And this is why I love Fark.com

"Woman Grows a Horn".


Insert obvious jokes here before you read that she's 95 years old. Pictures and everything.

So the internet at York isn't working. However Google/ Gmail is working fine, as are many other sites owned by Google. My personal opinion is that Google has officially taken over the world and now decides what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, YouTube wasn't one of the ones that made it. Sorry, YouTube, we will no longer be able to watch overweight men sing German songs out of tune.

Since Blogger is working fine, I'm going to entertain myself by talking .. er, to myself. What is the deal with airline food?!?

I'm kidding.

Seriously though, what a segue. I'm flying to Chicago this afternoon, and I'm very excited about it. I likes Chicago, it's a fun city with a peculiar, warm sort of energy that one doesn't often find. And the shopping is lovely. I of course, have to try and control myself because I'm spending too much money and Canada likes to milk people dry by stealing approximately 99% of their income so that people on welfare can sit home and drink beer.

Of course, not all people on welfare drink beer, but I'm eschewing my right to buy shoes, and therefore I give myself permission to rant.

Oops we did it again...

So the US lost some guns. So they end up in the 'wrong hands' (Mayyybe, but you know, Probably Not), and their grandiose plan to help train Iraqi forces so that they can finally get out of dodge has once again, been thwarted. Yeah, and Rumsfeld moonlights as Tinkerbell on the weekends.

I'm sorry, you can lose a handkerchief, a cell phone or even a kid. But losing... oh let me see: 110,000 AK-47 rifles; 80,000 Pistols; 135,000 Body armour pieces and 115,000 Helmets is not something you do by accident

("When I looked up they were just GAWNE sir! I don't rightly know how it happened! Must have been those damn EYEraqi militants again, dangawne it!")

Meanwhile the Pentagon wants another $2bn for more hardware, while improving accountability of course. They won't tell anyone how their accounting system works, must be another one of Cheney's personal code of secrecy "Treated as Secret/SCI" files. And people wonder why the healthcare system is shot to shite.

Now of course, the Americans will have to stay in the country longer (or at least until Bush finishes up his megalomaniacal dictatorship term). And so it goes on.

Meanwhile, where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world? I love those Air Canada websavers, they just open up the world to you in one swoop, and if I wanted to go somewhere totally random, where should it be? Preferably somewhere there isn't a war on of course. Or a flood. Or a famine. Or a toxic water/ chemical leak. Or...



Actually, nevermind.

The time has come, the walrus said...

Today I read an article on BBC news that I really liked.

Slowing down time

Now, as many know, I've always maintained that time is simply a concept - therefore fluid, not linear and certainly not absolute. More than anything, I think time or timeliness is more a matter of respecting those around you, and less a matter of making the most out of one's life. This article seems to agree.

Maybe it's just me, but somehow when I schedule my time in a day, the day seems to pass by faster. Now that's great when you're sitting in an office, or you're in school, waiting for exams to pass, I grant you. I think it's because when we make compartments like that, we're basically living from block to block. And here again, we take linear time and change it (or rather, our perception of it) to suit our needs.

Why then, is it odd (to those that believe in absolute linearity) when people go the other day? Take time, and de-linearize it? If time is a concept, then we, as creators of that concept should be able to play with it. Spending exactly one hour and thirty-five minutes in a gym should essentially serve the same (if not a higher) purpose as spending an evening wandering about your neighbourhood market.

The other aspect the article talks about - is the relative perception of time between that of a child and an adult. I remember, as a kid, being absolutely fascinated by everything. When I was a kid, I had to touch everything I saw. Drove my mother batty sometimes. However, for me, it was extremely important to experience everything using as much sensory input as possible - I'd smell things, touch them, look at them, so I could get a complete picture. Maybe it comes from being a visual person, I don't know, my brother isn't and I've never seen him being as curious as I was.

Of course, this curiosity led to a fair amount of mishaps, I've wandered off numerous times, causing many moments of sheer panic for mater dear, I've burned, cut and otherwise injured myself, trying to touch things I oughtn't (touching the hot side of irons often, for some reason - burned my palm more times than I can count), and so on.

Anyway, the point after all this meandering, is that children experience things differently than grownups. My friend's son, Ben, spent almost an entire evening at my house yesterday, staring at the CN tower changing colors. He even had his dinner while watching it. I love my view, but I don't think I've ever done that. My evening flew by in a flurry of cooking and hosting and other things, but I'm sure his took its sweet time.

There's no moral to this post really, just that I continue to think that time is fluid and even though I'm trying to be a little grown up and respect the space others give me in their lives, I don't plan to become any more linear anytime soon.

Of shoes and ships and sealing wax...

This weekend, I bought my silver shoes. I had decided that I was going to be all about the silver shoes this season, and by gum I did it. Contrary to popular belief, buying JLo shoes does not give you her booty. But, my shoes were all a-sparkly and so I'm satisfied anyway.

I don't have internet hooked up at home yet. I suppose I should, and sooner rather than later, but to be honest, I don't miss it at all. As much fun as it is knowing every mood of everyone on my f'list, I've spent the past year and a half tied to my laptop, and now I spent the better part of my day in front of a computer. So, now when I get home, I like to go for a walk, read a book, cook, water my plant (ok, that doesn't take long at all), meet up with friends and just be human in general. I never thought I'd see the day, pun completely unintended.

So, if anyone wants some company, or wants to accompany me on one of my Very Exciting Expotitions (If you got the reference, I love you forever), give me a call and we can have an actual, verbal conversation complete with real sound effects and the complete lack of anything resembling an 'LOL'.

HP7

I just finished (finally) Harry Potter and the DH. I am itching to put down my thoughts, but I will respect those that haven't been able to get to it yet and not say anything for the next few days. Or, until I figure out how to do Livejournal-type cuts to hide content from those not wanting to see it.

Also, wheeee! Best one yet! It felt like the literary equivalent to a steam engine.

BobHarris.com - CNN Gets Lost Looking For Afghanistan

BobHarris.com - CNN Gets Lost Looking For Afghanistan
I love this. You know how BBC is known as one of the last bastions of truth in the West? Well CNN should be 'Where independent thought goes to die'.

The ranting continues

Did I ever mention how much I hate when people don't employ good etiquette? That includes netiquette as well. It's just plain insensitive people.

And here we are. Again.

Insert tab 'A' into slot 'B'

So yesterday, Terry and I go to Ikea to get me a Cubbid To Put Things In. I was going to buy a nice, simple bunch of shelves, but instead I go with this glass front thing with a drawer and everything. I don't know what I was thinking.

Anyway, so there we are, trying to put the two deceptive looking flat boxes into the van - they weighed a ton, and then get them out of the van and into my house and the stuff out of the boxes and onto the floor and into some semblance of order.

To cut a long and back-breaking story short, it took us three hours almost to get the thing installed and upright and after poor Terry stumbled out to go home, I decided to put in the glass shelves myself. Ripped two lovely looking cuts into the coating that makes the glass foggy. This, my friends that insist I need to do these projects myself (you know who you are) is why I abstain from mucking about with hardware and manual labour.

Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada

Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada
That's where I work now. I know, it's not a far shot from where I've pretty much lived for the past year and a half, about two floors up to be precise, but hey, it's fun, I have a fun office-roomie and I like what I get to do.

Meanwhile I've officially set up shop at Yonge/ Eglinton, and now I have furniture so people can come over and not have to sit on the floor anymore. Housewarming details coming soon.

For all those who keep track of my various calamities, I fell over again yesterday. Twice. I must have hit my head because I have been doing the silliest, most absentminded things since then. I think I need to be rescued from myself sometimes.

That's all for now - I have to go earn my keep.

*blinks*

I've been a terrible blogger - haven't blogged since I left for the US, but I've been busy with travelling, my family visiting and graduation. Yes, I officially have three more letters after my name. Go me. Go all of us that graduated actually, we rock So hard.

Also, I'm moving soon, learning about computer hardware and why it's absolutely essential to own an Nvidia graphic card and the accoutrements that go with it, and I've been cooking. A lot. Today's menu consisted of my own recipes for roasted garlic and herb encrusted salmon with lemon aioli, spicy sauteed green beans and baked mini-potatoes, and was extremely satisfying.

More to come really soon - stay tuned.

The thin line between genius and insanity

And Janice Dickenson vamps her way along it. Here, on an interview with one of my favourite talk show hosts ever (I with they showed him here) Jonathan Ross, she tells it like it is and I haven't laughed this much during an interview since Parkinson sat down with Dame Edna , Sharon Osbourne and Dame Judi Dench.


PS: Now I know Mick Jagger and Stallone have something *very small* in common. Hee. Part 2 here btw.

Part One


Part Two


In other news, I just heard some firecrackers go off (is it that time of year already?), I'm off to the States and watching MLS soccer is fun.

MUST SEE TV

Everyone MUST go here and watch this clip of a recent interview from The Colbert Report. Needless to say, I think Jane Fonda's been in Lindsay Lohan's stash, and Colbert was about to wet himself - in more ways than one.

ETA: For those reading this on Facebook - here's the link:
http://colbertondemand.com/videos/Guest_Interviews/Jane_Fonda_fondles_a_nervous_Stephen_Colbert

Today is...

What is it about a sunny day that just makes you unbelievably, stupidly, deliriously happy? I don't know, but today I woke up in a bit of a funk, but then I followed Terry's advice and went outside for a bit, and now I can't stop bouncing.

Everyone needs to go outside today. And tomorrow. And every day - have yourself a frolic on the grass, turn a cartwheel if you know how (I don't anymore), smile randomly at someone you don't know, sing a song at the top of your lungs, draw a picture, buy yourself a present, eat some cold strawberries outside in the sunshine, play with a puppy, accost someone with a hug, I don't care- just go make yourself happy. Life's too short for the blues.