terrifying tasseomancy

ethdem @ 2009-11-20T12:59:00

2009-11-20T17:00:17Z

There are two kinds of people who care about Google Wave:

There are those that immediately try to apply it to every facet of their lives (I am one of these)
And those who shout loudly like the Devil in that Kipling Poem "It's shiny, but is it useful?"

So trivnar and I have been making our shopping lists in wave.

I can't tell you if this shopping list is more useful than traditional ones, but I can tell you that I have never had more fun making shopping lists.

Writer's Block: Proven by Science

2009-08-12T11:53:14Z

Do you believe everything has a scientific explanation?

Submitted By mesnyder_92

View 513 Answers

Some things don't.

Yet.

So guess what?

2009-07-07T17:09:34Z

Biphasic sleep works. Almost two weeks in and I'm rested, my mood is good. Sleeping through the hours of the day I hate, staying up late for internet chats and long walks in the dark, so good.

Also I'm gonna start doing What the Folk again, my next episode is tomorrow at 10AM Atlantic, so that's 9AM for you eastern kids and like, what, 5 or 6 for anyone on the West Coast? I'm pretty stoked though.

Listen when the time comes. Or don't. It'd be neat if you did though.

Biphasic Update

2009-06-29T14:29:09Z

Okay, I made it through the weekend.

Upsides:
-I now get up early enough to go to the market! Cheap falafel from Lebanese Plus is excellent, fresh squeezed OJ. Mennonites hawking herbs in excellent but heavy clothing, also epic beards. Girls fiddling, several butchers presenting a veritable carnecopia. Much less busy in the mornings.

-Today I do not feel like dying of fatigue, hooray!

-Sleeping through my least favorite parts of the day? Still great.

-I never got Siestas until I realized that sleeping lowers your core temperature, the heat becomes much more bearable.

-Forgot how nice the 12-4 block is in the morning. Quiet, everybody asleep.

Downsides:
-I do not suggest a day wherein you mainly eat cheese and drink beer.

-Do you know they have a lime bud light? It's a blight, and I drank it only because my co-worker heard someone mention it in BC and his brain locked up trying to process it.

-Several mornings in a row will suck.

-You have to rejigger your entire diet (around times you eat) because your metabolism goes crazy and up and stops turning your food into energy when you'd really prefer it to.

The tradition of extreme solutions to minor problems continues!

2009-06-25T15:13:27Z

So I recently have been a bit depressed and was wondering why this might be. I then realize "Oh maybe it's because you don't ever sleep idiot". So since I have to try a disciplined sleep schedule anyway, I'm gonna see what this biphasic action is about.

Two periods of sleep (both multiples of 1.5 hours): 5PM - 8PM and 4AM to 8:30AM. This way I get to be up early and late.

We'll wait and see how it works.

Taro vs. the Akatsuki

2009-06-04T11:47:37Z

This shot was taken from a fashion kid / cosplay party in Tokyo. The prospect of such an axis is thrilling.

New TL;DR

2009-05-28T23:55:40Z

Hey, I posted a new essay to my long-neglected blog.

You can read it here if you are so inclined.

Writer's Block: There Can Be Only One

2009-05-22T18:46:06Z

Do you believe in monogamy?

View 501 Answers

What like, does it exist?

Yes.

Is it great for a lot of people?

Yes.

Do a lot of people conflate monogamy with the ability for two people to fulfill all of each other's needs?

Yes.

I believe in communication and doing what works for both/all of you.

ethdem @ 2009-05-21T11:07:00

2009-05-21T14:09:47Z

Harper Lee + No Sleep

Victoria Day Weekend.

2009-05-19T13:13:24Z

Woke up to the sound of artillery going off yesterday.

Artillery.

Otherwise a pretty good weekend, went to the capital for a hip-hop show. Ghettosocks was absent, but the Fredericton talent was out in force.

Also this dude Tranh, who was super drunk, attempted to mack on my friend Meghan by saying "You smell like strawberries, can I hug you?" She turned to me and whispered "My name is Sherry and I'm a Lesbian."

We were out on the deck getting a smoke and Tranh approached me. "Dude I love your hair, you look like fuckin' Bill Murray!"

"Hey, hey you, doesn't this dude look like Bill Murray?"

Other guy nods "Yeeah."

I am not sure how I feel about that.

On the homeopathic power of high impact exercise.

2009-05-14T13:37:49Z

So in an incident involving a bottle of vodka and a skateboard I may have eaten curb hard. I messed up my shoulder bad enough that it hurt a fair bit for a couple of weeks. I went for my first climb in awhile yesterday and while now every other muscle in my arm hurts, my shoulder feels fine.

Go figure.

Forced Relaxation.

2009-05-11T17:01:22Z

Too much free time feels just as toxic as not enough. What's with that? Relaxing summer and trying to fill the time in varied and interesting ways gets difficult. Maybe I don't know enough people? Who knows?

Dug the ending to Dollhouse, pretty happy with how it all panned out. Was very surprised to note that in the course of one season the show managed to turn me around on Topher. Ballard's still a dick though.

I can now make a passable mint Julep though, so there's that! Simple syrup is key, maybe some mint infusion too?

Gotta start writing again. Have some everygame reviews happening, so that's interesting at least.

So the police.

2009-05-08T15:45:06Z

The police knocked on hour door at 4AM looking for our downstairs neighbor. Apparently when her roommate woke up there was a police guy in her room. Also one of the neighbors' cats ran away.

What's with that?

The Prophet Forbids the Consumption of Swine

2009-04-29T14:17:09Z

I'm Back!

2009-04-27T16:02:56Z

Okay so obviously there haven't been too many updates from this quarter for awhile. Things got pretty busy, but I'm looking to get started on the networked writemotron again. I've been around still, watching, reading, occasionally writing half a comment then deleting it. But I've missed you guys and I've missed writing, so.

That's about all I've got right now.

I'm at work so I'll tell you more later.

<3

New tl;dr

2009-03-09T06:23:41Z

Getting Lost

Montreal: Day 2.

2009-02-28T16:55:18Z

Have only been in Montreal for like 24 hours and already it has been insane. Went to a restaurant two blocks from wills that has bitchin' borscht and good tofuburgers for cheap. Went to a free show 1 block away to see an 80's hardcore-esque punk band called Nerve Control.

A Supposedly Dumb Thing I'll Never Do Again

2009-02-27T03:49:57Z

First world problem: Living an aphorism literally.

So for years I've seen this book by Chuck Klosterman floating around; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. For as many years I have avoided it. As far as I can tell my rationale (if it can be called that) is that the cover art was too similar to Douglas Coupland books and since they're both tagged as commentators on the zeitgeist of Generation X I assumed that not unlike the cover art, Klosterman was biting Coupland's style writingwise as well.

A coworker just lent the book to me after I explained my new rulesystem, which is that if there is a book of essays available I tackle it before a novel. I feel no guilt about abandoning essays and essaywriting will pretty much tell me whether I like someone's style enough to pursue them further.

So I sat down and read it. Not only is it the first full length book that I've finished in months, it was pretty incredible. Funny, angry, generally disagreeable but self aware enough so as not to come off as needlessly bitter or whiny. Highlights include:

-Why soccer could destroy America's youth.
-How cereal commercials create hipsters.
-Things you maybe didn't know about journalism.

I give you the mcnuggetini

2009-02-19T18:27:07Z

Ghetto. Fabulous

Bullet points the 13th.

2009-02-14T18:09:47Z

A day filled with moments:

Walked uptown, pausing to frolic in knee deep snow drifts. "Crawling works!"

Locked down Street Fighter 4 preorder

Checked my blood pressure. 126 / 74, still average to low! (Not that there was ever a problem, the machine is just fun)

Got A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and lullabies for little criminals.

Second paragraph of the title essay:

I have seen sucrose beaches and water a very bright blue. I have seen an all-red leisure suit with flared lapels. I have smelled what suntan lotion smells like spread over 21000 pounds of hot flesh. I have been addressed as "Mon" in three different nations. I have watched 500 upscale Americans dance the Electric Slide. I have seen sunsets that looked computer-enhanced and a tropical moon that looked more like an obscenely large and dangling lemon than like the good old stony U.S moon I'm used to. I have (very briefly) joined a Conga Line.

Steph got a job! After an 8 month uphill battle with geography and recession, all is well in The Spire

Read The Graveyard Book aloud for 2+ hours, hilarious accents and all.

Wrote a TL;DR entry. Don't know how I feel about it yet, it was written on a whim.

GOOD DAY

2009-02-12T21:19:30Z

Sometimes everything comes together and convinces you that the universe is not in fact out to get you.

I am 2 grand richer than I thought I was. THANK YOU MILLENIUM SCHOLARSHIP!

A girl I have a miniature crush on in computer school liked my sweater and has started to notice me in an intangible way (seems minor, but puts a smile on the face regardless)

An absolutely ninja climb. Blew through 5-6 competition routes including one of the scariest ones I have ever done. All foot smears on this weird snake-like hold (we call it the worm), followed by exhaustion and adrenaline rush that accompanies things usually done without clothes.

If I live to March 3rd this semester will be tackleable.

meme nonsense courtesy mittenfight

2009-02-11T12:22:54Z

1. Leave me a comment saying, 'interview me'.

2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions. (You must do this, even if it's filtered for my eyes only!)

4. Include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

1. If you could do anything, just swan into any workplace regardless of whatever credentials are necessary, and just do that one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

That's hard, but right now I'd like to be a speechwriter/political operative. There's something about being able to get someone you're really behind into a place where they can affect change that would be really neat, and seeing your words influence people in a very concrete way would be satisfying.

2. If you could spend only one day with someone, anyone - alive or dead, who would it be?

Alan Turing. The guy was a hero who didn't really get his due, and meeting someone who built took pure fantastic theory and turned it into what would eventually be modern computing would be really inspiring. It'd be sweet to meet a mathematician too.

3. Tell me a story about someone that you miss, someone who was really important to you and isn't in your life any more.

The night before Jenn left we spent the entire night laying in bed and listening to music. Not much was said, there wasn't really anything left to say. Everything was coming to this really abrupt end and the only thing we could do was be around each other for those last few hours. I wouldn't come to appreciate what that would mean for a long time after but that's a memory that keeps coming back to me and acts as an entry point for all of the other good parts that punctuate the loss.

4. If you could go back in time and change one thing about your past, what would it be and why?

I'd take school more seriously. It took years to recover from dropping out and I had to be there anyway, there's no reason not to have at least worked at it.

5. Tell me about an experience you have had that has truly inspired you.

Every time I've been to an Akron/Family show (3 times now) it's been a sublime experience. The music slowly unhinges my brain and makes me understand spirituality in a way that I'd never been able to before. It's been transformative in a way that's difficult to convey. Just one of those things where a few short hours makes you see the world in a completely different way and gives you access to the spark of the divine (in whatever way you might understand it).

Epistle (cribbed shamelessly from riddled)

2009-02-09T04:12:59Z

Dear Seasonal Affective Disorder,

I don't know if I have you, but if you are responsible for my sleep problems and the slow crumbling of the house of cards that is my busy busy life, you are no longer welcome. Basically I don't know what kind of a thing we were having, but whatever it is, we're done.

You have been de-listed as my "It's Complicated".

kthx,

Angus

Things You Should Know By Now But Don't

2009-02-06T04:14:09Z

Do not cook when ravenously hungry.

Spent a long day on campus followed by some quality vegetation time with trivnar, banging our heads against the FFXII fishing minigame. Realized that oh crap it's 7pm and I haven't eateng breakfast yet. Got home for 7:30ish to look in the fridge. Some yellow onions, some green onions, and frozen clearance steak. Rice under the counter. Perfect, I thought, I can be eating inside of 20 minutes.

It was not to be.

Retrieved the steaks from the freezer, they were frozen together and to the styrofoam bed they lay on. I remove them from the fridge and bang them against the counter until one comes loose. It is frozen, this is problematic. Before microwaving, ask the internet. The internet says not to microwave it because you'll ruin the flavor. Because I am in hunger induced delirium I discount the fact that the internet is assuming that I am ruining AAA Alberta porterhouse or something and not Sobey's clearance quick fry slash stew beef steak.

Soak it in water and wait anyway. Episode of the west wing later, steak is thawed and possibly waterlogged. Sautee w/ onions, wuster sauce, pepper. I will have it over rice, it will be great. Fill aluminum mixing bowl with water and rice and begin to cook. Do not use proper rice pot because am apparently now too hungry (after 45 minute cold water soak) to just do an effing dish.

Start things cooking, cover mixing bowl with pyrex pie plate because, well it fits. "I am a genius," I think to myself, "like the fisherman in How the Whale Got its Throat, I am possessed of infinite resource and sagacity."

Wrong again. Whilst laptopping, roommate comes out. "Is something burning?" She, not unlike Shere Khan, (I started with Kipling, may as well keep going) is afraid of fire. I dismiss this as tigerlike irrational fear until, about 3 seconds later, there is smoke and I have, in fact, lit the rice on fire. I salvage about 1/4 of the rice, the rest is a write-off and now stuck to said aluminum mixing bowl. Go looking for soy sauce. In a house with 3 bottles of wuster sauce one would think we have some soy sauce. We do not, and I do not have the heart to mix wuster sauteed steak w/ said sauce applied to rice. Default to backup plan, which is to douse the whole mess in habanero salsa until everything tastes like flavorful, flavorful burning.

Tomorrow is payday. Do not ever want to be broke again.

Brathwaite Wallet

2009-02-03T17:24:04Z

So pretty.