Stumble Upon

My friend was telling me about this website called Stumble Upon. and how she loved it so I thought I would give it a try. Turns out it is pretty much as addictive as Facebook Stalking was when I first got Facebook, and probably is something that I wouldn't get sick of as fast. How it works is you check some boxes with your interests, and click a button to stumble and off you go to websites that other people with your same interests liked. So far it has only brought me to one site I haven't liked. I really enjoyed this one on geeks. And this was a pretty good music site.

I've pretty much found yet another way to waste time on the interweb. Great.

State: Procrastinatory
Song: One-A- Illscarlett

NDP for the Win- well at least in my riding

Election results are pretty much in. While the Conservatives have taken the minority and had an overall gain in seats they lost one seat in their Stronghold: Alberta. This loss happened to be in my riding. For the first time in my voting career I have helped elect someone to the federal government. As of right now, one poll left to report, Linda Duncan of the NDP has won a seat in Alberta.

My roommate and I sat around the TV tonight, watching the election results as intently as others would a sports game final or the 100m dash final at the Olympics. I'm pretty sure I would have made M. Poirier proud tonight with the amount of enthusiasm I watched this election with. I can't say that I have ever felt this excited before. Every other election I have voted in my candidates have lost by so much you could really only call my vote a protest vote. Politics are much more exciting when there is some uncertainty.I had to drink a sleepytime tea to calm myself down and I am still awake, albeit, calmer than before.

I'm off to bed because waiting for this last poll to come in is agonizing. I hope that when I wake up and check the results tomorrow I won't be disappointed and find that Linda Duncan winning was all a dream. I'm really hoping that I'll living in the solitary spot of orange in a sea of blue.


Update 00:28 MT- 223/223 Polls reporting: Linda Duncan 20,076 Rahim Jaffer 19,634. NDP wins by 442.

State: Excited!
Song:The Canadian Dream- Sam Roberts.

Twilight Widget because I am Obsessed!

Halloween and Happiness

I should really be putting clothing on and getting ready to go to school, but I thought I would post first. Last night I thought of the most awesome Halloween costume that has probably already been done before, but I don't care because I love it! I'm going to go as a vampire pirate! I've wanted to be a pirate for Halloween for years and my recent fascination made me want go vamp. So I decided- why not a vampire pirate? I was googlizing for images of pirates and found the vision of what I want my costume to look like (see left). I think I will make it a bit more bad ass, but that is essentially the look I want to go for. I like the idea of it being kind of sexy, but not to the point that most people take it on Halloween.

Also- I've been pretty happy lately ever since I have returned to school. I feel like my life has purpose again and it is weird but I am actually getting excited about things again. It is nice to finally feel a whole gambit of emotions verses various levels of blah or nothing at all. Time to go clothe myself. Do not worry- I have been decent the whole time I have been writing this, just not in clothing I would where to school.

Random Thoughts of the Day

I have come to realize why blogging is more of a necessity when you are in school versus out of school. Firstly, I think about things a lot more when I am in school. Not necessarily things that I should be or need to be thinking about, but I think more regardless. Something about being employed, I found I turned my brain off at the end of the day. Secondly, when you are not in school, you have no homework to do when you get home and thus no reason to procrastinate. My room is cleaner than it ever was when I was out of school, because I procrastinated from cleaning when I wasn't in school.

In other random news, there is a company out there that makes pendants out of your pet's DNA (or as I was thinking anyone's DNA)! I really want one. Although I would not get my pets DNA. I'd either get mine or someone special's. It comes with a chain that looks like a double helix. How cool is that?

For something completely different, I have been trying out mind mapping as a way as studying. I found an online mind mapping tool called MindMeister. It works pretty well for what it does. My only gripe would be that you can only create hierarchies from one node and cannot connect two different nodes (even if you connect the ideas in your head). It is not perfect, but makes mind mapping go so much faster.

My Twilight Saga obsession continues. I can't get enough of it! One of my favorite websites on the series is one that is a blog following the journey of a guy who decides to read the series just to see what all the fuss is about. He does a pretty good job of looking at the series from less of a fan girl perspective which is always good. I guess I could be considered a fan girl, but that is really quite an embarrassing thing to admit. My other favorite website, is one dedicated to older fans of the book like me. I've also started listening to a podcast about Twilight done by two college students in Florida. They are pretty funny to say the least. Now that everyone know how deep my obsession goes, no one will want to read the book. I never said go out and become as obsessed about this book as I am, but definitely check it out. I know sci-fi fantasy love stories are not everyones cup of tea, but honestly, just give it a try. I can't wait for the movie to come out, only two more months.

One final point, change your language on Facebook to pirate english for a laugh. It pretty much brightened my day. I couldn't stop laughing. Well in the words of pirate Facebook- time to abandon ship, mateys! Arrrrrr...

Mood: Procrastinatory (I thought this might be one of my made up words, but alas it exists.)
Song: Oh You Delicate Heart- Hawksley Workman (Pretty much the only artist I've been listening to)

Wordy Awful Wordiness

I am not the world's most eloquent writer. In fact, I am quite wordy myself. I need to work on this, because I really hate reading essays that are wordy and don't get to the point. The books I have to read for my classics class are THE wordiest pieces of writing that I have ever read. I usually have to read a sentence two or three times before I understand what the author is trying to say. I'm used to having to decipher complicated scientific theory out of maybe not the best writing in the world, but this is ridiculous. I had to read a sentence three times to figure out the author was trying to explain how a syllogistic argument worked. Not that his explanation made much sense. Further, the information in the footnote was more helpful than the actual text. I'd continue this rant longer, but I have to go to school.

Mood: Frustrated with Wordiness
Song: Girls on Crutches- Hawksley Workman

New Template

I wanted something new if I was going to start writing in this again so here it is. Didn't get nearly as much done today as I had previously wished, but such is life. I am going to have to buckle down soon though because October is going to be HELL. More later when less sleepy.

Long Time No Post...

Wow... It has certainly been awhile. That last post summed up most of what I went through for the past year. I agonized about what I was going to do with my life. Rated the pros and cons of each possible career choice and sometime in October 2007 I put in an application for Education and forgot about it, and continued my numb existence. Being numb isn't all bad. I can say now that it is better than being depressed and far worst than actually being happy. Also- with numbness blogging becomes almost impossible because you aren't feeling and I don't know about you, but I can't write without feeling. So I didn't write. I filled my time with anything to take my mind off the fact that I felt like I was in a stagnant pond, stuck in the mud, unable to move.

I plugged along at the job I hated, when in February- I got a letter saying I was accepted into the Faculty of Education- Major Biology, Minor chemistry. At this point I still wasn't sure this was something I wanted to do. I mean I resisted the idea with every fiber of my being since I could remember. I didn't want teaching to be my fall back plan. I wanted what I picked to be the plan all along. Life, unfortunately, does not work that way. I no longer desire to be a genetic counselor which was the original plan. The more I thought about teaching, the more it seemed like the right thing to do. That brings me to the end of April: my self imposed deadline for deciding. So I decided to take the plunge... and here I am today the night before day 3 of my second degree.

So far so good... I like my classes. I can't remember a time that I have liked all of my classes so this might be a first. I have high hopes for this decision... so hopefully it turns out better than my last.

In other, less important, fluffier news- I have recently become addicted (yes addicted) to the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. I would like to compare her books to maybe cigarette smoking if you had no idea cigarette smoking was addictive and you picked them up because you thought they looked cool and kept doing it because it felt good. Sigh... that is what happened to me when I picked up Twilight. I had no idea how big the books were (or how addictive the series was) when I unsuspectingly picked up the first book at the airport. The back of the book made it sound corny- girl falls madly in love for vampire that thirsts for her blood but something about the pretty black book made me pick it up. I was past the point of no return about 10 minutes into the flight.

I have since read the whole series and I am in the process of re-reading the series. I can't wait until the movie comes out, although I'm sure it won't compare to the books at all. At least they got the casting of the leading man right. Robert Pattinson (Harry Potter fans might recognize him as Cedric Diggory) is perfect for the role I think, both in looks and in the way he is portraying the character. And the schoolgirl in me thinks he is dreamy... I better stop before I start gushing about Rob Pattinson the way Bella gushes about Edward in the book. I guess there are more harmful things I could be addicted too like cigarettes or heroin or worst crystal meth. It would also be better not to be addicted to anything at all. I'm going to have to work on that. That, and going to bed at a decent time.

Mood: Tired and Wired
Music: I'm On Fire- Paper Lions