I can't believe how long it has been since I updated.  I am an irresponsible livejournaler. 

( A funny/sad story drove me to post today.  )  

My German relatives have been staying with us for the past couple of weeks.  Don't get me wrong, their two boys are really cute most of the time, but I'm getting pretty sick of having them in the house.  The kids always start yelling as making noise right outside my door around 8 in the morning, (I work nights) they won't eat anything so all our meals are bland-ified to suit their needs, and I can't communicate with them because I don't know much German and they don't know much English.

It wouldn't be so bad, but my parents have decided that the best way to keep them entertained is to let them stay in the basement where they can play with my video games...   which basically means that I don't get to play with my own toys for two weeks.  I have a lot of old, delicate equipment downstairs, and I don't have warranties for any of my games either, so if they scratch something, I'm sunk.  I've hidden some of the more valuable items, but it's still stressing me out.  (These kids have a reputation for being destructive.  It's not just me being paranoid.)

I can't even count the number of times I've been called in to "fix something."  I don't really know what is so complicated about connecting a Gamecube to a TV, but apparently I'm the only person in the house who can handle it.  The children keep pressing random buttons and messing up the satellite, the Xbox keeps red-ringing... and it all seems to happen while I'm trying to get ready for work too. 

I'm pretty tired and frustrated, and this is just the first wave.  More people are coming to stay on Friday.

To their credit, however, the kids are awfully cute.  It's so funny too because they keep talking about Chuck Norris in German.  "Blah blah blah Chuck Norris blah blah blah roundhouse kick!"   

 
( Weekend )  

I was in a really good mood when I got home, and when I logged onto the internet I found an email from Disturbo for this.  It was kind of the cherry on top.

We'll see if my luck holds tomorrow.  A potential employer has agreed to call me about a part-time job.  

  

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In other news, a friend of mine just made like $5000 writing harlequin romance novellas and has offered to hook me up.  I'm ashamed to say that I'm considering it very seriously.  This could be the start of something completely hilarious.

Sad news:  a boy from my residence was found dead yesterday. 

I saw his missing posters go up a few days before I moved out, but I guess I didn't believe anything bad would happen until now.  At first I had the impression that it occured close to home, but it turns out that he was off-campus when it happened.  They found the body in lake Ontario, and it sounds like there was alcohol involved.  

I didn't know really know him, but I'd seen him around once or twice and it's a little weird to think about what happened.  A kid from my old highschool died pretty much the exact same way.  

What a stupid waste of life.  Right before grad too.   

I moved out yesterday and I think I had a successful job interview over the phone.  All that's left is to unpack and then I'm totally free of responsibilities for at least a week.  :D 

Today was spent taking advantage of Doors Open Toronto, which was a nice way to end my stay in the city.  A lot of the events were over crowded, (The Don Jail already had a 3 hour line up by 10 a.m.) but we still managed to get a look at several historic buildings. 

The most entertaining place to visit was, by far, Coach House Press at U of T, since the tour offered demonstrations of how all the machines worked and everyone got to make prints with an old VanderPress.  They had some really old equipment, including a linotype machine that makes lead slugs of raised text to use in letter pressing.  (Sadly, it wasn't in opperation, because they didn't want a vat of molten lead boiling in the building all day.) 

They also had Heidelbergs; a type of printing press from the 60s that still gets used today, but only prints one colour at a time.  The heidelbergs were neat because you could make full-colour images if you ran the same sheet of paper through the press four times, adding an additional layer of colour (magenta, yellow, etc.) each time.  I always had a vague idea of how my computer printer mixes colours, but it was cool to see the whole process slowed down like that. 

Yes, I know I'm a nerd.  But it gave me a visual frame of reference for some stuff that I get lectured on at school all the time. It will probably help me out next year if I decide to take book-making. :D

Um.

The new Star Trek movie wasn't even on my radar, but I went to see it last night and it was pretty fabulous.  I guess I should have been more confident when I heard that Leonard Nimoy was involved in promoting it.  He went through the whole "I am not Spock" thing, so the fact that he seems enthusiastic about this movie says a lot.  

I used to watch Star Trek with my mom, so the movie really took me back to my childhood.  It was totally campy, but a good, self-aware, hilarious sort of campy. 

5 stars, Mr. Abrams!

Title: Dehumanization
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Summary: Anna's escape from the Human Ranch, and the events that follow. Set prior to the first game, contains spoilers.

 

( From chapter 5 )

 

Title: Dehumanization
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Summary: Anna's escape from the Human Ranch, and the events that follow. Set prior to the first game, contains spoilers.

( From chapter 4 )

Recently I was working on a science writing assignment, and I decided to do some research about the science of attraction.  I found this really interesting book called Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? and I also discovered a bunch of news articles on BBC's website and  The Economist. (Of all things.)

I decided to focus on smells.  It's weird, but cool.  At least I think so.
( I swear, next time I meet a guy I'm sniffing through his diry laundry just to see if this is true. )

I also found some pretty interesting, but unrelated facts. 

1) People in love subconciously look away from pretty faces.

2) Most men with blue eyes prefer women with blue eyes, but guys with other eye types have varied preferences.  (Theoretically, light eyed guys might like light eyed girls best because they subconciously want to pass on their eye colour to their children.)

3) When men were asked to rank pictures of women against different coloured backgrounds, they found women more attractive when they were surrounded by red, as opposed to cool colours like blue.  They also liked women wearing red. 

4) Women look and feel sexier when they're ovulating. 

IDK, I thought it was neat. 

Ok.  I'm taking this class this year called Women's Contemporary Rituals, and most of the time I like it.  It's interesting.  We talk about feminism, religion and spirituality.  And then every once in a while, there is a class that creeps me right the fuck out. 

Today we watched a video about a Haitian Voodoo ritual.  ( There were animal sacrifices. )
Anyways, I felt nauseous for the rest of lecture, and everyone was like "gee whiz, wasn't that interesting?" 

I have no problem watching fantasy violence on TV, but I can't understand how anyone can watch that stuff for real.  I mean, I always thought bullfighting was for sickos, but THIS. 

Title: Dehumanization
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Summary:  Anna's escape from the Human Ranch, and the events that follow.  Set prior to the first game, contains spoilers.

( Read from the beginning )

( Next )

Title: Dehumanization
Fandom: Tales of Symphonia
Summary: Anna's escape from the Human Ranch and the events that follow.  Set prior to the first game, contains spoilers.

( Read from the beginning )

( Read from chapter 2 )

 

( Proceed )

The other day I was hanging out with an old friend, and I was conflicted, because her make-up situation is really tragic.  You know when girls wear waaaaay too much foundation and it looks like they've got a mask on?  Yeah.  Her makeup is really heavy and it's a bit too dark for her skin tone.  

I don't claim to be a makeup expert or anything, but I know I can fix this.  I desperately want tell this girl to stop putting so much crap on her face, and maybe even sit her down and show her how to do it properly, but I have no idea what to say. How do you tell someone that they look like a cakeface? 

I feel like I'm a bad friend for not telling her, because she's sabotaging her looks. But if I hurt her feelings, I'll feel even worse.  And I know that she's very sensitive about her appearance, so she will be upset if I bring it up.  She believes that female friends have a solemn duty to tell each other that they look hot all the time, even if it's a lie. 

I know I'll never be able to tell her that she's buying her clothes too small but there should be some way to broach the makeup topic without making her feel bad, right?! 

I was just chilling out in my room, minding my own business, when I hear my next door neighbour making random exclamations.  This in itself is not odd, as he likes to scream and yell for no apparent reason all the time, but then I heard some OTHER sounds and I realized what he was grunting and yelling about.  Uggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I would like to volunteer for the Dollhouse now, please.  K thnx.

You know, living next to someone with obsessive compulsive tendencies is creepy and disturbing most of the time...

It's the first week back at school, and I'm having a fabulous time.  Most of my friends here are freaking out because there are so many assignments and exams being crammed into one week, but honestly I got a few essays done over the holidays and I'm cruising.

The only thing I'm worried about is Filming Literature, because I think we're going to watch The Sweet Hereafter.  I read the book, and if I have to watch a movie that starts with a bus full of school children flipping over into a frozen lake, I will cry in lecture.  I am considering just renting the movie and skipping the class to avoid public humiliation.  The part about the single father killed me.

( More stories about Creepy McCreepo )

I found that certain people in my suite did not clean while I was away, so the bottom of my tub had these big green/brown soap scum ring around it, with a small white space in the middle where I guess people were standing. There was also a ton of black scuzz in the corners of the ledge. I had to buy some pretty crazy cleaning stuff, but I finally took care of it.  I don't trust the others to do the work.  It took hours and the fumes were so strong I had to take breaks, but I think my bathroom is cleaner now than it was when I first moved in. 

As a bonus, my suitemates will pretty much do anything I tell them to now.  It usually isn't necessary to ask though.  I guess most of them feel guilty when they see me working, so they tend to offer to help or start taking on extra jobs without being prompted. I have posted some cleaning schedule things, and if anyone has a problem with it they can go pee outside in the snow. My bathroom is staying white this time, dammit.      

So I've been having these really vivid dreams lately, and ALL of them seem to end in horrifyingly gratuitous violence. 

( Epic battles below the cut )