Saturday, January 29, 2005

Life is a series of vicious circles

Okay, so I do a bunch of lino cutting and shred my digits, so I use up all my bandaids fixing said digits, and won't do any more cutting until I get more bandaids, but I can't find the bandaids that I like anywhere...and so I will do no more lino cutting? Well, that conclusion sucks.

Okay, so I don't do any studying at work cause I'm at work, and I don't do any studying at home cause my computer is a distraction, so I go to Mark's place where he says we'll read, except he has two monitors on his super-cool computer, so I have to try this out... and so I do no studying. Well, my attention span sucks.

Okay, so I'm working on a new beading project, but I don't bring it to the bead store with me because I have other things to do there, and while I'm at the bead store and trying to do other things, I find more beads to buy...so I start more projects. Well, being idle sucks.

Okay, so I haven't seen my Mom for any decent length of time because I'm so busy, so I make no plans for reading week so I will not be busy, but Mom is going to Florida with her sister over my reading week...so now I have no plans. Well, I'm SoL.

I'm getting dizzy from all these circles.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Can't type- too few fingers

Arrgh! How many times am I going to do this? I know that I said I wanted the printmaking set, I know that I am having fun doing this, and I really like the current project I’m working on, but how many fingers am I going to sacrifice to this hobby? For those of who who don’t know, printmaking involves cutting a design into a piece of hard rubber (in this case, linoleum) and then inking the plate and printing it onto a paper to make the design. The problem? The linoleum I have is hard-good for the image, bad for my digits. You see, cutting the design involves a lot of gouging with this wicked little tool called a lino cutter- which frequently pushes off the lino, out of control, and (mostly) ends up embedded in a finer or two of mine.
Now, I KNOW that this happens. I KNOW that this is a risk, and its actually one I am perfectly willing to take. But I still have the bandaid on my middle finger from last weeks' mishap, and today I have to put on another one on my thumb- fine, so I look like someone who tried to stop a fan while it was plugged in, I can accept that. But it’s when I stab my thumb AGAIN, THROUGH the bandaid, that I really start to question my choice of pastime.
But then again- Van Gogh gave up an ear.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Train of thought

Okay, so I have this night class tonight and even though all I really want to do is not to go, I go, and it's snowing and cold and I get to class and Chris (the friend) is there and we spend the twenty minutes leading up to when the class starts complaining, cause no one really wants to be there, and the classroom's really really hot, and finally the prof arrives and spends the first thirty minutes talking about the term paper that's not due for the next seven weeks, and you'd think he'd be helpful except he begins by telling us that what a successful essay really needs is to begin with a 'jazzy title', and you've got to be kidding me- a jazzy title?
So I get home from class, and I do a little beading, and I do a little cleaning, and I think about doing some homework, but I've got all day tomorrow, so I procrastinate, and by then it's getting late, and I have an early class tomorrow, with Oliver (the crush), so I want to look good, so I push the button to turn off the tv, but I've got the remote upside-down (new remote) so instead it just flips to another channel, and there's this movie starting and it's Donnie Darko, and I've never seen it, but I think that Martin (the roommate) has mentioned it before, he said it was really good, which should have been a warning in and of itself, but instead I get interrested, and so I start watching, and now it's really late and I'm going to go to bed, but the movie isn't done and there's this damn scary bunny in it that is seriously freaking me out.
I'm going to kill Martin.

Friday, January 07, 2005

Godzillablog continued...

Yeah, I talk, like, A LOT, so this is a continuation of my last mile-long blog. It’s Godzillablog.
New Year’s Eve was a humble affair this year. My friends and I got together at Laur and Hugh’s place in Toronto, and we stayed in and had pizza and played games- especially this fantastic version Laur made of the…you know that Friends episode where Ross makes the trivia game about the Friends, and the girls lose and they have to switch apartments? Lauren made that, about us. It was very cool, and Lauren, I would like a copy. No! (Brainstorm), you should put it online so we can all add to the questions. The game will get huge!
We watched the ball drop on television and went out on the balcony and yelled a lot. It was pretty classic- or clichéd, however you like to see it.
Saturday was tame, we went out to this diner that should have been cool, but, it being New Year’s Day, at breakfast, the place (and the staff) were a little frenzied. Then we drove home.
Sunday I worked at the toy store, which should have been a calm day, except that some vandals had smashed in one of the giant display windows that night, and we spent all morning dealing with getting the glass taken out and boarded up. Falling glass can be REALLY loud.
And then I had classes again. My professors this semester are, well, characters is probably the best way to describe them. For anthropology (myths class), the prof really knows his stuff, but that means he talks really fast, and often in Old Norse, which apparently we’re supposed to be able to follow. Add that to the fact that we have a section of 300 students in a classroom built to hold 250, and it makes for a trying course. But I really like the subject matter. Then I have a class on Science Fiction, which I’m really looking forward to, but on Wednesday (the second class), our prof just never showed up, which, frankly, is not very confidence inspiring. Finally, there’s Music for Film and Television (stop rolling your eyes, I can study whatever I want!). The prof is a very rotund man, with a thick beard…frankly, a Santa candidate except for the plentiful and often inappropriate jokes. He’s kind of a riot. I had his class today, and it would have been fine, except that the weather sucked ass, and three busses blew by before I finally got on one, and then (five minutes late), I get to the class and the location has been changed, so a group of us who all ran in at the same time are just standing there, staring at this sign that’s redirecting us to MDCL 1350, until one of us finally speaks up and voices what we’re all thinking:
“What the hell is MDCL 1350?”
Fifteen minutes late, wet, very cold, and frustrated, we finally zeroed in on where the new class was (new building on campus, still under construction), and it’s this humongous auditorium- it turns out all the sections have been combined, for ease (just what about 550 people in one room with a fat guy yelling at us, though we still can’t hear him because he’s a technological infant and can’t work a portable mic, is easy?).
Anyways, the week (and this blog) is finally over. I have a weekend to get to. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Catching Up

Okay, I’m not going to waste my time saying ‘I should have blogged forever ago, sorry, blah blah blah’, cause you all know I’m thinking it and it’s a waste of time. So, I'll just jump on into the catching up, deal?
I finished my last exam in about twenty minutes, give or take, and I have my fingers crossed that that’s a good thing. Yes, there is a possibility that if I went and looked online right now I might find out for sure, but frankly, my bravery meter is pretty low at the moment. I’m sure the number won’t change if I leave it unrevealed for a little while longer.
In any case, the first semester is done, tg, and I can get on with my life, or whatever. I keep telling myself I’m ready to leap head first into the next semester, but I’m not really sure whether I’m feeling it.
After that last exam, a whole lot of work, some frenzied gift shopping and some wonderful heaven-sent SNOW, I made it home. Home sweet home.
As Mom put it, “I pity all those people out there who don’t know how to do Christmas properly.” For the record, ‘properly’ is a whole lot more food than six people need (and there was only three of us), more movies than you can count (literally- I tried), and lots of laying about.
Mom was hilarious. We’d barely walked through the door when she started ‘casually’ mentioning presents. The brother and I smiled and said, “Mom, if you want a present, just say so.” Over and over she responded “No, whenever you want to exchange them is fine- I’m in no rush.” She said this about eight times in a twelve hour period, so finally we (the kids) laughed and indulged her. We opened gifts after breakfast, and then- you guessed it- watched another movie. Or rather, the first one of that day.
I think she was pleased with her gifts. I hope she was.
I, on the other (and more selfish) hand, got a great haul. From the FABULOUS art book the brother got me (Andy Goldsworthy- he’s my fave), to the perfect perfect snowflake necklace Mom found at the One-of-a-Kind Show, to the print supplies I have yet to make use of, I loved it all. I had also asked for a set of drawers that I saw at Ikea that would be great to keep my beads in. Unfortunately, I’d not only forgotten that I’d asked for it, but I also failed to realize that, coming from Ikea, they wouldn’t come preassembled. Result? I tore the wrap off a very heavy box to reveal little wooden pieces. They were the ends of the drawers, but they looked like--
Me: “You got me building blocks!” (Slightly confused excitement).
Mom: smiles, proud of herself, oblivious to my…obliviousness.
Me: “No, really, what the hell is this?”
I then tore the rest of the wrap away, saw the instructions, and the light of revelation finally came on.
“Oh yeah! Thanks!”
I should mention here, that my brief but baffled belief that my mother had bought her twenty-almost-four year old a set of building blocks my not have been so wildly inconceivable. Just a couple of years ago, on the same holiday, my mother smugly handed me an oddly shaped package that turned out to be, well, a fish. A stuffed animal trout, actually. Odd, but very beloved, I have named it ‘Gefilte’.
In any case, my holiday may have been short, but it was sweet. I had to work on the 27th.
The rest of that week was normal, and very restful, and I was pretty happy with it. I built and then started to paint my new bead drawers, I sketched out designs for prints, I thought a lot about cleaning my room, and I might agree with myself to do that sometime soon. I read a lot, though not what I wanted- Lauren has my fifth Harry Potter and she’s holding it hostage and it’s starting to drive me insane.
On the upside of that subject, the sixth book has been announced for release on July 16th, 2005. I AM SO EXCITED!!!