Who wants the huge condom hat?

I hate when a person agrees with everything I say. "That is SO true! That is SO true!" It just tempts me to say more and more extreme things....

"Man, Bush is fabulous."
"That is SO true!"

I know I set out with the intention of closely following patterns for everyone's Christmas presents so that people would perhaps actually want to wear what I give them, but right now I'm starting out on a knitting adventure for someone's present. No pattern! No plan!! Only an idea. That would sound inspirational right there if you guys didn't know how my Forays into Unique Knitting almost always turn out. I can imagine that each of you is now wondering, with fear and trepidation, if this is your knitting present. But I won't tell you whose it is. Except that it's not Jaime's. Sorry, Jaime. You will not be getting the hat that looks like a flower shoved upside down on someone's head. Or, as a friend so kindly pointed out, a bright red HUUUGE condom.

Time for my 9am nap

The water from my tap fizzes. Jealous?

Why is the world so cold?!???? WHY?!! I love my room. It is a haven of overwhelmingly hot heatness in this land of freezing.

My paper is almost done. Hurrah!

The moment I'm permanently settled in a location, I'm going to get a cat. Hopefully one that looks totally grizzly and badass.

Give me your tales!!!!

This is the last week of classes.

Are you flabbergasted? 'Cause I am. Not to mention, mozilla didn't underline flabbergasted as a typo, though it did for mozilla, and it also does for google.

So the BBC is having this competition called The Next Big Thing 2007. Right now its pared down to 20 bands from around the world, and I'm listening to their respective songs on the BBC website for the competition. Some of it is really fun, and some of it is...crap. I'm going to guess that if this weren't the BBC, some of these songs wouldn't have made it through, because they have a very Brit-pop sort of bubblegum feel that makes me cringe.

A friend from high school is friends with one of the bands (King Tut) in this competition, I guess, so of course I got the event invitation on Facebook.

Okay, forget that Brit pop comment, because there's a really wide range of styles on here.

I have a hot date with my friend Jenny to go see a Bluejackets game and grab dinner in teh Arena District or Short North. So excited!!!!

In the next two days, I'm writing a paper for my abnormal psychology class. I'm writing about the large Somali presence in Columbus and how mental health care providers are trying to cope with the linguistic and cultural differences that are created when trying to do assessment. However, I need to make it clear how closely related this topic is to the Columbus area. So if any of you have had any any any any encounter or have a story relating to a Somali refugee in any way (really really doesn't matter if it's mental health related at ALL) in the even Ohio area, please tell me about it. Please. Please please.

Even if you think it doesn't apply, still tell me.

What happened?

Snow happened!!! And thank you, Ben and Julie, for those snow boots. Instead of walking straight to the computer lab, I trudged all over campus taking photos of pretty much every building. And now you get to suffer through them. Maybe I should start a Photos label...maybe I will, oooh....

Here they are, in no particular order since things got scrambled around when I was uploading them. Sorry to all of you who don't really care what my campus looks like.

the engineering building

St. Ninian's Cathedral
(you can see my dorm to the left)

side of the library

back of administrative buildings

back of Geology building
unremarkable, I know, but I love this spot

the old chapel, Somers place
Now dance classes and the odd performance are held here
(you can see the chapel in the back)

Geology building!
I have no idea what this is actually used for.

front of the admin. buildings

this is what I saw when I had stepped one foot outside my hall
in the courtyard of The Mount

chapel

one of those residences in Confusion Square
I never hang out here, so I don't keep track of which is which

meal hall!! (Morrison Hall/Moe's)

You won't believe what I did... :-/

In perhaps one of the boldest and most innovative moves in fashion history, I just now paired a long cable knit cardigan with my grumpy bear t-shirt. It's okay, I understand if you're intimidated. :-P

This cardigan doesn't have long sleeves, though. So it's pointless. Who designs these things? And who buys them? I do, apparently.

So, today I had my first counseling session. Yay! My lady was really nice. We talked about a lot of different stuff. My voice only quavered slightly (but totally noticeably). It's amazing how draining that is, though, and how difficult it is to talk and actually say what you think, and not just give a polite response. I was physically hot from the effort when I left. And I felt a little nervous and shaken afterwards; my hands were actually trembling.

I just read The Ent and the Entwife song and it is so sweet and sad. And I am such a dork. First cardigans with Grumpy Bear and now The Ent and the Entwife Song. Wow.

Well, I just compromised my morals and watched Becoming Jane. I criticized it for taking an author and trying to make a romance out of her life for her readers. Whatever the real story was, the movie was fun, and I enjoyed watching it. But honestly, I'm a total sucker for a love story, and I buy into them like nobody else. That main male character switched from being handsome to hideous and back to handsome again. I still can't decide which he is. I know, that matters soo much, doesn't it.

To justify my liking it, though, before I watched it I said to myself, "Mandy, don't expect anything. Suspend belief. It's just a story." However, as far as the dialogue went, I felt like they just took her novels and shoved words into everyone's mouth from them to try and make everyone go, "ooh, ooh, ooh!!!! That's from such and such!!!! And I know that that's from such and such!" Ugh. However, I did enjoy the excerpt that they chose for her to read at the end. Well chosen. I don't want to give the end away (as if I could) but it was the well known bit from Persuasion.

Just going with it on Joy Division/New Order

Okay, this is a new post in my musical education. Brad has assigned me Joy Division/New Order. I think that these posts are probably like Brad's baseball posts. I skim them (sorry, Brad!) but you can all feel free to not read these at all. No worries!!

The poor guy in the middle right of this photo looks so out of place. Where's his slide rule?

Listening to Joy Division, and my first thought as there were just instruments was--this is pretty okay. But then the singer came in, and I was basically repulsed. The song is Dead Souls.

This is very eighties. So, I know that Joy Division was sort of the original band, and then the lead singer (whose voice I hate) committed suicide, and they reformed as New Order. I think that's nice of them. Pretty respectful. I can't get past this guy's horrible voice.

The guitar on She's Lost Control reminds me of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

It's hard for me to keep listening when I think that there's an unheard Wait Wait Don't Tell Me podcast sitting in my iTunes...right there...within reach.... Every song that Joy Division has starts out okay until his voice comes in. I'm giving up on Joy Division. However, apparently they switched more to the dance scene as New Order. That, combined with the new singer, is giving me hope. He's not even in tune! It doesn't sound like the out of tuneness is on purpose....

So, Joy Division: is "post-punk." I swear, modern musicians are as terrible with naming styles as any periods in art or literature. I think saying that their songs were dark and melodic (as wikipedia says) covers it better. Though I actually don't think this is very melodic. :)

What a depressing song Isolation is. I like the instrumentation on Disorder. Disorder might be my favorite Joy Division song so far.

Okay, moving on to New Order:

Singer: Better.

I'm liking this. Hehe, soo synth-y. So many different beats everywhere! Aaaah!

I guess this would be labeled as "accessible."

Shell Shock is fun and quirky. Nevermind. It starts out fun and quirky and then gets boring. It doesn't have what it takes to last six minutes.

Okay, the song Blue Monday. This is what I've been looking forward to. Oh, this sounds really familiar...but unfamiliar. This might sound silly, but this sound really reminds me of The Faint, especially the vocals and synths in the background. You can definitely tell that the drummer got started on drum programming. I liked the older drumming better, though.

Straight off Love Vigilantes is my favorite of New Order. Fun guitar towards the end of it.

Summary: Thumbs down on Joy Division, thumbs mostly up for New Order.

That's it for this week's musical education of me!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I feel so productive when I wake up and the fox on my google homepage (teahouse) is still sleeping in. He's so productive alllllll day, with his fishing, and his orange-picking, and feeding the ducks, but I wake up before him. Hah!

This is my third laundry doing in a row with no sock incident. Every sock is accounted for.

Oh right, Happy Thanksgiving! Alas, I'm too cheap to make a Thanksgiving dinner.

Grandma Callahan made cookies and sent them to me in a little tin. Thanks, Grandma!! Carrying a parcel back to my room and trying to not look smug is veeeery difficult. She also sent some doubles of a few pictures of Mom growing up, which I scanned and uploaded to my Facebook album for Old, Scanned. Here's one of them for the non-Facebookers. I really shouldn't be enabling you, Jennie.
Tomorrow's my first appointment at the counseling centre. Wish me luck!

Well....I didn't bother posting this, went away, and now it's technically Friday, but I don't care, the Happy Thanksgiving can still apply.

I've been slacking

It honestly never occurred to me that the (as in tea) spells "the" until about one minute ago, when I accidentally wrote the instead of tea, but had no accents, and was like, "Whoa! The!"

I turned on the international keyboard setting, and I can use all the accents in other programs on here now, like AIM or whatever, but I can't use them in here. Does anyone know why? Have you guys run into this stumbling block?

Do you guys know these lists of questions that people fill out about themselves on Facebook? They're just endless, and people keep filling them out and keep posting them.

Examples:

A - AVAILABLE : not for the last....2 years. haha

B- BEST FRIEND: Jenny and Becky. I love you guys!!!

C - CRUSH : Todd

D - DAY?: Today....is Friday

And so on...

Have you ever...
1. Fallen for your neighbor? couldn't help it.
2. Made out with just a friend? uh...

And...

1. How old will you be in five years? 25
2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today? Peter, Gabe, Mike
3. How tall are you? 5'8ish

But these things go on for 100 questions.

You know what I hate??????? UGGS

They're ugly, and inevitably there's a salt line that forms about one to two inches up so you look like you're a used pH-strip without the benefit of the pretty colors.

Why does life seem to be more fun when you're criticizing things? I had a dream last night that I had a lovely chat with Dr. Henke (my Brain and Behavior professor) and he asked me if I'd be interested in going out with his son on a date. :-P

Time for my 8am Brain and Behavior class....

Mozilla add-ons!!!!!

I just watched:

Howl's Moving Castle. And I loved it! What a great movie. And the voice acting in the English version included Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, and Emily Mortimer. Cool. It was such a fun world, with such a good story.

And then, for some reason, I thought, "I'll watch The Swan Princess. Sure it looks like crap, but I'm pretty easy to please, right? Give me a song and a dance and I'm happy." Wrong. Hahahaha, I can't believe I actually watched this to the end. Almost every moment was just (blatantly) recycled from another Disney movie, but I enjoyed that they poked fun at themselves a bit. It was as if they knew they were crap. My favorite part was the turtle and the arrogant frog. I now want to get a turtle and name him Speed. Arrogant frog: "Whenever I have to do something in a hurry, I always bring a turtle."

Peekvid kind of sucks right now. It's soooooo slow, or just won't show the movie at all, or the movie is mislabeled. I thought I was about to watch...what was it...something I was kind of looking forward to....Jet Li's Fearless! When what should it actually be but The Rise of the Silver Surfer. Did I already blog about this?

The OSU Michigan game!!! I ran (actually ran) over to Nick and Chris's place, buckeye necklace flying (I like how that implies that I wasn't very slow) out behind me, because I was about twenty minutes late for the game. I have to say, I was pretty worried at the start. Watching football games all by ones lonesome is not very much fun. Moaning in ecstasy and agony were not half as much fun as they would have been with someone else there.

I suppose I should mention that I was at Chris and Nick's since I don't have a tv, and mooch off of others when there's something I want to watch.

Everyone come and visit me! Flights from LAX in February are $377, and flights from CMH are $365!!! Then it's just a two hour bus ride up from Halifax ($60 round trip) and you're here!!! And there's a lovely spot on my floor just waiting for you. Or, you know, there are lots of cute B&Bs as well, they're just a little less free.

Come visit me!

I want to go see a Blue Jackets hockey game while I'm in town. Who wants to come with me? :) It would be so much fun to go to the game and then have dinner afterwards at Buca di Bepo or something.

I downloaded a theme as an add-on to Mozilla, and I really like it. Here it is: (You'll probably have to click to really see it. )
Are there other cool add-ons that I should know about?

Big Star

This is the first part of my Modern Musical Education, as directed by Brad. He is going to give me one band a week to research and listen to, with a few key songs pointed out to be sure I don't miss them, and then I'm going to write up a short (very short) post about it.

I told him not to get his hopes up.

So! This week is the band Big Star.

Facts:
-Formed in 1971
-Chris Bell and Alex Chilton co-wrote most of their music
-The band disbanded and reformed a lot
-Weren't much of a sensation while they were around and writing
-Popularity grew afterwards
-Apparently bridged 1960s guitar-pop and alternative rock in the 1980s
-I don't really know what guitar-pop means
-I especially don't know what "power pop" means, which is I guess what Big Star plays

What I think:
I like their music. It doesn't really knock me off my feet, but it's definitely worth listening to. I really like Thirteen and Back of a Car. There's something about Watch the Sunrise that feels a little too kitschy for me to like it.

quickly

I had a nightmare last night that I laid my cello on its side, and the bridge fell off, the tongue detached from the bottom of the cello, and all of my pegs snapped off, leaving their tips still inside their respective holes. My cello was just lying there, looking nothing like a cello now, stripped of everything but the fingerboard.

And then a friend told me my breath smelled bad (in the dream).

Lest We Forget. N'Oublions Pas. It just doesn't have quite hte same ring to it in French. Couldn't they say it in a more interesting way, beyond the basic "n'oublions pas" that I would write in 8th grade French?

Everyone's been updating! It's so nice!

A new independent adventure

I had a dream that an entire church and its pastor were all coke addicts. In the vestry before the sermon everyone was doing lines, and their noses had little daubs of white powder on them, and everyone was so happy and being so sweet with one another, and I just wanted to scream "What?!!!" at them. But they looked so happy. I gave the pastor a dirty look, though.

The fox on my google homepage is so productive. I mean, true, I wake up before him, but I go back to sleep while he's picking his oranges.

I'm really in the mood for some classic Performance Fleece commercials from Old Navy. I'm feeling the holiday spirit. Everyone's already eating candy canes, stocking the seasonal section with Christmas-y things, and I heard a carol playing in a store almost three weeks ago. Big, soft, clumpy snowflakes are falling softly outside, and walking around bundled (not quite bundled, it's flimsy) in a scarf makes it hard to keep my mind thinking Thanksgiving-y thoughts and not Christmas-y thoughts.

I've started writing down what I need to knit for each person, and I'm beginning to feel mildly panicky about it. What I should feel panicky about is the lab that's due tomorrow...I should get on that.

So! Everyone (Anne) stand up and give me a big round of applause and a hearty slap on the back. Today I, me, yes, Mandy, went and made an appointment at the school's counseling centre. My anxiety was high; I tried to look calm. I was tempted to run out the door as soon as I was inside the waiting area. But I did it. Now I just have to not quit after the first session.

And now you know...the REST of the story

Tonight was the first snowfall. Of course, my horrible inaccurate weather thing for my google homepage didn't tell me that it was going to snow out, so I didn't dress for it. So on my walk back, I felt like the skin was being torn from my face by the icy cold wind as it was lashed by the freezing rain (the snow had actually stopped at this point). I really shouldn't start complaining about the weather this early, because I'm certain I'm going to have a lot more complaining to do as the year continues. And I don't want to burn out my audience early.

So! It occurs to me there's something omitted from this blog that some people may care about knowing. Actually, it didn't so much occur to me as it was completely pointed out to me by Jacqueline, a violinist from the chamber ensemble I'm in.

A couple of you asked why I don't talk about Tim in my blog, and thought maybe we'd broken up. Well, no, we didn't break up when I stopped talking about him in here. I didn't want to be one of those people who can only talk about their significant other. You know the type. It's kind of funny, actually, that I managed to find things to write about without really mentioning him very often, because we spent really almost every waking moment together, except for classes (and we took French together). So! That is why I started omitting Tim. Maybe I wanted to remind myself that I had my own life.

However, for those of you who didn't know, Tim and I did break up....in September, lol. Jacqueline said she'd been reading through my archives (Hi, Jacqueline!) and mentioned how there was nothing in here about that, and she wouldn't have known by reading the blog that anything had happened.

I'd actually say that as far as break-ups go, this is the kind that people should wish for. We both knew, and we both agreed that at that point we were de facto friends. Things were pretty awkward before the break-up, but afterwards the tension was gone, we watched some youtube clips, and we have class together, so we see each other often, and can hang out and talk. It's really good, actually. Tim has a new girlfriend, who is very nice and cute.

So thaaat is that.

Sneezing while brushing your teeth: Bad news.

I'm posting this at least a day and a half after writing it.

Neckwarmer

"I'm sorry that you're psychotic, but just, make an effort."

Okay, here's my neckwarmer. Stockinette stitch has a tendency to roll up at the edges, so I think I'd change this by doing a little bit of 2x2 ribbing at the top and bottom to help. Neckwarmer!
I haven't seen my friendly spider in a while. However, I haven't slept since I last saw him, so no worries there. So maybe he's taking a spider sleep or....fell into a slippery crevice that not even a spider can scale. Which is somehow in my room.

Bed.

Knitting Booty

Come on, people, either mute your computer or select the option to not have the sound every time you get an IM on MSN. I am SICK of hearing every single IM that my neighbors get. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. Augh, I get it, okay, people are writing you on MSN and you're cool. Now shut that sound off.

There is a little black spider who has been scuttling around the walls and ceiling of my room for the last three days. I feel kind of bad for him, because he really covers a lot of ground, and he can't be getting anything to eat. Soon he will starve. Maybe I should bring some insects in for him to catch. I must resist naming him. Every time I see him, I'm happy, because I know he hasn't crawled down my throat in my sleep.

I just got back from a field trip to the dollar store (aka land of dreams), and went on a knitting supply shopping spree. The range of things I can (hypothetically) knit now has increased like tenfold. I hope you guys are all excited for hideous hats for your Christmas presents. I'm completely serious, btw. I have patterns picked out and everything.

Anyways, here's my booty: Gauge (obviously), caps for the ends of my needles (so I don't lose my stitches off the ends), stitch counter (coooooool), stitch markers, double pointed needles (size 8), and circular needles (size 8). Sweet!

I bought some buttons for a neckwarmer I made. It doesn't suck that much. Photo later.

prepositions

For those of you who don't Facebook stalk family members, here's a lovely picture of Anne with Grushenka:There are two kinds of people in life: Those who care about ending sentences with prepositions, and those who don't. Okay, nevermind. There are three. Those who care about ending sentences with prepositions, those who don't care, and those who aren't aware that you shouldn't end sentences with prepositions. However. I feel like I need to be less of a stick in the mud, suck it up, and deal with the prepositions. Sometimes I do, to avoid all the "to which" and "to whoms" that are otherwise necessary. But when phrases like "What's up" are standard, in the end I have to grit my teeth and bear it. I like to think that the "up" in what's up has taken on an entirely different, non-preposition meaning.

Hmm, I actually did a little reading up on ending sentences with prepositions, and it's not the hard and fast rule I thought it was. Whew! Now I can rest easy.

Bedtime!

So many quotes

so feel free to skip on ahead. You'll notice, also, that I added a "Quotes" label. So I now have Art Studio, Quotes, and Christmas List. Considering how much I used to make fun of labels, I certainly am using them a lot....

Dr. Henke, Brain and Behavior

Henke: So what are you guys up to these days?
Student A: Drinking.
Henke: Drinking? There's got to be more to it than that.
Student B: ...What are you up to?
Henke: As kids say, I asked you first.

I think I mentioned...you ought to read the book.

We're going to be talking mostly about rat sex.

Henke: Why are you slow, Miss Fateau?
Miss Fateau: I don't know, Pete.

And that's the story of the rat sex.

Dr. Edwards, History and Theory of Psychology

They needn't have been a serial killer. Someone who beats people to death with Cheerios...yeah...I don't know.

We run into existential roadblocks like miserable parents, professors who hinder you...stop you from reaching your "full flowering."

...self-actalua....self-actalau...self-realization.

"I realize now that I have sexual feelings for my boa constrictor"...or you just had half a jar of gherkins before you went to bed. I mean, there are dreams, and then there are dreams.

example of why horoscopes are generally quite upbeat:
Sagittarius: Today, you're going to act like the complete shit that you've always been. And you're dog is going to puke on your nice carpet.

If Diogenes were around today, you could bet he would have been leading some cult of wombats out in the woods.

Dogs will eat anything and sleep anywhere...sounds a bit like students, doesn't it?

everything from here on out is from one class today

Double vision again...gotta stop those lunchtime whiskeys.

It was dwelling in this realm of pure form, or pure spirit, or pure rubbish...whatever.

They're always shoving spears in unpleasant places for the sake of honor.

You step on some guy's foot in the street, he slaps you with his glove, and it's pistols at dawn.

Virtue, standing firm, walking tall...whatever sort of Clint Eastwoody stuff you'd like to chuck in there.

God is sending you locusts...or whatever the hell he's doing this year.

It's sort of icky. I forget how to say that in Greek. Icktheus[sic]....something to do with fish....

You make a little clearing in the forest of your mind, sort of as a landing pad for God's UFO. You guys think I make this stuff up on the spot, but really I was 15 hours last night on google.

I'm really outdoing myself today. I wish I'd brought my tape recorder. He said, modestly.

At the top of the podium, God, number one, in the blue trunks.

Souls...kind of like God's traveling salesmen.

Bathroom Stalls and Ben

Congratulations, Ben!!! That was a pretty close race. One vote separating you and McClelland. And John Brennan won mayor. Well, you now have a very cool block in Bexley.

1 USD= 1.087 CAD

I think anyone develops affection for a particular stall if they visit the same public restroom often enough. (I just went in search of my post on bathroom stalls, and why no one should pick the middle one, so I could link it, but I can't find it. Did I just imagine writing that?) Anyways. In the bathroom I use on my end of the floor in res, my favorite stall is, hypocritically, the middle one. However, there's almost never even one other person in that bathroom, so I don't think it really matters. Anyways!

In keeping with what many residences do in their bathrooms, I came in one day and saw that on the inside of the stalls was goign to be info on Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll. So since my favorite stall is the middle, I of course got the drugs info while sitting on that seat of seats. It was the usual info on what drugs are, classifications, side effects, withdrawal symptoms, and resources. But! I was reading through the section on withdrawal, and one of the symptoms listed was: Yawning. Maybe some people have a phobia of showing their teeth or something, but I just couldn't get over this. Yawning.

I branched out one day (oooh) and used the first stall. I expected to find info on different STDs (or should I be correct and say STIs...nah.) and their symptoms and treatment. But much to my amusement, there were instead twenty sex tips listed. This, I thought, is a pretty great change from STDs.

I haven't gone into the third stall yet, but I'm saving it for a surprise. Having a rough day? Find out what's in the "Rock & Roll" stall!

So all the pegs on my cello have slipped out of tune as a result of the severe weather changes (ahem...and leaving my window open during the storm :-[ ), and this more than anything else is really stressing me out. I don't think there's anything more embarrassing and shameful than not being able to get your own pegs to stay in. However, this has been a problem my entire time playing cello, and it's resulted in a sort of fear of my pegs. I never use them unless I absolutely have to; I depend almost entirely on my fine tuners.

Ohhh, my Cello Shame.

Good luck, Ben!

It appears that Feist is performing at the Wexner Center on November 18th, just in case someone in the area who cares didn't know.

So, yeah, there's a History of Rock and Roll class...maybe it's only open to music students. Time to check teh academic calendar. Aww, there's a History of Popular Music in the music department. Too bad, though, I totally would have taken that.

A bitter orange: Is there anything worse?

I finally hooked my speakers up to my computer. I've been using my laptop speakers, and I thought that maybe that's all I wanted to get by anyways. After all, I have people living on almost every side of me; so I shouldn't be playing anything too loudly as it is.

Then I ran across a song that was really quiet, and I couldn't really hear it, and I thought, "Oh okay, I'll hook my speakers up so I can listen." So I started playing my music with my speakers, and ah, the difference. So nice. I'd almost forgotten about all the little parts that I couldn't hear on my laptop speakers.

There are several large tubs of topping thingies next to the toasters in meal hall. There's a tub of butter, cream cheese, something, and then some very bright orange plastic looking "cheese" spread. It didn't occur to me that it was supposed to be cheese until I heard two people beside me call it that. But also. There is the raspberry/strawberry (depending on the day) jam. This tub is very similar to the venus fly trap, but instead of flies it traps knives. I went to use some a couple of days ago, and tried to grab the knife leaning against the edge inside, but one entire side was covered in the jam, all sticky. So I got a new knife, and when I actually dipped it in, realized that there wasn't a section of the tub to stick the knife in where I didn't hit a knife submerged, visible only as a dark shadow just below the surface, very like the dead with their little lights in the swamp in Return of the King...or in the cave in Book 6 of Harry Potter. Anyways!! Lots of knives! I thought the knife-attraction properties of the jam was amusing.

Today is laundry day. Julie should be happy to know that I'm washing my sheets. :)

Happy Voting Day, Ben!!! Ben's running for city council. Let's all think positive thoughts (winwinwinwin).

Who watches TV anyways

I was listening to Mushaboom, and in the first few seconds thought, "Wow, this really sounds a lot like The Postal Service..." I thought that for a while, and started thinking "Aaah, this is Postal Service, I swear!!" until I went and looked at the track title and saw Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix). So sometimes I'm not going insane, it isn't just me, it turns out to be a remix.

In Brain and Behavior we've been discussing sleep (from a neurological perspective) and talking about theories behind dreaming. The more I hear people's theories behind dreaming, the more I think that these neurologists/neuropsychologists must have really tame, uninteresting dreams. If they spent a night in my head dreaming, I think they'd throw all their theories out and say, "Nevermind, we really have no clue."

Don't try to knit and read at the same time. I was trying to do a buttonhole, and did the binding off correctly, but in the next row I was supposed to cast on one stitch, and instead knitted straight past it. Now I have no buttonhole.

I'm a natural born brain surgeon!! Heh, kind of. Today in our brain and behavior lab, we were supposed to do a mid-sagittal cut (do I sound cool?) down our sheep's brain. I wielded the scalpel while Darcy pulled the two hemispheres apart, and Therese supervised from above, and the cut came out beautifully.

I'm listening to my...fifth Feist song, and I'm sort of bored. So far I think I mostly like The Reminder, and not so much Let It Die.

A good Cheap Christmas Present For Mandy would be a mix (of one or multiple) CDs with good music that you think I probably don't know and should. The Musical Education of Mandy. For instance, I find that there are just huge gaps in my musical knowledge...big ones that I'm ashamed to admit. Led Zeppelin? Pink Floyd? The Who? AC/DC? The Police? I don't know if these are things that are worth knowing, but I'd imagine they are. Anyways, I just feel like I have no foundation for current music. I go from Classical, to Oldies, straight to Coldplay/Radiohead/etc. So then people start talking about influences, and saying names of bands that I've heard of, and I just look silly, sittign there with nothing to contribute. I should take History of Rock and Roll!!

Apparently I have managed to miss every iPod commercial involving Feist.

Mandy's Art Studio: IX

Has anyone else here yet noticed that I accidentally labeled two art posts the same number, so even though I'm saying this one is nine, it's actually ten? It's really bugging me, but I don't want to go back and relabel or anything. So tooooo bad.

I painted a banana. This is odd, to me, because this actually looks ten times better in person than in this photograph. I was all proud of my banana, until I looked at the photograph and realized that it looks like crap. So, just know, that it looks a lot better in person. :-P

stupid stupid stupid!

Great. Fabulous. Just so me.

I guess some hurricane was passing by today, and I knew about it, but I forgot. So I headed out....ten hours ago, without a care in my mind. One surprise birthday party and night of being a ninja later, and I walk back to my res in the really quite impressive wind, and open my door to....my room with my window standing wiiiiiiiiide open.

I have a habit of using my windowsill as a bookshelf, since my bed's right there, the windowsill's so big and tempting, and I tend to read in bed. Thus. My Junior Seminar reading material, my lexicon for history and theory of psych, my lab manual for dissecting my sheep brain, and all of my printer paper are soaked. Oh, and my guide to SPSS. But who cares about SPSS. Aw, and my poster of The Singing Butler is down and potentially all wet and soggy.

Tragedy!

Not quite a tragedy, though, is the new version of my pointy hat. The Not So Pointy Hat, as I like to call it.
Who else is soooo sick of seeing the bright red color of that yarn on this blog, 'cause I know I am. No more red!!

In other news, today is (or was, it's 2:43 am right now, happy daylight saving time, btw) Stephanie Babcock's birthday. Happy birthday, Stephanie! Sarah wanted to throw her a surprise birthday party, so I came over before ninjaness to help prepare. Now. Backstory. I have always always always wanted to write letters with icing. Always. But I never have. Okay, that's not much in the way of backstory. Preeetty simple, really.

Anyways. I arrive at Sarah and Steph's, and what should I find waiting there but...cupcakes!! ("and what should they be serving but...celery root!" hehehehe, oh man. Where are you to laugh with me, Anne?) Anyways. So, one of my deepest, darkest desires has now been fulfilled. This, you ask, is one of my deepest, darkest desires? Would you really believe that for a second? :) Now, admire my handiwork.

Oh! Coincidence! So we're all hanging out, waiting for Meg and Steph to come back so we can surprise Steph, and some music is on. It's kinda cool, and I ask Sarah who this is. "Feist," she says. I found that pretty coincidental, since the first time I heard of Feist was on Jaime's blog today. I looked at the picture of that album cover, Jaime, and said to myself, "I don't like Feist, because look at that hairstyle." Soooooooo logical.

Anyways, crap, water damage!!!!!! How could I be so forgetful??

Today I made a pull ball

The more efficient and commonsense people try to make things, the less I tend to like them. But that's probably only because by then I've gotten used to the inefficient version, and I hate change. Usually. Sometimes.

Most productive thing today: I destroyed that elven/upside down flower hat, and rewound the yarn into a pull ball. This is a lot of fun. Anne can attest to that. Speaking of which, Anne, how did that pull ball that we started making work out? Did your yarn get all tangled up inside the ball as you knit with it? I'm curious to see how well my pull ball pulls.


starting out...

growing...complete!
Well, just so everyone knows, I got a 56% on my adv stats midterm. This. sucks. I never really knew how much I care about my marks until I got that back. I feel physically ill. I thought I might puke from how my stomach was tying itself into elaborate knots. Unlike being sucky in an elective, this really matters. For my honours degree in psych: A) I have to maintain an average of 80 in all psych courses B) I can get no mark lower than a 70 C) Advanced Statistics is a requirement.

You might look at that and laugh, and say, "No mark lower than a 70? An average of 80 or higher? hahaha, what a joke!" However, the marking here is not exactly the same as an average university back home. I've explained this before, right? I don't know what hte averages are in my classes this year, but last year, for instance, the average marks were between 43% and 55%. Getting an 85 is something to make you feel really good. Really good. So, don't laugh too hard that requirement of at least an 80 average, 'cause that's an A, and the professors treat it that way.

Whew! Okay. I'll stop whining about that mark. I was considering dropping the course, but really, what good would that do? I'll see about starting to do some work.

Now, time to nap.

Knitting screw-up II

The birthday of my blog came and went, and I said nothing about it. So, a long while later, let me say happy birthday to my blog.

Happy birthday, blog. One year old.

Fun. An article on the most haunted places in Canada includes my residence.

Well, I have another knitting mess-up. I don't think this will tickle your fancy as much as the last one, though, Jaime. So, I kind of do things without any rhyme or reason or...pattern. And this is another example of not really knowing what I'm doing while knitting. Lol. I got a little (a lot) overeager in the amount of decreasing I did, and now I think I've learned my lesson.

It doesn't look that bad with teh pointy bit squished in.

But without the pointy bit squished in....I feel like an elf. Or a person with an upside down flower shoved onto their head.

So, I just saw Jaws for the first time. What???? You just saw Jaws for the first time????? How could you avoid such a classic for so long?!!! Well, I'm just that impressive. I made me some popcorn, drank all of my pop, went to the bathroom a lot, and enjoyed the movie. I have to say, I really really really liked it. Very funny and suspenseful. And for the first time ever, I liked Richard Dreyfuss. I think anyone would understand that once you know that I think my first experience watching him was Mr. Holland's Opus.

Anyways. I really liked it.