Playing catch up (and filling time)... two new book reviews posted to Bibliophilage: Stormy Weather, by Carl Hiaasen, and Faking It, by Jennifer Crusie.

Woo! The Encyclopaedia, as gathered, arrived yesterday. I now have almost all of my course materials -- I'm still missing 3 (?) books for the Mystery Novel course, but we don't read them for awhile yet, so I'm safe.

More updates to come -- I didn't go to class this morning, so I'm leaving on my own time now. :)

Urgh. Up too late last night playing Luigi’s Mansion. Got Ben from work after my class (I stayed for the whole thing, and got one more of my textbooks… like most of the class, I’m waiting on the Encyclopaedia one, I think it’ll arrive today in the mail), then went back to his place where Moose and I made some spaghetti dinner (I had fun whining until we made it), and the three of us partook. Yummy. Of course, it was nearly 1 in the morning by the time we sat down to eat… Playing Luigi’s for awhile, Ben crashed, then left around 3. Normally I go to bed around 3, so I’m running behind this morning, which kinda sucks.

Just a quick post here, nothing like yesterday’s. Back up on top for LoveInk, which makes me tingly. Got in touch with someone I used to talk to back in the days of alt.fan.jen-coolest (don’t laugh, it was great! :)), so eventually I’ll reply to that and the numerous other emails that await my attention. Gah, I’m bad at this. :P

At least being tired will ensure that I go to bed at a semi-decent hour tonight for my Friday class. 6:30 a.m. wakeups suck, especially when you’re used to waking up at quarter after 11. (I don’t get it, I don’t understand how it is that my body always wakes up at the same time, but there you have it).

Planning a little dinner party on Saturday night; Ben, Moose, Ben’s gf, possibly Ben’s folks and other brother… it should be fun. We’re thinking more spaghetti or possibly lasagna. Since I’ve never made lasagna, I do hope that Ben has and can handle that part. Although, if his gf is there, chances are he’ll be tucked away somewhere with her, leaving the feeding of numerous people up to Moose and myself.

I was listing various desserts that I know how to make last night, and Ben’s mom was giving encouraging “mmm” noises to various ones. I stated then, as I repeat now (and am wont to say on a regular basis), ‘I cook what I like to eat, which is why I know how to make a lot of chocolate desserts.’ She said I was a woman after her own heart, so I think that counts as brownie points (no pun intended) in my favour. :)

Also got to tell Ben my getting married plan. See, many people have stated that housing co-ops, which is the type of housing we’re hoping perhaps to go into, prefer young married couples. Ben’s dad suggested last night that we fake the license; I say, go a step further and actually get married! The marriage could be later annulled, since we won’t have consummated it, and we could cite as grounds for divorce adultery on both sides, since, as part of our agreement, there would be rampant cheating (to steal Ben’s phrase), on either side. Friends who regularly ask me, “So, what’s new and exciting?” would be treated to the standard, “Oh yeah, nothing really… but I got married last week,” and in later years, if I’m asked, “Have you ever been married?” I could say, “Yes, but it was just a stupid fling in my 20s… shortly after we got married the passion died.” “How shortly?” “Oh, about ten minutes afterwards.” Or conversely, the response could be, “Yeah, but I got divorced after I found a better place to live, a place I could afford on my own.” Or something like, “Yeah, but it was just to get a good house/apartment.” Then, we could Jerry Springerize it by saying, “Well, Ben and I were married… he had a girlfriend and I was sleeping with his brother. There were evenings that this was all going on at the same time, and he’d even ask me to pass the condoms!”

*grin* Anyhow, I thought it was hilarious, Ben thought so too, Moose didn’t seem quite as amused by it. It’s a fun idea, although I think our folks would likely kill us. *grin*

Okay, time to get ready for the day. Please to note, I cleaned the fishy’s tank yesterday! And Simon (of the Jencyclopaedia fame), thinks that I should call him Stinky. Anyone else got a vote?

Oh, and before I forget. I'd like to thank the people who bought drugs off of me... and Moose is now my little minion (there's a different phrase for that, but he doesn't like it, so I won't use it). *flex* Please keep buying! :)

Wanna help build my drug empire? Buy drugs!

*grin* Okay, so it's not the most socially conscious message... but at least I'm not selling crack on the street! Woo!

Ah, a day to myself. I intend to be productive today. No sitting around on the computer all day, staring at blinking cursors that tease me with taunts of, "Oh, what do you think you're going to write today, hmm? Lookit that! You can't think of anything! Nyah nyah!" I will, however, try to finish the article I started on Monday.

I may still allow myself to watch Jerry Springer -- after all, I haven't seen it in a few weeks, there could be new content on! (That was sarcastic, dearies :).

I dropped off a resume for the job opening. The store that has the sign up is the one next door to Moose's store, so that would be funny. I could go over to his store and throw things at him! :) I'm hopeful, and I think I'd be really suited to it, based on my past job experience, but I don't know for sure.

I was poking through the careers section of the paper today, and there was a job opening for someone with a degree in communications, but it required 3-5 years of on-the-job experience. I feel like a munch (or, in Hebrew I believe it is, a mensch, which is really the term I'm bastardizing here), 'cause it really doesn't look like I'll be using my degree. Markuk has told me that his boss has a Masters (I believe) in Philosophy, so it's not as if everyone's degree applies directly to their employment. Who knows, maybe I won't use it for now, but I'll use it in the future.

I also feel like a munch 'cause I'm looking at short-term, part-time type work. I'd love to get hired on full-time, and who knows, once the school year ends, something might happen with any part-time job I do take on, but I feel like I should be looking at serious, career-type jobs, and not retail or whatever. That's not to knock people who work retail, my mom happens to do so, and my sister has done really well at it, but I've never really seen myself doing that. Maybe Kim takes after Mom that way -- they're both really good at retail -- and Dad and I are more suited to the anti-social type career jobs that allow us to lock ourselves in a little room somewhere and stare at a computer screen for hours on end, then come home and do the same.

I hear a lot of people who say that after they've spent all day staring at the computer screen for their jobs, they go home and want nothing to do with computers; my dad and I are totally not like that. Neither is my coworker J, who stays up late participating in chat rooms. That's not to say that I don't hang out with friends; hell, I don't think I've spent an evening on my computer in the last week or more, but it's certainly not something I'm averse to doing.

I remember discussing it on here when it happened, but it cropped into my head again recently; the comment made by the girl in my women and media class about how only people with no friends or social skills spend all their time on the computer, and how journals and chat programs (ICQ, MSN, Trillian) are used to replace jenuine social contact. I had fun roundly disagreeing with her, and explaining that often, my social interactions with people in chat programs are with friends I either couldn't speak with on the phone, or were often used for making plans with other friends who lived in or around the city. I also had to explain to her that I'm no more open in my blog than in person; although, admittedly, I might trash or bitch or moan a bit more here than I would in person. :)

Anyhow, time to move on and do things like clean out the poor unnamed fishie's tank, have a shower, beat up the cats, etc. I think I'll actually start taking votes on this poor guy's name; I have to admit I've really not thought too much about it... which makes me a terrible mom, I know. Maybe I'll call him Monkey, or Stinky... Fish are rather stinky, at least if you're like me and not a fan of the smell. :P

I have some content in mind when I sit down and have some time; things like, reviews of Faking It, by Jennifer Crusie and Stormy Weather, by Carl Hiaasen, my two latest reads. I'm not going to bother reviewing the Sherlock Holmes stories that I'm reading -- basically, if you're into mystery, give 'em a shot, if not, don't worry about 'em. Although I suppose it factors into my lists of the classics that I'm trying to get through.

Got flirted with at my radio course last night, and I think he and I almost made some girl cry. We were standing in the back of the room, waiting for her to get set up to do her voicing. Just chatting a bit, and I asked her if she wanted us to leave the studio, in case she felt awkward with us there. She said no, it was okay, but that she might take awhile because she had a fear of microphones and a learning disability. I said that I'd heard announcers repeat the simplest lines a hundred times over, so there was nothing she could do that I hadn't heard before.

Anyhow, K (the guy who was flirting with me) and I were chatting a bit while she was getting set up, and she asked us if we wanted to go out in the hall to keep talking. We said no, it was okay, and then made some little oops faces at each other. I again offered for us to go outside if she'd feel more comfortable that way, and she said it was okay, we could go, and she left the studio, looking as if she was going to cry. She left behind her tape, her headphones, and her purse... so I hope she went back later to get them, 'cause I didn't see her at all for the rest of the night.

People are ... odd.

Looks like my gf either got over being mad at me, put it behind her, or wasn't mad at me in the first place, any of which are okay with me. :)

Oops, forgot another update I was thinking of making: a new article for Whore's Boudoir. I just checked out LoveInk.com and the other day, my site wasn't on their "Top Websites" anymore -- now it's number 1. This is some kind of coolness. :)

So, Digger is bugging me and I'm running way behind anyhow (nothing quite like going to bed at 5 in the morning, and not being able to fall asleep right away)... so time to be off. I woke up this morning with cats smushed against me; heaven help me if I wanted to roll over. :)

I think a lot of things in life could be improved with the judicious use and effective application of a little violence.

I refer mainly to interactions between strangers, really. I mean, after all, you have to see your friends again, and they’re likely to remember a little thing like a kneecapping or a clotheslining; that guy who annoyed you in the streets isn’t likely to return after you’ve taught him a little whatfor.

I also refer mainly to interactions on foot. There are advantages and disadvantages to this; the advantage is that, done in a crowded situation, you don’t have to be the immediate suspect if you take a poke at someone whose back is turned. The disadvantage is that it’s much more difficult to get away quickly, particularly if your target happens to be someone in shape, and not the little old ladies I’m prone to knocking over, myself (namely because I could take them in a fight, if need be).

That woman who just stopped dead in front of you, while you were barrelling along at a decent clip? Smack her in the back of the head as you whip past her. That man who just cut you off on the way to the bank machine? He looks like he could use a punch. Someone taking up two seats on the bus with their groceries or luggage or backpack? Just pick whatever it is up and lob it down the aisle!

I think smacks in the back of the head should be encouraged, really. Wouldn’t it make people pay more attention to where they were going, especially in large groups of people? No more yelling insults over your shoulder for large stretches of walking along – people might have to start paying attention to others!

*grumble* That’s one I’ve been refining for awhile. But wait, there’s more!

I fail to understand the incredible stupidity of some people. I mean, why would you go through all kinds of tests and types of diagnoses with your family doctor, a specialist, or your pets’ veterinarian, then turn to a stranger – a doctor who *doesn’t* know your history, who hasn’t seen your test results, who hasn’t examined you for him or herself – and then think he or she could explain in five minutes or five hundred words exactly how to treat you or your pet?!

Argh! Perfect example, doctor on air now, people are calling in with questions. Okay, fine. But this one guy calls, says he’s been diagnosed with blood and protein in his urine, been to a specialist (but doesn’t know what kind), and wants to know what this doctor thinks about it. !!! Another lady called, said she knew that iron could be used to increase red blood cell count, but wanted to know how she could increase her white blood cell count – I thought, “develop an infection” – because white blood cells are used to fight off the nasties.

Ah well… people are stupid. I’ve lost all of my motivation lately – I don’t feel like doing my readings for school, I’m being really lax about writing (as you can likely tell), I don’t even feel like going to any of my classes. The last week with the extremely cold temperatures provided excuses for me – not necessarily good ones, but adequate, at least. In my opinion.

The idea of writing and pursuing writing holds a great deal of appeal for me, yet I can’t seem to bring myself to do much about it. It’s an idea I’ll explore more in detail when I finish “Writers on Writing.” There are a few ideas in there I want to develop further, but basically I think being a novelist is what calls to me the strongest. I just need to get a clear idea of what I want to do or how before I would feel right doing anything about it – or even able to do anything about it.

It’s been a busy few days, but nothing that really compelled me to sit down and write, or at least make me find the opportunity to do so. I went out to see the Cannes Lions, the advertising winners the other night with Ben, Moose, gord, and a friend of gord’s. We went to the Thai place Ben introduced me to afterwards and chatted, then wandered over to one of many British restaurants in the city to grab some dessert. At dessert, we were loud and obnoxious, having a great time telling drunk stories and cracking up laughing, causing other patrons to stare at us. Our waiter seemed to enjoy our table, and he wasn’t too bad looking, which meant that he earned a “wouldn’t mind seeing him wet” distinction from gord. *grin* Apparently everyone looks better wet, but I don’t share the same fascination with wet people that I know others do.

After dessert, we all split our different ways, and I crashed at Ben and Moose’s place, ‘cause I had to head into work for 8 a.m. the next morning and it saved a great deal on gas money. Money is in very short supply around me right now. :P Anyhow, got to work from 8 – noon the next morning, then pick up my aunt and take her to my house, where she had lunch with the folks and myself, then went off shopping with Mom. I did some farting around on the computer and reading the latest Jennifer Crusie (which I’d been waiting for in paperback, but my aunt gave me her hardcover copy, ‘cause she and I both read and enjoy her works), then I crashed for a few hours and caught up on my rest.

Had dinner with everyone, then toddled off to Ben’s to play some more Luigi’s Mansion while he was on the computer and then later on the phone. We did chat for a bit, but mostly just hung out in one another’s presence. Kinda weird, but it works. Ben passed out on the couch, I went to get Moose, and we played some more Luigi’s Mansion until it was time for bed. I wound up crashing there that night ‘cause I just didn’t feel like messing with the roads to get home. I could have without much difficulty or grief, but just didn’t feel like it. I’m totally unmotivated. :)

What else has happened lately? Urgh. I’m sure there is stuff I wanted to write about, but I can’t seem to bring it to mind. :P I guess I’ll take my brain and Digger’s hints and hit the sack. Poor Digger, can’t find a place to lie down amongst all the clothes I have piled on there. *grin*

And while I'm thinking of it, Mad, I will accept your challenge as soon as I have a bit of spare reading time. I have a few more posts to make on Bibliophilage -- I was fortunate enough to make some time to finish some books this weekend. :)

New article posted on Bibliophilage.

Much as it may feel that way, going to bed at 3 and getting up at 11 does not constitute a regular schedule.

At least the kitties are always around and now getting predictable -- I settle into bed, within five minutes, whomp! My legs are pinned. :)

Last night, Digger was getting rather impatient with how long it was taking me to go to bed, so he jumped up on my lap and then on my keyboard tray, which I rarely keep locked. Today he landed in a decent enough position so as not to push it back in. Anyhow, he started poking around at the few things in front of him on my actual desk, and there was a folded over post-it (largish size) that he was poking at (Digger loves Post-it note pads, the little ones. He'll steal them off my sister's computer desk, since she usually has one or two there, and he'll play with them). I threw it on the ground for him, and with a little chirp, he picked it up and ran into the hallway with it, and then out of my sight. It's likely on the landing, where all of Digger's brief forays into toys seem to land.

Shadow, on the other hand, loves the mouse toys that we buy her, especially the ones with a little rattle in them. She'll run around the house with them, and eventually wind up drowning them in her water dish, where she waits for you to fish it out. Sometimes she'll get them out herself, but there are a number of mice floating around the house (most likely hidden under the fridge) that have matted fur and rather disgruntled expressions. One day, she had a number of mice in play, and they were scattered about the staircase heading up to the top floor, where the bedrooms were; I told my dad that they were swimming upstream to spawn -- it was the annual mice migration. Another time, they were all on the stairs to the basement, and in the basement itself; here they were returning from their migration to have their mousey children and set up homes in the sofa cushions and boxes of books that take up space downstairs.

I have now spent the last two days not going to my classes. As do many others, I blame the weather. I have no desire to venture out into -33 weather to the opposite end of campus for a class I was likely going to leave at the halfway point, or a first year class for which I don't have any of the textbooks, and that the grades are based entirely upon a 40% midterm (multiple-choice questions) and a 60% final exam (also multiple-choice questions). Nuh-uh. So, instead I have spent the last two days in Ben and Mark's basement, playing Luigi's Mansion on the GameCube. It's a fun game; I actually have some skills at it, which is impressive, although my aim is frequently terrible and I've given the controller over to Mark on occasion to demolish the bosses and the odd tough ghost that I can't seem to get. Between the two of us, we have the game figured out -- we're both accustomed to various types of gaming 'rules' -- i.e., if the door is burning, try spraying it with water, or if a bunch of instruments are about, and hitting one of them starts it playing, hit all of them and you'll get the conductor (or in this case, the piano player) ghost -- so we've rarely been stumped. It's not an especially difficult game, and if you ever get frustrated or upset, just press the A button when you're not standing near anything, and hear Luigi call "Mario!" It makes you laugh. :)

Which means that that entire paragraph winds up sounding like an advertisement, which is not my intention. It's just a game I've enjoyed. :) Anyhow, must get moving... from what I think I heard of the weather report, it's going to be a much milder day, and I won't be freezing my various body parts hours after I've theoretically defrosted. It's an interesting feeling, having your torso and calves and feet be fine, but having your thighs be numb chunks of ice. Not necessarily good, mind you, but interesting. Did I mention before, I hate the cold? 'Cause I do, I really, really do.

Best of luck to Moose on his exams today and tomorrow. *hugs* :) I'm off to brave the shower. :)

New post up on Whore's Boudoir. And yes, I meant for it to end that way -- think about it, you'll get it. ;)

I started writing it last night, just never quite got around to finishing it. I was too tired. Today will be a somewhat lazy day, hanging out with Moose, watching some flicks, bugging the cats and then off to class. *brrr* I wish it weren't so cold, though. :P

Interesting email I just got:

From: jono
To: litterboxjen@yahoo.ca
Subject: wanna cyber?
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 22:43:06 -0500

hey, do you want to cyber or not?!


I've been kind and removed some of the email address. I love how the tone of it is frustrated, like I've been teasing this person with the promise of cyber for the last while, but didn't carry through. :)

Ah well… today was pretty dull. Didn’t have much to do at work, so I chatted with a few coworkers and had fun that way. One of them gave me a candy, so that was nice. I decided it was too cold to go to my class today (located at the ass end of campus, far from where I was located), so I called up Ben and we got together for dinner (this is the shortened version of the story), where I determined that we must be the two geekiest people on the planet: he was drawing out math equations on the paper tablecloth (they give you crayons for the purpose), and I wrote out my Whore’s Boudoir URL for people to visit.

Yeah, yeah, shut up – we’re both losers, I know.

Our waiter was a bit … eh, down at first when he introduced himself to us. As he walked away, I said he was on pot – I was feeling goofy and dumb. When he came back, he was a lot friendlier, which I took as the sign to tell Ben after the guy left again that yes, indeed, our waiter was on pot – at least, now he was. :) I got to fill out the comments card at the end, and the waiter seemed to enjoy the insults that Ben and I were tossing back and forth (yes, of *course* I’m shorter than 10 cubits! Or 12!), and I had the privilege of writing under the “Other comments” section: “I had fun tonight, except for my dining companion.” *grin*

The comparison in our appetites was somewhat funny, although I must admit that I just wasn’t feeling especially hungry, since I’d eaten popcorn on the bus ride home, then some chips at home. Ben ate some chicken wings (like, 4) and a decent amount of chips before we went for dinner… then at dinner, we both had milkshakes (chocolate-coloured, but vanilla-flavoured), and I managed a half of a chicken quesadilla, which was an appetizer on the menu; Ben on the other hand, put away a full rack of back ribs, half of his fries (and there were a *lot*), and chunks of the mile-high mud pie. I helped somewhat on the pie, but not very effectively.

I’ve signed up for a number of registration sites with WB in order to hopefully generate some more traffic; we’ll see if anything comes of it.

Anyhow, for the most part, the day was pretty quiet. I played a bunch of Luigi’s Mansion on Mark and Ben’s new GameCube, and had fun with it. If you push the A button when Luigi isn’t near anything, he hollers for Mario in different tones of voice. He also hums to himself and shakes and gets nervous on his own – lots of fun, lots of funny.

Ben and I have determined that Nintendo is trying to market its games to parents, to counteract the games like GTA:Vice City that are out there and tarnishing family values™. Look at the two games I’ve played most recently that are, if memory serves, rather popular: Mario Sunshine, which is about going around and cleaning graffiti off of walls, and Luigi’s Mansion, in which you vacuum up ghosts. Next will be something like Princess Peach Dusts for Coins, in which she goes around a big castle filled with Boos and GoomBahs, dusting off various items in order to form pictures… or Toadstool Does the Dishes, whereby he uncovers valuable plates in the midst of doing the wash. Or something along those lines.

I’m not feeling especially creative right now, I’m afraid… which sucks because I still have an article to pound out (hehehe), as well as a book review to post – and shortly a second, perhaps. I finished up The Moonstone the other night, and I’m likely to finish Writers on Writing, given the right amount of time that isn’t allotted to something productive, like reading for class. :P

I was also pleased to hear today from Ben’s mom that I’m not stupid because I don’t always get the readings I’m assigned for my various classes, that no one really gets them because they’re rarely written well. *dance* Since she herself is a really smart lady, it made me feel relieved.

Anyhow, I have a few notes written down about things I want to write about, but I’ll hold onto them for tomorrow. For now, I have an overdue article to get to. :P :)

I think I'm happier the less I know. I hate people who are hypocritical, two-faced and don't know what the fuck they're talking about. Not worth my time, not worth my frustration, not wotth my anger, but it still upsets me. Forgive me for never having a problem with you... but you decided that you had a problem with me without knowing my side of the story.

I'm tired of all of it.

For anyone that has ever heard me go on and on about women's rights in regards to rape, and blaming the victim... here it is; an excellent article that articulates my points better than I ever could.

This is what makes me doubt my abilities as a speaker or a writer -- the fact that I read so much that is so much better than anything I could ever write. :P

It's funny keeping up on my friend's blogs -- I'm learning more about the transit issues and such than I have heard on the news. That may be simply because I read blogs in the morning before I hit the paper (I love having my computer in my bedroom), but it could also just be another sign of my uninformedness. :)

I think I'm going to divide my blogs folder (in my favourites menu -- yes, I use IE!) into "frequent updates" and "check this every time there's a lunar eclipse." What I'm finding is that many of my friends start up blogs, they're all enthusiastic about them for a little while -- be it a week, a month, or maybe, at the outset, three months -- and then they stop writing. Or they post occasional messages that say, "Wow, it's been awhile since I've written, hasn't it! Ha ha!" *grumble*

It's especially frustrating when some of my friends write really funny or really interesting entries... or they talk about me in their entries once in awhile. ;)

Anyhow, time to keep moving. Gotta attend to Digger, who's periodically letting his frustration with me known. Last night the cats hogged the bed so bad that I didn't quite have enough covers to pull up, and my shoulders were really cold (in spite of my sweatshirt) and I couldn't get to sleep. So I displaced them to haul the covers back up, and they promptly rearranged themselves around me.

The night before, Digger settled himself between my thighs (with me in my usual position, sleeping on my stomach), and when Shadow came along, there wasn't quite enough room for her -- so she laid down, half on my butt, and half between my thighs. I have strange, strange cats. :)

A quick note before I go to bed (as always, at too late an hour to be reasonable): Digger appears to have an interest in SmartFood popcorn. He was licking the edge of the opened bag just now to get the cheese product powder (TM).

As well, I finally got Dad to see his knife trick earlier -- Digger stands on his hind legs (not full-length, but balanced, as if he were sitting upright), his little front legs stuck out in front of him, and licks the Cheez Whiz (his usual), or this morning, cream cheese, off the knife. He looks really silly when he does it, and it's just one more reason why I love him so. :)

I got to be the teacher's assistant today in class (radio production). I have the feeling it's going to be a regular thing for me, but at least it'll mean I (hopefully) get good marks. Hopefully. In theory. Etc., etc. :)

Hung out for a bit with Moose before and after class. It's odd; he's acting like he has something on his mind... either that, or he was just really really tired and didn't want to admit it. It was pretty obvious; he was being kindof a brat to me, but I punched him in the head a few times, and we got it all sorted out.

Okay, that's kidding... I didn't punch him, I promise. He was being a poo, though. *grrr* ;) However, he did give me Undercover Brother today, so that's pretty awesome. He's a sweetie, he was just really tired. I've seen him like that before -- it's kinda funny, actually. :)

I just reread my last entry, based on a reassuring email I got (and a few comments to lighten up); I'm not entirely sure what was in there to make you feel bad (or make the other you tell me to lighten up), but I'm glad in both cases. :) I realized too that I've slipped into an extreme case of vaguery (sure, it's a word) in regards to so many different situations that appear on here that my writing appears almost incoherent... unless you have all the pieces of the puzzle with the light spots or the red streak in order to solve it entirely. I apologize to all of my readers, and that's why today's entry included Digger news -- that, at least, I can write in its entirety without having to hide anything to spare his feelings, or give away his secrets.

What the fuck?! I just tried to go to HomeStar Runner.com and it said that the page no longer exists?! Fark.com said that there was a new email up... anyone have any idea what's going on? They certainly had no hints that it was going down at like, 2 a.m. Sunday morning when I was there.

Weirdness... I'm confused.

Anyhow, I'm also cold and it's really late, so I'm going to do some reading, get through the (finally!) exciting parts of The Moonstone, and hit the sack. Night sweeties.

Oh yes, and for those who are worried 'cause I haven't talked about her in all these Digger entries; Shadow is alive and well, and doing great. I promise. :)

Into every blog must fall an entry on privacy, or having your blog found and/or read by the wrong people, and other such related subjects.

It’s a discussion I’ve had many times over with Ben, and sometimes when I hear my friends bemoan who has found their blog/journal and talk about how upset they are about it… I think, “Well, you *did* write it online….” Which is precisely why I just don’t care.

Sure, there are things I’ve written that I would prefer certain people not read, but in the end? I don’t care. I said it, I’ll own up to it, and it was how I felt at the time. It’s something that some people don’t realize – sure, that last entry may sound like I’m suicidally depressed and ready to just climb into the bathtub with a razor…but that was then, that’s not in my character, and writing is a catharsis.

I write about how frustrated I am with people in order to avoid snapping at them. I write about fights I have with people in order to determine whether I was in the right or being incredibly bitchy about it. I write about … well, my day so that you all can read it. It’s a tool for many of my friends to keep in touch with what’s going on with me when they don’t talk to me daily, and I know that some of the people closest to me merely skim it, so… Hell, I don’t even assume that anyone reads my journal the way I tend to read others – daily or even more frequently, and usually pretty carefully.

I have respected people’s privacies on here in ways they will never know; I hold many secrets and many things in my head, and in a lot of ways, I hate it. That’s why I started this site, in a way – in order that I might be able to article those secrets in a secure forum and get my release that way. I deal with most problems by talking about them, either to a journal or to friends, and this blog represented the best of both worlds. Due to the audience that reads it, as I’ve acknowledged many a time, that isn’t always the case.

There are things I know about you and you and you … that even though I suspect or know you’ve fucked me over, I’ve kept to myself. I think that speaks strongly about my character – I believed you when you told me things, and I kept those things to myself. I trusted you with secrets of mine, and I trusted you with other things… and as far as I can gather, you fucked me. Your own paranoia has hurt you more than I ever would have or even would have wanted to, and I’m sorry about that. Stupid me, I’m still keeping those things to myself.

That all said and done, I long ago resigned myself to the fact that people I would prefer not read my site might actually do so, either through finding it themselves or having it found for them. To clarify: I honestly, truly and completely don’t care. If it was done by someone to hurt me, well… frankly, I’m just laughing. I’m saddened by the fact that you felt the need to do such an action, but … well, you didn’t exactly pick the best route to do it. Sorry. :)

What am I hinting at? Well, ladies and gentlemen, those of you that read this blog may be familiar with “the coworker”? He now has the link to my site – actually, according to the email I found, it appears he’s had it for awhile.. I’d like to welcome him to the depths of my mind – the kitty litter of my mind, if you will – and hope he enjoys his stay. If not… well, I can only hope he improves those things that cause me to vent. ;)

On a happier note, Digger is currently dumpster-diving in my garbage can. He’s hilarious – and he just knocked over the can. I think he’s going after the fish food that got spilled in there – he gets very excited when he can smell it on my fingers. Hrm. Or he’s just being a brat – he just knocked it over again. I think his caffeine levels are low – he’s going after the empty cans of Coke. What a weirdo. :)

It’s been an emotionally stressful weekend, although I never would have thought it would turn out that way. (Side note: third time he’s knocked it over. I haven’t reset it, and now he’s left it alone. I think I figured it out). Sometimes I wish I could just be completely open about everything, but I’m protecting my friends. It’s weird… I don’t feel any regrets about it, I know it was the right thing to do, and in the same situation, I’d do it again and again and again, but I can’t talk about it because it would upset my friends. It’s kinda like how I felt after I started having sex – I didn’t want to tell some of my friends so that I could protect them, so they wouldn’t look at me differently. Well, that sure changed – but it took many years to do so.

I’m finding it’s easier every time I tell someone, but at the same time, I think it’s because I’m telling people that I trust will react okay to it, that won’t judge me out loud, or stop being my friend or something because of it. Anyhow… shared with Moose last night, and got some serious squeezing out of it, which was really nice. I could use some of that now, actually. :P

So much is weighing on my mind, and yet not. I gave Jay a little bit of it to take apart and discuss, and he gave me other things to stress about. What a friend. ;) No matter… some things I think he may have just been saying in order to be a poo, other things deserve a bit more consideration, but maybe at a more decent/acceptable hour, when I can do things like actually think.

I worried that I might’ve said the wrong thing at the wrong time, but I spoke to someone and got it cleared up. It’s still not up to me to discuss, and it won’t be – and I feel I said too much already – but it’s slightly in the open and at least resolved between me and one person. Unless that person is lying when I am told “no worries,” but… I choose to believe not.

I’m learning that trying to help things out is not ever going to work for me. Trying to help people resolve things… it’s not up to me to fix other people’s problems, as much as I wish I could help them out. I tried at one point, and it turned around and took a chomp out of my ass – which I appreciate, I could stand to lose a bit out of there – but at the same time, getting burned is never nice. There are other issues to do with privacy and blogs and one thing and another, but… argh. I just wish that everyone could confront one another when there was a problem. Lord knows I’ve dealt with confrontations enough in my life.

Those dreaded little words: “Can I talk to you for a minute?” They rarely seem to offer up anything good. Variations on a theme: “Can we talk?”; “I need to talk to you about something.”; “There’s something on my mind, and it concerns you/us.”

To anyone I have linked on my site – if you would rather I didn’t, please say so. I find most people are quite reasonable with requests of the sort – I’ve asked people to remove my last name or various other personal details from their sites, and I have never had a problem with making or receiving the same requests. I have all the sites bookmarked on my own computer, so it’s not as if having it on my site online is going to make a difference in my reading of your works.

Anyhow, this is being much more stream-of-consciousness than I had planned, and so it’s hardly articulate. It’s also gone past 2:30 in the morning, so it’s long past time for me to go to bed. I have to clean up the garbage that Digger dumped on, find the giant tinfoil ball he’s hidden under my desk chair, avoid running him over with the same… and still clean off my bed and go to sleep. So much effort… maybe I can just sleep sitting up in the chair, typing steadily away all night.

*dance* Googling my email addresses and names and websites, it turns out that my site (Whore's Boudoir, that is) is currently the second-highest rated site on LoveInk.com! *dance*

Admittedly, my pic was rated at the top for awhile, so I know that fame (especially on LoveInk.com) is rather fleeting, but it's still pretty awesome. :)

There's also a note (from December) from one of the members, saying that he really enjoys my articles -- and I don't even know who this guy is. This totally makes my day today. :)

This so rules... it makes me all warm and fuzzy, and I mean that. I love that people read what I write, I love that people enjoy it... gah! :) So much good. Today is a good day.

I got to sleep in today and feel all lazy... finally went out to get food around 3 in the afternoon -- Markuk and I grabbed a somewhat poor lunch at a diner nearby. Apparently I wasn't enthused enough to see him last night, but I blame lack of sleep (five hours the night before), feeling sluggish all day, as well as medication for my lack of bounciness. No matter, it was nice to hang out and chat.

Aside from that, it’s been a pretty quiet time. Friday, my gf H and I skipped out of class – it was moving so slowly and the material was straight out of the text, so we wandered off. I tried to pick up one of my textbooks, but the bookstore doesn’t have it in yet. Pooh. Wandered back to work in the cold and just felt like death all day – tired, sluggish, sleepy, drained… just everything. It wasn’t just me feeling that way, either – most of my coworkers seemed to be in the same frame. It was awful.

Today, after I split from Markuk, I went to EB to turn in some games and got a credit note for them. I’m just glad to have ‘em out of the house, and off my floor (where they’ve been sitting since I last cleaned my room). Maybe I’ll leave here a bit early tonight and get rid of the books… anyhow, there’s one guy at EB that’s quite friendly to me, it’s nice – anytime he sees me in the store he says hi, asks how it’s going. I don’t by any means think he’s flirting with me or anything other than being friendly – it’s just nice in a way to be recognized as someone who’s there often enough to be recognizable. Or something like that. I’m trying to avoid thinking about what it means if I’m there often enough to be recognized by a number of the staff members, but at the same time, I’m not always dropping dough there, so that’s good. As well, it means that as much as possible, they’re going to get my business when it comes to purchases of whatever nature they carry.

After that, I wandered through the crowds to pick up a DVD for my mom and try to get bath beads for her as well, but the Body Shop has discontinued them. I’m starting to get rather annoyed with the Body Shop – they removed their refill counters, which goes against their “reduce, reuse, recycle” policy, although they’re apparently bringing them back; they aren’t carrying any of the large bottles of the Vanilla bath and shower gel that I like, although it’s apparently because of a backorder (it’s not discontinued); then they go and discontinue various products… it’s frustrating. The girl today was saying that you can use the bath oil and scent it, and she felt the need to explain to me that the bath beads were just convenient ways of using the oil… argh. Thanks for the information – here I thought they contained magnesium, and it would be fun to light them on fire!

Ah well. Then I went to toddle on down to the office supply store where my witchcraft course’s course pack was ordered. I couldn’t take the bus there, ‘cause of the war protest, which pissed me off. Then I got to the store – after walking for a good ten minutes in the increasingly more noticeable cold – only to discover that the fuckmunches aren’t open on Saturdays or Sundays! Fuck!

So I walked back to catch my bus, only to arrive in time to watch one depart. Again, I got to sit in the cold for a good 15 minutes until another came by. No problems on the bus ride home, until I got to the transfer point, and watched my main bus drive away. Fuck! I hate when they do that – they can *see* the bus coming in, why can’t they wait two minutes!?

Anyhow, bundled into the shelter, still feeling somewhat cold (have I given you the impression that I hate the cold? ‘Cause I do. I *hate* being cold), standing for a bit, reading my book. This one woman goes and leans against the door, watching the road where the buses would come from. Now, since she’s leaning against the door, anyone who wants to come in or leave would have to disturb her, so she’s really not in the best place. Then she moves around me and stands on my other side, once again leaning against the side of the shelter this time, to stare down the road. Okay, smart enough. She moves *again*, back to the same place against the door! Each time she held her position for about three or four minutes. Finally she just started walking back and forth a bit aimlessly until the bus that I wanted came (not the ideal one, but I’m a trooper). Unfortunately, she was also on it – but I managed to avoid her by sitting at the back of the bus. You know, where the cool people sit.

Now I’m at home and just trying to take it easy. Going to be getting together with Moose later tonight – for once he’s done at a decent(ish) hour, so we won’t be arriving at his place at 1 in the morning, and I might actually get some rest. I doubt it, but one can always dream.

A few notes, before I forget: I’ve updated the quotes page, it’s a bit more inclusive now -- but still ugly. Added a few names to the blogroll, we’ll see how able I am to keep up with them. You may notice asterisks next to some of the names – this just means they’ve been updated within the last 12 hours (it's an automatic feature of blogrolling.com, and a very cool one).

As well, on a side note… my blog has passed its one-year anniversary! I feel so bad – I thought I started this thing later in the month than I did, but I actually started it the same day I joined UnCultured… January 9th. This means I can’t quite claim 7000 hits in the past year, since we’ve just crossed that mark and it’s past the 9th, but… I’m still friggin’ impressed. I’m also impressed I managed to keep this going so long, but it’s been great. This blog has seen me through some rough times, and it’s been nice to have a place to vent…. Even if I’ve had to censor myself at times because of my audience. Ah well. :)

Anyhow, if there was anything else I wanted to write, I’ve forgotten it by now. Just watched Back to the Future III (having seen II a few weeks ago), and that was fun. Got some questions answered that I’d had in my mind because I hadn’t seen the movies in so long.

Oh yeah… Dr. Seuss (the blue fish, you may recall) has picked up some interesting habits. He blows bubbles! He goes to the water at the top of the tank and gulps down small amounts of water and then pushes bubbles out of his mouth. He’s a very strange little fishie. Storm still hides food pellets in amongst the rocks, then doesn’t eat them. He annoys me sometimes. :)

Dinner was a tastylicious steak sandwich, made by Dad. :) I’m very tempted to go and buy a cheesecake to share – I think Ben and his gf could use some junk food as a pick up, and I love any excuse to eat cheesecake. Since I didn’t have dessert at lunch… hrm. Hehehe.

A few last notes: It’s really nice when people notice things about you and you don’t have to tell them. For example – the lady who runs the caf at work once told someone else, in my presence, that I didn’t drink coffee. I thought it was really awesome that she noticed that. J stated once that he liked that I noticed little things – like how he’d set the dials on his car when he shut it off – and did them when I drove the car, because that’s how he did it. I remember once on a band trip to Toronto (here I picture all of my friends saying out loud, breathlessly, “This one time… at band camp…” – a common comment I hear when I get excited about something and begin to speak about it), one of our band leaders was trying to annoy me by pulling the bookmark out of my book. One of my friends remarked, “That’s not going to do anything. She doesn’t use bookmarks.” Since I’d never said anything to them about it, I thought it was awesome that they’d noticed.

I think that’s good for now. The other notes I want to cover involve more detailed writing, and I have to get going. And this entry is definitely long enough now. :)

And finally, Tuesday's overdue/Friday's on time column. If you're really squeamish about women's natural bodily functions, you may not want to read it -- not that I go into great detail, but different people have different squick levels. You may be able to tell; mine's fairly low. :)

I decided to set myself up with a blogroll -- less mucking about with HTML code and such, and you can even do such things as check to see if people have linked to your site. Well, I found one through blogroll that has linked to me, and I have no idea who she is! This rocks my world. :)

Work and school today were really draining, oddly enough. I felt so tired, and so did a bunch of people at work. For my part, at least, I'm sure it didn't help having only 5 hours of sleep. Anyhow, I'm also feeling the effects of the drugs -- I'm feeling tired (which may just be because of lack of sleep anyhow), and my cheeks feel flushed, which I think is likely due to the lighting. I dimmed the lights at work and felt somewhat better.

Got a lift most of the way home with one of the higher muckety-mucks at work, which was cool -- he offered and I sure as hell wasn't dumb enough to turn it down. Conversation was somewhat awkward, since we don't really know one another, but it worked out okay.

There we go, just registered my pages in a bunch of places to try to increase my readership. I need the love! :)

I'm feeling very uninspired right now. I need to write, but I just ... I feel blah. Very blah. I think I will go rub my creature's belly somewhat and beat up my cats. I really should have a nap. :P

Had some weird dreams lately, things like getting hired on at a different place, or ... other things... I can't remember right now. I know that sounds like a lie, but I really can't. :) I did see my old boss today, and he got a phone call about one of the references I sent out, so that's cool. He said that he said nice things about me, which is always nice to hear. :)

There are some people and incidents going on right now that concern me, but there's not much that I can do -- in fact, I feel kinda useless to do anything right now. I also feel somewhat confused about various events in my own life, but again, there's not much I can do. I'm just going to do my best to focus on the final semester, get that stuff done, don't let the annoying people get me down, pay off the debts (fucking credit card), and move on.

For now, it's time to do something else. Hopefully I'll get the article written before it's time to leave.

I have a strange cat. She's currently sitting in the window, behind my curtains, wide awake, sounding as if she's snoring. She's a loud breather in this way. It ... surprises me. Worries me sometimes.

I clicked on my creature at one point yesterday and it said he needed to poop. If you go the creature stats in the temple, it tells you how many poops he's had.

Moose kinda sorta not really came to my class yesterday. It wasn't a bad one -- my prof, who has an English accent, said he has difficulty because of his accent with the word "pawnbroker" and that it's even worse when he says "pawn shop," but he assured us that he was, in fact, saying pawnshop -- and yes, emphasized it in that manner.

I believe I caught the UTI in great time, since I felt pretty okay for much of yesterday, though very tired. Moose and I cruised through the shopping mall, sharing an ice cream cone and getting some reading material (that neither of us has time to read) from Coles.

Gah. I can't write more now -- I'm already running rather behind, but I should have plenty of time this afternoon, and I'm seriously in need of writing my article that I started on Tuesday and is going to become Friday's article. :P

I like my creature, from Black and White. I picked the Tiger, and he's now being more inquisitive because I rubbed his belly when it said he was curious, so it rewarded his behaviour.

The villagers like him, because he watches them use the store and it means that he'll pick up trees and throw them in, creating wood for them to use. Mind you, I've also seen him pick up a tree and plant it somewhere else, so I don't know what that's all about.

Apparently when he poos (which you get to see!), sometimes he'll eat it, and then you have to discipline him for eating his poo so that he won't keep doing it. At least, that's what Moose said; I've only seen him actually go poo. Poo is a funny word, which is why I keep repeating it. Anyhow, when he poos, it makes this weird almost machine-gun sound, and the poos come out of him at a rather high velocity. They're also the size of small rocks. I worry what they'll be like when he grows, to be honest.

Anyhow, hating my body this morning -- got another UTI. I called my GP, hoping to perhaps squeeze in; the nurse said he was running behind and had people waiting, but I could come in tomorrow if I wanted. My best guess is that she's never had a UTI, otherwise she wouldn't think of offering. Although, maybe other people are more stoic about things like this; personally, with the pain and the hurting and the bleeding (at times) and the having to pee every two seconds? I don't want to hang onto that for more than an hour or two at best.

I'm back on the Sulfa drugs -- these are the ones that don't bring the UTI back a day or so after it "clears up" (which is the case with Macrobid, for me -- happened twice now!). These drugs are funny, 'cause they make the skin more sensitive to light, both natural and UV. Sunlight is toxic to me now! Beh, somehow it's funny in my head.

Also laid in my nice big carton of cranberry juice. The first time I had this stuff, I hated it -- I think I'm starting to develop a liking for it by now. The Minute Maid mix is pretty good; not too tart, but still pure cranberry juice. I was tempted by the cran/grape mix, but I figure that just totally nullifies any benefits that I'm supposed to get from this stuff.

Needless to say, what with the running around this morning and the feeling kinda bleh, I didn't go into work today. I am, however, going to class right about now, so I will end this recitation of my health problems and my creature's poo. :)

Got the final mark today. Guess getting dumped at the start of the semester was good for me --

Greek Mythology: A
Theories of CMN: A
Audience Research: A+
Public Relations: A-
Women and Media: A-

My best semester yet. :)

I feel so zonked. I'm getting back into those horrible sleep patterns -- last night I got to bed at about 5:30, slept until 11:30 when I woke up to use the washroom, then back to bed until about quarter to 1, when Mom called.

I'm going to bed at a decent hour tonight.

(Everyone, stop laughing, I'm going to try).

E sent me this link about the fifth Harry Potter book. I look forward to spending a day on it. :)

Which reminds me -- I want to get to the library to pick up the latest PTerry book. I can't believe I've left if this long, really. I'm just waiting until it comes out in paperback. *grrr* Paperbacks.

Moose and I watched porn last night. Don't get all excited -- it was terrible. He said that Mandy had said it was the Sims in porn, so I was expecting it to be terrible and funny and maybe vaguely disturbing (although if you've played the Sims Hot Date, then not so disturbing). On the contrary... It was full of awful stereotypes, it wasn't as well-animated as the Sims (which tells you something right there), and they basically relooped a whole bunch of footage. I think most of the characters were voiced by the same guy, despite what the credits have you believe, and I think we got through maybe, 20 minutes of it. We waited long enough to see the midget doing the two girls -- one black, who became Spanish while she was being fucked, or even when the white girl (the other one), was being fucked. He kept hopping back and forth between them like a horny little elf -- which was just another example of how the footage was being looped.

Needless to say, we didn't watch all of it. Neither of us could really bear to, although I did get to say a few times, "If you ever say that to me, you're permanently cut off." The movie contained such classic lines as, "This knob needs polishing!" (courtesy of the midget) and "Me gusta! Me gusta! Oooh, oooh!" from the Spanish lady.

And just because they're swimming around my head, a few lines from the last while I have to share:
"Are you always goofy like this after an orgasm?"
"Your feet are offensive."
"You try smelling that with a dick in your mouth!"
"Congratulations... you've turned me into a drooling idiot." (rather mumbled at the time)
"Nono, I'm checking out other guys' dicks. I care about their muscles?"

There was also a great discussion in there about growers vs. showers (hence where the final line came in) at work.

Ah well. Got Black and White up and running -- it froze on me the first time I started it, but it's run great since then. I picked the tiger as my creature -- he gets offended if you pat him too low on his tummy. As well, I got to see him pick up a tree and plant it somewhere else. I think he was bored.

So far I like Black and White -- the controls are a bit annoying at times, especially when you get too into the landscape and have to screw around with zooming out and moving around, but it's kinda fun.

Anyhow, time for foodage. I'm so tired and somewhat hungry... popcorn and a chocolate bar just isn't the most nutritious of meals.

My marks are continuing to trickle in, and so far the news is good. I got an A in Greek Mythology, which is a touch surprising; I thought I would’ve gotten a lower mark since I did poorly on the second quiz and I wasn’t sure about the second exam… and my paper was pure crappage, but I guess it wasn’t that bad.

I turned in a number of papers this semester that I thought were pure crap, but apparently the profs didn’t think so, since my PR prof said I got an A (the one mark that hasn’t manifested itself yet).

For those trying to keep track at home, the grades so far are: Greek Mythology, A; Women and Media, A-; Theories of Communications, A; and Audience Research, A+. And that’s just for this semester… it looks like I’ll be able to graduate, maybe, with an A-/B+ average, since I only have one C+ once my theories mark replaces the D+… everything else is a B- onwards.

I saw a woman in the mall today who had a total mullet – also known as a mulvet or a vulvet, depending on which of my friends/coworkers you speak with. It was quite long and somewhat scary-looking. There are too many people who are stuck in the 80s. :P

I’m feeling really tired right now. I had my first radio course last night. We didn’t go nearly the whole time, just did an intro to the course and such. I was there at least a half-hour afterwards catching up with the instructor, one of the jocks and one of my coworkers. Hung out with Moose and Ben, chatting and then watching episodes of season three of Buffy – likely annoyed Ben by making jokes throughout much of the first episode. As usual, he fell asleep during the second one. *grin* Moose and I went upstairs and fell asleep for a few hours – it was really nice and comfortable to snuggle with someone and feel all cozy and comfortable. I left around 4 in the morning and went home to bed, where I was somewhat too awake to get back to sleep for a while. :P Hence, my feeling tired and looking like crap today.

I’m already really behind in my readings – big surprise, eh? I’m working through some of it for CMN and International Development, and it’s going okay… I just seem to phase out during sections of the text and start thinking of more interesting things as I go.

I’m so glad that I am getting out of the education system when I am. The double cohort experience of Ontario students, the rising costs of tuition, the lowering of education standards… in many ways I feel bad that I’m trying to or getting into the writing field when I am – when people can no longer tell the difference between “your” and “you’re,” between “its” and “it’s,” between “their,” “there,” and “they’re”… it makes me feel queasy.

When I was growing up, my parents always encouraged my sister and I to read and write as much as we wanted to – my first effort was a short story (a paragraph long) that I wrote when I was 5 or 6, called “Sammy the Seal.” My mom and dad still love to tease me about it. Nevertheless, what was important to them was the spelling and sometimes the grammar that went into our efforts, so I’ve always valued these things highly. I think that emails that are poorly formatted are one of the worst things to read, especially when they come in the form of a missive from a boss or professor. The same goes for the overuse of exclamation marks, which is why I rarely use them myself. On extremely rare occasions, when I feel something needs to be emphasized, I will use multiple exclamation marks – but to paraphrase Pterry from Maskerade, “the use of multiple exclamation marks it the sign of a diseased mind.” (Or, another good one: “…and, all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head.”)

And while I’m on the subject, a few stellar Pterry quotes that I’ve found while doing a search for “quotes” and “discworld” to try to get the proper one:

“That seems to point up a significant difference between Europeans and Americans. A European says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with me?" An American says: "I can't understand this, what's wrong with him?"


“I think I would like to go into modelling. Of course, I don't know how to do it, and wouldn't be any good at it if I did, so I'm going to employ someone to walk the catwalks on my behalf. It would still be me, of course...”
-- Terry learns Naomi Campbell has written a book. (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

“DW is based on a slew of old myths, which reach their most 'refined' form in Hindu mythology, which in turn of course derived from the original Star Trek episode 'Planet of Wobbly Rocks where the Security Guard Got Shot'.”

“You can't remember the plot of the Dr Who movie because it didn't have one, just a lot of plot holes strung together. It did have a lot of flashing lights, though.”

“And before anyone complains about the grammar, I'm so jetlagged that my hands aren't even in the same time zone...”

“If it wasn't for the fun and money, I really don't know why I'd bother.”

“One of the highlights of the first Good Omens tour was Neil and I walking through New York singing Shoehorn with Teeth. Well, we'd had a good breakfast. And you don't get mugged, either.”

“Somewhere around the place I've got an unfinished short story about Schrodinger's Dog; it was mostly moaning about all the attention the cat was getting.”

“One day I'll be dead and THEN you'll all be sorry.”

“I'm sure we can arrange an academic scholarship for Detritus. Troll cheerleaers would be nice: 'Two... four.... er.. many... lots'.”

“I stroll along, talk, I sign books, people buy me drinks, I forget where my hotel is, I get lost and fall into some local body of water... done it hundreds of times.”
-- Going to a convention is fun! (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

“It's an old magical principle -- it's even filtered down into RPG systems -- that magic, while taking a lot of effort, can be 'stored' -- in a staff, for example. No doubt a wizard spends a little time each day charging up his staff, although you go blind if you do it too much, of course.”

Anyhow, this is all to say that sometimes reading blogs is painful. The same goes for advertising – I have a permanent boycott on the movie Anaconda for their television commercials which stated “it squeezes it’s prey.” If you can’t tell me what’s wrong with that sentence, then… argh.

This isn’t to say that I think my writing is perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. I make great use of sentence fragments, an abundance of commas (which I like to think I at least put in the right places in the text, unlike some writings I’ve read), and especially made-up phrases and expressions. I frequently write how I speak or how I think; this is why things rarely make sense. ;) I’m easily distracted by shiny objects (that section with the Pterry quotes filled up a good fifteen to twenty minutes of my time in reading, then cutting and pasting them), and my brain rarely works linearly. This is why I’m so surprised when people tell me that what I write is concise, clear, flows, and is easy to understand.

Who’da thunk it?

But I digress (and yet it’s still clear, concise, etc.); sometimes I just want to rant and rave when I encounter errors in advertising, textbooks, the newspaper – Ben showed me a magazine he was reading and the very first sentence of the damn editor’s introduction could have used a reworking! I read an article in the little freebie paper that gets circulated around my city – just a little oped piece by the editor – that started with one premise, changed subjects halfway through for a paragraph, then again for the next three paragraphs. She never discussed her thesis statement, the other subjects were completely unrelated to the subject at hand, and her topic transitions were outright jarring. Incidentally, this editorial was about 750 words long, at best… and written by the head editor of the paper.

I’ve been accused of elitism, snobbery, and various other things because of my views on grammar and spelling, but honestly, it doesn’t bug me in the least. In some ways, I look on it as a compliment – and perhaps a help at getting into the writing industry, whichever avenue I wind up pursuing/meeting with success. Of course, that means getting off my fat ass and doing something about it, no? I’m so lazy.

Ah well. This is helping to fill time, but now I need to do some reading. I thought I had some topics to cover, but as always, because I didn’t write them down, I don’t remember what they are. This weekend should be fun/busy – Markuk is going to be in town, I’m going to try to get some reading done and clean up the room, get rid of the books and games that are still floating around… I’ve already earmarked them for disposal/selling, but I just haven’t gotten around to getting them out of my room yet, so they’re eating up space.

With any luck I’ll have some time to myself to get another book read or started – I’m a good chunk of the way through “Writers on Writing,” so if I get that done, I can post a review on Bibliophilage for your edification and entertainment.

Otherwise, I guess it’s more work and more reading for me. Today’s been such a light day, I feel like I should’ve called in sick… but at least this way I get the hours/money and I won’t feel obligated to show up tomorrow, on my day off. :)

Had a decent night last night. Work was pretty smooth; my PR prof was in and he said he was pretty sure I got an A in his course, which is pretty funny considering everything I turned in to him was pretty much shit. :P

Fuckin' A! I just got the mark back on my Theories of Communications course, and ... *drum roll* I got a fuckin' A!!!

*cough*

Apologies for the multiple exclamation marks, but... holy fuck. It would appear I aced the fucking exam. :)

Anyhow, as I was saying... chatted with the Marks last night, spent a great deal of time chatting with gord, and that was very cool. I think he's one of my new favourite people. :)

Also got to do some venting last night. One of my coworkers blames all of the diaries for the mess... I blame the paranoias and refusals to believe what other people are telling you as truth. Argh. It pisses me off that I'm getting "punished" for something I completely didn't do or have a hand in, but... fuck it, really. Just goes to show me people's true colours, and all that other stuff.

I'm not going to get into that now though, since I'm trying to get moving -- there's a chance I'm meeting up with Moose for lunch, and I figure being dressed and showered will add to my appeal, rather than detract from it. :)

It’s kinda nice having a quiet evening to myself. The holidays were so crazy that this past week has been great – sitting around in the early evening, talking to friends online, watching DVDs on the computer, playing games, reading, and just doing what I want to do when I want to do it.

For example, today’s activities have included some time spent on reading for school (The Moonstone), as well as a few hours spent watching most of the second season of Sex and the City and a few hours spent getting through levels in WarCraft II. I also got to explore WalMart with my mom, and we bought a plant toxic to the cats, so that has to go back.

Admittedly, I’m not sleeping at decent hours, but that appears to be a pattern I fall into when I let myself, so… I can’t blame that on much.

The past few days have been somewhat busy, but in a low-key way. I’ve had my first week of classes, and I’ve been successful in changing out of the one course I had heard bad things about. It turns out that there were a bunch of errors in the online information – two of my scheduled profs have turned out to be other people, which is a good thing in some ways – but I still didn’t feel like investing the amount of effort required for the course, so I changed it. Instead of Public Opinion, a third year communications course, I’m now taking a first-year witchcraft/occult studies course. I’ve heard good things about it, and apparently I know someone who’s friends with the prof (a guy who used to work security at my work), so that’s kinda neat. Since it’s a first year course, I’m not too worried about it.

I just finished a bath, but prior to that I spent a good hour or so trouble-shooting some crap on my computer. I don’t know what happened, I don’t know why, but I fixed it. It made me very proud of myself, and I’m going to ride this for a little bit. :)

Anyhow, there’ve been a number of things piling up in the last few days that I wanted to talk about, so I’m going to have to fish out my planner to refresh my memory on what they were. I’m just that sad in two ways – one, that I would forget it, and two, that I would write it all down like that.

Okay, now it’s another day, and I have a weird dream to report. To those of you who are faithful followers of the site, you probably cringe in fear every time I write “weird dream,” remembering (and fearing) the return of something along the lines of the demon sex dream. Nonetheless, this one was odd. I was hanging out with a group of friends – some, in reality, were from high school, others I didn’t actively recognize, but in my dream I had known them for awhile. Apparently I was dating one of them, or we were just starting to date, I’m not sure. This group decided to take it into their heads to blow up a parking garage that was downtown to prove something, I don’t quite know what. I got in on the plan, with misgivings, and the day we decided to do it – Canada Day or something, a lot of people were downtown – we made sure that everyone had cleared out of the garage and it was just cars.

The explosion went off successfully, and only the people involved knew the others who were involved – no one else knew who instigated it. I remember sitting somewhere within view with a group of girlfriends who weren’t part of it, and this middle-aged lady was close enough to catch some of the blast. We saw her get spun in mid-air and she flew towards us, and landed right in our midst. We tended to her, made she was okay, and miraculously, she was. She only had a mild concussion and she was coherent and trying to get up and about – otherwise, not a scratch on her. The fact that I, as one of the instigators of this, was tending to a wounded person who was completely innocent of our misdeeds really bothered me in the dream, made me feel quite guilty; needless to say, I’m somewhat relieved upon awakening that it never happened.

Now onto a few of the subjects I wanted to cover but haven’t yet gotten around to:

Men with mullets
I was on the bus the other day, minding my own business as I read some book or another, and there were two guys sitting next to me, having a chat. The first guy -- the one who more or less sat in my lap -- was talking about how he was going to get a remote controlled butterfly vibrator for the girl he was seeing. "She'd be into it, 'cause she's pretty freaky" he was saying, and the guy to whom he was telling all of this was a mullet man. It was very obviously a mullet -- there was no denying it, as some people can kinda pass -- and he and I both got off the bus at the same stop... which gave me the opportunity to notice that he was wearing really tight jeans.

So, I had to wonder -- what the hell is the deal with men wearing mullets and tight jeans? I asked one of my coworkers, and he said it was to emphasize the guy's cock... which means what, that bald men are dickless? My coworker alluded to his short hair and then groaned somewhat, so I don't think he liked the options he came up with. Anyhow, it's not that I had any answers or whatnot, just questions.

Dads in university courses
This is a concept I may have introduced long ago on here, but I wanted to revisit it. It's not going to be an issue, since the gentleman in question happens to be in the class I dropped, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Namely, there are certain types of adult students that my gf and I have named "Dads" and "Moms." There seem to be fewer Moms in our experience, but that doesn't mean they don't exist; merely that they're a rarer breed.

Anyway, Dads and Moms are the students, usually adult students, who feel that the professor is engaging in a direct conversation with them. This means that any question the prof poses to the class gets answered by them, without raising their hand or waiting for someone else to answer. This means that any joke the prof makes is directly to them, so they laugh loudly and usually reply in some form. Many questions they ask are unnecessary, and the answers would be obvious if they thought a little -- things like, "this date on the syllabus, that's during reading week? Oh, so you did compensate for that" (after the prof had mentioned how we had an extra class because of the way the schedule was organized.

I have to say, they are generally nice people, but they're simply somewhat ignorant to the way of how classes ought to go. In my opinion, and that of a few other people with whom I have spoken.

My bus adventure
On Thursday, I had to go pick up some textbooks, 'cause I have a bunch of reading to do for one of my classes and less time in which to do it. So off I went to bus out to the middle of nowhere to pick up the textbooks -- I have now been to every single possible location at which professors will order books or course packs. It annoys me.

Anyhow, I got on the bus, this guy moved over to make space, so I sat down next to him. He asked if I knew where a particular street was located -- the one I was headed to, so I said yes, that was where I was also going, and asked if he was going to the same bookstore. As he was, I was asking him if he was picking up textbooks, and for what class, university, etc. -- all the usual nosy questions that one student can ask another.

We chatted the entire way to the bookstore, picked up our textbooks (I bought two magnetic poetry kits, more on that later), and rode the bus back together. I was heading over to work, so I stayed on the bus a bit longer, and he wound up getting off at the same stop as I, so part of me wonders if he rode past his stop in order to keep talking to me or something. Just before I got off the bus, he said he should give me his phone number, so I could call him sometime, and I said nuts to it and gave him my cell number, 'cause I said (truthfully) that I'm bad at calling people.

What this whole event gave me was a bit of confidence in myself. This guy felt comfortable enough around me to tease me and pick on me, calling me obnoxious and such, and liked me enough to offer his number after having seen only my face, basically -- the rest of me was covered pretty much head to toe by my winter coat and backpack. Pretty funky all around.

I know it seems as if I was trying to pick up in this whole event, and I honestly wasn't; I told Moose all about it, and I figure that I'm opening up the possibility of making a new friend. I thought the guy seemed nice enough and all, but I'm simply not looking for another relationship right now. I've got a good one with Mr. Lightyear. ;)

Magnetic poetry
So the bookstore had their magnetic poetry kits on for 40% off, and they had two there I simply couldn't pass up -- one "cat lover's" kit, which was originally $15 (it's a small kit), and the other one, the "erotic" kit. I've seen that once or twice before, and always avoided it because it was pretty pricey -- it was something like $30 before the discount... but 40% off? I couldn't help myself.

Basically, I figure it'll make for fun when I move out, and I might even buy a big magnet board and keep it in my room. Anytime I have trouble coming up with a column, I'll mix up some words -- maybe even combining the kits -- and see if that inspires me. :)

I think that's all that's new and worth mentioning for me for now. Nothing's terribly exciting, I just find moments out of it all and write about it. :) I have to continue doing my school reading -- I got to see my public relations prof from last semester, but didn't get to talk to him much. He said I got an A in the class, or was pretty sure, so that helps out my marks if it's true. :) My school's just being really slow about posting them, unfortunately. It makes me grumbly.

I had a bath late last night and finally got the body hair removal done for a little while. I've been really lax about it this winter; I just can't really be bothered to do it more often than once a week, even if I'm relatively certain people will be seeing/feeling my bare legs. Mind you, a few of my friends thought my legs still felt really soft even after three or four days of growth, so I guess it's not that bad.

I also seem to have gotten fairly comfortable with my body in the last little while. Ideally I'd like to lose a bit of weight, but overall, I think I like how I am. I'm not sure what's brought this about; I guess just incontrovertible evidence that someone (or a few someones) find me attractive, regardless of the extra pudge on my stomach or the extra inches on my hips or thighs. I've always been of the opinion of "This is what I have, and if you don't like it, there's not much I can do about it," but I seem to have gotten even more content in the last month or so.

Anyhow, I think this is long enough to make up for my not having posted for a few days. I think I'll try and do some reading in the background, since I don't have to write anything for a bit. :)

Otherwise... email me more! I get bored really easily. :( I always read them, even if I don't reply right away.

First review posted to Bibliophilage. The Big U, courtesy of Ben. :)

New article posted on Whore's Boudoir. I love when life makes my columns easier. :)

I just watched Fishie the Unnamed pull a fish flake down and then chase it to the bottom of the tank before he ate it. Funky cool. ;)

Dr. Seuss and Johnny Storm appear to like the little pellets now -- I think the problem was just that I was giving them too many, 'cause the other ones they were eating previously were smaller, so they could eat more. These ones are larger, so they fill up now. Now I give them two instead of three or four, and they eat them both. Fishie the Unnamed didn't appear to care much for the pellets, so he gets the flakes. Dr. Seuss and Johnny Storm weren't enthused about the flakes, so they stay on pellets.

Isn't my life fascinating?

I have a massive essay/update planned, but no time at the moment and no motivation last night to write it. Of course, this morning when I have the motivation, I don't have the time. Urgh. :P

Here are a few highlights that I want to hit, right off the top of my head (more of this is written in my planner, too):
* Men with mullets
* Being picked up on the bus
* The dog
* The work situation

...And here is when my brain has shut off and I can't think of anything else.

I have mystery novel today, so I'm looking forward to seeing all the reading I'll have to do for this class. I'm bringing Moose to it, or he's accompanying me to the class. I'm hoping the prof doesn't keep us for the whole time (unlike my prof from last night, when everything we covered aside from "thunder questions" was review from the last class I took with him), especially as we won't have read anything, so there's really nothing to discuss. I hope I like the prof, too -- I already plan to drop one of my courses in exchange for any other elective, I don't want to try to trade two. :P

Anyhow, must be off. More to show up later. :)

I just watched Fishie the Unnamed pull a fish flake down and then chase it to the bottom of the tank before he ate it. Funky cool. ;)

Dr. Seuss and Johnny Storm appear to like the little pellets now -- I think the problem was just that I was giving them too many, 'cause the other ones they were eating previously were smaller, so they could eat more. These ones are larger, so they fill up now. Now I give them two instead of three or four, and they eat them both. Fishie the Unnamed didn't appear to care much for the pellets, so he gets the flakes. Dr. Seuss and Johnny Storm weren't enthused about the flakes, so they stay on pellets.

Isn't my life fascinating?

I have a massive essay/update planned, but no time at the moment and no motivation last night to write it. Of course, this morning when I have the motivation, I don't have the time. Urgh. :P

Here are a few highlights that I want to hit, right off the top of my head (more of this is written in my planner, too):
* Men with mullets
* Being picked up on the bus
* The dog
* The work situation

...And here is when my brain has shut off and I can't think of anything else.

I have mystery novel today, so I'm looking forward to seeing all the reading I'll have to do for this class. I'm bringing Moose to it, or he's accompanying me to the class. I'm hoping the prof doesn't keep us for the whole time (unlike my prof from last night, when everything we covered aside from "thunder questions" was review from the last class I took with him), especially as we won't have read anything, so there's really nothing to discuss. I hope I like the prof, too -- I already plan to drop one of my courses in exchange for any other elective, I don't want to try to trade two. :P

Anyhow, must be off. More to show up later. :)

Okay, life update.

Apparently, K from work wants my coworker J to pass on details of his steamy weekend to me -- it would appear that I send him mixed signals, but if I were to ever send him a clear one, he'd take me up on it. Or something like that, I've given up on understanding males. They're crazy in the head (don't try to defend yourselves, you know it's true), and they make no sense.

Anyhow, whatever. I have myself a sweetheart of a guy at the moment, so I don't need any cheap flings or dating through work. Did that route already, huge crash and burn, we have learned from our mistakes and moved on.

Went to Chapters with Ben today. Urgh. I knew I shouldn't, but I just had this vague urge that I needed to go buy books. I left $80 poorer, having forgotten entirely to turn over my coupons and gift card (stupid!), but with four books: Firstus, The Big U, by Neal Stephenson, foist upon me by Mr. Ben himself... so far, it's an interesting read. The bit on the English prof is familiar, in that I swear I've had profs who graded that way. Secondus, The Breast Book. It has pictures of naked boobies in it -- what more do you need to sell a book? Thirdus, The Canadian Writer's Guide. The comment on the front by the Reviewing Librarian reads, "... an absolute must for any serious and aspiring Canadian writer, at whatever level... Freelance writers, this is your book." As I'm at the whatever level, I thought what the hell? What's another $28 dollars? And fourthus, I'm trying another Carl Hiaasen with Skin Tight. That will be my guilty pleasure reading that I sneak in between the chapters of the course materials I have to read.

I'm about three quarters of the way through Writers on Writing at the moment, and I've found a few authors in there whose writings were either compelling enough, or spoke to my experiences with writing in such a way that I'd like to follow up and read a few of their works; Carl Hiaasen was one of these. As well, I need more authors whose books I want to collect religiously. It gives me a feeling of such pleasure and happiness when the latest [insert name of author I'm stalking here]'s book comes out and I can buy it and take it home and lose myself in its pages. Of course, the real bitch is waiting for books to come out in paperback – this is why I check the shelves religiously for the latest Jennifer Crusie to convert to paperback (sometime this year, I know!), and why I whimper whenever I see the latest PTerry novel. I know, get thee to a library, but I just haven’t yet. I’m lazy.

I’m also working my way through “Canuck Chicks and Maple Leaf Mamas: Women of the Great White North,” part of my Christmas gift from Markuk. I want to get through Writers first, so it’s getting very slow treatment, but some readings here and there.

As well, I carry around Brave New World in order to absorb it through osmosis, and so far that’s going well; I’ve absorbed approximately the first six or seven pages, and I feel confident that more will come.

At night, prior to laying my little head down to rest, I read from Screw the Roses, Give me the Thorns, in the hopes of garnering more information so I can write articles and appear informed, rather than just equating bondage with laziness and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anything else I’m working on? I think that’s got it covered. The textbooks for the one class I had this evening – Communication and International Development – are going to come to over $150 with taxes. That’s for one class alone. Urgh. As well, there will be crazy amounts of reading to do for that one class, much of which I’m sure I won’t understand, but I’ll have to do it in order to keep up to date. I like the prof – she’s the same one I had for women and media – but she says ‘you know’ at the end of every single fucking sentence, and in the middle of many of them as well. It’s very annoying. I was able to tune it out in women and media because, let’s face it, I didn’t have to show up to any class in order to pass it, but this one is another matter.

Anyhow, I have a minor project in mind, and I’m not sure how successful it’ll be, but I’ll outline it here for anyone who’s managed to read this far and wants to participate. Namely, in order to further my abilities and knowledge as a possible writer, I need to familiarize myself with more books than I might otherwise think of just on my own. I’m thinking primarily of the classics, but I’m open to other ideas as well. In that vein, I would like to take any suggestions for books that anyone might think I should read, and I will read them and post my thoughts on what I gleaned from the book, or what I liked or didn’t like about it. I think I will create a new site, Bibliophilage for all of you to marvel and debate over.

Now, as a caveat; I will be honest in my opinion of what I am reading. That means you may not like what I have to say about your favourite book, and for that I apologize. Since this is my opinion, that means it cannot be wrong, regardless of how much you might disagree with what I am saying! If there is enough interest, I can open up the page to other posters so that we can have debates on the subjects of the various books, but it’s dependent on interest and such.

As a second caveat, I also reserve the right to say no to a book, if I’m really opposed to it for some reason or another. There likely won’t be many to which I’ll flat out say no, but there will likely be many I don’t get to right away, especially what with the semester starting up now.

Anyhow, it’s all just speculation at this point.

For now, I think I’m going to sneak in some of that reading while I still can, before the school stuff gets to be too much… and perhaps catch a few winks while I’m at it. This post has gotten seriously delayed from the time when I started it, namely ‘cause I wound up in a bunch of conversations. Good ones, for sure, but distracting ones. ;)

And Moose is on my shit list for not showing up online. ;) Therefore, he gets some name-calling, of the variety he doesn’t like. But I’ll save it for in person so it’s that much more effective. :)

For now, I say goodnight, and don’t forget to read the article! :)

Oh yeah, P.S.: The fish are doing well. The new fish (as of yet still unnamed) appears to prefer the flake food I bought. Either that or he simply wasn't hungry this morning. The other two... well, they appear to continue to tolerate the Wardley's stuff. I'm going to have to make the trek to the pet store where I bought them ('cause the store were I bought NoName didn't carry the brand), and buy the kind they were first on. Bastards -- three different kinds of food I've tried, and they prefer the fourth. :P

Woo, new article up for Whore's Boudoir.

I became a mother for the third time today.

Well, I guess it was technically yesterday, since I appear to have crossed that midnight mark, but regardless, once again, I have a fishie.

This guy has a red body and blue fins -- J had one similar and I really liked the look of it, so today one of my impulse purchases was a betta fish.

There's a trick to his name, although I haven't necessarily settled on this one. Basically, because he looks like he could be the baby of my other two fish (one red, one blue -- both larger than him, incidentally), I thought that somehow his name could perhaps be a combination of theirs. The only thing is, I didn't want to call him Dr. Storm (to refresh for those of you playing at home, red fish = Johnny Storm [Fantastic Four, The Human Torch, "Flame on!" -- although I have yet to see him actually do this, the water might be a bit inhibiting]; the blue fish = Dr. Seuss for the fact that he appeared sickish and depressed when I bought him, and because of the whole, "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" thing), because having two doctors would just throw out the whole balance and then I might have to resort to calling the red fish Dr. Zais as originally planned... so I took the first part of Johnny Storm's name and added it to the last part of Dr. Seuss' name to come up with... Josuss. Now, if you say it with the right inflections, it sounds like "Jesus" -- so I have a Jesus fish.

Beh, it's funny the first time. The fifth time I explain it... it's slightly less so.

Mind you, that little naming scheme led Moose (who may also now be known as Buzz Lightyear) to tell me that his last fish's name was Jesus and he actually died on a Friday. Freaky, no? So now I'm afraid to call my fish Jesus, lest he die soon.

Oh yeah, and to finish that tale -- apparently Moose kept the fish around until the following Monday to see if he'd rise again. He didn't, though.

Because Freaky Fish (another possible name for him) was the first thing I bought, I had to carry him around on my errands today -- it was cold outside and I didn't want to leave him in the car. The girl at the clothing store (where I bought two pairs of jeans, score for me!) told me she had a fish tank on her desk at home for awhile, and one day one of her fish jumped out. She couldn't find the body until months later when she was cleaning behind her desk or something, when she discovered a bunch of bones. *shudder*

I also bought a couple of catnip toys for the cats, and Digger went just bugnuts over one of them, this really concentrated one. Shadow actually was fishing it out of the bag before I even unpacked anything, and then she licked it for awhile. It's quite soggy and gross. I bought Digger one of the canvas squares that he really likes, but I guess it just wasn't quite as good when compared with this crazy concentrated bag.

Ah well… had a quick drink with Markuk on Sunday (kinda yesterday) before I headed off to work. He flew out this morning. It was nice having him in town – got to spend a fair bit of time with him, in between working, sleeping, hanging out with Ben and Moose, finding time for other friends in town… urgh. School will actually be a bit of a respite, since I’ll now be able to have a fixed schedule. Which reminds me, I have to email the boss the new schedule.

Okay, took a huge break there – playing comments tag with gord and chatting with Jay and Big A… it’s a night for procrastinating. I really should be off to bed, especially considering I was(n’t) falling asleep over at Ben and Moose’s place while Moose was playing some dull game on the GameCube. Okay, so it was fascinating and riveting to him and Ben (at least until Ben fell asleep), but it totally didn’t hold my attention and I kept dying in Yoshi’s Island, so… I rested my eyes. With my head tilted totally back to rest on the couch behind me, while Moose rested against me and played. It was actually more comfy than it would seem.

Urgh. I’ve totally lost momentum here. I’m completely killing time, and it’s fun and all, but… it’s keeping me from a decent sleep. I don’t think I know what a decent sleep is anymore, actually

Okay, so now I’m being really awful about getting to bed. I’m sitting here looking at images of piercings and trying to decide what I want to get done next. This is a conversation that Markuk and I had the other day, and I’m not sure I actually do want to get anything else done… but I do. *grrr* I was chatting about piercings with gord at the party – never quite got the chance to say what it was I’d had done beyond my ears, but next time we discuss it, I’m sure I’ll mention it.

Ah well, I think I’ll force myself to bed now. Well, I’ll do some reading first, but after that it’s sleep time… if there’s room for me on the bed what with the cats having taken it over and all. They’re so funny. :)

Two days in a row, the process of reading everyone's blogs has been made extremely easy by not having new content to read. :P

I suppose people feel the same about my site, but ... well, fneh. Exactly. :)

What's been the last few days? Well, had brunch with AC Friday, which was awesome. We chatted for awhile, then decided that we had to get together again, so long as he was going to be in town. Fortunately, he was able to, so we had dinner on Saturday. :) He drove me to this house party that Ben and Moose were going to be at, so we hung out there for a bit, finding the four or five people in the crowd that I knew out of about 100.

It was shaping up to be a kinda lame evening, but there was some excitement in a few respects: 1) not being able to find Moose, then finding him; 2) getting to find out someone's opinion of me ("a total whore, a walking STD" -- extremely ironic considering the source); 3) getting to meet a bunch of people who were apparently blitzed 'cause they seemed to think I was cute or something; 4) getting to meet fans!

That was awesome. :) I met Gord, who's been reading Whore's Boudoir for a bit, and has commented on the site, and he was going around telling everyone how awesomely I write, how great it is that the site is written by a cute girl (his words), and that I was the most popular whore on the Internet. :) He was a lot of fun to talk to, as was the "Film Studies Guy", and of course, Angus. We all geeked out for a bit and exchanged ICQ/MSN/AOL/website information, and it was all good. :)

On a totally different note, there have been a few anonymous comments on my various sites, and I appreciate the feedback, but the anon stuff drives me nuts, especially when someone says they know who I am (a commenter that got threatening and so got banned), or that they know me from work. Mind you, the person who wrote it said that I was always so quiet at the office, so I seriously doubt that they know who I am.

My sister is out the door and on her way to an airplane, and I'm somewhat relieved. Once again, for the most part, my stuff'll get left alone -- my sister tends to assume that anything lying around or in the fridge is fair game, and doesn't consider that it might belong to someone. The phone will always be where it ought to be, and not hiding out in her room or the basement (where there are already two phones). When I call the house to speak to one of my folks, I'll actually get to speak to one of my folks! And so on. For the most part, it hasn't been too bad, but... everyone in this household owes me a Coke, literally.

Markuk is taking off bright and early tomorrow morning. It's been an interesting, if vaguely frustrating time while he's been here. Now we can go back to me persuading him to stay up late and I'll go back to getting enough sleep. :)

Jay leaves tomorrow as well, I'm not sure what time exactly. I feel bad, I've only gotten to see him two or three times since he's been here, but we've both been busy hanging out with various people. At least, I don't imagine he's been sitting at home, bored out of his tree this whole time. Maybe I'll be able to persuade him to come into town again, although he's likely to be crazy busy dodging movie stars and such. :)

Anyhow, I'm supposed to getting together with Markuk for lunch today, which means he'd probably appreciate it if I showered and such.

Final thoughts?

* Friday was weird, ran into a bunch of classmates and other familiar faces -- something like four in the half hour I was outside and about.
* Carrying the notebook around on my person is a blessing and a half, regardless of how dorky it might make me look.
* Cell phones are also a blessing.
* If you spend anytime kissing someone at a party, someone is invariably (and here I'm thinking of Ming) going to tell you to get a room. Or ask if they can join in (the blue-haired guy).
* I hate hypocritical people.
* The things that can be done with two stuffed animals (PoPo the Buggery Bear and Kermit the Frog), a small leather harness and a small red dildo are absolutely hilarious.
* I love my friends and my cats. ^..^ :)