Christmas Gift Ideas: 2007 Edition

Messenger Bags:

Ortlieb

Chrome Bags
Custom by R.E.Load

Or a nice, leather satchel...any questions, ask Brad. (just an example)

A really cool locket. Not a heart, but cool.

Elementary Electric Bass
btw, I don't know anything about this, so if someone knows one that's better or anything, go with that.

Cute, used, relatively inexpensive bicycle

Perfume

Functional, funky belts

any jewelry except for bracelets and rings.

Especially a cool watch.

Socks!! Really!! (and any underwear/bras: M/36C. style: demi/balconet/plunge)

any clothing at all

Addition:
Patches:
Nova Scotia
New Brunswick
Canada
Any country I've been
Ohio
Feel free to find a less sucky site.

Addition:
Labyrinth! That game of games.

Addition:
Cowboy Bebop: The Perfect Series

Thermometer!

Clothing ideas (though I'd really prefer a bra and underwear set....dire need)
Don't laugh at me for my taste or the Forever XXIness below. It makes it affordable!!

Urban Outfitters
Cardigan Sweater, M, Heather Grey
thermal top, M, any color
turtleneck, M, any color
twisty top, M, cranberry
thermal, M, white

Forever XXI
turtleneck...I'm sort of uncertain about this one
hoodie, M, olive
sweatervest! taupe, don't laugh
hoodie ...must stop linking hoodies...
thermal
vest
toggle coat

Gap
sweater, perhaps preferably orange?
sweater jacket, orange!!
ruched turtleneck, any color but grey
t-shirt, brown, black, tangerine, or red
t-shirt, brown stripe
hoodie, red

Old Navy
cable knit scoop sweater, white
scoop neck sweater, new tan heather****
toggle sweater, tan heather

Mr. Darcy

I think a bug just tried to fly up my nose. He was flying with such purpose, straight up there, that I'm a little weirded out.

So my first Brain and Behavior lab was this last Monday. I had a friend in there to partner with already, but there was a guy sitting next to us who joined up with us as well, and it turns out that his name is.....

.....

........

Darcy.

This guy does not realize what kind of a situation he's gotten himself into. I asked him if everyone reacted about his name, and he said that I was only the second person to mention Pride and Prejudice to him. So, I think I can safely reserve the right to bug him about his name.

I just heard in the hall:
Girl: "You suck."
Guy: "I don't. I'm the opposite of suck."
Girl: "My pants say Acadia."

Posting at 1am, with an 8am class tomorrow

My blogging has magical powers. The day after I wrote about stir sticks, I went to get my coffee the next morning, and they were gone. No stirring devices to be seen. Later on they were replaced by those plastic ones. And then popsicle sticks.

Sometime this summer, a someone who shall remain anonymous commented that they didn't think Newsweek liked Obama, because they made him look bad on the cover. I looked at the cover and said I thought he looked the same as ever. This someone said that Obama was generally considered an attractive guy, but this just wasn't a flattering photo of him. I was pretty surprised at this news. So I have to ask. Does the general population think Obama is attractive in a physical and not political sense? Tell me.

Have you ever seen one of those people with a really small face, but really BIG hair? It's horrible. If I had a head that small, I'd do my hair accordingly. Or, maybe they're insecure and trying to compensate or something. There's a girl in my psych classes with this small head big hair thing going on, and I look at her every single time she walks in the room, 'cause she looks so weird.

Okay, I am going to learn (or try to learn) a song on the guitar. For my very first song, what do you think I should learn? Give submissions. Really.

SLEEP

A) I had read about Rihanna's Umbrella song, but never heard it. That is, until I was sitting in Mini Moe's enjoying a bagel and coffee before class. I didn't need anyone to tell me what song it was once I heard it. Wow. All I can say is, the old lady next to me really seemed to be enjoying it.

***HEROES SPOILER***

B) What was up with Nathan and the mirror in Heroes tonight?

C) It's midnight, and I have an eight o'clock class tomorrow, and I'm just now starting my paper. :( True, it's a very very very very short paper, but still.

titles are hard

I have Wallace and Gromit socks, and they are soooo cool. Though they have a hole in the bottom. That is less cool. Even less cool is that the two washers on my floor have been broken by inexperienced frosh trying to wash way too many clothes in one load. Thank you, Frosh.

There's a "cathedral" next to my dorm that I pass on my way to classes. I like it, except that it means that I see how often funerals happen. It's depressing passing the little sign that says, "Funeral Parking," that's placed outside so frequently. What's even more depressing is when that sign is sitting out there and there are only five or ten cars in the parking lot.

Oh, to revisit the movie Stardust. Anne and Brad saw it, and thought it was fine (sorry if I'm misrepresenting your opinions), but certainly nothing too great. However, word on the street is that they both agreed that it was a "Mandy movie." So I suppose I'm considering this a caution to everyone not to take my good opinion of Stardust too seriously. It was a Me Movie.

I'd like to clarify the "some people who go to church are right bastards" quote. I couldn't tell the tone of your comment, and whether or not you were joking, Ben, but either way I'll put it into context. In my history and theory of psychology class, Dr. Edwards was talking about the flaws in some methodology. An example he brought up was that a psychologist who was looking at how religious the population was looked at how many people went to church as an indicator (don't mind the church only thing. The town I'm in right now is nicknamed The Little Vatican. That kind of thing sort of comes with teh territory, I guess). Anyways. Dr. Edwards was saying how, of course, whether you go to church or not doesn't really indicate whether or not you're religious, but that it's a decent stab at the idea. And that's when the quote about some people who go to church came in. Which is really kind of complimentary, since it seems to be suggesting that people who are religious are not "right bastards." So! That's what that was all about.

I think a couple of you might remember that I was auditioning for a chamber ensemble a while back. I didn't want to chat about it too much before I heard back, in case I didn't get in. But I did! There are nine other members: flute, clarinet, oboe, french horn, trumpet, three violins, and a piano. It's a big mish mash of instruments. The music department here is only jazz, and nothing classical or ensembley in nature has been around for at least ten years. So this group is just starting off. And the most amazing coincidence occurred during my audition.

One of the two people listening to it asked where I was from after I mentioned something about solo and ensemble contest, because apparently they call it "festival" around here, or that's the closest they come. I said Ohio, she said no kidding, me too, I asked where, she said Columbus, I said I was from Bexley, she said she went to Capital, and I asked if she knew Nancy Moore (my former private cello teacher), and she said YES! ...did I already write about this? Sorry if I did.

So, the Canadian and American dollar. Equal. Ouch. There are signs going up saying that the Canadian and American dollar will be exchanged equally until further notice. I bet that things in the states will be reaaaally slow about adjusting their exchange in tolls and stuff to accommodate that.

Well, I suppose I should actually get some reading done for classes...so I'll go do that. :(

Oh, the other day Chris and Nick put on this really random Make Blues Not War jam in front of the library. While Nick was appreciating how ridiculous the title was considering they were raising money for AIDS relief in Africa (through a Canadian grassroots thing that actually does a lot more than that), it was just making me feel self-conscious. :-P Aaanyways. Here they are playing. Nick is on guitar and Chris is playing on his little piano. I guess technically Chris plays trumpet.
Other things...here is a better view of Nicholson, where I have all my classes.
I'll be posting some photos from tonight, when I walked twenty minutes outside of town to see this band, Mishra's Dream. For those who have Facebook, enjoy. For those who don't, sorry.

quotations

Unlike everything else in this entry, this isn't a quotation, it's just the only thought of mine in this entry.
When some people say, "I'm praying for you," I think, "No you're not."

"I'm thrilled to announce--our brains have arrived!" Brain and Behavior Lab Instructor

"Zeitgeist means flower power?" Girl in my Brain and Behavior class

"Cognitive science is to psychology what creationism is to biology." Dr. Henke (Brain and Behavior)

"One guy by the name of Kluver, another by the name of Bucy. Monkeys." Dr. Henke. What made this quote so great was just the way he stated monkeys. Monkeys.

Dr. Edwards, History and Theory of Psychology:

"Lots of people who go to church regularly are right bastards."

"It was very trivial. Bizarrely, stupidly, idiotically trivial."

"I'd bring back capital punishment for that son of a bitch." <--man playing music loudly from his car

Mandy's Art Studio: VII

So, today was my first real class in painting. He just sort of threw us in and said, "Pick one of these paintings, and replicate it." I would like to blame him for that extremely messed up eye. I mean, I know a lot is messed up, but he kept telling me to bring it down more and more.

more on campus

So, this is my main academic building. Nicholson Hall, and that's Nicholson Tower, which is connected. You can't tell, 'cause this is the high side of a hill, but it's actually three stories, and this is where the majority of classes are for everyone. Just lots of simple lecture rooms. Just to the right of it and beyond is meal hall, and my dorm is about 25 ft. behind where I was standing as I took this.
This is the psych building!! The Annex. Nicholson is directly to the right. You'll notice the same cracked pavement in both photos. I do have one class in here this year. But mostly it's the psych profs' offices and labs.
The other side of the Annex, so Nicholson is directly to the left here, and the SUB is directly on the right. I like the name the Annex. It's like a level in GoldenEye. Is it a level in GoldenEye?
You can't tell how beautiful this spot is, but it's beautiful. That's the music department on the left, the administrative buildings straight ahead, and meal hall is about five feet behind me.

in the middle of the day, not the night.

Doesn't everyone always wish that they could just tune into people's thoughts like turning up a speaker, and listen to what they're thinking about when they're sitting alone, just killing time? I've always wanted to do this. If anyone could do that to me, they'd hear a static noise, punctuated briefly by thoughts that sound exactly like what I write in here every day. Exactly. In fact, if I had a computer in my brain, life would be one long post for me. Except for those moments of social interaction when I'm freaking out.

Everyone watches people, right? People watching has to be one of the best past times ever. So, I sit around watching people, but I notice...no one watches me. Granted, I'm a blatant, overt people watcher. Maybe everyone else has mad people watching skills, and I really am being watched, only I'm too much of a novice to tell. Maybe the point is that we're watching people who are busy, and we're people watching when we're not. I never feel busy, but maybe there are moments when I am, and then my guard is down and I'm watched. The fact that I'm so worried about being watched must say something about me, and I'm not so certain it's something good.

I thought I lost my debit card. But it is found.

My room this year

As always, ignore me talking. In fact, maybe you should just listen to it muted. My room is, of course, much messier now. For the first week or so I made my bed every day. Hah.

Okay, since I can't get that movie to work, here are some photos of campus instead. Here we have the library. Buildings directly next to it are...
Meal Hall/Morrison/Moe's. There's a cafe in the back called Mini Moe's.
On the other side of campus are the athletic facilities (they circle around behind where I'm standing as I took this, the hockey rink is what's on the left), and you can see one of the dorms (Governor's/NewNew Res) to the right of it, behind.

This is my first year dorm, MacIsaac. Meal hall is to the left and behind me, and the athletic facilities above are just to the right, barely out of view.

Why didn't it happen to me????

From my Biopsychology textbook:

"In most cases, mutations disappear from the genetic pool within a few generations because the organisms that inherit them are less fit. However, in rare instance, mutations increase fitness and in so doing contribute to rapid evolution."

Honestly, what student doesn't read that and think, "X-Men X-Men, X-Men, it can happen!!"

This weekend:

My Crocs are not only adorable, they're also quite comfortable, and go with just about everything I wear. Which is nice. 'Cause I blistered my feet so badly that first week that right now they're one of the only pair of shoes I can wear without too much pain.

Independent Yoga Adventure last night: Success! I'm a little sore today, but it was fun. It was a bit more strength-oriented than I expected it to be, but there were some pretty cool-looking poses. Well, not just cool-looking, but also fun.

----TWO DAYS LATER----

Well, this has been a packed weekend. Are you ready to listen? 'cause this'll be a while. Actually, I'll work to abbreviate it.

Friday night, I went to Nick and Chris's place, where there was a small party. We hung out, first watching an amazingly amazingly amazingly bad movie that could never hope to be called B, then Mel Brookes' The Producers was put on in the background. I really wanted to watch, but it was hard with all the talking. Around one o'clock, we all went to Alexander's for pizza. Later, when I went to leave for my room around three, I couldn't find my purse. In it were my keys, debit card, half my month's budget which I'd just withdrawn, driver's license, student ID, and my ticket to Metric for the next night. Since I couldn't get into my room, we had a slumber party at Nick and Chris's. Nick slept in the loveseat in the living room, and gave me his bed to sleep in. I felt like the biggest inconvenience in the world. Then the next morning, Alexander's didn't open until three in the afternoon, so I still hung around Nick's place, preventing him from doing anything productive at all, or leading his life. And I felt like an even bigger inconvenience. I was really worried that my purse wasn't going to be at Alexander's, really worried, but imagine my relief when I finally found out it was there, and everything was still inside it!! The manager guy was very particular about that. He kept telling me to check the contents, check the contents. But bumming around Nick and Chris's apartment all day, and not sleeping in my own bed, made that day very surreal and somehow tiring. When I did get home, I just lay unconscious on my bed until it was time to head back over before going to Metric.

So, I didn't realize that I knew Metric. Perhaps you know them, too? I really enjoyed them, but I don't know how I felt about the girl who led and did all the vocals. There was something about her presence on stage that I found somewhat...repellent. Like, she seemed to really love herself, and watching that was just irritating. In a moment of great misfortune, my camera chose right before the concert to run out of batteries. :( So I have no concert photos. Ohhh well. Anyways, the rest of the night afterwards was spent listening to music at Nick and Chris's until...threeish.

So, all in all, I'm tired, and will be going to sleep EARLY tonight.

Oh, and let me add that amid the torrential downfall I walked through on the way to the concert, as well as all the beer inevitably spilled on my feet during the concert, I was very happy to be wearing my rubber Crocs.

Pictures coming later.

Downhearted

I think that maybe I need to go live in the woods as a hermit, almost starve, but survive for a while. For some reason that seems like a really good idea right now. Maybe I'm having a personal identity crisis. Maybe I need to read more. Maybe I'm actually going insane.

A deep sense of dissatisfaction with myself has been laced throughout my thoughts for a while now, and I don't know what to do about it.

Last night I dreamed that I was Renee Zellweger dating that guy, Patrick, from Coupling, and becoming emotionally dependent on him.

Independent Adventure of the night: Trying out yoga at the athletic center, without any proper yoga clothing. Undoubtedly everyone will be wearing those yoga pants, and yoga shirts, and I'll walk in with my gross sweatpants. ohhhh dear.

Baked goods are the devil.

But skirts with volume are awesome.

Last night

I had a dream that I was Itchy of Itchy and Scratchy. Scratchy and I were actually best friends. We were shooting on location somewhere tropical, and decided to spend some downtime in hot springs near a volcano. Predictably, and tragically, the volcano erupted while we were in the hot springs. Our little section of rocky hot springyness was being carried down the mountain, and we miraculously made it into the ocean without the flesh burned off our skin, when another cartoon character was water skiing by and shot both of us.

And the night before that I had a crazy Spiderman dream.

Time for a nap.

wooden stirsticks seem like an uncommonly bad idea. I'm not very proactive about the environment (hah), but that seems like one of the most pain-free ways to at least reduce the whole tree cutting down thing. I know that Ben K believes that wooden stir sticks have magical powers (maybe they do), but honestly I think that a more permanent stir method should be started. Something just seems so wrong about picking the stir stick up, giving three quick swishes, and throwing it in the trash can. Such a limited time of usefulness. Do they make stir sticks out of recycled wood or something? And even with plastic ones, that sense of waste and all the energy that went into making it, seems evil for such a short life, then straight back to the dump.

Many of you must be thinking, "There are so many things in the world, and this is what Mandy picks to care about." Well, you'd be wrong. I don't really care. It's just that for 30 seconds, while I'm picking up, using, and throwing out that stir stick, a huge vision of waste opens up before me, and for a moment I'm repulsed. I suppose little things trigger this sensation in everyone. Perhaps every time Anne sees tuna she envisions churning water, and it all suddenly being stilled, and that is what makes her cringe.

So, I had my first painting class yesterday. We were just sitting around being told about materials needed and such, and how things will work. It's a 2.5 hour class, but only lasted about fifteen minutes. The professor seems like he did a lot of acid when he was young or something. He sat on a desk kicking his feet back and forth, and sort of never seemed to be aware of or care that he was actually speaking. This should be a pretty entertaining class.

Time for a nap.

a little something

As ever, my posters will just not stop falling down. Am I cursed? Perhaps. Either that, or too cheap to buy the really nice sticky tack.

My callouses are beginning to show themselves again. Only my third finger is still a bit squishy.

I just listened to this cover by Radiohead of Wonderwall, by Oasis. The moment I saw it, I knew I had to hear it. I mean, this would be a band that I love playing a song that I abhor. Sure enough, Radiohead was actually just making fun of it. I am so happy.

Sometimes, I wonder how seriously I should take my dreams. There's the logical response of, "Not seriously at ALL, Mandy, have you been listening to yourself and the messed up things you dream about?" But then sometimes I have these vivid dreams that eerily kind of give an answer to whatever dilemma I'm having at the time, and let me tell you, that's hard to resist. When you're sitting, debating, debating, and then you're told the answer in a dream.

Last night I had one of the best social scene nights I've experienced in Antigonish. StFX's only music program is a jazz program, and Monday nights at the "pub" (actually just a nice bar), the professors meet and play for about four hours. So last night I went with Nick, Greg, and Chris, two other guys joined us, and we sat squeezed into a four person booth for the entire time, listening to some good jazz, while they drank more and more beer. All the music students were there listening, and it was just the best, most laid-back scene that I've encountered yet. Hurray!

*cough, choke, ack*

I barely made it alive through the cloud of perfume and cologne filling the hallway. It is truly a Friday night on campus, and the ladies and the men of StFX are dressing to kill.

Classes so far

The problem with advancing in a program is that the higher level you get, the bigger the egos are that you're dealing with. I mean, the egos were always there, it's just that there were more people in addition, sort of diluting the ego. Then as the people who were pretty casual about it drop out, the egos remain, and become concentrated. And then you're left sitting in class listening to people put the oddest, hoity toity tones in their voices as they answer questions, and you get angry.

Or at least I do. Grrrrrrrr.

So, I've had three of my classes so far.

Brain and Behavior with Dr. Henke seems pretty intimidating, but I think that I might be able to pull through. I got this book, "A Colorful Introduction to the Anatomy of the Human Brain: A Brain and Psychology Coloring Book," as a sort of remedial aid to myself. So far it seems really helpful, and I've already learned stuff I didn't know just in the first ten pages, but it also coincidentally is by the same author of the textbook our class is using. Go figure. Throughout the year, we'll be dissecting a sheep's brain in lab. Fun. Oh, but I sincerely hope that everyone is enjoying how funny my coloring book on neuroanatomy is.

Abnormal Psychology with Dr. Watt seems like it's going to be awesome. Interesting subject matter, guest speakers who have the disorders we'll be learning about, and perhaps a service learning volunteer type aspect as well. No lab for this class, yay!

Advanced Data in Psychological Research (level up from last years Research Methods and Stats course) seems pretty intimidating as well. In our first day, Dr. McCormick blasted through two months of last year's course. This could seem really bad, except that in one sentence he managed to encapsulate in a perfectly comprehensible way a topic that Dr. Sullivan (of last year's RM&S class) easily spent half an hour on, and I still didn't understand. However, a concept flying by that quickly made it difficult to take notes on. Con #1: No powerpoint at all, so if you miss it when he says it, it's gone. Con #2: There's a lab for this course! They purposefully didn't mention it in the Academic Calendar, apparently. :( How sad! I thought I was only going to have one class with a lab this year.

loose ends

Yes, I'm in a new place. A new room, inside a beautiful building, back on campus where adventurous things are going to be happening. But I'm not going to talk about that for now, 'cause I have some loose ends to wrap up.

a) Dad's Treo finally died. Did he replace it with something else? Nope, just another Treo, slightly newer model.

b) Jennie and Dan left behind some Junior Mints. I love Junior Mints. They had melted into the bottom of the box, so I ripped the box off from around them (rather than trying to dig them out), and enjoyed a Junior Mint Block, kind of like a brownie. In the picture, it looks like hardened oreo ice cream. Don't you think?

c) I finished the countertops before I left. Not the grouting, just the tiling. And here is my masterful work. The tile here is still covered in tile residue from me cutting them, so it looks very unclean and grimy. It just needs to be wiped down. So there are now three countertops. Oh, we were missing one piece of tile for the edges, so you see at the very far end on this one that there's a gap.

d) I have a lovely view from my room.

Departure Time

Yeah, well, this title really says everything I need to say. Until Monday, I'll be disconnected. I'm packing my laptop up tonight. That's right! No emailing, Facebooking, IMing, chatting within gmail. I know this probably makes most of you nervous, to think that you won't be able to contact me lightning fast, but don't worry. We'll all survive.

I'll be writing later.