Faith-Love-Peace-Zeitgeist

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2007-03-01T09:42:00.000-06:00

Unexpected Blizzards...

2006-11-26T23:29:00.000-06:00

Being a Winnipeg girl, born and raised, a blizzard is no novelty. However when you are living in southern BC and it is only the end of November a blizzard comes as quite a surprise. You could tell that even the locals were surprised as I witnessed several of them trying to clear their driveways with a corn-broom.

My Outtatown site is currently staying for its second week at Stillwood Camp and Conference Center. It is a large camp about 45 minutes out of Abbotsford where a van of us drove to this morning to attend church. There is no internet at Stillwood so the fact that I am publishing this should give you some indication as to the severity of this blizzard. We had no hope or inclination of driving back up the mountain as snow was thick on the ground and semis were piled in the ditches all along the highway. But God doesn't abandon His people in times of trouble, and that's exactly what happened in this situation. Here is the full story:

Two vans from our site headed out to their respective church destinations, one to a church 20 minutes away in Yarrow and us to the Free Wind church in Abbotsford, but unfortunately just as we entered the city we found out that the church was closed due to blizzard. Determined to still go to some form of worship service we spotted a church that had another service starting at 11:15. We had about 45 minutes so we hung out at a coffee shop as the snow that had been lightly falling began to pick up intensity. From there we headed to this new church and enjoyed the fellowship and message that they had to offer. My friend Steve particularly had a great time because unbeknownst to him, his uncle attended the church. He left for a lunch date after the service while the most of the rest of us headed to the mall for a quick shopping trip.

After our pocketbooks had been emptied slightly and I had mailed some post we came back to a despondent Dana (our leader). We could not get back to Stillwood. In fact, as an aside, the other van headed by Jonny made it part way back from Yarrow when up the mountain the van could crawl up no longer and they had to leave it on the side of the road and walk the final several Km up the mountain in the deep feet of snow. Hmm, luckily for us Steve's uncle of whom we met on our chance church meeting offered to take us for how ever many days necessary. We did a quick shopping expedition for food and a few other essentials (contact juice and crest brush up...) and tried to make to Steve's relatives. This proved to be MUCH harder said than done.

Not only did many locals not have shovels, but many lacked the winter driving abilities or logic necessary to DRIVE. Quite literally, many attempted large hills with only front wheel drive and many MANY more seriously thought that pressing the accelerator harder meant they would actually go somewhere. They were wrong. We ended up pushing out several cars/vans out (and GENTLY informing hem how to drive). It was fun. What topped it off however was once we had nearly made it to our destination after multiple, multiple detours finding that access for the last 1 or 2Km was nearly impossible so we had to walk, and on our way down there was an ambulance stuck in the ditch. We piled up in the back to give more weight to the back and the ambulance fishtailed sideways for awhile and finally made it out of the ditch, it was ROCKIN'!

So here we are at Steve's uncle and aunt's and here we will stay until further notice. Everything is up in the air and everything is covered in snow and I wouldn't have it any other way. Here is to a week of adventure... I am so glad I bought some mittens at the mall...

CHEERS everyone, and if you are the praying type then I would like to take this time to solicit your prayers on our behalf.

Deep Thoughts

2006-11-08T13:48:00.000-06:00

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.

Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let's say you're an astronaught on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he's not Dracula, but you just say, "Think again, bat man."

Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.

To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad.

You know what would make a good story? Something about a clown who make people happy, but inside he's real sad. Also, he has severe diarrhea.

When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.

I think a good product would be "Baby Duck Hat". It's a fake baby duck, which you strap on top of your head. Then you go swimming underwater until you find a mommy duck and her babies, and you join them. Then, all of a sudden, you stand up out of the water and roar like Godzilla. Man, those ducks really take off! Also, Baby Duck Hat is good for parties.

A funny thing to do is, if you're out hiking and your friend gets bitten by a poisonous snake, tell him you're going to go for help, then go about ten feet and pretend that *you* got bit by a snake. Then start an argument with him about who's going to go get help. A lot of guys will start crying. That's why it makes you feel good when you tell them it was just a joke.

I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times." It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.

-Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handy

Things are going well for me here in Victoria. I had a birthday recently and it rocked, and right now I am at the library "doing a research project". The important thing is I survived living near East Hastings last week in Vancouver.

While in Vancouver I got to see Nelly and she gave me a wicked-awesome UBC hoodie (in brown to add to my collection!) and we (Emily, Nelly, Kaite) went for a night on the town on my birthday, which included much nonsense that can only be not reported here. As an aside, but also getting back on topic at the same time (yes, I am in dire need of some more sleep), Kaite purchases many books, like books by Jack Handy. To date she has secured Deep Thoughts, Deeper Thoughts, and Deepest Thoughts. These are excepts from Deep Thoughts, but trust me, they only get......"better".

No, I am not dead...

2006-10-17T22:12:00.000-05:00

So many of you have been emailing me, wondering whether I have dropped off the planet or something, but I haven't...obviously. Internet is hard to come by and time is limited.

So for in the past week we have left Winnipeg and the Manitoba area in search of mountains and warmer weather. We have found the mountains but there is definitely snow. Last week we stayed at Pioneer Ranch Camp in Alberta and on Sunday the guys and girls split ways and us girls are spending girl/guy week in Banff!

Not meaning to give the "my life is so luxurious and awesomer than your's" vibe, but I actually don't have time for many specific stories or anticdotes because we are leaving tonight to go to the Banff Hot Springs in just a few minutes...yeah...but don't worry, not every week will be this way. I will get down to work eventually.

In fact, I learned recently that my 18th birthday will be spent in East Hastings, Vancouver! Yeah-ghetto yo! Oh, but speaking of ghetto, my site (all 3 girls sites are together for this week) cleaned up ("we were H-core -yo!") during tonight's rocking hip hop lesson. I know some of you are raising your eyebrows but I'll be honest, it was fun and hilarious! My favourite part though was definitely the ride here, Kaylynn and I sung all the words (well actually Kaylynn sang ALL and I got MOST) and rocked out to THE TIME WARP! It was CRUNK! Oh, but I also can stall (hip hop move) and that also rocked!

Fun other thing we did, yesterday we celebrated Christmas and our PMG (peer mentoring groups) bought each other "secret santa" gifts for a Christmas gift exchange. We definitely sang Christmas carols around the fake SHRUBERRY and we all got candy canes at the end!

Hopefully some pictures will be showing up soon (eventually). PEACE OUT!

Additional Information

2006-09-14T22:37:00.000-05:00

In my rush yesterday to ensure that I did not infringe on any body else's need to use the computer I forgot to link to some very important sites.

I DO have a basic (although not completely comprehensive) schedule which can be found at the outtatown website. Also pictures of SITE THREE will be found shortly!

Today I cleaned up in a game known as horse-knight-cavalier along with my buddy Ben.

Also more and more people are thinking that I am CraZy...

I am really intensely enjoying getting to know everybody and I think I might actually know all 41 names (yes-that is 41 including my own self...just so you know...) and I can hardly wait until I know all 41 people (yes-I am including myself again...) so much better! So far everybody has been really great and group dynamic can become highly amusing yet I still think that we are all here for some intensely amazing relationships and growth with one another and with God and truely that facinates me.

On a totally other tangent while most who know me know I have a friend Sean, you may not have understood my reference and grateful-ness towards Thoreau. Hopefully this will clarify!

Gone

2006-09-13T22:03:00.000-05:00

Today is the first official day of my post-secondary teachings, and it has taken me all the way out to a place called Pinawa. For those of you who I have not revealed my year's plans...or for those of you who just forgot, I have started a one-year program with CMU (the Canadian Mennonite University) called Outtatown (formerly S.O.D. -School of Discipleship).

So far (and again I repeat this is my first day!) it has been sweetly awesome and I am very excited about the things that God will teach me and that my new SOD buddies will teach me throughout this coming year. I think that I am the baby of the group....my 18th birthday is coming up November 3rd, but most of the people are just out of high school or just one year out anyway so it is not like there is a significant age difference. I have friends (and you know who you are) who have just recently had the 4th baby daughter (congradualations even though I already said that by the way!) so yeah....I'm pretty sure I am not making a whole lot of sense right now but hopefully that does not matter.

Have I mentioned that I didn't get very much sleep...also cookies...there have been several consumed today...most containing various forms of sweet sweet chocolate!

Anyway, while I am here you may wish to write to me, and while the addresses keep changing as we move around quite frequently I will try to post them as soon as I know. Currently I am staying in PINAWA (whoot....oh yeah, you know what I am talking about...) and the mailing address is:

Emily Blunden (Outtatown)
c/o Wilderness Edge
Box280
32 Burrows Road
Pinawa, Manitoba
R0E 1L0

And I will be here from September 13th-20th, although I believe I am also returning here for the week of September30-October 6 for another different week of instruction/etc.

Canoeing is next week and will be awesome.

I will be trying to update with my whereabouts/whatdoings as often as possible but it is likely to be fairly sporadic.

Final thoughts:
I brought too much stuff, although bringing an EXCESS of too much stuff was narrowly averted thanks to the warm words of wisdom from Thoreau and Sean (thanks Sean).

Miss you!

Showering...Will Never Be Quite The Same Again

2006-08-24T22:51:00.000-05:00

Today the plumber came and installed the showering devices in the master en suite. As you can plainly see there is not one but TWO shower heads in the shower!

I was pretty excited about this new discovery and so I promtly decided to break in the new hardware. Now; I HAD heard that one person is not actually supposed to use both of the showering heads at the same time, but when you're living in the lap of luxury that saying tends to become overlooked. That said-it was magical!

I have a bad feeling this is not going to be a one time occurance.

I also have a bad feeling that South Africa will do everything in its power to eradicate my newfound partiality!

Bur

2006-08-22T15:09:00.000-05:00

Behold-another post. Life has just gotten exponentially more fascinating.

Mostly this is appearing because I have the Brairdale week of Camp off and there is little else to do around the house save eating, sleeping, and bumming around-which is just the way I like it.

Only too bad for me because mum thought it would be a great idea/bonding time if my sisters and I went to the back yard and hacked weeds. So we earned our keep and did those suckers in, but then mum noticed a particularily nasty brand of bur tree that was hiding behind a pile of dirt/cement. Never one to leave to job half-done I took up arms against the beast and began hacking away at it's base (trunk-practically) but then...

IT FOUGHT BACK!!!
I don't believe I have had my mother spend so much time on my hair in a decade plus.

Oh-and also I drove past my old house yesterday to drop my sisters off at a friends and guess what!?! THEY CUT DOWN OUR GIGANTIC PINE TREE THATS WHAT!

I threw a pity party but it kinda sucked because there were no streamers and no body else even showed up.

Summer Days

2006-07-22T20:07:00.000-05:00

One of the things I am beginning to realize about my summers is that they are (if possible) even more busy than the remainder of my year. With that in mind, my summer thus far can be summerized in two activites; vacation and camp.

In my family "summer vacation" is the loose translation of "going east to visit family during warm months once school is out". Travelling out east is also synonymous for another term; Swiss Chalet. Having spent all 10 weeks of my vacation last summer out at camp I did not accompany my family out east and a severe case of Swiss Chalet deprivation ensued. Luckily I was able to pacify this malady by indulging in Swiss Chalet no less than 3 times that week.

Mmmm, Mmmmm, Mmmmmmm.....Seriously, if anybody would like to sign my petition to bring a REAL Swiss Chalet back to Winnipeg let me know...

Anywho, first stop after the intense tag team driving expedition led by my parents and I was the Nottawasaga Resort for a Blunden family get together. I enjoyed seeing cousins I had not seen in a long time and/or ever in the case of Erika and Cole.

Erika and I crawled around on the grass playing cats. Shortly we were also joined my Malcom, however it turned out that several trips around the yard was enough for Malcom and a game of shoot the cats with army machine guns was the final result of that excersise!

It is not truely a Blunden family reunion until someone cracks out the bagpipes.

Uncle George (of whom I should mention is a "married into the family" uncle) plays us a merry rendition of some Scottish tune. My mum (also a "married in") gets her go later on.

But on the OTHER side of my family, the McMillans, we sport a slightly different tradition. I am not sure about your families but it's never truely a McMillan family get together until several somebodies start cracking horrible puns. No, not just bad; horrible. I reckon my favourite was the year they brought out the forestry puns. I'd love to go into firther details but I'm afraid it wood bring out repressed childhood emotions I'd rather keep repressed!

*shakes head*Oh well, there is nowhere to go but back up from here I guess. We also did a little bit of "rural exploration" (I feel it warrents a different name than "urban exploration" because we were litterally out in the middle of the Quebec countryside).

There were better pictures than this one, but I liked this one because it is of "the secret room". This is our property at Locklee, but over the years it has become extremely worn down and trashed. It is still beautiful though in a sense, and to some, still haunted. The thing about this room was that nobody knew about it for years after we (and by we I mean my mum's family as she was growing up) bought it. Well one day they were hanging around Locklee and noticed that there was a window at the front of the house, but once you actually took the stairs up to the second floor, there was nothing. My mum was chosen as the one to climb the rickity ladder and look through the front window and to her horror and suprise there was a room. And it was fully furnished; bed, sidetable, washstand and everything. To add to the mystery, the room was right above the kitchen, which meant in those days it would have been the warmest and most comfortable room in the entire house on cold nights.

As for the following weeks, I came back home in a roundabout fashion to begin working at camp for my second summer.

My first week I was in a cabin counselling as well as teaching the crafts skill (more about the special-shiftyness in said craft shack later). On of my highlights for that week was the fashion show in which my girls all dressed up as different staff members (and with relatively similar likeness too I might add!). They were from L-R Ringo, Cannonball, Stan (the camera man), Babs, Ginger, Sprite, TiG (moi!) and Sunshine!

Then last week I was on maintenance. "I got to drive the gator like nobody's buisness."

Sweet Deal.

Graduation

2006-07-02T23:18:00.000-05:00

Graduation came and went in a flurry of about 20 hours, and although severly jet-lagged and sleepy I managed to enjoy myself and even smile for some pictures (this is rare folks; how many times do you reckon you've spotted the blue footed booby ?) Anyway, with over 250 graduates from FRC it was a very interesting (and long) ceremony. i reckon there were people on stage I had never met before in my life. Nelly and I also reckoned that the robes looked like judge robes. I thought that we should be given a gavel and the right to over-rule some people's diplomas.

Next came dinner and dance. After coming home later (opps-apperantly the girl who had her hair done right before me *cough*Mandy*cough* kepty changing her mind, she only went half an hour over not to mention she was coming to my grad but graduatied last year...) and feeling a little guilty because I don't approve of making your grad date wait, Sean and I, and my parents headed to the legislat. building for some pics., followed by the Winnipeg Convention Center.

Picture at the Leg.

Father-Daughter Dance!

Oh-and did I mention that several people were wearing the same dress? Thats okey though, it was too awesome anyway, and at least they were all different colours. Not shown, Nicky who was sporting the dress in a pretty darkish blue.

Following the dinner and dance was Safe Grad, in which I danced a lot, went a little cRaZY and got a temporary airbrush tattoo (watch out mum, I'm a wild one : P) ! The pictures from Safe Grad took ~10 minutes to load and then never showed up so I'll post them later. Look forward to Nelly and Jared doing the robot-wow, I gotta love my friends!

Some Last Minute Aussi Pics

2006-06-29T01:06:00.000-05:00

I am way behind in my postings, sorry about that dudes. In fact the other day I had to unpack and repack my suit case; transferring items for Australia out and clothing for Ontario in! So far Ontario has been good, significantly warmer I'd have to say than Adelaide (Australia).
Feeding a little rodent-like (but very cute) ozzy animal some sultana and apples. Sultanas are what the ozzy's call raisens...it was tres' strange.

The little girl was trying to feed the wallaby...no wait, billby, yeah...anyway, she was just too cute to pass up.
Literally it was the middle of the Australian winter, winter solstice was the 22nd I believe, and I desided to go for a dip in the ocean. I spent about half and hour body boarding and frolicking in the water while the only people on the beach (my host family shivered and looked a great deal bewildered. T'was great fun!
I got to pet a koala, it was very soft. Yep-just another day down under...as a point of information though, you'd hate to have a koala relieve itself on you because the eucalyptis smell is so poigtant that it would remain in your clothes for eons. Despite this being a science exchange trip this might have been one of the few new scientific facts I learnt!

The end of the week Social. My host family sister Marnie is on the right and one of the best friends Cameron is pictured left. As another point of information, I have found that the karaokee abilities of individuals is rather similar across the boarder(s)...whatever thats supposed to mean...

Almost Famous II

2006-06-22T06:03:00.000-05:00

No, don't worry mates, it's not a sequel to Kate Hudson's debute movie,... just thought I'd get that out of the way! (breath sigh of relief)

So basically after my newspaper appearence in Winnipeg the paparazzi has just been at my heels and finally were able to catch up to me here in Adelaide (South Australia). The only big newspaper here published a thing about the bioexchange going on and I got (mis)quoted and photographed. Sweet deal.

Here is a picture of the article, the things in the beaker are eucalyptus leaves and I am the one in the grumpy jumper and the scrappy looking hair. It was pretty nifty though, especially showing up to school two days later and having the entire ASMS (Australian Science and Mathmatics School) stare and comment to me that I was in the paper. Yep-nifty!

And below I was able to upload several pictures of what I've been up to lately, luckily it only took about half an hour for them to upload. Oh, and if you weren't sure, regarding the first picture (above), it is a kangaroo. (He was a cute little bugger and if you look close I think he's sticking out his tongue at you!)

Several days ago I was forced to try vegemite, the national Australian food that (almost) all Australians hate! I could have posted the after-picture (but I didn't) ~it was priceless!!!

Bio-hazared room, we took a tour of one of Adeliade's top research facilities today(Thursday).
The transfer of the wallets (momentous). I finally bought a new wallet after using my old one for about ....well, lets put it this way, I think I've had it either since late elementary or at least since very early junior high. Unfortunatley due to my shopping spree earlier today there is little money actually being transferred, but I must say the extra card space really tickles my fancy.

Ozzyland

2006-06-18T06:42:00.000-05:00

G'Day Mates! (sorry...it's just one of those things you can't resist saying while ya can get away with it!)

The long awaited overseas post has now commenced, but I regret to inform you that there will be no pictures available. For whatever reason blogger does not seem to want to download the pictures..'nuff said. I will attempt a brief collage of pictures once I get back to Winnipeg but for now hopefully the quick summary will do.

The Trip Here:
Commence Wpg. time 09:00 hrs June 13
Winnipeg-Vancouver [no meal]
Vancouver-Honalulu (Hawaii) [dinner]
Honalulu-Sydney [1st breakfast] also sidenote-they had to spray us with insecticide before we deboarded the plane and we got to watch a "Declare or Beware" short starring none other than the Croc Hunter himself...impressive
Sydney-Adelaide [2nd breakfast] And we were finally there at about Adl. time 06:00 hrs June 15

Things We've (I've) Done thus Far:
-Shower
-Meet host family
-Visit winery...do taste testing....bought a bottle...nearly lost Mr. A...
-Attempt boomerang
-Borrowing jacket from ASMS (school) temperature is about 14 during the day, drops to around 2 at night
-Learned houses don't have heating....repeat: drops to around 2 at night
-Bush walking, we walked through a field were there were cows (BULLS) just roaming about...yeah, not worrisome at all (I swear they were all giving me the evil eye)
-More showering
-Netball (10 points to whoever can tell me the rules of netball)
-Touring the countryside, cruises, dolphin spotting, opal mine, riding the tram, taking lots of pictures, etc.

My most favourite(est) thing to date though has been the night walk in the wildlife conservation park. I saw a platypus (from far away though) and I got to pet a kangaroo!!!! Exciting much! Anyway, it's almost 22:00 here and honestly that would be the latest I'll go to bed yet, ta!

If

2006-06-03T23:16:00.000-05:00

If

If love grows on trees,
And sorrow sprouts from the ground,
We'd all have to jump for joy.

S. Blunden

Blah..humbug

2006-05-31T14:24:00.000-05:00

To summarize;

My life is boring right about now

and

I am facing off against THE IMPENDING DOOM!

Yes, there are less than two weeks until I leave and that means less than two weeks to complete such (GIGANTASAURUS) assignments as:
-english research paper
-chemistry lab portfolio
-science topics agriculture project
-english journals (equivilant of an entire terms worth of material!)
-tests earlier than the other kids
-PACKING!!! (yes, this one may take the longest of them all sadly enough.....)

but the good news kids, is that Emily will be exempted from her only remaining exam (chemistry in nature) and that is good.

On a TOTALLY unrelated note though, I'd like to extend a heart felled laugh in the general direction of the world for all this hype concerning a day coming in less than a week; June 6th.

Honestly, it's like people actually believe that's a greater IMPENDING DOOM than the state of my english homework!

Convert people, convert! Save yourselves from a sure and fiery DEATH which is BOUND to come to you on this SPECIFIC day of the gregorian calender and which is sure to seperate the rejoicing from the rejected!!!

Hey!-I've got a great idea, why don't we just stop the earth from spinning and then that day will never come...or reterograding....YAH, brilliant!

oiy-and check out this stamp eh, hmmmm.....only $6.66 plus shipping...

A Jolly Good Day

2006-05-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day for British comedy.

Much to my delight, my computer FINALLY had a specific video codec installed and I was able to enjoy (in both sound AND video) my greatly anticipated LOOK AROUND YOU series. Later on in the day I made some good headway on a series which my "boss" actually lent and recommended to me; The Office. I had heard much good about The Office from other sources and of course, as with all British comedy, I was not left disappointed.

After that I preceeded to go tag-team shopping with my mum and sister (aka one destracts and the other loads the cart with all good things) and the sum came to an appalling sum of money. Upon returning home I determined taking the dog out for a long walk would be an ideal task to escape the wrath that should be inflicted on me for coming shopping.

It was about 11 o'clock (23 o'clock for those of you who may prefer military timing!) by the time we set out and we headed over to the back lane. I ended up discarding my shoes and Char's leash and running all along the burm to the lake. Running barefoot, laying in the grass next to my dog, starring up at the stars, cartwheels, scrunching my toes up in the grass and escaping the cacophony of regular city street lights. It all seemed very pastoral-or, let me rephrase that, about as pastoral as it appears to get in Winnipeg suburbia.

Anyway, we ran back to the shoes and leash and eventually departed back for home, but part way through I decided my feet were a) too hot in shoes and b) happier out of captivity so I opted again for no shoes. See, this is my theory: We have the Envirothon competition coming up next week and instead of freaking out and/or pouring all my time into studying the binders, I'll just learn from Mother Earth herself via the diffusion of Earth-knowledge. This is actually so logical I made I diagram.

Arrr

2006-05-13T22:45:00.000-05:00

In my spare time (while babysitting) I managed to set up the two pirate ships in a scene of battle. It might just qualify for the highlight of my weekend. = P

None of the pictures have been edited so you will have to excuse my poor photography skills. I think my favourites would probably have to be the first three pictures though...

And regarding the final picture...that was actually a few days back when I thought the remains of my apple juice looked "SO COOL" distorting the pear tree behind. (yes, cringe if you must, but it was a) a "SO COOL" idea at the time and b) helped me develop a love hate relationship with my manuel focus!)

Shifty Divots

2006-05-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

As per usual our household was in a cleaning frenzy in order to get our home in show room condition, as opposed to its regular condition of being next nominated for the TLC show Clean Sweep!

Today's Target Zone: yard/garage/shed

Mum: Look, I'm trimming up the cement pathway.

Emily: Mmm. So I see.

Mum: How would you like to transplant these strips of grass onto the dead spots in the backyard once your done with the shed?

Emily: Mmm.

Mum: Excellent!

Results:

Nasty looking spot.

It's a little bit shifty.

On the other hand though, I think it looks great so maybe I'll ditch pediatrics and just charge balding old men outragous sums of money for my sweet services. Then again, not, but its still nice to know I've got my backup plans covered!

I leave you with this:

Dirty fingernails.

A picture of the moon.

Tis the Season for Ice Cream!

2006-05-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

Tis the annual (belated) re-opening of the BDI celebration! Although admittedly I went a little earlier this season (best friend has hook ups!) this was my official first paid for ice cream sundae of the 2006 BDice cream season. How exciting! This one also happened to have more raspberry sauce than the freebie, but I hear that guy was a newbie...he'll learn....or get his arse fired! Skimping on sundae toppings is a major no-no in my books!

It did come back and bite me on the arse in the end though because as I was trying to rearrange everything in the car some topping leaked out the sides and spilt on the drivers keys and lets just say it was highly sticky and not pretty.

After inhaling our respective ice creams we (sisters night out!) went out in search of some cheese in a store that would be open at 10:23 on a Thursday night. Our poor father was rather devastated about the lack of cheese in the house, and admittedly so was I, but slightly less so as I had finished off the last of it for my lunchtime grilled cheese sandwich. We found some shifty looking cheese at the 24 hour shoppers drug mart but opted for 4 cartons of $0.99 1L chocolate milks instead and desided to pursue some cheese at the local 7-11....they have everything right?

Wrong! They appeared to have everything but cheese and so we went home dissapointed, delivered what was left of mum's root beer float, and I had to put my special project for today on hold. But have no fear, due to my seemingly abundance of newfound time (whoot-AP exams will wrap-up this coming Monday) I will commence shortly and be sure to document the event!

And now it is time for some more Paul Gilbert-Down to Mexic0!!

"Click"-refocusing

2006-04-29T22:06:00.000-05:00

Do you ever sometimes feel that you're looking at life through a lens and it all looks pretty good, but then you take your eyes away and realize that you are all out of focus. Well, lately I have felt that my priorities and my life in general have been out of focus, blurry, or at the least focused on the wrong things.

And I'm not really sure how to cure myself of these spiritual/emotional/directional ailments. I want to be a good person, but I have been feeling more that I only play the part of a good person so others will think I am a good person, and underneath I am really wretched.

I ask God to make me good sometimes, but so often it feels like He is listening but replies that I "keep asking but keep failing, and maybe [I] should try a new tactic".

Perhaps I was asking too generally for help, but actually pondering this I realize that I've indeed been asking for specific help. Perhaps my goals were too steep, or secretly, in that wretched little part of me I didn't want to altogether change...

Pondering even further though, perhaps it comes down to where I stand with God, or rather, where I feel God stands with me. I have always been a relatively physical person, feeling most comforted and loved being hugged or cuddled, but I suppose what I am trying to say is though I still feel I have a strong relationship with God, I can no longer feel His "loving arms around me".

I know this is my own fault, but unfortunately just like with being good, I don't think there is a "cure" for what I am going through...

Nerd Symposiums

2006-04-28T23:46:00.000-05:00

Not only is this the week of Biotech, but all of the "whos-who" of Science nerds S4 and younger have filed en mass to the U of W for the 35rd Annual MSSS.

Today was also marked down in MSSS history as one of the more humourous and/or strenuous ("it's all a matter or perspective"...bystander or organizer...) as an unexpected fire "drill" occured during the peak of judging. As hundreds upon hundred of the little children filed out, us Seniors stood around rolling our eyes until we were grudgingly made to go and stand outside while about 5 or 6 (literally) firetrucks pulled up to make sure our projects and the rest of the Duckworth center did not ignite in flames...it didn't!

Two major thoughts of today; Science is worth it for all the free stuffs/free foodstuffs, and you just never know when there will be (wonderfully) unexpected meetings!

This was the food they served us at the Biotech dinner (free of change) and it was absolutely delicious...I opted to post pictures of the free Biotech food as opposed to the MSSS free stuff since ....well actually I didn't take pictures of it, but it's all the same in the end really...it's all free!
Nelly glaring at me during dinner....probably because I told her she had a good project (which she did, and she won 3rd....sweetness!)
They also served us dessert, it was very tasty as well...and pretty-ful too!

As I was setting up my station along came Lauren, from camp. I had not expected her to be there, but she was there helping out a grade 4 class for her family studies class and it was really awesome to see somebody from Camp again! I didn't think anybody else could surprise my with their presence, but as we all know, that obviously means somebody did..infact three somebodies did!!!I was spotted by the mum of one of my camp girlies and I was very excited, even more so when I learned that her daughter Brittney was actually THERE! She went to go retrieve Brittney but to my surprise, showed up with three girlies who I recognized QUITE well! All three had been in my last cabin, and we were all very excited to see each other. I doubt there was anything that topped this part of my day. (L-R: Kailyn, Destiny, Emily aka TiG, and Brittany w/out her summer braids!)

Mental Health Hotline

2006-04-25T22:32:00.000-05:00

On Sunday my good buddy Natalie from UofT and I got around to catching up. She is studying immunology, but is also taking a minor in psycological conditions and so we began an animated discussion on how to apply the "textbook treatments" to very....may I say unusual, complexes. Anyway, one thing lead to another and I told her that I recently read a "funny" about mental complexes. I promised to write it out here; Nat-my present to you!

It is an answering machine message...I am actually tempted to use it one day...

"Hello, and welcome to the Mental Health Hotline. If you're obsessive-compulsive, please press one immediately. If you're co-dependent, please ask someone else to press two. If you have multiple personalities, please press three, four, five and six. If you're paranoid, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call. If you're manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer."

The article also included another shorter one which may appeal to others sense of humour:

"Hello! You have reached the Strategic Nuclear Missile Storage Facility. We're unable to come to the phone right now. Leave a message but whatever you do, don't touch number seven."

Speaking again of mental health though, I am much relieved to say that, although VERY sleep deprived, I have completed my biotech project! I will need to do some touch up for the weekend, but I am very thankful that it got atleast finished. For those that may not know, biotech and/or science fair pre-night is a tragic annual event in which Emily stays up until all hours of the morning (forget night!) to complete her poster board. It never fails, (procrastination), and I am lucky I didn't fall face flat into my chicken during the biotech dinner. This years procrastination was marked however by an even greater panic in the form of a 1.5'x0.8'x0.6' instument that is supposed to spit out paper with little black words on them. In short, my printer ran our of ink last night, and then this morning (keep in mind judging began at 1pm in St.Boniface!) it just decided to re-program itself and save the trees. I was not impressed!

There is more I should write about (like YAH-NELLY-$1000-you owe me bet moolas) but I wont, sleep beckons. G'night all!

Failing Fashion

2006-04-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

If vegetarians eat vegetables, then what do humanitarians eat?

But thats not the point, because I have desided to document my pitiful knowledge base of the fashion-filled world.

A little while ago I happened upon the newspaper (as is typical; almost a daily occurance actually) and I was struck by this article. As a person who wears both clothes AND shoes I was immediately intriegued.

(I am not sure yet how to actually get the pictures to pop up bigger, so I'll do your eyes a favour and translate the important bit)

The first little bit is about trouser waistbands and shoe wedges, but then it gets interesting-AND critical:
"ect.ect...So which shoe do you pair with which pants? The right choice keeps lep and shoe in proportion and can make you look slim and trim. Make the wrong choice and you'll look like a box. So, test your fashion savvy with our quiz."

I'm not lying, not even about the box part. Anywho, the test was out of 5 and I only scored a measly 2/5, but I honestly dare you to do better, it was hard; ...chunky heel or slingback with the kapris? AHH!

My hope was restored though in the fact that the two I DID get right were the only ones that matched with the pants I owned. I own pants and shorts, and I dislike kapris and legging-tight-pants with a passion so *pah*.

I also evaluated my shoe wardrobe and this is what I found. From errrm, top? to bottom?; fancy sandles, skaters or as the "cool*gag*" kids say-sk8ers!!! (w00t, thay r soo kewl, lol!), sneakers, runner, and sport sandles. This IS my shoe wardrobe, I don't own slingbacks and wedges anyway!

Oh, BUT I did get my grad shoes already. And they're pretty! Storytime: So mum and I were going shopping for Rachel's Birthday present (HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY RACHEL-another sister for those of you not in the know, my youngest little baby sister!) and as we were walking past a shoe store she said we should just look in for a moment and then we found these nice shoe and bought them. THE END

She had been so worried that with my feet specificity we would spend days looking for shoes, but huzzah-some of the best finds are unexpected.

The only downside though-they do have a medium-type heel and now I am faced with the dilema of finding a grad date of whom I wont completely dwarf!

In further unrelated news, I took the dog to the green space today and if you couldn't guess, caught my first sunburn of the season. Anja experianced a similar fate yesterday while we were at Oak Hammock Marsh, even her freckles got sunburnt!

Obligatory Easter Postings

2006-04-16T20:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight wraps up what has likely been my most uneventful "Easter" to date. I say this with a "quote-un-quote" sort of mannerism since I recognize all all my negativity has nothing to do with the "true spirit of Easter", but in the non-spiritual way, this Easter consists of a rather hum-drum repertoire or events.

It all started last night when after watching LOTR II my parents were so tired they let us help set up our Easter Bunny table. It's not that I ever really believed in the Easter Bunny, but I think things could have been a little more discreet. On the upside however, it ensured that my "Easter socks" ended up at my spot.....unlike a few years ago when I somehow recieved personalized Rachel pencils; you know they kind they sell en'mass at those dollar stores...anyways, off topic.

Summary by 1am: no surprises

Oh, wait, I forgot to mention the fact that we did not make paper Easter eggs or do egg dying this year. Every year since I can remeber it has been a family ritual to partake in atleast ONE of those activities if not both; this year, nadaa!

Revised Summary by 1am: no surprises, no home-made eggs

As with Christmas, Easter also is traditionally a day where all the kids get up early and wait at the top of the stairs impatiently until mum and dad give us the go-ahead and we rush down expectantly to our Easter goodies. This year Laura came down to wake me up at 9:30 and she and I, and a somewhat grumpy Rachel filed into the dining room with what can be described as minimal excitment at best. Not to mention we were missing 1/3 of our family as dad had already left for his Sunday run and Sarah, well lets just say she hasn't been home much. (I have a theory that it might be directly corrolated with the number or work hours we need to put into the house but I'll let it go for now)

Summary by 9:30am: no surprises, no home-made eggs, lack of family and enthusiasm

I was late for church. (enough said?) HOWEVER, the church service itself was pretty awesome, I had to park on the streets (after akwardly turning around in the cramped parkin lot!) there were so many people. It was the first time I can remeber our church being completely packed. There were 9 people who got baptized today including some of my good friends so that was groovy. Good stuff!

Summary by 12:30pm: no suprises, no home-made eggs, lack of family and enthusiasm, late with no parking

I had to spend pretty much my entire afternoon working on my Chemistry Lab Portfolio which must to my displeasure is still not completed. On my breaks I had to help with the house work.

Summary by 6pm: no suprises, no home-made eggs, lack of family and enthusiasm, late with no parking, sucky homework

We still did have an Easter "egg" hunt though, and we were able to have it in the backyard. Mostly that was fun, but for the first time in history, I lost. (*GASP*) In our family we do Easter egg hunts with a list of items to collect (that way it's all equal), but dad desided it would be a good idea to eat some of the treats as to mess up nicely the system. Props go to Laura though, all her hard training finally paid off.

Summary by 6:30pm: no suprises, no home-made eggs, lack of family and enthusiasm, late with no parking, sucky homework, lost the egg hunt

So thats were I am now, burning down hardcore from my sugar high (I reckon I haven't eaten a healthy thing all day), bitter because of stupid Chemistry, and almost ready to renouce all things chocolate.

But just to show that I haven't lost all my good sense of humour (see: renouncing chocolate) I shall post some happier pictures of today's events. Cynicism may have also arisen from an excess of MADDOX (see links) during break periods. If reading Maddox doesn't doesn't ignite your doubts of the human race, I don't know what would.

Actually scrap that, the pictures seem to not be appearing despite the fact that they claim to be added. Pish!

p.s. S.C.-Reviewing this post it appears that I have used a similar layout as your "45 minutes on the apron", wasn't intentional, and don't worry, yours is still better

BlackSpot Sneaker

2006-04-12T18:29:00.000-05:00

I 'm all for kicking corporate ass,
...but I'm not about to spend $95 to do it.

Lately I have been picking up a magazine called Adbusters and lo-and-behold, I saw this very shoe advertised in the back. It was like "love-at-first-sight" and I immediately desided to get my hands (or feet!) on them! Further research determined that they WERE indeed available in Winnipeg at Humboldt's Legacy (887 Westminster Ave) however they come at the hefty price of $95.00 CND.

Soooooo, they are being redirected to my birthday wishlist and if anybody is asking, I require a ladies size 11 shoe and my birthday comes in November!

Speaking of birthdays though, a happy belated birthday to my next younger sister Sarah. Nothing unusual, parents vetod to belly-button piercing, but with family dynamics as they are it was good that we were even able to celebrated as a family. Other highlights of the week included the anticipation of the up-and-coming four day weekend, and going to the twirly slide park to play grounders and the shoe-kicking game with my two other sisters.

p.s. cat (turn up the volume, if this doesn't make you chuckle then you're more delusional than I am)

Joyfulish-Happy News!

2006-04-04T00:12:00.000-05:00

WoW...WHOOT, Emily has very joyful news!!!
There have been two very major "things" I have been praying for/wanting in the past few months or so, and in the past two days God has answered them both. I heard news of the first late yesterday evening, and the other just earlier tonight! I won a CMU Outtatown Leadership Scholarship, and I am going to Australia.

Scholaraship

Yeserday evening I recieved a letter (actually the letter itself arrived on Friday, but due to the "reno-mode" of our household that was never convayed, none-the-less...) from CMU. As I had applied for their Leadership Scholarship at the end of February, I had been a little curious and worried as to their verdict. The letter was thin, so I was initailly preparing myself for defeat, but lo-and-behold, it said CONGRADULATIONS, and I was ecstatic! It is worth $1000 and since the Outtatown program aspires to set me back several grande it was a big help.

I also was overcome because (story time) in January I wasn't sure if I could afford to go back to Camp to work over the summer since that would leave me no time for another job, and Camp doesn't really pay much in the financial aspect of things. I was very much at a loss because I was faced with either not being able to make enough money for my trip to South Africa, or not being able to do what I was passionate about over the summer. Well I spent alot of time in prayer and taking with other people, and I really felt god telling me that I needed to leave things up to Him, and that I was right in wanting to go back to camp. For me this was a relatively huge step because I have never been very good in stepping out in faith when it came to financial issues.

When that letter came I was filled with a sense of God's blessing. I don't really want to say that "God has been faithful.." because I believe that He is faithful no matter what, even if I didn't win, but it just reaffirmed that God did want me to work on more trust in that area of my life, and, well I just felt God's special blessing. I was really pretty neato. I can hardly wait until this up and coming school year, though I have many good things to look forward to in between so I am fairly content.

Australia

I am also extremely excited about travelling to Australia, which I will be doing June 13-25 (and I'll get back just in time to be completely jet-lagged for my grad!) There are 7 of us going from my school and I am extremely delighted to be one of them. Originally they weren't sure how many they were able to take, but thankfully in the end all 7 of us made it!

I promised to buy my sister a boomerang because apperantly the ones from Australia are really good...well, yeah, but if you want something, I am taking orders!

For those of you who might be confused as to WHY we are going, be proud, it is a wonderfully nerdy reason indeed! We are going for a big science week thing as well as some other marine exploration and kangaroo spottings and whatnot. WHOOT! (or as the truely geeky say it, "w00t")!

Unfortunatly by the end of June I can not be expecting much surfing and hot sandy beaches because in Southern Australia they are experiencing their "wintery-ness". Oh well, atleast I will hopefully not be suffering a terrible burn for grad then no?

Well until then I shall be plugging through the rest of my school year, although really after May 8th things get significantly better. Here are some of the things I must do in the next month:
-FINISH biotech project
-Safoni-Aventis Biotech Challenge
-MSSS
-Toronto National Biology competition
-AP exams
-Envirothon Practise
-Renovate the House
-all those little smaller things that you'd feel whiny about mentioning, but they all seem to pile up

I appear to actually have some free time from the end of AP exams (May 8th) until right before the actual Envirothon kicks off (around Victoria Day, the 22nd). Then of course followed by trying to finish my chem class early since I will be leaving an entire week before the course actually ends and I have to write he exam ahead of time! (AHHHH)

On a slightly more random note, if anyone has seen my Coldplay CD, let it be declared that I'd like it back!

Psychotic Film Festival

2006-04-01T23:59:00.000-06:00

Tonight I went to the Psychotic Film Festival put on by the Winnipeg Film Group. It was a rather spontanious decision and therefore I desided to venture out aLONE. I hopped on the 70 and made my way down town, until the bus system desided to head back South again and I was forced to walk the remainder of the way.

The film itself was hilarious, definatly worth the $5 investment. I would describe it mainly as humourous, demented, and quirky; all qualities which I enjoy in a good film. It was made up of almost 1o different shorts and highlights included a killer mattress, lots of blood, child being stabbed in the eyes with carrots, lots more blood, maniacal laughter/screaming, a pimp, blood, and grandma getting a sponge bath. Warning: Do NOT attempt to view next years production if your sense of humour is not characterized in the following; disturbed, demented, quirky, psychotic, forgiving

Making my way back home proved to be a little more apprehensive. As I stood waiting for the bus I sensed that my individualistic ways might have to be curbed slightly, and that friends really aren't a bad asset late on a Saturday night in the heart of the Winnipeg Exchange district. A very sweet taxi driver who was unoccupied at the time pulled up and offered me a ride to a more populated area, I accepted. He dropped my off near Portage Place, but from previous experiance I knew I had to backtrack a little bit.

As I was debating which bus stop to head for, I can officially say that I stood the corner of Portage and something-or-other (at night!). I recieved a few curious glances, but I have come to the decision that I would not make a very proper lady-of-the-night, I really do not own enough pairs of fishnet stockings.

If anyone is interested in attending future productions with me, just let me know. I am specifically interested in seeing Kings and Queens (TOTALLY different genre than psychos though) which is playing from April 14-20 at 7pm.

Reminder:
Once upon a time there was a brilliant young child who wanted to skip grade school. The teacher made a deal; "If you answer this one question I am about to ask you then I will grant you all A+ 's and move you up to the next grade, but if you fail to answer properly, then you will have to remain in my class for the duration of the year." Thinking critically the child inquired, "Is it a mathmatical or scientific-type question, or is it like english, an opinion question?" "It is both, both mathmatical and scientific, there is only one correct answer." replied the teacher. The child then hastely agreed, because they knew everything, there was no question that they should know the correct answer.
"What is the shortest day of the year?" The teacher asked.
The child excitedly replied; "December 22, the winter solstice!"
"Wrong!" Exclaimed the teacher, "We live in North America and we like to do what is called 'Daylight Savings', where we set our clocks ahead 1 hour on the first Sunday in April (although Canada/USA are about to change that next year) and therefore that Sunday only contains 23 hours and is thus the shortest day of the year. Pay closer attention next time, I wasn't asking for the shortest number of daylight hours. (hehehehehe) Congradulation, you fail."

And the moral of the story is "don't forget to change your clocks back" and yes, "teachers really are in it to screw you, they LOVE trick questions!" Erm, to all teachers reading this, I still love you, I totally didn't mean it, I love bonus marks!

PEACE!

Explosions Part II

2006-03-31T23:41:00.000-06:00

Firstly I would just like to point out that roman numerals are cooler. That is all.

As promised here are some pictures documenting the evening fun I partook (is that a word?) of last Sunday with some things at a place.

Yay Victoria (cowgirl hat!), "way to age, nicely done"!

The Equipment, a present from...(s?)he who shall remain annonymous.

Good times, congradulations all, oh hey, check this research out:
THE CITY OF WINNIPEG
FIREWORKS AND FIRECRACKERS BY-LAW
NO. 351/73
A By-law of THE CITY OF WINNIPEG to prohibit the sale and firing or setting off of fireballs, squibs and firecrackers and to regulate the setting off of fireworks within the City.

WITHIN the city....wait, what is considered "within" anyways? "I'm going to pull out whether or not you guys have all your limbs in the car." Thanks!

PEACE!

"Sunday", Featuring Nells/Explosions part1

2006-03-27T21:29:00.000-06:00

Sunday was a day full of explosions. I also recognize that today is Monday, but yesterday was full of activities, and void of any available computers, thus the week of blogs will draw to a close tonight! Before any of that though, a funny "report" from the White House that I couldn't resist publishing:

Latest News From The White House:
Rumsfeld is reporting to the President and the Cabinet. He says, "Three Brazilian soldiers were killed today in Iraq." The President says, "Oh, my God!" as he buries his head in his hands. The entire Cabinet is stunned. Usually George Bush shows no reaction whatsoever to these reports. Just then, Bush looks up and says, "How many is a brazilian??"

Alrighty then, Sunday. It began in the wee hours of the day (~5:30) after a short night of intermittant sleeping. Sean came by at 6:25 and we headed over to the (former) Winnipeg Arena. After parking and almost-narrowly escaping the cut off we found a spot in the snow at the Home Depot parking lot and waited.....and waited.

Amusing highlights of the wait; cityTv news cameraman stationed right infront of us, little tweens who tried to sound smart by repeating our comments to their friends, Winnipeggers whose wit doesn't appear to kick in until after 10 am, and best of all (parent)"look at all those pidgens, flying to their death, they're going to explode in the blast" (child)"AHHHHHH" -now that is TOTALLY the parent I aspire to be.

After some random warnings the building just went "BOOM", I also only got one more picture in before my batteries died, so all pictures pertaining to the blast should be viewed here. This was my first demolition, however once all the dust and debris settled I clearly recognized that someone in city hall was probably cursing up a storm because the building was well, as another witty person put it, "a typical Winnipeg job...still standing".

After it was made appearent that the Arena wouldn't come down until much later (4 steel cables and a blowtorch infact) the masses began filing out and I got to stop by home for a quick bite before heading out again for worship practise. In retrospect I have some useful tips for anyone else who is interested in watching a demolition:
-get more than two solid hours of sleep beforehand
-eat breakfast before you leave
-listen to your inner conscious when it tells you to bring extra batteries
-bribe the nearby buildings to secure a rooftop perch
-if you're the type who is likely to jump outta your knickers, then a tripod is your friend

In order to make this entry shorter and errmmm, build suspense, I will save the other explosion story for a later date. Look forward also to some sweet pictures to document the event as I had changed the batteries by that time!

The final funnies is by my best friend Nelly, a piece on Hallmark, love, and emo tears. Enjoy!

Hallmark Day

Congradulations to us! now not only does the media tell us how to dress and think, and we can also be told when to love! Valentine's day is nothing short of a marketing gimmick created by some enviously smart hallmark employee who is currently pissing himself laughing at us while he wipes his ass with the money we hand over to him every year while hallmark rapes us from the back while we're too busy selecting roses. Think about it- if you get a present from your significant other on Valentines day, will you be surprised? Flattered? You're stupid if you are, since you're only getting a present because if your partner doesn't get you one, he or she will be labelled jerk, like the house that doesn't give out candy on halloween. No one likes those kind of people, and they often get their shit ruined by disgruntled teenagers, so don't be one. My friends will ruin your shit. None the less, I would never cancel Valentines day. I love Valentines day for the same reason I love easter and halloween; the loads of discount chocolate I take advantage of at safeway. Seriously, chocolate is a real bargain if you wait a couple days and is really a highlight of the year for me. None the less, having a valentine is still a plus. A present is a present, how shallow it is has no concern for me. I welcome chocolate into my life from anyone, whether I like you or not. Basically, if you can pull of a valentines day and make yourself look genuinely thoughtful, I applaude you. *applause*

Secret admirers are stupid. Allow me to explain: what better time to genuinely flatter someone than on Valentines day. Theres basically a big neon sign that says "BE ROMANTIC NOW" all over it.And if you get rejected, punch the person in the face so they'll be too ugly for anyone else! It's a win-win situation. I have to fully agree with a point that Michelle made on her blog a while back- "theres nothing worse than finding out someone liked you 6 months down the road. If people like me, i'd appreciate it if you let me know" -Michelle's blog. Basically, secret admirers are a nuicance and should be punished by death. No exceptions. If you are one of these people, see me, I have some arsenic I can lend you.

I'm not bitter because I don't have a valentine, I have one, and yes, Caitlin (I love you have my babies) counts because the whole point of a valentine is to get presents, as is the point of christmas. Everyone knows that. If I had a real valentine, i'd still just exchange candy with them, so same difference. Theres nothing i hate more than people moping around like someone pissed in their cornflakes all day because they have no valentine. Who the hell cares? It means nothing. It's shallow, just like you. So whipe up your emo tears and get over yourself. Buy me some candy to make yourself feel better and I too can be your valentine. We can make the "rape hallmark back" club by buying discount chocolate when they don't make as much money (and yes, all money made on v-day goes to hallmark, they're thieving bastards who work for the conservatives). On that note, everyone enjoy themselves on this festival of love and happy birthday to F-Rank.

Saturday, Featuring etiaK

2006-03-25T18:15:00.000-06:00

Cheers to a day of awesome. I didn't get to sleep in as long as I would have liked (worship team practise @ 10am), but I got to spend some quality time with my buddy KEL, and I also bought a CD and we shared a brownie fudge ice cream sundae and it was (word of the day) luscious! The buses also ran perfectly on time and my new $2.99 shoes remained perfectly water resistant despite the trecherous lakes I had to cross the rest of the way home.

Kaite, also know as etiaK, also known as my SOUTH AFRICA BUDDY, fills today's funny blog space. Admit it, a week of funnies just isn't complete without atleast ONE shot in the general rednecked direction. 'Aye ho-up ya lie-eke it. PEACE! -huh, juss kidd-in!'

1000 visitors!!!!!!!

I would just like to make a special entry blog to tell everyone that my space has officially had 1000 visitors!!!!! That is soooo amazing! Thanks to everyone for checking my site and seeing what I have to say- I really appreciate it! This is really cool. Now I know what it feels like Cord! Well I hope you enjoy your time here, and if any of you have any ideas about how I can improve my site, I'm all ears! Blog you later (let's see how long it will take to reach 2000)

Kaite (P.S. the number doesn't include when I go onto my space- I found out when I tried to get the last 3)

Joke of the Blog: As this is a special blog, I picked an extra-funny joke

Redneck Driver's License Application

Last name: ________________

First name (check appropriate box):
[_] Billy-Bob[_] Bobby-Sue[_] Billy-Joe[_] Bobby-Jo[_] Billy-Ray[_] Bobby-Ann[_] Billy-Sue[_] Bobby-Lee[_] Billy-Mae[_] Bobby-Ellen[_] Billy-Jack[_] Bobby-Beth-Ann

Age: ____ (if unsure, guess)

Sex: ____ M _____ F _____ Not sure

Shoe Size: ____ Left ____ Right

Occupation:
[_] Farmer[_] Mechanic[_] Hair Dresser[_] Waitress[_] Unemployed[_] Dirty Politician

Spouse's Name: __________________________
2nd Spouse's Name: _________________________
3rd Spouse's Name: _________________________
Lover's Name: ____________________________
2nd Lover's Name: __________________________

Relationship with spouse:
[_] Sister [_] Aunt[_] Brother[_] Uncle[_] Mother [_] Son[_] Father[_] Daughter[_] Cousin[_] Pet

Number of children living in household: ___
Number of children living in shed: ___
Number of children that are yours: ___

Mother's Name: _______________________
Father's Name: _______________________ (If not sure, leave blank)

Education: 1 2 3 4 (Circle highest grade completed)

Do you [_] own or [_] rent your mobile home?

Vehicles you own and where you keep them:
___ Total number of vehicles you own
___ Number of vehicles that still crank
___ Number of vehicles in front yard
___ Number of vehicles in back yard
___ Number of vehicles on cement blocks

Firearms you own and where you keep them:
____ truck____ kitchen____ bedroom____ bathroom____ shed

Model of your pickup: _____________
Year pickup produced: 194____

Do you have a gun rack?
[_] Yes [_] No; If no, please explain:_________________________

Newspapers/magazines you subscribe to:
[_] The National Enquirer[_] The Globe[_] MAXIM[_] TV Guide[_] Soap World[_] Rifle and Shotgun

___ Number of times you've seen a UFO
___ Number of times you've seen Elvis
___ Number of times you've seen Elvis in a UFO

How often do you bathe:
[_] Weekly[_] Monthly[_] Not Applicable

How many teeth? ___
Color of teeth:
[_] Yellow[_] Brownish-Yellow[_] Brown[_] Black[_] N/A

Brand of chewing tobacco you prefer:
[_] Red-Man

How far is your home from a paved road?
[_] 1 mile[_] 2 miles[_] don't know

Friday, Featuring the Sack-man 3000 and Girish

2006-03-24T23:23:00.000-06:00

Wow-the most amazing thing happened to me today, I SLEPT IN! It was CrAZy and I am so excited for the rest of the break. In other news however, for those of you who live with your head stuck up....errr, in the sand, the old Winnipeg Arena is being BLASTED and the KA-BOOM will commence around 7:15am this coming Sunday. Lemme know if you are interested in joining me.

Todays funnies will feature the talented Girish and his amazing scientific diagram. This entry has been in the back of my mind since the day I read it. It seriously made my day!

Sack-man

Imagine the world's greatest scientists holding a meeting and creating an invention that had onely one purpose. And that sole purpose was to be extremely profecient at sacking someone in the nuts repeatedly....Now imagine this invention being used on you.
My last call of my shift today felt the same way.

Random Ranting: Today was a beautiful warm day which I spent with Kaite and the dogs, and playing boggle, and after coming home I realized again how much distaste I have for crappy popular music and reality TV shows. This isn't actually much of a rant, I like to respect the fact that there are SOME good popular music artists, and you aren't necessarily an awful person if you love Trading Spaces (well.....) but ugh, every now and again it would be nice to hear the background of a real conversation, or somebody playing the piano, or, dare I say it, absolute silence.
My Message to the Masses: Break Free! and throw out all of your electronics out of yonder window,

so I can catch them, sell them on eBay, and use the money to purchase used books. Actually I am pretty sure I just like the word yonder.

"Did I mention how I was licking toad this one day and penguins ran off with my floppy drive? I don't think I did, and I'm not going to."

PEACE

Thursday, Featuring IAN

2006-03-23T23:57:00.000-06:00

Today will feature the notorious stylings of Ian M. Walker.

Today my computer also just about turned into a time portal because it was seriously going THAT slow. I can hardly wait until I get my own computer! In other news, speaking loosely of murdering your computer, the quirky-quote (also a little sadistic) of the day:

"Lets put the laughter back into manslaughter".

BAKLAVA!!!

Ok so today was the first ever BAKLAVA. And I have to say It went pretty well despite little to no planning and failure to make anything.

First off I Know what some of you are thinking, "Ian your head Smeels like Head and Shoulders. . . . but you don't have Dandruff" my answer . . . I know.

Ok seriously though your probably wondering what in gods name of marry joseph rozencrats is BAKLAVA. well Let me tell you that BAKLAVA is the first of many made up holidays me and a select few ppl made up that throughout the year will be celebrated!

The basis of BAKLAVA is simple buy jello, buy whipped cream, Add some people\laughes, and BAM BAKLAVA is born.

NOW the fact that the man I originally was supposed to celebrate with was never too be found I was worried me and him (ANDREW WALTON) would never get to celebrate thus ending our future as husband and wife. (also the future of made up holidays) HOWEVER WE KICKED ASS BY FINDING EACHOTHER AND MAKEING SOME WATERY ASS JELLO IN MY BASEMENT.

Now some will ask what went wrong with the jello? well it could have been many things.
1 We mixed 3 flavours
2 We made one batch then a second More powerfulkl batch and put them together
3Measurement wasn't exact. . . . and by that I mean we didn't really . . . . at all
4 we tried to cool it in a freezer and not a fridge.

So yeah the BAKLAVA jello some may call a failure, BUT I CALL IT THE BEST BAKLAVA EVER!!!!!

So I leave you with the magic that was BAKLAVA in your heart and say
HAPPY BAKLAVA.

Quote: Me talking in math class "Time have sure Changed, I remember when you couldn't throw stuff at women. . . . . . . Because you had no arms. . . . . . cuz you where a fish and hadn't evolved yet?"

Wednesday, Featuring Stan the Camera Man

2006-03-22T21:39:00.000-06:00

5hrs sleep+12hrs school+2hrs drama practise=one very tired Emily who almost wasn't going to blog tonight...
HOWEVER, the day still went pretty awesomely considering the following pictures:

From L-R: Mario (Frankie), Princess Peach (Emily), Luigi (Jared)

Peach gets a kiss from the Brothers!

In other news, I also visited the used book store today and bought four new used books:
-A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
-Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
-The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
-The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

Today's funny blog will feature the droll and subtle humour of Sean. For more visit his site which is permenantly under the links section. I personally can't get enought of the clones and the SeanTv!

Camera stuff or mail-bomb?

So today's question is "Is the package I just received the camera stuff I ordered or is someone trying to kill me?" The Cyrillic printing looks very ominous but it's best to take a reasonable approach to this. I looked a bit and found on the internet a lovely guide that tells you if someone is taking advantage of Canada Post to kill you or not.

Criteria:

1) Restrictive markings? No
2) Mailed from a foreign country? Yes
3) Misspelled words? No
4) Rigid? Yes, Bulky? I guess
5) Poorly typed or written? No
6) No return address? Yes

Total: 3/6
Lots of help that was. Either this isn't a bomb or my potential assassin has successfully passed grade 3. They know how to spell. I think I'll take a chance on it.

Tune in later and we may find out what the truth is.

Music I'm listening to: Sigur Ros - Ti Ki

Tuesday, Featuring JC-S, plus TOGA

2006-03-21T21:15:00.000-06:00

I first off must recount what was probably the hightlight of my day; jaywalking across Pembina Highway during the middle of the day, in a toga. For those of you who express extreme bewilderment and perhaps a mild "she must be crazy I don't know her" attack, let me assure you that it was perfectly ligitimate. This week is school spirit week, and today just so happened to be toga/gladiator day. Grade 12's kicked some arse and tomorrow is looking even awesomer, hint: http://www.smbhq.com/ .

Now originally while I had planned on showcasing Jared's hilarious accounting of his mother and the unwanted case of beer, but then I realized that a)it was really long, and b)this one has a picture AND a disclaimer

La Creme 1

Shaving is Expensive! The other day I stepped my way into shoppers drug mart at a brisk pace on my way to work, and came into a head on collision with reality. I first made my way down the shampoo and condom Isle hoping to find some rasors and la creme but they werent there. In a state of haste, I felt it was necessary to ask the cashier where I could find some barber attire. She said Isle four. I said thankyou. To my shock I discovered the following price list.
Shaving creme - $2.49
8 Blades - $26.48
...............Jesus Christ

Secondly. Yes, I am Cheap

And Lastly I'll ask everyone to take a look at the picture that I drew. Warning: It is incredibly irrelevant to anything. You may want to take a look at the disclaimer before veiwing.

Disclaimer: By clicking the picture you take full responsibility for any detatched retinas, stigmata, erections, and orphus bleeding you may experience. Side effects may also include spontanious branding of the skin. Words may include - Vagina, Nipple storm, and "this picture rocks." By viewing the picture you will not reserve the rights to think or say the following. "Jared only made a disclaimer because he likes the word disclaimer"

My favourite bit of the picture (aside from its complete randomness!) was the fuzzy house with the big feet and the squared mouth. Actually, you know what, there are no apperant size restrictions on these entries and I have complete masterly over the copy and paste buttons so he goes:

The Beer Story

well in the spirit of the new year approaching I figure I would tell a story about alchoholic beverages. So here I go. One night, Before the band trip Me and my pal Frankie had this crazy Idea that we would buy some beer. So we did. It was a little difficult because we had no hook up so we asked a latino dude infront of the beer store to buy it for us. He cooperated and we were ever so happy. Then me and frankie split. he took his beer home and stocked it in a basement fridge with ease because his mom was out of sight. I ON THE OTHER HAND got home to find my sister sitting in the front foyer for no dam reason. So i left the beer on the porch and went inside to try to get my sister to leave the foyer so i could store the beer in a save place. For some dumb ass reason she was doing homework in the front foyer, which she NEVER DOES. anyway i figured shed leave soon and as I started to relax my mom walked in the front door holing
2 six packs of bud. My mom does not approve of beer. In a panic state my brain runs on an index I like to call "Excuses - Verson 236.6." This is what this built in program in my brain does: It throws out random incomplete excuses forcing the parent to construct their own excuse based on what they think their child would or would not do. here is how the conversation went.

Mom : Hello jared, what is this.
Jared: It isnt mine
Mom: Then whos is it
Jared: its someone elses
Mom: What is it doing on our porch
Jared:.......Its someone elses
Mom: Whos?
Jared: I cant say
Mom: This is for the band trip is it not?
Jared: thats rediculous your not allowed to bring beer on the band trip
Mom: lies
Jared: It isnt mine
Mom: Dont lie to me jared
Jared: ok
Mom: whats it for
Jared: Someone else
Mom:Who
Jared: Theyre coming to pick it up later
Mom:you bought this for someone else?
Jared:........yes.............................Yes! i did!
Mom: did they ask you to buy it cause you look old enough?
Jared: absolutely
Mom: Why did you do it
Jared: Its for someone else
Mom: did you do it cause you get tip
Jared : Yes
Mom: Dont do it anymore
Jared: Ok, but I have to put it back on the porch cause theyre coming to pic it up.....

By this time I was relieved, my mom was in the kitchen filling out my band trip form and she had no idea that i would be drinking what was on the porch. 3 short minutes later i say to myself. -Holy shit i have to get this shit off the porch.- With my mom sitting in the kitchen in clear view of the front door, and the door being old enough to make a big enough sound when opened to be heard anywhere in the house, getting the beer off the porch proved to be quite difficult. Then my golden gate of oppurtunity opened, but would close in the next 60 seconds. My mom took a short bathroom break, but unfortunately could still Hear the door.

In One Minute, In Bare Feet, In an intense state of haste I did the following
-Ran to the second floor
-went into my brothers bedroom
-took the screen off the window
-opened the window
-climbed out the window
-walked on the roof in a foot of snow to the branches of a tree
-climbed down the tree
-ran to the porch
-got the beer
-ran to a bush and threw the beer into it
-climbed the tree
-ran accross the roof
-climbed into the window
-re-attached the screen
- went down stairs to the kitchen table

I greeted my mom as she came out of the bathroom. It would be an hour before she would check the porch, to which I would reply.... "They must have picked it up." A happy ending indeed which led to an exceptionally kick ass band trip. Hope you enjoyed this story. The Moral is, "You will get caught eventually, but beer is so good, that you have no choice." Lessons learned. Beer is good.

You know what else is good though, chocolate milk, especially when it comes in those cute little 1L containers. Thats about all I have for tonight, wow these are WAY too long. PEACE!

Monday, Featuring AJW

2006-03-20T17:32:00.000-06:00

For this entire week starting today, I have desided to showcase a blog entry from various people that I know which make me laugh. Today I thought I'd kick it off with a personal favourite of mine, starring the works of my good frienemy, AJW.

Large squid for sale. Squishy. 55pounds. In need of a good home. If interested call.....

okeeeyyyy here we have it, the long awaited (unlikely), informative (doubtful), grammatically correct (yeah right), and well thought out (ok now you're just lying) info-session-thingy on What Guys Look for in a Girl/Woman, printed especially for all you female types out there. This may also be referred to as a "list" by some.

1) A Pulse. A pulse is crucial. Not only does it show that you are very likely alive beyond most probability...........actually that's all that it shows a guy, that you're alive, and that's the single most desirable quality in a woman (for you guys that don't care if a woman is alive, well you disgust me)

2) The capability to breathe under your own power. This is a major turn on. But for those of you hooked up to artificial respirators, DO NOT FEAR! If you have a pulse, this is still the number one criteria for men. The ability to breathe using your own diaphragm (or whatever muscle it is you breathe with, if that's wrong, i'm not going for scientific accuracy here ok?) shows us, for one, that you have functioning muscles, from this we assume that you can do other things with other muscles, such as cook us dinner or do the laundry. Also, in the event you stop breathing during a heated make out session, at least we'll know you didn't become unplugged, and hopefully call a paramedic or something

3) Not in a coma. Well i think this is pretty self explanitory. A coma would mean a guy has to fend for himself (you can only live on Kraft Dinner for so long I'm afraid), and because it's been scientificly proven that guys cannot do laundry, it would be very taxing on his wallet to have to keep buying new clothes or at least something to cover the smell. comas are also bad for a guy action-wise, cuz i don't think there'll be any screwing around in a hospital bed with someone in a freaking coma! GOD YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!

ummm yeah, i hope that cleared some stuff up, now get over here and cook me something typing all this worked up an appetite.

(PS: to all feminist types, I think my following response should suffice to answer/counter any remarks you have: "I don't care." Thank you, and that is all)
(PSS: hey Beautiful Girl)

CHEERS, and don't forget to check back tomorrow for the next installment!

Update in the Life of Emily

2006-03-19T17:21:00.000-06:00

For what seemed like the first time in my life, I actually made a conscious effort to wear lots and lots of green (thereby also avoiding the pinching) this St.Patricks Day! Every visible piece of clothing I wore that day was green, except for my shoes of course.
My Green Wardrobe:
-sea green fuzzy socks (resembles mold poking through my shoes!)
-corderoy deep green skirt
-funky green ribbon-like belt
-green "everyone loves an Irish girl" t-shirt that I picked up for $5 in Bemidji
-comfy green zip-up hoodie
-dangley earrings with lots of little green "jewels"
-and as a piece' du (de?) resistance' I smudged on some green eyeshadow (yeah, I know you are all like...."WHAT, EMILY, in...MAKEUP?????.....must be her most rebellious act since Jr.High..." (rolls eyes!) yeah, but hey, it was St.Patricks Day!

Upon returing to my house I realized that I had recieved some mail, an unusual and generally exciting experiance. Some mail from church which...actually slips my mind at the moment, because I was severly more preoccupied with the larger and thicker piece of mail which contained my long awaited grad proofs!

After despondently flipping through them the first go round I sorted through again and found a few that were passable. I think I have now narrowed it down to two. Note: Beware of the up and coming opinion solicitations.

Following some quality JM (Jerusalem Market Place!) I was invited to The Green Party.

It was a pretty sweet get together which included many other green things. Amoung such green activities were the following:
-making green pancakes (opps, for some reason the picture re-oriented itself...meh)
-eating mint chocolate chip ice cream
-eating lots of other green food stuffs
-pass the green onion, a game which warrent some explanation; it's kinda like pass the potato in the aspect that when you hear the music playing you continue to pass the green onion and stop when the music stops, but instead of taking a layer off a present you had to eat the green onion in less than 30 seconds, I ate my share on the last round, the room stank like onion breath for much of the remaining evening
-green finger painting, fairly self-explanitory, I made a leprechaun
-the signing of the Green Party oath....may or may not have binded me to vote Green for the rest of my life, not entirely sure "I hereby pledge to forever join the Green Party of Canada conditional to my signing this form and or entering this household."

Yay!

Group Photo!

The evening concluded for me around 12:45 when I realized that I would not be free to sleep in and go for a run, but I had to wake up at 6am for a long day of work. Boo Urns! Happy Belated St. Patricks Day!!!

Marshmallow Chemistry

2006-03-16T23:15:00.000-06:00

We are learning about mechanisms in chemistry right now....this just made them twice as fasinating, not to mention 10 x as tasty!

Materials

Michelle Assembles

Voila' (note: the uppermost "line" is the net reaction, the subsequent three "lines" are the proposed mechanism!)

The Legend of the Marshmallows (and by legend I mean KEY not MYTH)

Is it just me, or is it normal to be a little bit wary of flavoured and coloured marshmallows? Do you think that marshmallows are actually naturally white...not suggesting that they would naturally be pink, green, yellow or orange either, but......Oh well, that still didn't stop me from sampling my fair share of the "extras"!

The Shifty Contract

The Pyramid of Extras

Bonus Fun! The building of a tower of Choas and Disorder!

And NOW for a picture of the night! It is by no stretch a good night photo (I haven't bought a tripod yet!), but the tree silhouette agaist the night sky just instils a feeling of deep calm in me. Maybe next time I will try to get less noise at the bottom, and maybe I'll trying it will an even slower shutter speed.

Meh, just thought I'd throw that in becasue it is WAY past Emily's bed time (AFTER MIDNIGHT ON A SCHOOL NIGHT....CLASSES TOMORROW START AT 7:30AM!) and I desire that darkness.

Peace Out, until next time...ZZZzzzz...

I am going to...PURGATORY!

2006-03-11T17:29:00.000-06:00

What level of Hell will YOU be subject to?

Take the test NOW!!!

These are my resluts:

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Extreme
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Low
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test ( but appearantly the link does not work there, so here it is: http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-test.mv )

Sweet Deal Man! FYI: I found this "life-altering" test while googling Dante Inferno for my AP English project due this Monday.

And remember folks, even if you are fated to end up in Hell, don't kill yourself out of sorrow, or else you'll spend eternity in THE WOOD OF THE SUICIDES (circle 7 round 2!) where you will become a thorny tree and the odious Harpies will give you eternally recurring wounds. (gotta love the middle ages no?)

Good Luck!

p.s. Hey, check it out, also a seven deadly sins report. My results again:

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Very Low
Wrath:	Very Low
Sloth:	Very Low
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Medium

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

Aerobics Time with Jane Fonda

2006-03-10T18:09:00.000-06:00

I believe (as a boy named Chris said to me today) that it takes a very independant and/or self confident person to be able to take a class "where you have no friends [in the class]".

I am currently taking Grade 11 gym, it is the last mandetory credit that I must take before graduating, if I don't pass this gym course I will NOT graduate from High School! I have not taken gym since the beginning of Grade 10, and last year I couldn't fit it into my schedule.

Things so far had been looking good, I took cross training a few weeks ago and loved it, and I began stress managment this monday. What I DIDN'T see coming however was todays class. We had beeen doing to nice relaxing thing, taking about nutrition, doing some yoga, even listening to those relaxatio tapes, but TODAY we decied to turn to some "real" exercise in the form of a bad 80's workout video!

Thats the exact one that we watched, AND participated to, low impact aerobics!

All in all though it wasn't as bad as it sounds, despite me being in the front row. If I didn't end up "strengthening my core body" from the workout I definatly worked my abs with all the laughter. If you are even bored enough I recommend doing this video, if nothing else it will make you grateful that people no longer wear belts and one piece spandex body suits to the gym.

Today's my Lucky Day!

2006-03-08T21:02:00.000-06:00

Today I found a new pair of socks (from Valentines Day) while cleaning up my room. I found them underneath an old Future Shop flyer. They are pretty sweet. Tomorrow I think I will try cleaning up the rest of the papers in my room to uncover further hidden treasures.

Don't you just hate when you are a person who loves neat and organized things but your room is constantly a MESS? I think it must be genetic or something...apparently my Granny used to save everything from bacon wrapper (no joke!) to newspapers to clothing and pretty much everything in between. My vigor for pursuing genetics is rekindled.

Don't you also just hate when you are so smart that your brain has made WAY too many neural connections? Alright, maybe it's just me then, but I have such a spazztic neural pathway, too fast for my own good.

Observe (approx. timeframe=0.783seconds);
messy room --> things that make my room messy --> CD's littered all over my dresser --> music --> the "cool" new music I listened to recently

So a friend of mine has been working away, introducing me to electro music since the summer, and more recently gave me a website full of electrical music nerdyness (see links). The other day I found one of the greatest songs, basically a classical piece done electronically. Check it out, it's under downtempo-electrical classical, and it's the third song by Wenwaldyter Carlos called Sinfonia to Cantata NO. 29. If you aren't into classical music, and/or you hate electro with the firy passion of a thousand burning suns then this song may not be for you. However, if you are cool like me, then you will love listening to it over and over and over.

Thats about it folks, g'night!

Sprechen Sie N3RD?

2006-03-06T20:32:00.000-06:00

Today I "skipped" school and found myself at the University doing my extra-curricular biotech project. Since we ran the mass spec (g33k sp3@k for the mass spectrometer) on Saturday, it was ideal that we analyse the results in a timely fashion. Today has been an extensively nerd-filled day. And for those of you who know what I am talking about, it has also been a day full of very bad puns.

I also got to spend an extended lunch hour with mum (*ahem*: very bad puns) commencing with the "spiritual maze" that was set up at the University. For me it wasn't so much spiritual (I am under the belief that God exists also in places without the ambiance...) but none-the-less it was relaxing and I enjoyed not being told off for walking back backwards (no talking policy).

We then went for lunch, I got shrimp egg rolls and some milk to pour into my container of cereal. Nothing really nerdy to say about that, except maybe the long trek to find a recycling bin. A hop, skip, and a photoclub later I was up in Physics being shown how to analyse proteins by the most amazingly computer nerd guy EVER. He was a GENIUS, it was flipping AMAZING! He was also actually to guy who designed the software and the rest of the software pretty much used in the labs. I was in AWE, one day NASA is going to hold him for randsom.

Results were in so I headed to my daddy's office for some good 'ol FOOSEBALL. I bought him a miniature fooseball game that has an indexer for Christmas, it is pretty sweet. I opened up a can of whoopass and finished the game with twice his score (the egotistical way of saying I beat him 2-1). The finale came in the small packagings of a Future Shop box. Yes, my 2GB memory card finally arrived. I am VERY VERY excited as my new camera was not having much luck with it's mealsy 32MB and 64MB cards. The jack-knife used to open it was one that my envirothon team won last year!

It appears to have space for ten hundred and fifteen pictures.

Au revoir.

1-888-2-DONATE

2006-03-03T23:00:00.000-06:00

Two things of notable interest happened to me today. After returning from the University, Olwyn phoned me and inquired if I had any interest in accompanying her to VMC to donate some good 'ol blood. Having completed this whole "blood giving" process once before, I felt I was no longer a novice and felt up for the challenge!

Things started out well, aside from being rubbed to death with the iodine...

It was going smoothly, a little too slowly though (my RHR was only 66!), so it was determined that I should have the needle pulled out just a smidge. Imagine how elated the nurse was when it started flowing three times as fast, imagine how shocked my body was.

To this day I have never fainted before, but had they not extracted the needle from me, I think it would have been quite the experiance. Olwyn on the other hand, squeezed out the requirements in about 6 minutes, and I could only be reconciled in the fact that last time I beat her full bag versus collapsed vein!

I was also consoled with some apple juice and a piece of chocolate cake....and some cookies....and part of a doughnut.....so the moral of the story is, drink plenty of fluids before donating blood.

Hey, I'm pretty sure I heard that somewhere else too???

In other news however, I got to accompany my dad (last minute) as his date in leiu of my mum to some fancy-to-do University banquet at the University ("Faculty") Club. I unfotunatly am still waiting on that 2GB memory for my new camera, so I was unable to take photos. I did some meet and greet with University hierarchy, and the bartender served me wine, despite knowing full well my underage status. I have desided it's against my better interests to sue however, given my future education and my parents' job security.

All in all it was not the way I had planned my friday off, but interesting none-the-less.