Kung-Fu Kitty

Baileys and Hot Cocoa: A detailed Analysis

2006-10-21T18:40:00.000-04:00

So, I might have mentionned a gazillion years ago that I was writing an essay on Baileys and hot cocoa and the mixing thereof, but I only actually finished it last week. So here it is, the much long-awaited essay.

Upon having recently tried the combination of Baileys, a sweet and creamy alcoholic beverage, and hot cocoa, I decided that my satisfaction with it was best expressed in a five page descriptive essay, which will follow, an idea inspired by Kevin Aubin, who was kind enough to give me a bottle of Baileys Irish Creme for Christmas one year. First, there will be a brief description of both Baileys and hot cocoa, followed by a detailed analysis of my impressions of their melding into one fantastic drink. Then, there will be a short comparison with other alcoholic beverages of all types.

A Description of Baileys Irish Cream
Baileys Irish Cream was first introduced to the public on November 26, 1974 in Dublin. It was the first alcoholic beverage of its type: the cream liqueur; and it amazed all who tasted it. Though there have been many imitators, none have been able to replicate Baileys’ unique flavour perfectly. It is made of a combination of fresh cream, Irish whisky and a blend of Irish spirits. The production of this drink in Ireland has flourished with over 144,000 bottles produced daily, and has become the highest selling liqueur in the world, not to mention one of Ireland’s main exports. Though Baileys is most commonly drunk simply over ice, which is my personal favourite and certainly the most elegant way to drink this fantastic liqueur, there are many other ways to prepare this delicious beverage. Without even mentioning all the cakes, ice cream preparations and types of brownies which use Baileys as an ingredient, the versatility of this liqueur can be seen by the many types of cocktails with this liqueur as an essential element including many coffee recipes like the B52, made with coffee liqueur, Baileys and orange liqueur, shots such as the Bumble Bee, comprised of Sambuca, Baileys and coffee liqueur, and many interesting mixed drinks which are served cold such as the Mudslide, made with Baileys, vodka and chocolate liqueur mixed in ice, or the Irish Flag, where Baileys is layered with mint liqueur and brandy.

A Description of Hot Cocoa
Hot cocoa has a much longer history. There is a distinct difference between hot chocolate and hot cocoa. Hot chocolate consists of a bar of chocolate melted into warm cream, and hot cocoa is cocoa powder, that is, chocolate with all the fat removed, mixed into a drink, and in the case of the drink prepared for this paper, with hot milk and sugar. The original recipe for hot cocoa was comprised of ground cocoa beans, water, wine and peppers. Milk was added only later when the drink was introduced in Europe. Chocolate has been drunk for thousands of years as it was only consumed as a beverage in the early years of its invention. Cocoa beans come from a 40 to 60-foot tall tree called Theobroma cacao which grows wild in Central and South America, Africa and parts of Asia, and they resemble large melon-like pods. The Olmecs, the oldest civilized inhabitants of the Americas, were most likely the first users of cocoa followed by the Mayas and the Aztecs. The Maya drank a cocoa drink and used the beans as currency. It has much more recently been discovered that hot cocoa is also a very healthy drink, containing more antioxidants (chemicals that prevent cancer) than both green tea and red wine. Having cocoa in hot drink form is also a low-fat alternative to having chocolate in bar form and provides a better source of these chemicals as it is hot.

Experiencing the mixture
It seems that Baileys and hot cocoa is not an uncommon beverage. There are many recipes for this drink all over the internet, though it is not always just called Baileys and hot cocoa. Most commonly, the recipe consists simply of about a tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa, with the same amount of sugar, a cup of milk for one mug of drink, and a shot of Baileys. The sugar and cocoa powder are mixed first with a little bit of milk and then the rest of the milk is mixed in. The whole thing is then brought to a boil in a sauce pan while being stirred. The Baileys is added in at the end to fill the rest of the mug once the hot cocoa has been poured in. A variation of this is to replace half the milk with water and to add Half and Half to make the drink lighter. Baileys and hot cocoa is also know as Irish Chocolate. It is a good drink to have in the winter time when cuddling up next to a fire and watching a snowstorm.

The mixture of these two fine beverages opens up a whole new world of sensations and flavours. Baileys on its own has a wonderful smell and taste. It is creamy and sweet with a slight sting to it, which lessens when ice is added to it. The flavour is reminiscent of ice cream. Hot cocoa on its own, on the other hand, is sweet, hot and comforting, with a hint of bitterness when made with cocoa powder and not from a mix. Once the Baileys (about an ounce) has been added to the hot cocoa, the smell of the alcohol is completely masked by that of the warm beverage. However, after the first taste, the smell of the Baileys becomes much more evident.

Upon the first taste, there is a slight flavour of Baileys which is subtle but surely evident. The tell-tale sting of alcohol is almost nonexistent, making the drink seem smoother and creamier than regular Baileys. The top even seems foamier than with regular hot cocoa, which is certainly an added bonus. The taste is like that of chocolate mixed with a slight coffee flavour as well as an almost fruity touch. The Baileys’ smell is much more evident after a few sips of the beverage have been taken. Overall, this drink has the same warm feeling as hot cocoa with an added interesting flavour. The taste stays in the mouth for quite some time, but it is not an unpleasant aftertaste, quite the contrary. As might be expected, the taste is much stronger near the bottom of the cup. The drink gives a feeling of lightheadedness, which might be because the heat strengthens the alcohol’s effect, though a good portion of the alcohol could be evaporated by the heat. However, Baileys and hot cocoa is definitely a relaxing and happy drink, leaving one with a slight feeling of euphoria until the very end, much more comforting than that experienced by the consumption of other alcoholic beverages.

A Comparison with other Beverages
Baileys and hot cocoa may be difficult to compare with other alcoholic beverages because of its simple uniqueness, but there are other drinks that have the same basic idea behind them. First of all, one can legitimately compare it to hot coffee beverages like the Cafe Alpine, made from coffee and Peppermint Schnapps topped with whipped cream, or Spanish Coffee, comprised of Tia Maria, rum, coffee and whipped cream and garnished with a cherry, because they are also soothing and warm, and great for cold winter days. However, they lack the sweetness of Irish Chocolate and for those who dislike the bitter taste of coffee, these are less than satisfactory, though quite good for getting rid of unwanted hangovers. One can also compare Baileys and hot cocoa to eggnog which is made of eggs, sugar, white rum, milk, whisky, whipping cream and nutmeg. This drink, often consumed around the holidays doesn’t contain coffee and is nothing but sweet and comforting, though it lacks the wonderful chocolate taste and is worse for one’s health.

There are other beverages which may be compared with Baileys and hot cocoa that are not necessarily hot, but still sweet and fun to drink. One of my personal favourites is the White Russian, also know as the Caucasian, comprised of Kahlua, vodka and milk served with ice. Though it is cold, this drink has the same comforting feel to it as Irish Chocolate, most likely due to the milk and sweetness of the beverage. Though there are many other drinks that contain milk and cream, few are able to achieve the warm fuzzy feeling that Baileys and hot cocoa gives. For example, a drink like the Baileys Hot Shot, which is simply Baileys heated and poured into a sugar-rimmed shot glass, has all the characteristics which one would expect from a comforting alcoholic beverage. It is sweet, hot and creamy, and yet it fails to convey exactly the same mood as Irish Chocolate. Perhaps it is too alcoholic, or it is the chocolate taste which makes Baileys and Hot Cocoa what it is. At any rate, it can be seen that there is a plethora of alcoholic beverages and though few have the wonderful effect created by my drink of preference, each has its place and strengths. Irish Chocolate’s is to warm the soul on a cold winter’s day.

Conclusion
Finally, though hot cocoa has a very long history, and Baileys’ is very short, the melding of these two simple drinks is simply divine. Even when the traditional hot cocoa recipe is replaced by a powdered mixture meant added to boiling water, the drink loses little of it’s effect. This brings one to wonder what exactly it is that makes the drink so special. It is certainly it’s sweetness and slight bite, though those alone can’t explain exactly what it is that makes this drink so perfect. What ever it is, this drink has certainly reached the pinacle of perfection.

References

American Chemical Society. November 6, 2003. “Hot Cocoa Tops Red Wine And Tea In Antioxidants; May Be Healthier Choice”. Science Daily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031106051159.htm

Baileys. Verified on June 25, 2005. http://www.baileys.com

“Coffee Recipes.” About.com. Verified on August 20, 2005. http://cocktails.about.com/library/reviews/blcoffeemenu.htm

Deb. “Baileys Hot Cocoa.” TheSmitten.com. Verified on July 11, 2005. http://www.thesmitten.com/archives/2005/01/tompkins_square.html

“Drink Recipe: Irish Chocolate.” Cooker.com. Verified on July 11, 2005. http://cocktail.cooker.com/Drinks/DrinkRecipes.asp?DrinkID=1968

“History of Hot Chocolate”. What’s Cooking America? Verified on June 25, 2005. http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/HotChocolate.htm

Mannequin goodness

2006-08-31T13:59:00.000-04:00

Doppelgänger Effekt will be playing at Art Circuit, a local arts festival featuring young talented people. We managed to get these creepy-ass mannequins, a boy and half a woman, to use as stage decorations and here are some pictures of us decorating the woman:

Here we're sawing the back of the head so that we can put the strobe light in there.

Now we're drilling her eyes out.

She's crying sawdust...

And here we're sawing a hole which will be used for the boy's arms.

And here we're just being silly...

Pirates!

2006-07-15T18:25:00.000-04:00

I went to see POTC2 the other day, and even though it wasn't quite as good as the first one, I found it quite enjoyable... And you've gotta love Keira Knightley. She is so hot...

And so, in honour of the movie, I did this quiz. I'm happy to see that I'm almost Captain Jack Sparrow.

You scored as Mary Read. You are very unconventional, you defy the rules as often as you can and like to take as many risks as possible. You will probably end up living happily under a bridge somewhere laughing at all the unsavory deeds you once instigated.

Mary Read

83%

Captain Jack Sparrow

67%

Black Beard

67%

Captain James T. Hook

42%

Sinbad

42%

Will Turner

33%

Morgan Adams

33%

Long John Silvers

33%

Captain Barbosa

25%

Dread Pirate Roberts

What kind of Pirate are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

2006-07-04T12:38:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting article about how humans have to leave the Earth because it has too little surface area. There are a lot of interesting articles on Shout Wire about all sorts of things.

Last weekend, that is the weekend of June 23rd, I went to a karate camp. It took me a whole week to recover, and so that's why I'm only writing about it now. Well, maybe it has to do with me being lazy too...

Anyway, I'll try to skip over the boring parts because a lot happened in those three days. We set out on the Friday night, on schedule, and about 9 km from the campsite, one of the spark plugs blew up. After much discussion and investigation, we decided it was ok to continue to the camp and so we got there, about half an hour late, the engine banging something terrible.

That night we didn't do much and managed to get to bed early. The next morning we were woken at 6:30 so that we could go for a run in the woods before breakfast. We spent the morning training, and in the afternoon, went on a boat race at the lake. That night, we had a campfire, and the camp people put on a fireworks display for us to celebrate St-Jean-Babtiste day.

The next morning, that is, at 3:00 am, we were woken up and had to march to a field where we meditated, did tai chi and watched the sun rise. Despite being tired and grumpy, it was quite an experience. We could see Venus on the horizon and managed to see zodiacal light. We then walked back and went back to bed for an hour before breakfast. That morning we trained with two invited Aikido pros and we learned a few moves. That afternoon, we went on a huge hike around the lake upon which the camp was situated. There wasn't much running involved, which was good, but we were crawling over rocks and trees and through mud and tall grass. Sensei even got us lost at some point and made us crawl through the mud. The whole hike took us four hours, with a couple of breaks for water which one of the organizers brought us by kayak. We got back in time for a much deserved dinner. That evening, we had a campfire again and most of us went to bed really early because we'd been up from sunrise to sunset.

The next morning, that is, Monday, we did some light training and prepared for the show we'd be putting on for the parents at the belt ceremony. I got to break some boards :D. Then, we watched an extremely old video of one of the masters doing some katas. It was neat to see them from someone else than Sensei and to pick up on little details. After lunch was the belt ceremony. We put on our little show with combats, katas and board breakings. I got to show off a kata I learned with sais. Finally, we got our belts (for me a brown) and headed home.

I think that my favourite part of that trip was being in a small community where everyone was rooting for each other and no one was greater than anyone else. Despite the hard work, I'm really glad I did it because I cultivated some great experiences and made some great friends. I was sorry to leave.

Here are some pictures of the camp for your viewing pleasure, courtesy Abdo: Lac Brais, soccer field and meeting cabin, Cam and Robin training, Cam being weird, cafeteria, rowboats on the lake, the whole group, Matt in the dorm, me and James at the campfire, Jeff and Cam at the campfire, roastin' marshmellows, James and Abdo before our hike, in the woods halfway dirty, all the way dirty, combat, Cam and Adam doing a sword kata,me beating Cam up, me breaking a board, me getting my brown belt, Cam getting his black belt, happy group pic.

A personality test

2006-06-21T20:28:00.000-04:00

Because Sam did it, I decided to do this personality test involving drawing. Go me. So, go here to see my results. I don't know that it's accurate or not... You can let me know.

Some quotes

2006-06-20T14:24:00.000-04:00

Another boring day... so here are some quotes I like because I haven't blogged forever. Tada!

"It is not possible to be a scientist unless you believe that the knowledge of the world, and the power which it gives, is a thing of intrinsic value to humanity, and that you are using it to help in the spread of knowledge, and are willing to take the consequences."
-- J. Robert Oppenheimer
"It is wrong to think that the task of Physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns only what we can say about nature."
-- Neil Bohr
"You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here...

_____I don't have to know the answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me."
-- Richard P. Feynman
"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living."

-- Henri Poincaré

Some birthday presents...

2006-06-04T12:31:00.000-04:00

See... sometimes I get bored. Actually, it happens quite often. But this time, I decided I might use my time to look up all the birthday presents I got on the internet and list them all. WHEE!

So, from Adam, I got a whole bunch of stuff. The most interesting was a thermostat bulb with mercury in it. He also sent me a little bottle of Kahlua and a little bottle of Absolut Vodka, presumably to make black russians with. He also sent me Mack toffee, Lizzie's big licks lollipops (which I couldn't find a website for), chocolate cake mix and Tabasco sauce to go with it, apparently because Tobasco sauce and chocolate cake go really well together.

Sam got me a binary clock, caffeinated gum and a beer opener ring. Those were fairly awesome gifts. My parents got me an amp, Pocky, incense and beading needles. I got other stuff from other people... Beads from Etienne, some nighties from my grandparents and a whole bunch of stuff from Ardene from Josee. It was a good haul, overall.

I tried a Pocky Quiz:

what flavor pocky are you?

[c] sugardew

Happy birthday to me 5 days ago

2006-05-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

This is me, my family and Sam at the Japanese restaurant where I celebrated my birthday. Festivities included the chef preparing our meal before us on a heated table, all the while calling everything japanese. "Japanese oil! Japanese chicken! Japanese Pepsi-Cola!" Also, at the end of our meal, the entire staff (that is, our waitress and the chef) came into our booth hitting a loud gong and singing happy birthday while they presented me with a piece of cake in a boat, decorated with a sparkler and lots of little umbrellas. Fun stuff in general. I was surprised to find, when we got home, that some of my fellow Doppelgangers had arrived to share my birthday cake with me.

In other news, I got some more piercings, bought some new clothes and ate a lot of pizza today.

For those interested, here are some more pictures from Oliver's birthday party. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

Spring has sprung!

2006-05-19T11:35:00.000-04:00

Here are some pretty flower pictures I took this morning. Click on the links to see them.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

In other news, Doppelganger Effekt is playing at the Java tonight! Woo!

My twi'lek costume

2006-05-08T09:11:00.000-04:00

Here are the much-awaited pictures of my twi'lek costume taken at Oliver's party with a video camera that doesn't take very good pictures. Enjoy! (sorry about the slow loading time)

Siberian apricot

2006-05-03T10:04:00.000-04:00

At least ten years ago, my mother planted a Siberian apricot in our front yard. It had never flowered until this spring and it is a beautiful thing to see. Pictures of it can be found here and here, though those aren't particularly clear photos, given that they were taken with our digital camcorder which isn't really meant for still shots.

In other news, Oliver is having a birthday party with a Star Wars theme and I found the perfect twi'lek costume tutorial. Of course, instead of blue skin, I'll have violet skin and I'll be wearing different clothing than that character in particular. I'm probably going to have the most elaborate costume there, but that's ok.

Speaking of birthdays, soon I'll be all of 20 years old, soon being in three weeks. I haven't really thought about what I want for my birthday... Obviously there's the big stuff like a laptop or an amp or an iPod or whatever, but I don't really expect people to get me stuff like that. My very own pair of needle-nose pliers would be nice, or maybe some pet guppies. But really, I don't think I need more stuff. I'm generally happy just having good friends to hang out with and people around me who I know care for me.

A strange picture

2006-04-22T16:30:00.000-04:00

I discovered this picture on my hard drive. I must have made it when I was sort of either drunk and/or high.

Happy belated Passover!

2006-04-18T12:25:00.000-04:00

Though I'm sort of not all that Jewish, and I didn't actually celebrate Passover this year, I thought I'd post a couple of Passover flashes, which my mom referred me to through her Israeli friend, I found funny:

Matzo Man

JibJab Matzah

La-dee-da, classes are finished

2006-04-15T12:20:00.000-04:00

I've been very distracted by this game, spacerunner.

In other news, Rock for Whatever was yesterday and it went pretty well, considering all the unexpected changes of date and location. The weather was beautiful and the music was fine. Pictures are forthcoming, I hope.

I'm finished classes, but I still have five final exams, four of which are next week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Doppelganger Effekt is also playing a show next Friday. Talk about me being busy. Maybe I should start studying or something.

Pie vs. Cake

2006-04-05T10:07:00.000-04:00

I was very bored in my Calculus class so I started writing messages to the girl beside me and I thought I would share it with everyone. (Keep in mind that it was right before lunch.)

Me: Dear A, Do you believe in the power of pie? That is, pie, our lord and saviour?

A: Well, last time I checked pie is the equivalent of a numerical value and I don't know that numbers being an arbitrary concept have a power. But on the other hand, I do believe in a "higher power" so to speak.

Me: I was thinking of apple crumble pie. It's soooooo yummy!

A: I should have known better, after all, it's lunch time and it's sounding really good!

Me: I would totally be part of a religion that worshipped pie. We would devote our lives to finding the ultimate pie, the tastiest of them all, and then eat it and go into fits of extacy. What's your favourite kind of pie?

A: It sounds like the ultimate job would be a pie judge. I like all kinds of pie, but butterscotch is sounding really good at the moment!

Me: Are you a pie person, or a cake person? That is, if presented with the most delicious pie and the most delicious cake, which would you choose? It's an important character-determining question!

A: I would be the one trying to find someone else to split both pieces with. I'd have to try both.

Me: Ah, so you're agnostic?

A: I guess it all depends on what I'm in the mood for. I believe that strawberry shortcake is the higher power if I had to choose. Or what about brownie people? Don't they get a say?

Me: I think that both brownies and strawberry shortcake are both kinds of cake. Cookies, on the other hand are failed cakes so cookie people would also be cake people of a sort. So, any kind of baked good desert can be classified as either cake or pie.

At that point, class ended and we had to cut our discussion short. In the hallway, we compared this theory of all baked-goods type desserts being either cake or pie to another classmate's theory that guys are either muffins, donuts, muffins pretending to be donuts, or donuts pretending to be muffins. That was interesting too. This whole thing makes me want to start a religion of pie worship...

P.S. Doppelgänger Effekt will be playing at Rock for Recycling at noon on Friday, April 7, 2006 in the Turner Studio courtyard at Bishop's University. Everyone should go see us!

BANKSY

2006-04-02T10:38:00.000-04:00

This guy is awesome. See his website here.

MacBurger's: Real Neat Scotch Fare

2006-04-01T12:09:00.000-05:00

This morning, I read in my Uncle John's Bathroom Reader about various people who spoke out about McDonald's and who got in trouble for it. One such story was of a play put on by some schoolchildren in Glasgow called "MacBurger's: Real Neat Scotch Fare", and even though the play never actually mentionned the word "McDonald's", the McLawyers (as Uncle John's puts it) still got after the theatre company and forced them to change the script and only ever perform the play once because it gave the fast-food chain a bad rep. You can read more about it, and if you want read the play here.

Hyperspace!

2006-03-25T15:51:00.000-05:00

I first found out about this great (sort of) new theory that might enable people to build an engine that could travel in hyperspace making space travel much faster and revolutionizing our means of exploring the universe from Sam's blog. The best article about it is found here. It's based on the theories of a certain german physicist called Burkhard Heim, a genius who's theories aren't really well-known or even understood. In a nutshell, they provide the link between the theories of quantum mechanics and those of special relativity, before two incompatible fields. It's really exciting! I'm going to get my physics prof at school to look at this and we'll see what he has to say about it!

You can find a couple more articles about it here and here.

Pictures of me

2006-03-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

I was using the program Photo Booth on a new G5 iMac and it was much fun. Here are some pictures I made of myself:

A little bit of spring in the air

2006-03-12T15:09:00.000-05:00

It's been very warm for the last few days, the snow has melted considerably and the river is breaking up. I think spring is in the air, but I have this feeling that we'll have another blizzard before it truly arrives. Speaking of warm weather, my parents took a vacation in Cuba over the spring break and had much fun. My mom wrote a blog entry about it, for whoever's interested.

Tomorrow is the first day of Purim and so I'll be making hamantashen today. Hopefully, I'll be able to have a feast on Tuesday, but I might be too busy. Purim is definitely the most fun of Jewish holidays, and besides Hannukah, it's the only one I'm really interested in celebrating.

An old drawing

2006-03-05T22:16:00.000-05:00

I found this in my closet and I liked it a lot when I first drew it, so I thought I'd share it with everybody.

Some radio links

2006-03-05T10:07:00.000-05:00

I was listening to KEXP, a Seattle-based radio station, this morning and I heard some interesting shows about anti-globalization movements, the war on Iraq and lots of other interesting political stuff. There was a speech from someone part of the Blue Planet Project who was talking about a demonstration in Cancun at a WTO meeting of some sort. What particularly touched me about that was a South Korean farmer who killed himself atop the barricade holding the protesters back because a mall had been built on his land. Another interesting site is that of NARAL, an organization promoting women's reproductive rights. Finally, you should check out the Centre for Constitutional Rights which features information on why Bush should be impeached.

Blech!

2006-03-03T23:22:00.000-05:00

Today probably wasn't one of my best. The morning was ok. I worked on my research paper, which is coming along nicely, and goofed off the proper amount. The bad part started when I decided to go to town to get my picture taken to renew my medicare card. It was cold out. Cold, I think is an understatement. My legs were frozen before I was even half way there. The thermometer reading wasn't actually that low, but the wind was killer. It was an evil unrelenting North wind. By the time I got to the pharmacy, my eyelashes had big chunks of ice on them and I couldn't feel my legs anymore.

On the way back, I decided that it would probably be a good idea to drop by the school and get started on that programming assignment which is due Monday. Once there and properly settled in, I opened my binder, read over my assignment instructions, only to realize that I had absolutely no idea how to even get started on the darn thing. I then proceeded to curse the teacher for having given us an assignment over the break, when I don't have access to the school's computers all the time, and making it due the class right before our midterm exam. Then I felt sorry for myself because was stupid enough to leave it to the last minute and not try to understand it earlier. I shot off an email to my teacher, begging him to give me a hint of some sort, and left the computer lab, dejected and feeling like I'd completely wasted my time. The walk home wasn't quite as windy, but it was still rather awful.

I hate winter and I hate homework and I hate having to do work over the break, which isn't really a break considering I have to write this stupid paper, do my programming assignment, start a Calculus assignment, and study for two midterms, all this for the week after break. I'm stressed and this isn't much of a break.

At least I found a nice website, the Lucky W Amulet Archive. I stumbled across it when looking up apotropaic magic and I thought it was really neat. Also, the band website is slowly being fixed. Hourra for happy things!

And they said it couldn't be done...

2006-02-27T14:27:00.000-05:00

The band with Sam photoshopped in. Go me!

A couple more sketches for the website

2006-02-26T09:48:00.000-05:00

I really wish I had less homework this break, but alas! it was not to be. The week after we get back, I have two assignments and an essay due, as well as two more midterms. It's going to be a rough week. In the meantime, I'm trying to get pictures for the band website done, even though the server is down right now (DAMN YOU, POWERS THAT BE!). I have a couple more sketches here, for your visual pleasure, the first of which I'm working on getting into colour. I've been much slower than I'd like at this, but unfortunately, I get easily distracted and sick of looking at a computer screen. Not to mention that nagging feeling that I really really should be getting to that essay I haven't started yet. So, without further ado, here are my pictures, the former for the contact page, and the latter for the past accomplishments page.

Meat grinders

2006-02-22T09:43:00.000-05:00

While looking for reference images of meat grinders on Google for my next drawing for the band website, I came across a couple of interesting articles. The first is a little gory, a kid who got his hand stuck in a meat grinder, and the second is a funny article making fun of Gillette razors. Enjoy!

Some Chuck Norris jokes

2006-02-20T09:39:00.000-05:00

Here are some I hadn't heard before, found on some guy's description in Elftown.

The Great Wall was originally built to keep Chuck Norris out of China. It failed.

Police label anyone attacking Chuck Norris as a Code 45-11.... a suicide.

The opening scene of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" is loosely based on games of dodgeball Chuck Norris played in second grade.

Scientists have estimated that the energy given off during the Big Bang is roughly equal to 1CNRhK (Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick)

In the beginning there was nothing...then Chuck Norris Roundhouse kicked that nothing in the face and said "Get a job". That is the story of the universe.

If you Google search "Chuck Norris getting his ass kicked" you will generate zero results. It just doesn't happen.

By the way, there are now Mr. T facts. Mr. T is very cool.

An interesting insight into racism

2006-02-18T12:33:00.000-05:00

This morning, Sam showed me a website, entitled "Black People Love Us!". It appears to be a site created by a middle-class white couple bragging about how they're obviously not racist because they have so many black friends. At first, I was shocked and then I realized that it couldn't possibly be serious. As one of the numerous people who responded to the site in the "Your Letters" section said, "It was like being in a car crash, and then seeing that everyone in the car was unhurt."

After having visited the whole site, I realized that the whole thing was just a very interesting social commentary. The authors of the site are obviously making fun of white people who try to break down racial barriers by acting out the black stereotype and thus making the difference all that much more apparent. I don't know anyone personally who acts like this, but I can see how one can easily fall into that mindset.

The part that struck me the most was the previously-mentioned "Your Letters" section. There was a whole range of reactions to the site, everything from people who thought the site was serious and were appalled by its apparent racist message to people who thought the site was hilarious to people who saw a little bit of themselves in Sally and Johnny, the white couple, and were a little ashamed. It was amazing how many people were insulted by the site, which really goes to show how people are generally pretty close-minded. Anyway, I strongly recommend that you go visit this site for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Ilana's Googlisms

2006-02-16T17:44:00.000-05:00

Yes, I gave in. Here are the best of Ilana's googlisms:

ilana is an award
I'm given out every year for the "Most poorly dressed" prize.

ilana is the sixth gundam pilot
I'm not sure, but that could have something to do with my awesome piloting abilities.

ilana is straightforward and unashamed to say what needs to be said
Most of the time, anyway.

ilana is committed to term limits and has pledged to serve no more than three terms in congress
That's right, but you'd wish I'd serve more.

ilana is one of the best aunts and the best actress in the world
Oh no! My brother got his girlfriend pregnant!

ilana is a certified reiki practitioner
I also know karate.

ilana is a well
A well of knowledge, maybe.

ilana is considering majors in the field of business
Gasp! Could it be?

ilana is always at the helm for docking
I'm a responsible sailor.

ilana is actually in a bar
And this is where she will remain until further notice.

ilana is a respected national manufacturer of car seat covers and is 100% australian owned
Those are darn good car seat covers, mate.

ilana is frank about her desire to marry a rich man
The richer, the better.

ilana is a princess
At least my mom thinks so.

ilana is number one?
No question about it!

ilana is now trying her hand at an historical novel
I had a little spare time, so I thought I'd whip one up over the weekend.

ilana is a really cool name
I like it.

ilana is 8 and is taking drum lessons
I wouldn't be quite the same person I am today if my parents had let me take drum lessons.

ilana is fluent in finnish
Hei , minun maine on Ilana.

ilana is still alive?
Last time I checked...

ilana is the female phenom in the band
This is most definitely true.

ilana is fit enough to ride her bicycle around a neutron star
Well, maybe just a white dwarf.

ilana is a poet
And she don't know it, but her feet sure show it. They're Longfellows and they smell like the Dickens!

ilana is an orphan and is living at her grandmother's in beer
I live in a giant bucket.

ilana is a kingpin
And I'll get that pesky Spider-Man!

ilana is my tour guide on my ongoing healing journey
And next, we'll visit the pancreas...

A doodle

2006-02-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

This is a sketch of a creature that'll probably appear somewhere on the Doppelganger Effekt website, once I have it nicely coloured and such.

Ilana is addicted to online shopping

2006-02-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

Of all the bizarre things...

Hmm... So, I'm at school right now and I should be doing homework, but for some reason, I'm just goofing off on the computer doing nothing but look at random stuff on the internet. The nice lady who sold me a dress online sent me a picture of it. Here it is:

The seller was Iris Noir fashions. It's so pretty and it should be arriving next week. Hourra!

Up Yer Kilt!

2006-02-03T11:17:00.000-05:00

I thought that this site was pretty funny. Cute even.

In other news, I got some rather interesting span today:

Hello have a good day,

I am not sure where to begin,it is first time I try to use internet to
meet the man but the thing is,that I will work abroad I can choice
USA,Canada or Europe and I would like to meet the man to share free
evenings and be my guide. My friends helped me to send a few letters
to different address and I do hope that I am lucky to meet good and
kind man.you should know that now I live in Russia and my goal is to leave this country because it's difficult being a sexy woman here alone
I will send a few photos if you reply.
if you don't have wife nor girlfriend ,maybe we could try to meet?
I am free I have not children and I have not boyfriend here.
I am 25 years old ,please write to me directly
to my mail. See you soon ,with great hope.

It struck me as strange, especially considering I'm not a man. Attached was a photo of herself.

Edit: This is the picture of her which she sent me.

Nigerian scam email

2006-01-31T16:27:00.000-05:00

My dad got this email, a Nigerian scam, I'm told. I thought it was slightly humorous in its transparency.

PLEASE HELP ME OUT

ENGR. ADEMOLA DAVID OLUWATOPE
NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION (NNPC)
ELEME REFINERY - PORTHARCOURT, NIGERIA.

ATTENTION,
First, I must solicit your confidant in this
transaction, this is by virtue of its nature as
utterly CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET. Though I know
that the transaction of this magnitude will make any
one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you
that all will be well at the end of the day. We have
decided to contact you due to the urgency of this
transaction, as we have been reliably informed of your
discreteness and ability in transaction of this
nature.
Let me start by first introducing myself properly to
you, I am ENGR. ADEMOLA DAVID OLUWATOPE, a director with
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
Eleme Refinery. I came to know of you in my private
search for a reliable and reputable person to handle
the confidential transaction, which involves the
transfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account
requiring maximum confidence.
THE PROPOSITION: a foreigner, Engineer James Akmed, an
Oil Merchant/Contractor with the Federal Government of
Nigeria, until his suspension three years ago,
executed with us at Eleme Refinery of NNPC, and had a
total contract executed worth US$25.6 (Twenty Five
Million,Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollar)
which flows in the Corporation's suspense account.
It is because of the allegation/petition leveled
against him that he (Engr. James Akmed) who is a close
friend to the late dictatorship General Sanni Abacha
(formal Military President of Nigeria) who died in
office in 1998 and during his tenure the country
experienced various mismanagement and series of
malpractices were carried out in collaboration with
his foreign friends. However, a Panel were set up to
investigate the issue, who found him (Engr. James
Akmed) guilty and the present Democratic President of
Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo suspended him from
transacting any business in Nigeria with immediate
effect and was asked to leave the country. However,
these made the contract fund "UNCLAIMABLE" which was
only known to my colleagues and I. Fortunately, all
the Contract document including the "CONTRACT
COMPLETION CERTIFICATE" are with me but the need for a
very trustworthy foreign business man/woman whom I
would present as the Foreign Contractor/beneficiary to
claim the fund.
In order to achieve this development, some of my
colleagues and I now seek your permission to have you
stand as the FOREIGN CONTRACTOR so that the funds
would be released and paid into your account as
beneficiary's who executed the contract in the year
1999. All documents and proves to enable you get this
fund will be carefully worked out.
More so, we are assuring you of a 100% risk free
involvement. Your
share stays while the rest would be for me and my
colleagues for investment purposes in your country.
We have agree that, the funds be shared thus, after it
has been transferred into your nominated account: 1.
25% of the money will go to you for acting as the
beneficiary of the fund. 2. 5% will be set aside for
reimbursement to both parties for any incidental
expenses that may be incurred in the cause of the
transfer. 3. 70% to us the originator of the
transaction.
If this proposal is acceptable by you, do not make
undue advantage of the trust we have bestowed on you
and your Company, kindly get to me immediately on my
E-mail Address as stated above. Please furnish me with
your most confidential Telephone and Fax Number(s),
Company Name to use(if any), Banking information
including the A/C Number, Swift Code (if any).
I assure you that if you will follow my instruction,
the fund shall be in your Account within 7-12 days of
this transaction. Thanking you for your kind
understanding in this regard.

My best regards,
ENGR. ADEMOLA DAVID OLUWATOPE (MNSE)

The Jewish Ninja

2006-01-26T14:08:00.000-05:00

While randomly browsing, I found these Star of David shiruken and I thought it was pretty funny. I've always thought of making something like that myself, out of the lids of tin cans or something. I guess it isn't so surprising that someone thought of it already. Actually, you should probably check out all of this guy's site if you want a few good laughs.

We rocked last night!

2006-01-22T12:43:00.000-05:00

Last night, at the Maysen in Lennoxville, Doppelganger Effekt played a pretty rad show for the BUMS Battle of the Bands. We placed second after the Water Solubles, which, of course, didn't get us any prizes or anything, but I still think it's pretty cool. Everyone seemed to like us a lot and I thought that we were tighter than during our other shows. All in all, it was a great night.

Now, I have to worry about finishing three assignments for this coming week.

Homemade necklaces!

2006-01-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the afternoon making bead necklaces with my mother. We each made one from the same pattern, which was provided by Theresa Olin from this site. I had many problems, personally, namely, the wire I used being too thick, and as I realized as I was almost finished, too short. I had to do some fancy wire attaching. Also, because the wire was too thick, there were places where I couldn't fit the third piece through a bead and so had to improvise, which didn't work so well in some places. Well, you'll see. I scanned the necklace, and coming back to it, it doesn't look so bad, I guess. This is my version:

This is my mother's version:

And this is the original version from the site:

I'll leave it up to you to determine how mine compares.

On a different note, I went to a party last night, hosted by Ryan, with the theme "Take Back the Lion". Tonight was the grand opening of BU's student bar, called the Gait (of all things), and so we figured that all of the hip-hop crowd (that is, froshies, Champlain kids and other such people who go dancing to bad music) would be there and we could have the Golden Lion, the main pub in town, all to ourselves. The party at the Gait was supposed to be a formal event, so Ryan had his party be a formal event as well. He has his own little bar, The Speak-Easy, and there was much fun to be had there. I should have pictures of that fairly soon.

Around midnight, we finally decided that it was time to go and reclaim our bar. We got there, and guess what. It was completely packed with kids in formal wear, dancing to the bad music blasting from the sound system... Exactly what we were trying to avoid. So we left, waited in the cold of a snowstorm outside the doors for the rest of our crowd to assemble and went to the upstairs, which wasn't nearly as full or scary. We had a couple of rounds there and finished the night at the Grec. We didn't get to take back our pub, but I still have fun and that's all that counts.

A first day of school after a short holiday

2006-01-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

Yes, I do realize that I haven't written in quite some time, but one must understand that I've been away. I left, on Monday, January 2nd, for Toronto. Etienne and I took the bus the whole way, which ended up being shorter than it could have been, but still long. I think we spent 9 hours on the bus in total, but I could be wrong. Anywho, we met up with Jeremy, after a long and confusing subway ride, at Yorkdale and promptly went to his uncles and to sleep (after the required TV watching, of course). The next day, we visited the Kabbalah Centre, as well as various used book, comic and fetishwear shops, stopping for felafel at our favourite shop, Syriandipity. Then, on Wednesday, we went to the Pacific Mall and bought all sorts of Asian foodstuff. That evening, we went to dinner with my Savta, which was also much fun, and left that night for Windsor. Etienne and Jeremy shared the driving, and I slept in the back.

We visited downtown Windsor the next day, first parking at the Casino Windsor and exploring that fine establishment a little bit. We didn't gamble. It was too terrifying in there. Then, we saw some of the book shops and other stores, and had sushi for mid-afternoon meal where I got to try eel for the first time. We also visited a church. It had a pretty ceiling. Friday, we went to the mall which was like most other mall, except for perhaps a little bigger than that one around here. We had some yummy popcorn and some yummy smoothies. That evening, we had take-out chinese food. Saturday, unfortunately, was our last day in Windsor. We had a Dim Sum and that was an interesting cultural experience. Again, I tried some new foods, including tripe (the stomach lining of a cow), squid, and lots of shrimp things. I guess I like shrimp now, as I didn't really before. We then visited Jeremy's university and that was interesting too. For dinner, we went to an Ethiopian restaurant which was rather delicious. Then, at 1:40am that night, we took the bus back home, only arriving at 5:30pm on Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

I had a day to recover before school started again, which it did yesterday. I had my two math classes, in which both teachers took the whole class to get started on the course material. I also sat in on my dad's composition class, which I enjoyed, but it seems that all my friends taking the course now think that my dad's insane. I went to choir, but I have the feeling that I won't be joining this year as the repertoire is rather lame. That evening, we had our first band practice in a while, and I really enjoyed playing again. Anywho, I must shower because I have class soon!

A knee update on Christmas morn

2005-12-25T14:02:00.000-05:00

This is my knee as it looked yesterday, which is the first opportunity I've had to look at it uncovered and had a camera there to document the event. Remember, I wounded it back on October 22, which is a full two months and three days ago. Since then, I've been to the hospital thrice, once to have the large central scab removed, once to have a plastic surgeon look at it and pull off some of that dead, gross-looking skin, and once to have it looked at by the same plastic surgeon who said it was coming along well. I'm supposed to go again in January, but I'm lazy and haven't made an appointment yet. This has been a long haul for one stupid night of drunkenness. You may refer back to the earlier picture in this post.

As you all well know, today is Christmas, and as is our tradition (though we don't really believe in any of the religious stuff, so we shouldn't say that we celebrate Christmas, but instead some sort of secular commercial gift-giving holiday), Cam and I got up very early, partaking in some Christmas cheer, and counted our presents. Nobody was up for quite some time so we watched the Comedy Channel. Eventually, Dad came down, apparently wakened by out loud laughter, and we later woke Mom. I got lots of presents which is cool. Later today, we're going to have Gill and Sam for dinner, and I'm sure they'll be delicious.

A Sexy Snake Lady

2005-12-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

52. Record all of the sounds you hear in the course of one hour.

2005-12-24T08:19:00.000-05:00

This is a list of every sound I heard in the hour between 9:13 and 10:13 in the morning on December 11.

Dryer, clock ticking, Daddy breathing, sipping coffee, talking, Cameron's computer, Mommy's footsteps, running water from the tap, banging and tapping as Mommy does stuff in the kitchen, Mommy coughing, clincking of cutlery, bread box opening, Mommy talking, pencil scraping, dishwasher opening, dishes being put away, Daddy talking, my own voice, newspaper ruffling, chewing in my head, pans moving around, cutlery tinkling in the drawer, scraping of spoon in coffee cup, coffee cup banging on table, keyboard tapping, cutting of milk bag, cupboard closing, mouse clicking, cracker box crinkling, microwave beeper, opening and closing of fridge, Mommy's sigh from hot tea, fridge humming, microwave opening and closing, joint cracking in my back, Daddy singing, chairs creaking, click from stove turning on, buzz and clicking from stove element heating, butter sizzling, egg cracking, egg sizzling, Daddy's footsteps, moving dishes, toaster oven clicking, water running, tap squealing, fork scraping plate, chair scraping floor, Daddy laughing in a silly manner, toaster ding, egg squishing under the fork, plate scraping on table, toast being buttered, Daddy sighing, chewing, toast crunching on plate, Mommy sniffling and clearing throat, scratching head, crumb falling on plate, my burp, scratch of fingernail against fleece pants, stove clicking, me clearing my throat, Daddy burp, Mommy cough, knuckle banging on table, computer "on" chime, start-up noises, Daddy fart, loud stretching noise, bathroom fan, printer.

Festivus

2005-12-23T14:08:00.000-05:00

As introduced in this Wikepedia article, "Festivus is a nondenominational holiday featured in an episode of Seinfeld, a popular American television sitcom of the 1990s. The holiday was a plot device in episode number 166 of the show, entitled "The Strike", which first aired on December 18, 1997. Many people, influenced or inspired by Seinfeld, now celebrate the holiday, in varying degrees of seriousness. Some do it religously, others do it in good tidings in their respect to Seinfeld.

According to Seinfeld, Festivus is celebrated each year on December 23, but many people celebrate it other times, often in early December. Its slogan is "A Festivus for the rest of us!" An aluminum pole is generally used in lieu of a Christmas tree or other holiday decoration. Those attending participate in the "Airing of Grievances" which is an opportunity for all to vent their hostilities toward each other, and after a Festivus dinner, The Feats of Strength are performed. Traditionally, Festivus is not over until the head of the household is wrestled to the floor and "pinned." Originally a Scandinavian holiday celebrating the day before the "Present" and the "Future" filled with hope. A day to be honored much in the way "Fat Tuesday" is at the beginning of the Christian Lenten Season."

So, today is Festivus, and in the spirit of the holiday, I'm very dissapointed in all of you.

Funny Bumper Stickers

2005-12-21T09:48:00.000-05:00

I got these from Uncle John's Slightly Irregular Bathroom Reader.

Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?

I love defenseless animals -- especially in a good gravy.

I'M MULTITALENTED: I CAN TALK AND ANNOY YOU AT THE SAME TIME.

Do they ever shut up on your planet?

THERAPY IS EXPENSIVE; POPPING BUBBLE WRAP IS CHEAP! YOU CHOOSE.

I brake for no apparent reason

HONK IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN AN UZI FIRED FROM A CAR WINDOW

Try not to let your mind wander -- it's too small to be out by itself

Politicians and diapers need to be changed -- often for the same reason

Who's cruel idea was it for the word LISP to have an S in it?

MY WIFE KEEPS COMPLAINING THAT I NEVER LISTEN TO HER... OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Caution: I drive like you do

I'll bet you a new car that I can stop faster than you can!

BOYCOTT SHAMPOO! DEMAND REAL POO!

It's time to pull over and change the air in your head

Everyone has a right to be stupid. Some people just abuse the privilege.

Bad Cop, No Donut

I'M NOT A COMPLETE IDIOT -- SOME PARTS ARE MISSING

If you don't like the way I drive, stay off the sidewalk

On the other had, you have different fingers

QUESTION REALITY

PRESERVE NATURE: PICKLE A SQUIRREL

Four out of five voices in my head say, "Kill!"

If I throw a stick, will you leave?

Why Are You Staring At My Bumper, You Pervert!

The nefarious lag monster

2005-12-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

(With help from Mr. Jeremy T. Low and my mom.)

___This evil creature, scientifically known as Belua cunctans, sucks the energy out of the internet, making it especially slow for users in its immediate vicinity. Few know of the existence of these creatures, as they are very secretive and shy, and the only confirmed spotting was in a toolshed in Sweden. However, their effects are often felt.
___Lag monsters are small animals, ranging in size from one to three feet in length. They have long bodies with strong forearms and small bat wings, and their tails are over half of their entire body length. Their skin is smooth and dark orange, while their claws have a neon glow. They have short, but pointy horns, several rows of small silver razor-sharp teeth and a long forked tongue. The lag monster's most distinctive feature is its eyes, which are multi-faceted and constantly shifting hue.

Haikus

2005-12-16T11:10:00.000-05:00

Here are some bad haikus I wrote:

Five men eating pie
Children starve and they will cry
Weak is the system.

I am very smart
I do well in history
Napoleon rocks!

Fat is she the girl
Sitting on the bench beside
She should diet more.

Carrot my carrot
How very tasty you are
I would again bite.

The person flying
In the sky is beautiful
He is almost free.

He'brew is the beer
for folks of the Jewish faith
wishing to get drunk.

Some more doodles

2005-12-09T16:19:00.000-05:00

Here are the rest of my choir doodles:

Some stuff I thought was funny.

2005-12-09T11:33:00.000-05:00

To start us off, here are some bad physics jokes that I made up:

A girl walks into a pub and physicist sitting at the bar puts on his sunglasses. When she asks why he did that, he says, "Because you're so hot that you're emitting light in the visible spectrum!"

A physicist stands in front of his wife and says, "I may be strange to you, but I'm normal to the floor!"

Haha... those are so bad. Anyway, here are some things that my teachers said this year that I thought were pretty funny too:

"If you're a mathematician, you'll work your ass off to get out of doing work." -Brad (Calculus)

"One day there might be quantum turbo cats." -Dimitri (Programming methodology)

"All the people in the village have access to each other's private parts." -Dimitri

"Everything will run as smoothly as greased lightning." -Dimitri

Some choir doodles

2005-12-09T11:14:00.000-05:00

While bored at choir, I drew a lot. My most prolific designs were eyes and this twirly profile thing I liked a lot. Here they are:

More to come once I put the rest of the doodles in one file.

On the verge of finals

2005-12-06T16:48:00.000-05:00

I discovered, this morning, my diary from grade 9. I only wrote in it for half a year maybe, proving my theory that I just can't stick with one thing for very long. These days, I'm writing in the Moleskine which Jeremy gave me, but I don't know how long it'll be until I lose interest in that too. I have no idea how many projects I've started only to leave behind. But getting back to that diary, it's really interesting to see how I've changed since I was fifteen. Amazingly, (or not so much) I have changed a lot.

Anywho, the recording went really well, besides me punching Oliver in the face, but that turned out ok too. I've finished all my assignments and I have my first final tomorrow. I'm scared shitless. I think that if I lose my scholarship by getting under 85% on my average, I'll never forgive myself. Why, you may ask, am I not studying instead of blogging? Because I'm lazy and a procrastinator, that's why.

The other thing is that the pictures I took of the flood were plagiarised. Someone lifted them off my blog, and sent them to the Part-time student newsletter people, claiming them as his own. It kind of got me pissed, but I guess that just means that I have to start copyrighting my images. It would have been fine if they'd just cited the site where they got those images, but noooo... Oh well, such is the way of the world.

So, a turkey attacked me the other day...

2005-12-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I was taking out the trash and there was this wild turkey across the street on the neighbours' lawn, making gobbly noises, which at first sounded like the cries of a wounded dog. So, I was at the end of my driveway, and it started to come down the neighbours' driveway and run at me. Obviously, I ran away back into the garage, where both my parents were, my mother trying to take a picture of it. Dad closed the door after me, but not until it after it was only a few feet away from us because Mom was trying to take a picture. As we cowered in the house, it paced around our front lawn, eyeing the windows we were watching from. Mom managed to take this picture:

It may sound silly, but that turkey had malice in its dull eyes and murder on its pea-sized brain. It would have killed me, given the chance. Next time I'll drop kick it.

Besides that, my life has been rather uninteresting... only in that I haven't been attacked by anything else, except for Oliver with his choir binder. That's ok though. I kicked his ass. I've been really really busy with the end of classes and such and I have this strange feeling that I won't get any work done this weekend. It was the first choir show tonight and the second one is on Sunday. Tomorrow we have a recording session and it's Josee's birthday dinner. On top of that, I have three assignments due next week and my first exam is on Wednesday. I'm seriously considering taking some sort of drug so I don't have to sleep anymore. That'd be nice.

#34 Fill an entire page in your journal with small circles. Colour them in.

2005-11-27T09:37:00.000-05:00

I got this idea from Chris's blog where he listed 95 creative things to do. I plan on doing a few others.

Today's favourite song: System of a Down's Viscinity of Obsenity

Good show, good show...

2005-11-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a very long day. I woke up, as I often do, at six o'clock and wasn't able to fall asleep again. A few hours later, I went to my first class, only to find out that I got 76% on a midterm because of one stupid little mistake in one question. I also had a Calculus midterm in the afternoon, which I'm sure I did badly on. My hopes of keeping that 85% average in order to keep my scholarship are slowly dwindling. Then, I met with Jojo and we went shopping and coffee-drinking, which was a nice break from all the stress I've been experiencing. Later, I met up with Sam and we eventually headed to the music department to pick up our equipment for the show. After waiting for the other band to set up at the Maysen, which was quite a wait, we finally did our sound check. And then we waited for a couple more hours before starting the show. I think that we started around 45 minutes later than advertised, but once we got started, we were pretty awesome. I was pumped, at any rate. Our set only lasted for 50 minutes, I think. We made a few mistakes, but I think that overall, it was a good show. We stayed to listen to the other band we were opening for, Snap Caravan, until two o'clock in the morning, I think. After we had played, I was in a state of shock, I think, because I was having trouble responding to the people congratulating me. Oh well. It wore off later and gave way to extreme fatigue. After 20 hours of wakefulness, I was finally able to go to bed and I did. And it was good.

A few new shows!

2005-11-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

I haven't written in a while because I've been busy and/or lazy, but that's all going to change now... at least until I've finished this post. Anywho, a few new exciting things are coming up. First of all, Doppelganger Effekt is going to have its first show in a while on Friday, Nov. 18th at the Maysen in Lennoxville, and I'm very excited about that. I also have a concert with the Bishop's Chamber Orchestra coming up, and the concert with the University Singers. Both should be exciting. I've made the posters for those shows and they can be found here and here. And now, I'm going back to the neverending homework...

My mommy as a South Park character

2005-10-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

I've finished my homework for the night, not all of it, obviously, but the most important stuff. In my boredom, I made a South Park character of my mother. She's clearly singing a lengthy aria in an opera that involves pirates in some way. Enjoy!

A banged up knee

2005-10-23T21:06:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh! The joys of Bond shots! After much drunkenness at Tom's while watching Diamonds Are Forever, we all went to Ryan's and Oliver gave me a piggy-back ride. He tripped, fell and I fell too. Apparently, I'd hit my knee on the cement sidewalk, but I didn't notice right away. It was only after I'd passed out on Ryan's couch later that I saw the full extent of the damage. Here's a picture of what it looked like this morning. It actually looks worse in real life, but I think that the picture gives you a good idea. Yay for digital cameras!

The above photo is of my brother's patching up job. It worked well enough exept the cotton got stuck in the wound. Oh well. It's the thought that counts.

Buoyed by new boots.

2005-10-22T12:28:00.000-04:00

The waters have receded in Lennoxville and all is well with the world. Or at least, with this part of the world. I'm sure there are lots of problems with other places in the world, and I would have but to look at the newspaper to know all about them, but I'm happy in my ignorance. That being said, I have a lot to be happy about. First of all, I got extensions on two of my assignments because of that day we missed because of the flood. Second of all, my army boots, which I bought specifically for my Halloween costume, arrived yesterday and they fit perfectly. I love how they look too. This is a picture of them:

I also went to the Lennoxville Curling Club last night to watch Sam play with Tom, Tom's sister and another guy whom I don't know, and his team just barely lost, which was just as well because they would have had to have played at 8:30 the next morning and the winning team always buys the losing team drinks. Speaking of drinks, I got quite pleasantly drunk last night. The curling club has a very nice bar and Josee ended up giving me two drinks, a black russian that she bought me and a glass of sherry that she'd bought for herself, but didn't like. It was a fun fun night. I may be up for Bond shots tonight, but it all depends on how much more time I spend on the computer not studying. Heh... I should get to that.

LENNOXVILLE IS FLOODED!!!

2005-10-17T12:40:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of the flood at the junction of the St-Francis and Massawippi rivers right at Bishop's University. I wish I could have seen the other side of the Massawippi bridge, but it was completely blocked, even for pedestrians.

This is the height of the St. Francis river.

The football field behind Champlain Regional College. I think it's flooded with at least four feet of water.

Another view of the Champlain football field.

The mighty St-Francis.

At the Massawippi bridge, where construction was going on.

The other side of the Massawippi bridge.

A field next to river on campus.

That same field, notice the river is just behind those trees.

Mom in front of a little wooded area next to Centennial theater.

Mom and Dad on the bike path that follows the St-Francis.

Apparently, we were also on the weather channel and when I went down with my parents, there were news crews there. Needless to say, school was cancelled and I don't know if it will be happening tomorrow. It's supposed to rain more, but I hope that it won't be as much as over the last two days...

A rad blues concert

2005-10-15T18:37:00.000-04:00

As most of you probably already know, my parents are crazy. On a completely unrelated topic, they're also performing a blues concert with some other profs from our quaint little university. The repertoire seems to be shaping up and it's probably going to be a great show unless something disastrous happens in the meantime like a sudden death or my dad's nail breaking or something. I was recruited to make the poster and by my standards, it's pretty decent. Here it is (click on it to enlarge):

Other than that, my mother is giving a recital tonight in a big echoey cathedral and it should be fantabulous because she always is. Hopefully the band will be giving a show soon too, but you never know with us...

Back from yet another trip...

2005-10-11T08:53:00.000-04:00

Before I start about my last trip, I just wanted to note that it's been seven months today that Sam and I have been going out. Go us!

Ok, so yesterday, at approximately six o'clock in the evening, my family and I returned from a four-day long trip to Ontario for Thanksgiving. We left early Friday morning, after I had spent an hour trying to put music on my mp3 player, only to finally screw up the memory card. The drive was long, but we stopped near Ottawa to see Oskar Graf, who made one of my Dad's many guitars, and had to do a small repair. We finally arrived at my Savta's house (that's my maternal grandmother) in Toronto at nine o'clock in the evening. The next day, we went shopping at the (ginormous) Yorkdale mall where I bought Black Seal rum for Sam and some amaretto for me.

That afternoon, we drove to my paternal grandparents' place in Guelph with my Savta, arriving just in time for dinner. My grandmother then proceeded to feed us... a lot. We then went to visit my aunt and uncle in Cambridge, where my uncle and my dad jammed all night, my dad playing yet another electric guitar he bought in Toronto, this time a Gibson SG. That night, all us guests slept in the living room, with the exception of Savta who got the guest room, my parents on an air mattress (much to my mother's distress) and Cam and I on the sofas. I had a dream about Etienne that night, where he had to do a take-home test and he gave it to me so I could give him the answers. Then, I emailed them to him and he handed in a printed form of that email as his answer sheet and proceeded to get a "G" in that class. I think he was wearing a furry colourful coat... very out of character.

The next day, Sunday, was to be the day of the feast. My mother and I wandered around Guelph, finally arriving at a rather "hickish" strip mall and I bought a skirt and a belt. In order to make things easier for herself, my grandmother decided to have two Thanksgiving dinners, one with my family, Savta and my uncle who lives with them, and another with the other relatives. That sort of sucked for us because we didn't get to see all our relatives even after that long drive. Anyway, lots of turkey was to be had and everything was delicious. We returned to Toronto that evening and Savta and I stood around the kitchen, drinking chocolate liqueur and talking about all the times we'd been drunk. The next day, that is, yesterday, we drove back here and I slept for most of the trip.

And what do I have to be thankful for? My grandparents are still in relatively good health, I got to see at least some of my relatives and this was the last trip of the year...

The main website page?

2005-10-03T21:14:00.000-04:00

I have recently completed what may be the main page for the Doppelgänger Effekt website. I think that Etienne likes it, and everyone else I've showed it to seems to think it's ok, but for those of you who haven't seen it yet... Etienne also informes me that he knows how to animate it now. That'll make it a lot better. (Happy happy happy)

Click on the small image to enlarge.

65% of Americans want Creationism to be taught in school.

2005-09-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

I saw this article in the September 26, 2005 edition of the Montreal Gazette this morning, and I thought I'd share it with the world. I, personally, find it very very scary.

Some Photoshope dohickies

2005-09-25T15:56:00.000-04:00

This is a little something I whipped up on Photoshop with inspiration from a tutorial, while I was supposed to be doing homework. I thought that maybe this Warhol-esk style would be something to use for the band or whatever.

Sick as a duck, again.

2005-09-24T10:14:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wish I had a religion so I could blame my problems on a deity. Ah well, I guess I'll just have to blame my weak immune system. I have a cold that's making my life pretty miserable. I may have got it from any dozen of people because whenever anyone is sick within a twenty foot radius of me, I'm bound to get it. Maybe I should start taking garlic pills like Herr Doktor suggested.

My cold didn't prevent me from going to this awesome Liva concert though. It was at the Granada and I went with Jojo, Oliver, my brother and four of his friends. I was in awe the whole time Liva played. The opening band was called Hanker, and they were good in their own way... They had the whole hardcore metal thing going on, but I had the impression that they were trying to hard to conform to that style. I mean, the second guitarist had the whole "I am a guitar god, and I'm sexy to boot" look going on, even though he wasn't amazing. But when Liva came on... they were so good! Their singing is even better in concert than on CD, which is a rare occurance, I think. The lead guitarist was amazing (even though he has long hair with a bald spot, teehee!) and the violist was even more amazing. I love bowed instruments in rock. It's just so cool. The concert made me want to go home and practice, which I may yet do.

Worth a listen: I am my own Grandpa by Ray Stevens.

Some random pictures.

2005-09-16T23:23:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry about that link in the last post. I realize that some people found it base and humiliating, but I thought it was funny. Anywho, I just finished an amazing band practice where we made good use of that expensive blue mixer of ours. Also, there are buttons now!!! I had an incredible night on Tuesday, but I was too drunk to remember most of it. My first three classes the next day are a blur. Tomorrow, I plan to crash a Religion party. Much excitement.

And now, a few pictures that I found while going through my mom's folder. Hahaha!

Myself, my mother and Cameron at a cousin's wedding in Toronto.

My family in 1990.

Me at age four.

My family at a wedding in Nova Scotia this summer.

Me at Thetford Mines, looking very cool.

A cool quiz and other stuff

2005-09-11T08:57:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've updated, but I've also been very busy. My first week of school was ok. All my teachers seem very nice and with the exception of my Stats class, the subject matter seems pretty interesting. I'm taking Fluid and Thermal Physics, Intro. to Mechanics, Statistical Methods in Experimental Science, Programming Methodology and Advanced Calculus I. Add to that band practices, chamber orchestra practices, two violin lessons to teach a week and choir, and I'll be a very busy little bee this semester. Other than class stuff, my first week sort of sucked when it came to material stuff. I lost my brand new blazer on Tuesday and it had a box full of Pocky in the pocket and a brooch on the lapel that my mother had given me. Then, on Wednesday, I lost one of my favourite earings and my Baileys glass broke. I've also spent a fortune on books, but that can't really be helped. At least I made a lot of money this summer and I have that scholarship to rely on.

Other than school, my life has been relatively uneventful. I haven't really been participating in any frosh activities, which is cool by me because I don't really feel like frosh. I went to part of the big concert on Friday which featured the Trews and Boy, both whom I've never heard of. Boy kind of sucked and I didn't stick around to hear the Trews. I went to an outdoors afternoon concert yesterday and I heard Morning Wood, the Water Solubles and J. F. Coley. All were pretty good, and my favourite was the Water Solubles. The only weak point with them is their lyrics, but they're funny, so it's all good. Sam also has the button machine now, so the band is going to start button production really soon. I think I'm going to be the one doing the printing and stuff and I already have a couple of cool designs. I really hope that we're going to have a show soon, but things are very uncertain in that department, mainly because we're lazy, I think.

Last, but not least, I found this quiz that predicts the future of your love life based on a few questions. I don't know how accurate it is, but it was pretty fun. I urge you all to try it!!! (or not, whatever) It's right here. Well, enjoy yourselves with that!

Back from the Far East (of Canada)

2005-08-30T17:36:00.000-04:00

I just, an hour and a half ago, returned from a trip to lovely Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where my first cousin once removed (my father's father's sister's daughter) was betrothed to a French canadian from Ontario. The drive over took sixteen hours because we made a detour to St. John, New Brunswick, to see a friend of my mother's. We made it in two days and stayed the first night at the afore-mentionned friend of my mother's. Friday evening we made it to Antigonish and checked into a Welcome Inn where my grandparents and aunt and uncle were also staying. We had a huge dinner at my great-aunt and uncle's place, where my great-uncle, John Dee, proceeded to have way too much whisky. He was humourous, coming on to my mother and all. The wedding was lovely, though rather Catholic. The reception was very fun, with lots and lots of drinking. I had to have a gin and tonic because I know that if I'd stuck to vodka and orange juice that I would have been much less lucid. I ended up getting sick from the overly rich chocolate dessert. Sunday, the day after the wedding, there was another gathering at the parents of the bride's home. I fell asleep in the basement. I tried lobster for the first time that evening at a restaurant called Lobster Treats. I like playing with the claws, especially the big crushing one. We took another two days to come back home (so more days driving than visiting), but the morning before our departure, we did some research on my great, great uncle (that is my father's father's father's brother) who was a WWI flying ace and died in action. Yesterday, we stopped at a roadside motel somewhere in the middle of New Brunswick because of a torrential downpour. Then, we got back here and my bum was sore. I don't know if there will be a band practice tonight as half the band has not yet returned from Montreal. I hope to hear from them shortly.

And now the above paragraph translated from English to French to Spanish and back to English, using AltaVista's translation service. (I would have done more, but I couldn't find enough languages.)

Right I, one hour and there is half, dice the return of a trip to pretty Antigonish, News-Scotland, where my first cousin once retired (the girl of the sister of the father of my father) was betrothed to a Canadian French of Ontario. The excess of impulsion has taken the sixteen hours because we made a roundup to rue John, New Brunswick, to see a friend of my mother. We previously made in two days and remained sum the first night to the mentioned friend of my mother. Friday takes did it to Antigonish and verified in a welcome shelter where my great parents and the aunt and uncle also remained. We had supper enormous to my place of aunt grandmother and uncle, where my uncle-grandfathers, John Dee, method stop to have the whiskey way too much. He was humourous, of advance to my mother and all. The marriage was pretty, although rather catholic. The reception was diversion very, with an order nombr' and a good number to drink. I must have a juniper and a tonic because I to the vodka and of juice of orange know that if nailed that would have been much less lúcidos. I upwards finished falling ill of the dessert in rich excess of chocolate. Domingo, the day after the marriage, were others gathering the parents of the house of the young fiancèe. I fell slept in the cellar. I tried for the first time to the prawn that afternoon to a restaurant required Lobster Treats. I like to play with the claws, specially the great crushing machines. We still took two days to correspond to the house (thus more days than they lead that visiting), but the morning before our exit, we made the investigation on my great, great uncle (who must say the brother of the father of the father of my father) that was an ace of WWI flight and one died in the action. Yesterday, we stopped somewhere to a motel of edge of the highway in the middle of the New Brunswick due to a torrential deluge. Soon, we again returned here and my vagabond era endolori. I do not know if it will make a practice as far as band tonight since half of the band of Montreal still does not occur to the return. I hope to hear they soon.

Pretty Damn Canadian, eh?

2005-08-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

Pretty Canadian
You scored 66 Canada speak and 94 Canadianess!

You may be one of us. You were probably able to still drink while a teenager, and don't use the terms 'freshman' and 'sophomore'.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 33% on Canada speak
You scored higher than 99% on Canadianess

Link: The Ultimate Canadian Test written by echox2 on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Ideas for Halloween

2005-08-11T17:00:00.000-04:00

Already I'm starting to think about that awesome holiday where all the little (and big) children get dressed up and overindulge, some with candy, some with grown-up candy. I now have a vague idea of what I want to be. I think I'll be some sort of punk fairy with a costume that looks something like the following:

I'll dye my hair, and I already have the skirt and fishnet stockings. All I have to get is a fishnet shirt, wings and the appropriate boots, though I may just wear my winter boots. I may or may not add a tie to the ensemble and might switch the stockings for something like striped ones. I guess it will depend on the weather and how colourful I want to get. Also, I've become enthralled with Froogle, so if anyone wants to check out my wishlist, it can be found here. Jeremy will be coming down for Halloween and he's going to dress up as an '80s schoolgirl, so we'll match, somewhat. I'm really looking forward to this!

The A to Z of Alcohol

2005-08-03T10:45:00.000-04:00

A is for Amaretto Sour
B is for Baileys on Ice
C is for Caucasian
D is for Dirty Orgasm
E is for Electric Jell-o
F is for Frappe
G is for Golden Dream
H is for Harvey Wallbanger
I is for Irish Chocolate
J is for Jamie's Martini
K is for Kamikaze
L is for Lash
M is for Madras
N is for Niagara Falls
O is for Orgasm
P is for Pure Ecstasy
Q is for QSO
R is for Rum Runner
S is for Sweet Maria
T is for Tom Collins
U is for Umbrella Sunshine Happy Cat
V is for Velvet Crush
W is for Woodstock
X is for Xaviera
Y is for Yuppidoo
Z is for Zizi Coin-Coin

This is the drink list with the recipes, more or less. The QSO and Umbrella Sunshine Happy Cat we invented ourselves, and, in my humble opinion, they were the best ones. To tell you the truth, I can't remember what most of the ones later on in the alphabet were like. Oh well.

Ilana is at work.

2005-08-02T14:52:00.000-04:00

As I'm at work, waiting for Dr. Nelson to give me my next task, I decided it would be more productive to write something instead of sitting on my ass doing nothing. This afternoon we had a huge thunderstorm with lots of rain, and minutes later, it cleared up. Now, soft-looking clouds are floating peacefully across the sky. I really wanted to dance in the rain, but it would have been very cold afterwards, working in my air-conditioned basement.

I promised to make a to-do list, so here it is:

-Draw pictures for the labyrinth
-Update my C.V.
-Finish my Irish Chocolate essay
-Colour the drawings I drew with Etienne
-Start working on my Bishop's schedule and paying fees.

Look at my interesting things to do! Anyway, not much intersting has been happening in my life. My friend Jeremy, from Windsor, was over for a week-long visit, and he had to leave yesterday. It was loads of fun having him over and it'll be great when he comes back for Halloween. We had drinks for every letter of the alphabet, and I'll post that later. I'll also post pictures from his visit, once he emails them to me. Much fun!

Well, this really isn't going anywhere, so I'll end it before it sinks any further.

Extremely happy to be back

2005-07-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

I have just returned from yet another trip. Any more travelling and I may be sick. Well, at least not for a couple of weeks. With my lovely family, I travelled from cozy little Lennoxville to Toronto, Cambridge, Guelph, Toronto again for a fantastic wedding (my first experience with a Jewish wedding), Wasaga Beach, Sauble Beach, Kincardine, Ipperwash, Grand Bend, Ann Arbour, Guelph, Toronto and back to Lennoxville. My brother and mom calculated that we spent over 35 hours in the car, and we added almost 3000 km to the odometer. We did a lot of beaching, and I now have a bit of a sunburn and funny tan lines. I'm certainly glad to be home though, because I missed so many band practices and I ache to start karate again.

I'm particularly happy right now because I just installed all these patches on the evil UNIX machine and now I can use Firefox on this computer and do all sorts of fun web things. I feel sort of bad because we went to so much trouble installing this better browser and it seems that the only good that'll come from it is me being able to surf the internet at work in a more comprehensive manner. Oh well. I'm happy.

Now that I'm back, I'm going to have to catch up with all that I've missed. I'll make myself a big huge to-do list. Etienne just gave me more drawings to do for the labyrinth, and I have other drawings, essays, practicing stuff to do. The excitement!!!

Why do I do these things?

2005-07-14T20:22:00.000-04:00

Take the What High School
Stereotype Are You? quiz.

I heart David Usher

2005-07-14T18:18:00.000-04:00

Last night, after an orgasmic display of fireworks at the Fête du Lac des Nations, I saw an even more orgasmic David Usher concert at the same location. Unfortunately, I was behind three tall guys, one of whom was kind enough to give me his spot, though it didn't really help that much. I saw most of the concert, I think, by standing on my toes and constantly changing positions to see between heads. David Usher was fantastic, though I don't know his songs so well so I didn't notice the "obvious" mistakes he was making with his lyrics. My guess is that he was drunk. He seems like an awesome guy, really friendly. His violinist, Lindsay, was the most impressive, I thought. I may be biased because I play violin and she had a five-string electric just like me, but I thought she was simply amazing. She would lean backwards like some sort of violin fairy and I want to be her now. Sigh... That such things could come true.

Otherwise, I'm going to see a Half-Baked tonight, and leaving for a place to learn, a place to grow, Ontari-ari-ario. I'll be gone for a whole week, I hope you won't miss me too much.

I was part of a weblog survey...

2005-07-08T16:01:00.000-04:00

This is my favorite South Park me so far:

I think it best describes me, perhaps...

The Torontonaut has returned!

2005-07-07T22:44:00.000-04:00

My weekend in Ontario was successful. I saw Adam in Cornwall, a dump of a city, I'm afraid to say, and that was nice. We had breakfast at a place that reminds me of a mixture between Sebby's and a slightly more classy Pizzaville. Good hash browns. Via Rail is evil and they should have nasty letters written to them. For some reason, one must have an international student card to profit from student rates. I don't understand why a regular student card isn't enough... GRR! At any rate, we took the bus home from Toronto and missed our bus to Sherbrooke, so we had to stay overnight in Montreal, but that was ok.

Toronto was very cool. I did so much walking that my feet were swollen all weekend. I finally met Jeremy, who will someday rule the world. We went shopping much of the time there, and I got myself some bargains at used record and books stores. I'm especially excited about these tapes of Richard Feynman lectures which I got at a sixth of the original price. He's the coolest physicist ever. I got to see my grandmother too, and that was really nice.

And to finish off, here's a drawing I made a long time ago of what Etienne would call "Weapons of Mass Distraction":

Oh happy days!

2005-06-27T23:37:00.000-04:00

Well, my long-awaited violin has finally arrived! I'm fairly happy with what I got, considering, after all that stuff I read on the internet seemed to indicate that this seller was a sleezy scumbag who always sold wrecked violins. However, my violin is in fine condition. All the stuff that was said to be included was there, though there's no shoulder rest, which could be a problem. Also, the violin doesn't really look like the picture of it, but I think that I actually like this design better. The one I received is purple with a shape more like this:

I tried it with an amp, and the pickup seems to be working. Unfortunately, the volume and tone dials don't seem to do much and the headphones don't work at all. The main problem with it is that the tuning pegs are ultra slippery and there are no precision tuning screws so it's uber hard to tune. My fingers hurt from working at it. Overall, the tone is good, and all the accessories are fairly good quality. I think I'm happy with my purchase. Hourra!

Baileys and Hot Cocoa

2005-06-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

I was going to, last post, describe what everybody was wearing at Bruce's housewarming party, but alcohol and time clouded my memory somewhat. I'll try that again. First of all, I was wearing a bright red satin strapless evening gown with matching long gloves. I love that dress. It was my prom dress and my mom made it. I wish I had more opportunities to wear it, as I've only had three so far. Here's a picture of me and Josee the first time I wore it:

That's the only scanned image I have of it, but I'm too lazy to scan a better one. As for the others, Sam was wearing a black suit with a black shirt and a Doppelgänger Effekt pendant. Dr. Awesome was wearing a white tuxedo with white gloves and a powder blue bowtie and cummerbund. Ryan was wearing a black tuxedo. Ellie was wearing a black halter dress with a hankercheif hem and sequins, as well as a white tie. Etienne was wearing a black tuxedo with his top hat. Jonah was wearing a grey (?) suit with a fedora... and I can't remember the rest. Sorry guys.

To change the subject, I'm currently writing an essay entitled "Baileys and Hot Cocoa: A Detailed Analysis". I'll post it as soon as it's done. I'm writing this because Kevin asked me to when he gave me a bottle of Baileys for Christmas. It's taking a while, but I'm getting to it. It's supposed to be five pages and I already have a page.

In other news, my violin hasn't arrived yet, and so, I'm seriously contemplating emailing the seller if it doesn't arrive next week. Grr...

A Lovely Evening At The Lambie Estate

2005-06-20T22:33:00.000-04:00

On the evening of Saturday, June 18th, there was a formal housewarming party at the new Lambie estate. Present were all the most important lords and ladies from the surrounding area, including the illustrious Sir Thomas, who arrived fashionably late, as all the newly knighted would deem proper. It was sure to be an engaging evening as Lord Cook had even brought his katana. As the guests trickled through the doors and up the elegant spiral staircase to the Lambie hall, their ears were charmed with lovely classical and jazz music as they helped themselves to wine, cigars and an assortment of hors d'oeuvres. Everyone was dressed in their best finery.

Later in the evening, the guests assembled to play an amusing game of "I never", and participated in a kegel contest from which Madame Ilana emerged victorious. During the games, Emperor Kang arrived with a large bag of Mexican candy, most of which was atrocious. By the end of the evening, the notable Dr. Awesome was rolling around in it and pouring it over himself in a hilarious fashion. Much fun was had by all, even the mysterious Baron Mekashef, who refused to drink.

Ok, that's all I've got...

My new baby!

2005-06-16T09:16:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of the new violin I ordered off ebay. I'm super excited about it and it should arrive within a week. It's a five-string, so it's about as good as a viola and a violin put together! Its complete description can be found here. I can hardly wait until it gets here!!!

The pamphlet for our show

2005-06-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

For this Battle of the Bands dealy, we made a beautiful (more or less) pamphlet, of sorts, which I finally managed to scan this evening.

Here it is. Unfortunately, Photobucket automatically resized it so the writing is a little small. Oh well, at least you can see the pictures. Enjoy!

Itchy toes

2005-06-12T10:34:00.001-04:00

Well, I figured that I hadn't written for a while, and, though nothing especially interesting has happened in the last week or so, it is time to update. At work, I've been deemed knowledgable enough to actually start making stellar animations. This is after spending a week and a half reading through the entire manual for trueSpace 6.6 and spending at least three totally useless days just playing around. I'm guessing that work will be much more interesting once I actually get started on these projects.

The battle of the bands, in my humble opinion, went very well. We placed third, and, given the terrible performance by the winning band, The Relief, I was slightly confused. The band who placed second was a high school cover band, Falling Short, who played mostly System of a Down. I thought they were pretty good, and I'm not surprised that they beat us. I'm not sure if the pamphlets we made were a success or not because they were distributed without me noticing, but I can safely say that we were the only band who had any. Eventually, I'll scan one of them and post it, but I don't have any at home right now.

Yesterday was Friendship day, and I watched the parade with Sam. It was a good one this year, over an hour long, with three separate bands and 81 floats. I had a lot of fun, but ended up with sun blisters on my shoulders... icky and painful. We also visited the tents set up around the elementary schools, and there were a lot of interesting things. I think that the native south american playing the flute lost my respect after he started playing the Titanic theme song. For dinner, we had some old friends over from Newfoundland. I think I overindulged when it came to eating, but I had a great time. My brother has gotten quite good at "holding the floor".

This afternoon, I'm going to tutor and then this evening, there's a band practice. I'm looking forward to that.

Happy Anniversary!

2005-06-07T22:06:00.000-04:00

Completely by coincidence, I noticed that today is my blog's first anniversary. How exciting! I've been sharing my deepest, most philosophical thoughts with the internet for a whole year! You know, and quiz results and silliness, etc. I'll have to have a party all by myself.

At any rate, not much interesting has been happening in my life. Work has been occupying most of my time. I've finished the trueSpace manual, and soon I'll be starting some real animations of star systems and evolution, which should be very interesting. Today I made a couple of animations, very simple, mind you, just to test out how much time it takes to render videos. Believe me, it's a long time: about 20 minutes to render a 10 second video at mediocre quality.

The battle of the bands is coming up on Friday, and we have a big practice on Thursday. I'm a little worried, considering we haven't played since last Monday, but I'm sure we'll pull together somehow. We're playing songs that we know really well, so we should be fine. I hope. We won't win because our music is strange, but I think we'll put on a good show, at any rate. We have variety in our music, original songs, a french song... we'll be fine. It will be sort of embarrassing to lose to a Galt band though. Oh well, I'm sure we'll recover.

Well, my parents are coming home tomorrow after a five-day vacation. I hope they enjoyed it and I hope they'll enjoy all the cleaning I did in preparation... ok, not that much cleaning. I washed the dishes and vaccumed a bit. Yay me.

And now, for your visual delight, a couple more 3D pics I made at work:

Eye of Horus

2005-06-04T11:35:00.000-04:00

What I do at work

2005-06-02T22:30:00.000-04:00

Hello world! At work, I have to learn this really cool 3D animation program called trueSpace 6, and we're eventually going to make animations of the evolution of stars and such. It's a lot of work, but I've worked through almost half the manual alread (and believe me, it's a thick manual) and can do some basic functions, like building random three-dimensional objects. At any rate, here are some of my magical creations, made from tutorials:

A golden goblet

A weird part of sorts

And this is a martian ice cream scoop.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that... you see how productive I've been! (I love my job.)

A lovely evening with the CFUW, Sherbrooke & District

2005-05-31T22:35:00.000-04:00

On May 31st, the Canadian Federation of University Women, Sherbrooke & District, assembled for the 2005 Awards Dinner at l'Hotel Le Président. From 6:15 to 6:45 pm, there was a cash bar with a variety of beverages as members and guests alike assembled in the hotel's lobby. At 6:45 pm, dinner was served in Champlain Hall.

After a small salad entree, a welcoming speech was given by the federation's president, Bev Taber-Smith. Everyone present was then delighted to taste a wonderful leek soup, followed by a chicken kabob, served with vegetables and rice. The guests, Yvette Williams, the director of Vocational Education, Andrée Lafleur, the Academic Dean of Champlain College, Sylvie Béquet, the incoming Dean of Bishop's School of Business, and Roger Noël, the Dean of Faculty Administration at Université de Sherbrooke, were then presented, along with a description of the awards to be given.

After a lovely carrot cake for desert, the University Women's Scholarship Foundation Awards were given out. Jewel Aulis received the Vocational Education Centre Home care & Family & Social Assistance Program Award, Lynda McKelvey received the Vocational Education Centre Accounting Program Award, Caroline Masson received the Vocational Education Centre Welding-Fitting Program Award, Heather Keith, who, unfortunately could not be present, received the Members' Returning Student Award, Ilana MacDonald received the Champlain College Science Prize, Heather Dezan received the Eileen Healy Prize for Leadership, Janice Jackson received the Marlis & Sigrid Wehr Mature Student Award, Christelle Leblanc received the Claire Heller Heilig LLB-MBA Prize, and Suzie Darbyson received the Diana MacKay Kuilman Memorial Prize.

After the presentation, coffee and tea were served, and the award winners had their pictures taken together. The meeting then ended and all assembled finished off the evening in lovely conversation, the award winners receiving much congratulations. The next meeting will be a potluck on June 18th.

Anyone who has ever read the articles at the end of the Sherbrooke Record will get this, hopefully.

The first post of a 19 year old

2005-05-28T10:02:00.000-04:00

I honestly think I'm seriously addicted to "your mom" jokes. You know, the ones where someone says something like, "I wish I had a vehicle," and I'd add, "Your mom's a vehicle! A vehicle for my love!" or something similar. Heehee... that was a funny one. At any rate, I've found myself thinking of possible "your mom" jokes for every phrase that someone enters, and they're usually quite bad. And when I find one that I think is funny, I'll say it out loud, but generally, everyone is so sick of my jokes that they don't find it as funny as I do. Ah well. I'll die a terrible terrible death.

In other news, ('cause I like that transition phrase) I turned 19 the other day, and it was a wonderful birthday. Josee and Oliver took me out to lunch at the Jester and I had much too much to eat. Then, Josee bought me handcuffs and a "Sheep Shagger" pin at the Rock. Then, I hung out at Ryan's and even Jonah being there wasn't all that uncomfortable. Then, I had a big supper at my place, though I was still full from lunch. Then, I went to Ian's and sat around, which was more or less fun. Sam got hideously drunk and stayed over at my place after he walked me home because he never would have been able to make it to his house.

Then, last night, the band ate at Shalimar, and I overindulged again. This diet isn't really going well. Also, I'm taking care of a hamster right now. How living things still stay alive in my care is beyond me. At any rate, I can't use this computer anymore because the sound of typing annoys my dad who's in the throws of writing a piece for the Toronto Symphony. I'll write soon again with more interesting things to say.

Star Wars Closure

2005-05-21T01:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I just came back from seeing Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and it was pretty good. Everything progressed as it should have, there were no MAJOR plot flaws, and the action was pretty frickin' awesome. I found that there were a lot of corny lines, and though that is sort of the style of Star Wars movies, I think that it wasn't as good as the original trilogy. The special effects were amazing, but that's to be expected in a multi-million dollar Lucas film. And of course, Yoda was the hero of the show, as Etienne put it, "One of the only redeaming qualities of the film." I wouldn't go that far, but he was the most awesome of all the characters. All in all, it was leagues better than Episodes I and II, but still not quite as good as the original trilogy.

In other news, it's my birthday in two days! Hourra! I'll be 19! Actually, I'm not that excited. I don't really want to do any partying except for a dinner with my parents. Maybe I'll decide differently later, but for now, I'm rather meh. I guess that 19 isn't quite as climatic as turning 18, when I became legal and all that. Ah well.

w00t! No more school!

2005-05-18T15:20:00.000-04:00

Well, I had my last exam today and so I'm officially done CEGEP forever. Hopefully I'll soon get my diploma in the mail, though it might take a while. My Calculus exam was horridly difficult. I was able to finish only two out of seven questions, but, considering everyone had as much trouble as I and this teacher always bellcurves everything, I should be ok. My Linear Algebra exam was surprisingly easy, but I guess that after the Calculus exam, anything would seem easy. Today, I had the Minesterial English Exit exam, and though I wrote a really good essay, I'm not sure it was exactly what they were looking for. Ah well, I'm sure I'll pass at least. If someone can do the exam stoned and sleep through an hour of it and still pass, then so can I pass.

It's funny, but I haven't really been that excited about finishing school of late. It may just be that all my excitement was spent during our graduation ceremony. It may also be that I get less excited when I'm hungry all the time. I decided that I'd start dieting after I noticed that my pants are starting to get very tight. Turns out I could stand to lose 24 lbs or so. And so, I'm calorie-counting, trying to keep my daily intake below 1300 calories. It's very hard, but I've lost weight like this before. The trick will be keeping it off.

Well, bent upon improving my version of Photoshop, old and outdated as it is, I downloaded a whole bunch of new brushes off the internet. For anyone else interested, there are a few good ones at Finfond.net, and About.com. Most of the brushes I have now are here. If anyone has any special ideas as to what I can do with them all, just let me know...

A break from studying

2005-05-16T12:57:00.000-04:00

Well, I've attempted to study for my Linear Algebra exam, but I got so bored that I just quit. Instead, I started looking up Photoshop tutorials. By the way, for anyone interested, the best tutorials I've found are at Pixel2Life.com. I made a starfield, which was kind of fun:

Now, I'll try to get back to studying, but I doubt it will work.

The Sneeze

2005-05-14T17:37:00.000-04:00

Ah, how spring is a beautiful time of year!
The hibernating animals come out without fear.
The birds return from their stay in the South
And must feed every small mouth
Of their tiny newborn chicks.
Yes, the flowers and the trees
Are soon thick with bees
For they are in full bloom.
It was on a beautiful spring day
That I decided it would be a pity to stay
In my house where it is stuffy and stale.
So I took a quick walk
All the way around the block
With no expectation of the disaster to come.
I walked gaily through the neighborhood
And everything seemed well and good.

As I walked down the street,
I smelt a strange smell.
It was an allergen, so it made my nose swell.
The sneeze it did build up;
It became so strong,
I felt for sure that something was wrong.
And then it came out in all of it's glory:
Something spoken of only in story!
Like a whirlwind it was,
Like a rainstorm in May.
It threw me backwards
With all of its force and sway!

There was a small child playing under a tree
Now this small child was laughing with glee
For the force of of my sneeze
Had thrown him into the tree.
The neighborhood was in ruins,
The houses were destroyed.
A car had fallen on an old man named Floyd.
The bees and birds which I had so admired
Were entangled in branches; indeed, were quite mired.
I looked about me at what I had wrought
And then I came up with an incredible thought,
"Why," I mused, "I should have more reason
Than to go outside during allergy season!"

I had no idea of the extent of the damage.
That evening, I was visited by a certain Lieutenant Ramage.
He explained to me, in all seriousness,
That my sneeze had made quite a terrible mess.
A school had burned down,
Right across town,
And although all the children celebrated with glee,
This had a very bad impact on the town's economy.
Several houses had been hit by the blast from my snout;
The authorities had had to tell everyone to get out!
The Lieutenant escorted me to the police station,
Where I was questioned by men from across the nation.
The secret service was there, and so was the military.
They were considering the use, which was oh so contrary,
Of the power of my sneezer
To make a weapon which they would call the Kableezer.
They decided instead to give me a very important task
Which was, in spring, to always wear a breath mask!

I wrote this poem back in secondary 4, and it has a few problems with it, meter-wise, but it made me laugh once upon a time, so I hope you enjoy.

Boredom breeds creativity... or something

2005-05-13T16:01:00.000-04:00

Today was the most boring and useless day ever. I sat in front of the computer all day and was slightly productive, but mostly not. Anyway, I created a useless survey that doesn't do anything yet because I have to learn JavaScript and ASP, which I will eventually. I also drew a dimensional rift, which will be used in Etienne's labyrinth, which will eventually get coded... *hem hem* It's here because it's a little too big to put on this page and I don't feel like screwing up my layout right now. That's all I did... all day... the form thingy took forever to code, if you want to look at the source. I can hardly wait until practice because Etienne is bringing an electric violin! Woohoo!

Summer's here

2005-05-11T10:08:00.000-04:00

Well, I think my speech went over well in general. Some teachers were definitely insulted, but at least most of the students thought it was glorious. I was a success. And I got some nice prizes to boot ($700 worth), and I might buy a new amp with that. Also, school's almost finished and the weather's fine. I have three exams to write and then I'm finished college forever! I'm looking forward to this summer when I'll have an awesome job and more free time. Another interesting development in my university search, Queen's is offering me a $16,000 scholarship to go there. I'm flattered to say the least.

Here's something I found in yesterday's Sherbrooke Record. I think some of us might be interested.

Battle of the bands for recording time
For the first year ever the annual Friendship Day celebrations will be extended to include a Friday night Battle of the Bands. Any amateur band is free to enter and compete for recording time and publicity. Bands are eligible only if they have never recorded a CD or demo. To enter the event call 819-573-2112.

Valedictorian speech

2005-05-07T09:08:00.000-04:00

This is my Valedictorian speech for the graduating class of 2005 from Champlain Regional College. Sam helped a lot with it, and my parents and friends contributed a small part also. I hope I don't get stoned.

Classmates, professors, members of the administration, friends, family and loved ones:

It is my honour to be your Valedictorian this year. We have all come so far in these last two, and in some cases up to five, years. And look at us all now, here at least under the assumption that we will each soon be getting our DEC and moving on to bigger and disputably better things. Some of us will be going out into the workforce, also known as the "real world", and others among this graduating class, myself included, are going to go on to university to pursue their undergraduate and perhaps even graduate degrees. Our future is spread out ahead of us, and the possibilities are endless.

In most Valedictorian speeches, the speaker will find some sort of interesting and inspirational quote which has some sort of underlying theme, which he will then center his speech around. I couldn't really think of any really good quotes of this sort right off, so I instead chose a random passage from the closest book at hand which happened to be "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", by one of my favourite authors, Douglas Adams. This passage is on page fifty, and goes something like this, "In fact, he had always done the bare minimum of research to support these myths. He was lazy, and essentially what he did was allow people's enthusiastic credulity to do the work for him."

Now, this quote may not at first seem to make any sense, which is to be expected when I pull a random quote from a not quite inspirational book written by a British author, but I'm sure that some of you sense a hint of familiarity in these words. The truth is, we are all a little bit like Dirk Gently: lazy, trying to do the least possible amount of work to get by. Certainly, it's human nature to try and find the easiest way out of hard work so that we can get on with our lives and have a good time. Think of all that procrastination for those long assignments and the staying up until all hours the night before the due date so that Thursday night is free to go dancing at the Maysen. I've been there, with a month to do a project, and leaving it all until the last few days, and I'm sure you have too, just because we're too lazy to get started.

But laziness isn't all bad. Were it not for humans being lazy by nature, we wouldn't have all the wonderful time- and labour-saving devices we have today. We'd still be in the stone age, having to hunt and gather our food, and running away from large predators. Think of it; agriculture and livestock farming were invented so that we wouldn't have to go out into the woods to find our dinner, cars were invented so that we wouldn't have to walk to get where we wanted to go, and the chin light switch was invented so that we wouldn't have to wash our cookie dough covered hands every time we wanted to turn on the lights. And, of course, if we hadn't invented all these time- and labour-saving devices, we wouldn't have had time to develop our culture, to make art, music and literature. Let us not forget philosophy, the laziest of all jobs, where all you have to do is get paid to think about stuff and the write about it. Without philosophy, we wouldn't have some of the great ideas that we have floating around today.

However, I don't think that your parents or teachers would be very happy with me if I was telling you to go out into the world and be lazy. Laziness is only really a good thing if it fuels productivity. Not actually handing in assignments or sleeping in instead of going to that 8:30 class isn't really a good thing. We are all here because we were able to overcome our natural instincts, and work hard to pass our classes. We all were able to make that extra effort to do our homework and to study for our tests, and now we can reap the results of our labour.

Before I conclude, I'd like to thank a few people. First and foremost, I'd like to thank our professors for putting up with our stupidity and for sharing your vast knowledge with us. You are the reason why this is such a great place for learning, and why we actually got something out of these short years. You have left a lasting impression on us, and your students will remember you for years.

I would also like to thank my friends. You made getting through all the hard work manageable, and were always ready for fun when I needed it most. Last but not least, I'd like to thank our families for supporting us no matter what. I'd like to thank you for putting up with our complaining and with our mood swings, for helping us with the problems of young adulthood. You have provided us with a solid basis which will help us all our lives. I hope we make you proud.

Finally, I want to congratulate the graduating class of 2005. I wish you all the best of luck in whatever it is you choose to do with your life. Remember to work hard and everything will be possible.

A desktop picture

2005-05-06T13:08:00.000-04:00

Alright, so I've given in to Dr. Awesome's challenge to bootleg Photoshop users to make cool desktop patterns. Though my version of Adobe Photoshop isn't exacly bootleg, I didn't exaclty buy it either, so it's all good. Anyway, so I made a photocomposition of everyone in the band, preferrably playing their instrument, but I made do with what I had. I'm missing Bruce, but we'll live, right? I think that Mailin wanted me to make a pattern for a t-shirt too, and she might be albe to use this one. At any rate... Here it is.

In other news, I had to cancel Jonah's cable internet for him because it was in my name because he's still a minor, and it was much more of a hassle than it should have been. He got mad at me because I'd signed him up for it, but he didn't seem to have a problem with it at the time. And I thought I was doing him a favour by helping him get internet. He said that because my parents well off, I have no concept of money. The nerve! Anyway, now I'm just a little pissed, and he has to pay a huge cancellation fee, not to mention another month of bills because they can't disconnect him until June. I offered to help him with money if he really needs it because I felt guilty. I'm way too nice.

Also, I definitely have to write my Valedictorian speech today. I have a few good ideas from previous speeches off the internet, thanks to Sam, so I'll probably be able to get it done. I promise to post it as soon as I finish so that those of you who aren't coming can enjoy its eloquence. Yeah, like I'm that good. At any rate, I'm going to get working on that, so tata for now!

Cadavre Exquis

2005-04-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

Jove nodded; the Muses smiled as the bestowed
Their grace on us is like dewdrops
Dripping off a fresh rose
The garden where the song was sung by the green fairy
Is the place to be. Covered with the wings of darkness,
My life faces away.
My soul shattered like a pane of
Stained-glass window from an abandoned
Church. For you will spontaneously
Combust. Burn your insides with the
Fiery pain of a thousand fallen souls. Pay for their
Sin. The best method in avoiding such a temptation
Would be to give in to it, or so says
West. The deafening sounds reverberates as the
Coffee effluvia lingers in the air; can you smell
It? Is Sire so pure as to swallow everything
Certain? I don't think so. Ignore what you
Hear. I AM AN AMPERSAND! HEAR ME ROAR... AND STUFF...
Voiceless screams break the everlasting silence.
The darkness cloaking me, I preveiled through
This ordeal with only a few minor changes.
Fried vegetables taste funny after
Midnight. The man I was following
Was scum, the type of guy that people would stop to
Watch the cops beat that sick smile off his
Face. His features were the color of caramel, a
Daunting complexion that caught the eye like no
Other.

That was written by Andra, Chris, Etienne, Matt, Mailin, Oliver, Josee, Sam, and me. We each wrote a line, or something.

Almost done school!

2005-04-28T15:48:00.000-04:00

It's nice to look at my agenda and realize that the things I have written are the only things I have to do for the rest of the school year. I have yet to finish my taxes, and I have at least three essays to write, but it's nice to know that the end is near. I've been horridly busy these last few weeks, explaining the lack of posts, not that I usually post that much anyway. So, I'll get everything up to date.

First of all, I've been chosen to be this year's Valedictorian. I got a letter several weeks ago saying that I'd been chosen, but then I found out that 9 other people had been chosen also, so I really didn't know what to think. Then, I got another letter the other day saying that I was to get to the graduation ceremony early to find my spot on stage... so I guess that means I won. Anyway, now I've got to think of a speech. I want to make it interesting, yet not terribly silly, and I want to make it inspiring, but not boring and corny. I think this will be tough. Anyone who has any ideas, fell free to suggest them.

Next little bit of news, I finally have a summer job, though most of you probably know this. I'm working in the Physics department at BU as a research assistant of some sort. Apparently, I'll be making only about $8.75 an hour, but I have 35 hours a week for about three months and it sure beats waitressing or working at a call center... *cough cough Nordia* It should be interesting work, as I'm going to be doing computer simulation stuff.

Finally, Mailin, our wonderful German superfan, stayed at my place for almost a week, and it was a lot of fun. We went dancing and shopping, and had many interesting conversations. I had a party/band practice at my house for her, and it ended up in a huge mess, a pickle on my pillow and an alarm clock, hidden under my bed, waking me up at 4:20 am two days later. Actually, it was quite fun, though little practicing got done.

Anywho, I have an integrative essay to write... 'til next time!

Mailin on the bus

Some of my favourite movies

2005-04-16T16:52:00.000-04:00

I was asked today what my favorite movie is. I guess that the following have to be among the best (or at least most entertaining) I've seen:

There are others, but they slip from my mind...

Linux is great, if you can figure it out.

2005-04-16T11:56:00.000-04:00

Right now, at this very moment, I'm using a version of Linux called Unbuntu, which is the only version that works for my type of computer, methinks. It's awefully slow, as it's running from a live cd, and I can't seem to figure out how to access the files on my hard drive that I'd use with Mac OS, and I can't seem to figure out how most of the things work, but you know, it's cool. At least I can do things with my gmail account that I couldn't before with Internet Explorer, as Linux comes with Mozilla Firefox. I also couldn't figure out how to use MSN, but it's all good.

Our table at Rock for the River seemed to make a good impression. I think that the absurdity of it all was a good promotional device, if nothing else. And now we have almost 81 new email addresses of people we can harrass with notices of upcoming shows! Muahahaha! And saving the ampersand is such a good cause! I just wish now that Matt's installation had been working for longer because once it got going, it was uber cool.

By the way, I'm overworked and underpaid again. I discovered the other day that I only have $11 in my bank account. Also, I have no less than six things due on Tuesday... two lab reports, a calculus assignment, an oral presentation, a portfolio entry, and a quiz to study for. Ahhhhhh!!!! Well, I just thought I'd share a little bit of my stress with the internet-world.

It's hard to think of interesting titles.

2005-04-10T10:42:00.000-04:00

Oh oh... I think I'm getting a little under the weather, like everyone else in the choir. Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away. Well, the first two nights of the choir concert have gone almost flawlessly, or at least as flawlessly as can be expected, given the quality of the songs being performed and the soloists. Bah, at least the audience likes it.

Someone should put an electified dog collar on me so that I don't procrastinate and do my homework, but that's not going to happen so much. I have a linear algebra assignment due monday, and between choir concerts and BCO rehearsals, I don't know when I'll have time... except for now, when I'm computering. Bah, at least the audience likes it.

Cool song: The Ghost of Stephen Foster by the Squirrel Nut Zippers.
(I will learn the violin part once I have time.)

Ilana's homework: Learn some fiddle reels so as to be able to do more interesting things for DE.

Yes, I'm stealing all of Mekashef's ideas.

Similar Minds and Pointcaré

2005-04-04T23:39:00.000-04:00

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living."

-Henri Pointcaré, French mathematician

A Gingerbread House

2005-04-02T12:19:00.000-05:00

This is the gingerbread house that Jonah and I made around Christmas time. My mom made the dough and baked it, but it got a little burned, which didn't really end up being a problem in the end. Putting the house together was a real challenge as some of the pieces had to be created from two separate ones. I think I may have blown up on more than one occasion, much to everyone's discomfort, but in the end, after it was assembled, decorating it was much fun. I think it turned out well in the end. I ended cutting it up for some guests' kids who didn't really appreciate the effort that went into it.