Death Peach

My sister had her baby! Her name is Chloe. I am now a proud aunt. :)

Here, become my pupil.


http://benfletch.mybrute.com
http://benfletcher.mybrute.com
http://emmabailey.mybrute.com
http://madialaena.mybrute.com
http://mallistair.mybrute.com
http://wentworthmoore.mybrute.com
http://whargrave.mybrute.com
http://zoudles.mybrute.com

Whenever fustians posts, it reminds me that I have not posted in a long time. For a while, I was going to try to update daily, even if it was just a snippet of conversation from the day, but I'm very lazy and didn't manage to do that even once.

So:

My city has a very large transit system, supposedly one of the largest bus systems in North America or something like that. Many people rely on it to get from one end of the city to the other. I would be one of those people when I'm taking night courses at the college.

The college is a forty-five minute bus ride which, in places, goes entirely in special lanes for buses only. The last time I took a cab from that area to my home (which was sometime in 2000 or 2001), it cost me around $40. I've looked up rides on the college website, looked on Craigslist and Kijiji, and I feel confident in saying I'm screwed. Biking is not an option. This pisses me off. The course I'm repeating (Arc I) starts on Monday. The new course I'm taking concurrently (Arc II) starts on Thursday. I can miss the first class in Arc I definitely, and maybe Arc II, though I'd prefer not. I think I'm gonna have to wind up sucking up the $20 administration fee for cancelling the courses. I'm giving it 'til Wednesday or Friday, I haven't decided.

In the meantime, if I *do* have to withdraw from classes, I'm gonna look into driving lessons.

( Read more... )

I haven't said anything about the election going on in the US here until now. This post may not even make it to the publish button; but I'm caught up, I'm emotional, I'm in it.

This is a historic election. I am not American. The campaign has been going on for almost two years. I have been inundated with information about elections in a country I am not even a part of. I seriously wanted everyone to shut the fuck up early on. I dislike American politics; I dislike that I know more about American politics than Canadian politics; I dislike American propaganda, which I have found to be arrogant, pompous, and self-congratulatory. And then I heard the video inspired by a speech of Barack Obama's, containing words he said, and I was moved despite myself. I did not want to be moved. I called my mother in and showed her, too, and we both stood with tears in our eyes and dared to hold just a little hope that things would get better.

That's what the campaign is to me: it's hope. YES WE CAN. It's hope and sincerity and humbleness and humility and the promise of hard work. I don't want to hope; hope hurts. I have hoped for many things in my life and it often seems as though they were all dashed, one by one. (This is not true. However, hopes abandoned outnumber hopes fulfilled.) I didn't want to hope for Obama as president; I was so sure he wouldn't make it into office. I didn't think the American people would want what I tried hard not to want, but they did.

Your president-elect doesn't scare me. I look forward to his time in office. I want to see what he does, how he speaks, what changes he will make. And I believe he will make change, and that Americans will make change, and that they already have this day when they turned out in huge numbers to cast their votes and spoke with a passion, and I have not liked you scrappy, scrappy Americans so much since you stood in defiance and mourning of the September 11th attacks. Tonight I watched a president-elect's speech and tonight I am proud to be your neighbour with a U.

Because I am forgetful: THANK YOU for the card, fustians! I waited 'til 12:15AM to open it on the 2nd. It was rocksome. Thank you both. :)

From saiphiel:

Step 1: Put your iPod on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 32 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1 - When you tried to kiss me, I only bit your tongue (Daria, Cake - vaspider)
2 - Cruisin' Mos Espa in my Delorean
3 - I know why I like you
4 - I was five and he was six (Bang Bang, Nancy Sinatra - emokideeyore)
5 - Why are there so many songs about rainbows? (Rainbow Connection, Jason Mraz - cyriael)
6 - Whenever I'm with you, something inside (Heatwave, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas - evilstmars)
7 - Baby, baby, baby - you are my voodoo child (Voodoo Child, Rogue Traders - goweli)
8 - Gone, she's gone, how do you feel about it? (Worn Me Down, Rachael Yamagata - evilstmars)
9 - If I had eyes in the back of my head
10 - Oh, dear, what can I do?
11 - When you walked in, I said with a grin
12 - Everyone gather 'round now, sing us a song
13 - I got your letter but the willingness wore out
14 - In this house, the decor
15 - Remember me, feels like forever
16 - You can find a way to be my passion
17 - I sleep with my hands across my chest
18 - Nothing unusual, nothing strange at all
19 - Cherry oh, cherry oh, cherry oh baby (Cherry Oh Baby, UB40 - closetmonster)
20 - Woke up in a magic nigger movie
21 - So let the rain fall, I kind of want it to*
22 - Take out the papers and the trash! (Yakkety Yak, The Coasters - goweli)
23 - Blue morning, blue morning wrapped in strands of fist and bone (A Murder of One, Counting Crows - vaspider)
24 - I am the fountain of affection, I'm the instrument of joy (When I'm Up I Can't Get Down, Great Big Sea - vaspider)
25 - Keep thoughts high in the sky
26 - So these are my dreams
27 - When the wind blows and the rain feels cold
28 - The sea is foaming like a bottle of beer
29 - It's getting hard to pay attention to you
30 - She's gone to sea
31 - Thunder! Thunder! Thunder! (Thunderstruck, AC/DC - genom)
32 - I'd like to believe one in one thing you say to me


* This is the first line of the chorus, because I can't figure out the second half of the first line.

Instrumentals have been skipped, as well as one mashup.

* Grab the nearest book.
* Open the book to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions if you want to.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"To protect yourself from the missionary of Tlaxcala open the Jaguar cage and the clergymen will be devoured."

I'm not sure why I have this Black&White gameplay guide out, but I do. It also has tips for Champtionship Manager 00-01, Age of Empires 2 (that's where the quote comes from), and The Settlers 4.

Hello! Some interesting things happened when I tried to put on some new clothing purchases. The following occurrences occurred:

1) I removed my clothing.

2) I tried to figure out how to get things out of my knapsack. Normally this would be very easy for people used to the level of coding this game has. Not so with me.

I have a blue shirt in my knapsack.
'take knapsack's blue shirt' gets me 'Permission Denied'. Same with 'get knapsack's blue shirt'. Permission denied. I read some help files and try to figure out what I'm doing wrong this time.

3) Eventually, I figure I should have some clothes on, regardless if they are the ones I want to be wearing or not. I look in my inventory and there are my clothes. Hooray!

I have a pair of leather gloves in my inventory.
'wear gloves' nets me 'You can't wear your Black Leather Gloves because you don't meet the special requirements or there is something already worn there.'

I look at myself. I am still naked. I try to wear other items in my inventory and am met with the same lack of success.

4) Wondering if this is me forgetting commands again (see: engaging an asteroid field in combat), I page my buddy Anton. I ask him to do me a favour and remove a piece of clothing, then try to put it back on. He makes fun of me. I tell him to shut up. He informs me he has removed his pants and cannot put them on again. I laugh.

5) Anton decides he would like to chillax in my room. He comes in. I see he is wearing pants, which means he lied. He admits he took off his goggles and now can't put them back on. I say the goggles are way less funny. He makes fun of me for my nudity and, in a fit of pique, I type 'take Anton's pants'.

Strangely enough, I am rewarded by Anton's pants. I am now inexplicably wearing Anton's pants despite not using a command to wear them. I am surprised. He is surprised.

I quickly take the rest of his clothing and every item is immediately worn by me, again without my typing 'wear'. I have solved my nudity problem! Anton takes his clothing back and is immediately wearing it, also without using the 'wear' command. My nudity problem was only briefly solved.

6) I tell people on the help channel I can't put my pants back on and wait for the mocking to begin.

7) The mocking begins.

8) I write this report!

Staff response:
We're looking into this, but just fyi, when filing a bug report, please try to stick to the basics. It helps us locate the problem and work on it faster. Thanks!

Then they fixed it. Now I have pants.

I thought I was very helpful!

Lack of content, ho! From vonandmoggy, who I can't picture as anyone other than Moggy.

Casting Call:

I think it's inevitable that as we read each other's journals we create mental pictures of each other. Post this on your own journal to find out who your friends see when they read about your life.

Two Rules:

1) The person must be in the movies or on TV (but doesn't have to be an actor/actress). The person can be specific to a role (e.g. Jennifer Elhe's Elizabeth Bennet) or just the person themself.
2) Post a picture if you like!

Why so serious?

I'M SURE THEY ARE VERY NICE PEOPLE!

Yes, it's a beer commercial. Which makes it even funnier. (And I usually say 'zee'.)

It's been a while since I last updated. Shit has happened!

The major news is that I signed up for and completed a course at the local college. It's the first time in a long while that I've stuck my neck out, spent a chunk of money, and managed to follow through. The course was pretty short, a little over a month in length. This is the cool part: I learned how to weld.

It was oxy-acetylene welding, which isn't used all that much but is a prerequisite for arc welding. We did a class of basic safety and then went around torching metal 'til bits of it went liquid and fusing it to other metal. And that, my friends, is eff yoo en FUN. I completed all the projects, finished with an A-, and sustained no major injuries. Just a couple of very mild burns from errand filler rods and a glass shard in my thumb once from touching a weld done with a brass-and-glass rod, which is called braising.

I met some very cool people I might see again at the next level course and am pretty sure that I want to follow the trade path instead of the academic one. I'd rather work with my hands than have an office job.

I find trades still have a big of a stigma - when I was in high school, for example, math and sciences and computers were what we were pushed toward. Trades barely got a nod and were viewed as something the dumber kids went into. Fast forward a few years when people realized, oh shit, we don't have enough tradespeople. I'll admit I looked down on trades types myself, but it's very rewarding work and I can tell you from my class alone that some very smart people are into it. It's pretty zen and also I can pretend I'm Iron Man.

Does this mean I'm becoming a welder? We'll see how it goes. I do know I'm taking the next course. I know I'm interested in plumbing, electrician stuff, and maybe mechanics as well. I'm thinking about learning how to drive this summer.

Taking care of my mom after her heart surgery gave me this weird boost of confidence that I needed in a big way. I know I'm capable, and that is awesome.

Here is a random update!

Soundwave MP3 Player: If I did not have an iPod, DAMN! I would be so tempted.

Audiosurf: unseenlibrarian is to blame for this. This game is freakin' addicted. It's made by the same guys who make Half Life and Portal, I think, so if they have any spyware in this thing I am going to be really, really disappointed. The Portal music comes free. The game is around ten bucks. I am horribly addicted.

For Supernatural watchers: I find this hilarious. It is Jensen Ackles doing his Sam impression.

Freakazoid on DVD! Oh, man, I've wanted this for years.

"It smells like poo gas down here!"

Guess the movie from the quote. The two hangers-on from the last post reappear here.

01 - She has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western. (Being John Malkovitch, seiraryu)
02 - Man, why do you always have to bite my moment? Did it taste good? (Stick It, darksir)
03 - Why are you buttering a plastic scone? (Uptown Girls, seiraryu)
04 - People should know when they are conquered. (Gladiator, keelie)
05 - I saw my death in that eye, and this isn't how it happens. (Big Fish, porpentine)
06 - My mom's been fuckin' a dead guy for thirty years. I call him dad. (Clerks, vonandmoggy)
07 - Mmm... Murdered by pirates, heart torn out and eaten, meet Victoria... I can't quite decide which sounds more fun. (Stardust, keelie)
08 - Bunch of savages in this town. (Clerks, vonandmoggy)
09 - I'm caught right in the middle - torn between my loyalty to the boss and my desire to piss with the lights on. (Clerks, vonandmoggy)
10 - I'd like to tell you that you smell of pee. You look like the wrong end of a dog. (Stardust, porpentine)

Here. Guess the movie from the quote.

01 - Look at the bright side. You won't have to yell at anyone anymore. (Lilo & Stitch - porpentine)
02 - She has her doctorate in speech impedimentology from Case Western.
03 - I live in a giant bucket. (Rejected - porpentine)
04 - This may sound like gibberish to you, but I think I'm in a tragedy. (Stranger Than Fiction - keelie)
05 - Man, why do you always have to bite my moment? Did it taste good?
06 - Are they not supposed to be let out when they're grounded? (Mean Girls - keelie)

If you like custom LJ layouts, check out thefulcrum. They have some really nice stuff.