more into the mechanics of Disney (or at least I did!) and how it all works. For example, I now know some facts about the actual location of the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland that I wouldn't have dreamed of knowing when I was younger, but this has ruined nothing for me. Actually, it has made me admire even more the abilities of the Disney Corporation, and want to learn more. The diversity of jobs that Disney offers and the opportunities that they offer seem to have no limits; Disney owns multiple corporations (including ABC television - or they're highly affiliated, I'm not sure which is proper to say) and outlets, and as they evolve they seem to gather more ground. Not only do they have their parks, television channels, and merchandise (including movies, clothing, etc), but they are slowly adding to their web domains. For example (and this is where my Disney nerdiness comes out) I follow Disney on both Facebook and Twitter, and also read their blogs (of which there seems to be more than one). They have several different websites for different things, and because of their fan base even sites not affiliated with Disney contain tons of information about Disney. They've grown to be accessible almost anywhere, and they're still growing.
And all this came out because one man had a dream. I don't admire Disney because they've grown and taken over so many different mediums, but because of the dream aspect. I'm a dreamer, always have been, and because of this I feel like I can connect with Disney. My dreams are different (I'm not thinking up movie ideas and such), but they're there and they're magical. Disney is similar - it's there and it's magical, and "it all started with a Mouse".. Or an idea, which evolved.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Disney isn't just a company and mass producer, it's a way of viewing life. I realize we can't walk around with our heads in the clouds, but without a dream, where would we be? Personally, I'd be pushing groceries for the rest of my life, possibly miserable, and not nearly as happy as I currently am. There are three steps that I see in life, and these three steps are always evolving: Dream it, Believe it, Achieve it.
Start with a dream or a goal, believe in yourself and your abilities, and apply yourself. Then, with perseverance and hard work, you will be able to achieve your goals. Or if you don't, you'll be able to say that you tried your hardest. Remember though, we're not out of time until the end of our lives, and there is still always time to dream.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Common courtesy
It's out there somewhere, right? Is it not common courtesy to open/hold open the door for the person behind you who has their arms full? Because I've noticed lately that this just isn't happening as much any more (speaking as the person that quite often has their arms full of books and is unable to open doors without dropping things). I understand that people get busy and that things are often too hectic for them to stop for minutes at a time and help everyone (although it doesn't hurt to do this occasionally!!), but holding the door open for a fraction of a second while I wedge my shoulder into it so that I can proceed isn't too hard, is it?
But alas, apparently for some it is. I had 3 books, an umbrella, a binder, and a coffee cup in my arms the other day (as well as a pack on my back) and I wanted to return the books to the library. I got to the drop slots just a few seconds after another person, and instead of just holding the slot open so that I could slip my books in too (s)he let the slot fall shut just as I got there, clearly struggling to get everything in my arms sorted out. Really? Would it have been so difficult to hold it open with one finger for a second more while I slipped my books in? Oh well, after putting my coffee (which was actually tea!), and binder on the ground and balancing my umbrella on my shoulder I managed to get my books in the slot, no thanks to you.
I realize that this might seem and sound like a selfish excuse, but there are more. I watched a woman with 2 small children trying to open a door while the baby in her arms pulled at one arm and the small child holding her hand tugged at her other arm, and the man behind her just stood there impatiently waiting to get in (I was across the road and unable to help). Would it have been so difficult for him to offer to grab the door for her? It doesn't matter age, sex, gender, skin tone, ethnicity, etc. We should be trying to help each other achieve common goals like opening doors and such, shouldn't we?
It's like chivalry but with less knights and castles and more normal, everyday people. It is also regardless of gender, race, etc. (And should be in effect in all places - common courtesy: I probably don't want to hear the music out of your headphones from 8 feet away!!) You'd think it's simple, but apparently it's not. Chivalry really is dead, isn't it? But what about common courtesy? Are we going to kill that too?
Let me know what you think (if there's anyone out there that actually read this, haha!). Ciao!
But alas, apparently for some it is. I had 3 books, an umbrella, a binder, and a coffee cup in my arms the other day (as well as a pack on my back) and I wanted to return the books to the library. I got to the drop slots just a few seconds after another person, and instead of just holding the slot open so that I could slip my books in too (s)he let the slot fall shut just as I got there, clearly struggling to get everything in my arms sorted out. Really? Would it have been so difficult to hold it open with one finger for a second more while I slipped my books in? Oh well, after putting my coffee (which was actually tea!), and binder on the ground and balancing my umbrella on my shoulder I managed to get my books in the slot, no thanks to you.
I realize that this might seem and sound like a selfish excuse, but there are more. I watched a woman with 2 small children trying to open a door while the baby in her arms pulled at one arm and the small child holding her hand tugged at her other arm, and the man behind her just stood there impatiently waiting to get in (I was across the road and unable to help). Would it have been so difficult for him to offer to grab the door for her? It doesn't matter age, sex, gender, skin tone, ethnicity, etc. We should be trying to help each other achieve common goals like opening doors and such, shouldn't we?
It's like chivalry but with less knights and castles and more normal, everyday people. It is also regardless of gender, race, etc. (And should be in effect in all places - common courtesy: I probably don't want to hear the music out of your headphones from 8 feet away!!) You'd think it's simple, but apparently it's not. Chivalry really is dead, isn't it? But what about common courtesy? Are we going to kill that too?
Let me know what you think (if there's anyone out there that actually read this, haha!). Ciao!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Bathrooms, Blog, Brownies, Bio, Bathe
That was the outline of my day. I didn't have to go to work, so I made a list of things to do, which grew as the day went on, and since it's 'B' day here in the April Alphabet blog challenge thing I decided I'd share the general gist of my day with you, seeing as it was so 'B' centric.
Bathrooms: they have to be cleaned every once-in-a-while, no? Well, I clean ours here every week, so that was my chore of the day. I was not looking forward to it because the sink in one of the bathrooms has been clogged for a few weeks and I just haven't wanted to deal with it. But today it was dealt with - my daddy came up and took the pipe apart, the drain stop out, and unclogged my sink for me, handing me all the pieces and saying 'clean these out'. Ick. I mean, it's fairly normal to have to clean hair out of your drains, right? Well, apparently my sister's friend had put cottage cheese down our drains as well, so that was all plugged up and rotting. That's why my drains were clogged - there was FREAKIN' COTTAGE CHEESE STUCK IN MY DRAINS. How disgusting is that?? But that's all gone and the sink's all cleaned and everything which is good. I also got to use these awesome new cloths to clean the counters. I know, I know, it sounds totally lame to be excited about new cloths. However, with THESE I don't have to use any chemicals or anything. They're these Norwex cloths that have like, silver in them or something and they're antibacterial and they're pretty much amazing. So that was awesome and signified a good ending to my bathroom adventures (nothing grabbed me and tried to pull me down the drain-that means it was successful, right?)
Blog: which is what I'm doing now. I know it sounds lame to like, plan on writing this but I'm not going to have time to do it tonight (which is sorta when I normally blog? I normally do this Sunday nights, but with this... Nighttime might become the norm) because Ray-Ray is coming over and we're going to start on our movie list - the list we're making of movies we need to watch. So tonight it's Chicago, because neither of us has seen it and we figured we should. If there's anyone out there reading this with a suggestion of what else we should see, let me know!!
Brownies. What more do I need to say? I watched this video earlier today and it made me want chocolate brownies so I think I'm going to make some. We've got a box of that like, pre-made brownie mix in the cupboard that we've not used and I think I'm going to use it. I realize that these brownies won't be nearly as awesome as brownies made from scratch, but it's like 6 pm and I want brownies, so this is my answer. *shrugs*
I'm helping my little sister with Bio 12 because I was previously a Bio major (until I decided I REALLY disliked Biology) and she's taking the course.
Bathing is something we should all do, and since I'm too lazy to do it when I get up early in the morning, unless I know it's going to wake me up, I normally shower in the evening. And because I also went to Zumba today (which is freakin' awesome, by the way. Except that where I'm taking it the instructor doesn't have the best sense of timing so she counts off beat which bugs me to no end), I figure it's probably common courtesy to bathe.
Yeah... That's my day of 'B's, and I suppose it hasn't been all that interesting. I was considering writing about bruises because I always seem to have a ton of them, but they're nearly all gone now (YAY!) for the time being and I didn't feel like it. Then I was going to talk about books, but I have enough of them to go on for years and figured no one would really care (unless I were to talk about how much I love Harry Potter or how much time Lit students end up in situations where they're bashing Twilight). Plus, I can talk about books some other time, like when I'm not reading Belinda and hating 18th Century conduct novels (just because I've now read about 4 in 2 months). As for tea, well, that starts with a 'T' obviously. But I did buy some more blackcurrant tea today because I was down to one bag left ;)
Bonsoir!!
Bathrooms: they have to be cleaned every once-in-a-while, no? Well, I clean ours here every week, so that was my chore of the day. I was not looking forward to it because the sink in one of the bathrooms has been clogged for a few weeks and I just haven't wanted to deal with it. But today it was dealt with - my daddy came up and took the pipe apart, the drain stop out, and unclogged my sink for me, handing me all the pieces and saying 'clean these out'. Ick. I mean, it's fairly normal to have to clean hair out of your drains, right? Well, apparently my sister's friend had put cottage cheese down our drains as well, so that was all plugged up and rotting. That's why my drains were clogged - there was FREAKIN' COTTAGE CHEESE STUCK IN MY DRAINS. How disgusting is that?? But that's all gone and the sink's all cleaned and everything which is good. I also got to use these awesome new cloths to clean the counters. I know, I know, it sounds totally lame to be excited about new cloths. However, with THESE I don't have to use any chemicals or anything. They're these Norwex cloths that have like, silver in them or something and they're antibacterial and they're pretty much amazing. So that was awesome and signified a good ending to my bathroom adventures (nothing grabbed me and tried to pull me down the drain-that means it was successful, right?)
Blog: which is what I'm doing now. I know it sounds lame to like, plan on writing this but I'm not going to have time to do it tonight (which is sorta when I normally blog? I normally do this Sunday nights, but with this... Nighttime might become the norm) because Ray-Ray is coming over and we're going to start on our movie list - the list we're making of movies we need to watch. So tonight it's Chicago, because neither of us has seen it and we figured we should. If there's anyone out there reading this with a suggestion of what else we should see, let me know!!
Brownies. What more do I need to say? I watched this video earlier today and it made me want chocolate brownies so I think I'm going to make some. We've got a box of that like, pre-made brownie mix in the cupboard that we've not used and I think I'm going to use it. I realize that these brownies won't be nearly as awesome as brownies made from scratch, but it's like 6 pm and I want brownies, so this is my answer. *shrugs*
I'm helping my little sister with Bio 12 because I was previously a Bio major (until I decided I REALLY disliked Biology) and she's taking the course.
Bathing is something we should all do, and since I'm too lazy to do it when I get up early in the morning, unless I know it's going to wake me up, I normally shower in the evening. And because I also went to Zumba today (which is freakin' awesome, by the way. Except that where I'm taking it the instructor doesn't have the best sense of timing so she counts off beat which bugs me to no end), I figure it's probably common courtesy to bathe.
Yeah... That's my day of 'B's, and I suppose it hasn't been all that interesting. I was considering writing about bruises because I always seem to have a ton of them, but they're nearly all gone now (YAY!) for the time being and I didn't feel like it. Then I was going to talk about books, but I have enough of them to go on for years and figured no one would really care (unless I were to talk about how much I love Harry Potter or how much time Lit students end up in situations where they're bashing Twilight). Plus, I can talk about books some other time, like when I'm not reading Belinda and hating 18th Century conduct novels (just because I've now read about 4 in 2 months). As for tea, well, that starts with a 'T' obviously. But I did buy some more blackcurrant tea today because I was down to one bag left ;)
Bonsoir!!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Alphabets and Alliteration
See what I did there? Oh!... Yeah, no. Anyways, my friend told be about this thing where you blog everyday in April excluding Sundays (you can read her blog HERE), and each blog focuses on a topic that starts with a letter of the alphabet, in proper order. This means that today's blog is to be centered around something that starts with an 'A', and because I'm explaining this whole alphabet/letter for a day thing, I decided one topic would be alphabets (also, see how long this lasts... I'm betting I forget at some point, because I do that), and since I seem to ramble I decided to put alliteration in there so that I could talk about my Scots Lit course again. :)
So, alphabets - we've all got them. They're a series of letters that make up our words (or rather our written language), and they're pretty awesome. They're also rather varied. I mean, the English and French alphabets may appear fairly similar (until you get into pronunciations), but the Gaelic alphabet looks nothing like ours (well, some of it does, but not all of it. their letters are also differently named in many cases). Alphabets are imperative and can be rearranged to suit our needs and form words, which is pretty awesome. And from alphabets I'm going to move on to something that uses them, and an example I'm pretty fond of at that.
Alliteration! It uses the alphabet, clearly (as does this whole post.. weird, eh?), but it does more than that. Alliteration, for those of you who aren't quite as English nerd-like as I am, or that can't remember English 12 (or 9-11 either) is the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllable in a series of words (wow, that's wordy. Chew on that!). And it's neat. And it ties back to the Scots Lit course, which I love.
I was assigned a series of sonnets to read about a week ago, which I did, and this one sonnet was included that was basically just alliteration. I'm not sure what parts of it actually meant because the whole purpose was to be alliterative, but it's pretty awesome so I thought I'd share. I've taken this text from my 2008 version of The Mercat Anthology of Early Scottish Literature 1375-1707, and I've attempted to gloss it as best I could in this space.
Apparently in the Reulis James VI urged Scottish poets to use alliterative verses in order to emphasize the strong sound of Scots and Stewart took this to heart here. Like I've said, I'm not actually sure what the whole thing means, but when it's said properly it sounds soo cool! However, if you happen to actually know me, don't have me read it. My Scottish accent's pretty laughable right now. I think that's going to be all for tonight though, because I'm running out of thoughts (and tea! - thought you'd get out of this without having to read about my addiction, eh??). By the way, Happy April Fool's day (ohmygoodness, another 'A'!)
Also, has anyone else noticed that I always seem to post after 9pm? I've just noticed this...
So, alphabets - we've all got them. They're a series of letters that make up our words (or rather our written language), and they're pretty awesome. They're also rather varied. I mean, the English and French alphabets may appear fairly similar (until you get into pronunciations), but the Gaelic alphabet looks nothing like ours (well, some of it does, but not all of it. their letters are also differently named in many cases). Alphabets are imperative and can be rearranged to suit our needs and form words, which is pretty awesome. And from alphabets I'm going to move on to something that uses them, and an example I'm pretty fond of at that.
Alliteration! It uses the alphabet, clearly (as does this whole post.. weird, eh?), but it does more than that. Alliteration, for those of you who aren't quite as English nerd-like as I am, or that can't remember English 12 (or 9-11 either) is the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllable in a series of words (wow, that's wordy. Chew on that!). And it's neat. And it ties back to the Scots Lit course, which I love.
I was assigned a series of sonnets to read about a week ago, which I did, and this one sonnet was included that was basically just alliteration. I'm not sure what parts of it actually meant because the whole purpose was to be alliterative, but it's pretty awesome so I thought I'd share. I've taken this text from my 2008 version of The Mercat Anthology of Early Scottish Literature 1375-1707, and I've attempted to gloss it as best I could in this space.
'Ane Literall Sonnet.'wantith (lacks); cankert (ill-natured); convoy (companionship); schoris (threatens); mervell (imagine); Promp (help); perll preclair (lustrous pearl); firm fellest (most cruel); rycht renownit (justly renowned); so suadge sall (may be assuaged); sair (pain); guerdon (reward); For (because); breding (which breeds); boudin (grievous); dwynyng (debilitating); daill (distribute).
Dull dolor dalie dois delyt destroy,
Will wantith wit, waist worn with wickit wo,
Cair cankert causith confortles convoy,
Seveir sad sorrow scharplie schoris so,
My myrthles mynd may mervell monie mo;
'Promp!' perles, proper, pleasand, perll preclair,
Fair fremmit freind, firm fellest frownyng fo,
Ryche rubie - rycht renownit, royall, rair -
Send succor soone, so suadge sall sourest sair,
Crant grivous gronyng gratious guerdon guid,
For favor flowing from fresche faces fair
Restoris rychtlie, restles rancor ruid,
Bot beutie, breding bittir boudin baill
Dois (dalie) deedlie, dwynyng dartis daill.
-John Stewart of Baldynneis
Apparently in the Reulis James VI urged Scottish poets to use alliterative verses in order to emphasize the strong sound of Scots and Stewart took this to heart here. Like I've said, I'm not actually sure what the whole thing means, but when it's said properly it sounds soo cool! However, if you happen to actually know me, don't have me read it. My Scottish accent's pretty laughable right now. I think that's going to be all for tonight though, because I'm running out of thoughts (and tea! - thought you'd get out of this without having to read about my addiction, eh??). By the way, Happy April Fool's day (ohmygoodness, another 'A'!)
Also, has anyone else noticed that I always seem to post after 9pm? I've just noticed this...
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