Yesterday was our one year. Yay! ♥ Arbitrary date? FUCK YES!

In other news, due to facebook claiming rights to everything I post on there, the questionable nature of the government which is in charge of the company that owns LJ, and the fact that I HATE the ads on here, I've figured it's time for me to FINALLY fork out the money and buy a website. All blogging will continue on there and now I can get a snazzy portfolio set up.
And I'm gonna be getting my camera back in a week, so I'll finally be able to do Project 365, which I have been promising myself since September. Geeze!
And to wrap it up, I'll post this video...

I'm thankful for warm summer days spent wandering around Princess.
I'm thankful for sharing Raspberry and Apricot Wheat Ale at the Goat.
I'm thankful for lazy days spent reading MySQL at the Goat.
I'm thankful for random occurrences of Pipe Bands around Kingston.
I'm thankful for warm summer rain.
I'm thankful for being able to share those butter tarts you can get at the Goat, because I know I'll never finish one on my own.
I'm thankful for getting my first nine-to-five.
I'm thankful for being able to stay in Kingston this summer.
I'm thankful that a busy day in Kingston is four instead of three buskers on the street.
I'm thankful for my parents helping me through University.
I'm thankful for being able to wear sandals.
... and those shorts that I haven't worn in years.
I'm thankful for not being kicked out of University.
I'm thankful for cheezy webcam pictures that are hidden on my desktop. No one but me needs to know that they're there.
I'm thankful for having green curry at Cambodian Village.
I'm thankful for living with amazing people.
I'm thankful for the satisfaction of self rolled cigarettes.
I'm thankful for being able to walk into my kitchen and smell lilacs in the morning.


I'm thankful for being where I am today.

Dear Microsoft Word,
Quit being so crappy. Quit corrupting my fonts. 'Cause I really like my fonts. Quit taking up all of my memory.
Quit all of these things before I quit you.
Never speak to me again.

Dear Neo Office,
While you like my fonts and my memory, you suck at tables. You suck at doing those commenty things.Your GUI also sucks. Stop being so ugly.
Way to let me down guys.

Dear Open Office,
HOW many years has it been since you've updated your version for Mac? What the shit is this X11 piece of crap? GIVE ME GOOD LOOKING AQUA!
Fuck you Sun Microsystems,

Dear AppleWorks,
Why do you even exist? In the Get A Mac ads universe, Mac's a hip hipster, PC's a nerdy middle-aged man, Linux is a lanky chick, Microsoft Office are 30-somethings in suits and you're the aborted fetus in the back.
I don't even know what to say to you.

Dear Coach Canada Website,
Seriously. What the fuck? I just want a god damned bus schedule.

Dear Staples,
Why didn't you SAY you were so god damned boring before you hired me. Bitch.

Dear Starbucks,
Hire me. Right here, right now. Any way you want it.

Dear White Stripes' De Stijl Album,
Only you understand me.

What's worse - having to pay for access to Facebook with cold, hard cash, being pin-point targeted by banner ads, or expected to interact on their sponsored groups? (e.g. The FOX News Group whose tagline is "The Network Your Professors Don't Want You To Watch")

Better question... can corporations brainwash the willing? Are they brainwashing us, or just reacting to what we're (the consumer's) already doing?

Read the following article and discuss.
( 'For big brands, a different kind of face time' from the Globe and Mail )

Okay. Madly cramming for an exam for a course that I'm most definitely failing no matter what mark I get in it. (Why am I doing this? God knows. Maybe to make a point?)
Anyways, reading over the lecture notes and I get this... (emphasis mine)

(Hume) enumerates the principles of the "association of ideas" in order to explain how the mind is sometimes led automatically from one idea to another. These are (a) resemblance (e.g. seeing a portrait brings to mind an idea of the person it depicts...); (b) contiguity (proximity) in time and space (e.g.the idea of december produces the idea of winter); (c) cause and effect (e.g. the idea of writing "Hume was a famous nineteenth century rationalist" brings to mind the failing of an exam)

TAUNT ME MORE, WHY DON'T YOU? JUST SHOVE THE CONCEPT OF MY UTTER FAILURE AT LIFE AND THIS COURSE IN MY FACE A LITTLE BIT MORE?

Okay, I know it's not that bad. But it's five in the morning and I want sleep. Shaddup.

Why are philosophers so interested in various game theories? The use of language, social interactions, economics and so on are continually related to the idea of a game.
Right, so I'm reading Jean-Francois Lyotard's essay "The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge" for my postmodernism class, and it has really got me thinking. He published it in 1979 a commissioned work on whether or not universities should invest in computers, so it really transforms into a rant about the intertwining of information and technology. It's REALLY FREAKIN' PERTINENT to what's going on now with information control and the internet (in short, read it.)
However, he talks about language rules (what he calls games) and how they govern society, and it just ( got me thinking on the idea of using games as an analogy )

So yeah... thoughts on this guys? Do we continually fuck ourselves over and find mistakes for fear of succeeding? Am I being too depressing? Could you even call the rules of language a game?

So I downloaded (and unlocked. FUCK YOU TRIAL PERIOD) Adobe Photoshop CS3 a couple days ago and have been using it since.
I CANNOT EXPRESS MY LOVE, ADORATION AND ADDICTION TO THIS PROGRAM.
( More ranting and screencaps along this vein... )
But more RL updates for those who are following me, I most likely will be staying in the K-Town over the summer as I SHOULD be working at ol' Fort Henry as a Military Interpreter, which constitutes me dressing up as a 1860s red coat, running around shooting guns (20 POUNDERS MOTHER FUCKER) and playing British Grenadiers on the fife. Be still my little nerd heart.
And if that isn't dorktastic enough, I might be helping to start up a Pirate Reenactment society here over the summer.
BOO-FUCKIN-YA. So in short, if all goes to plan... I can finally say FUCK YOU CALGARY AND THE HORSE YOU RODE IN ON. All those who will be stuck on the frontier this summer are cordially invited to visit me either this summer, or for the weekend of October 13 as it will be Queen's Homecoming and therefore sextacular.

So instead of doing my essay that was do... oh an hour ago... I spent the entire day fiddling around with my ibook. Short and long of it, I found a really cool RSS reader for Mac called Vienna.
Not only does it read feeds directly from URLs, but it has a special treatment for Livejournal, Blogspot, Xanga and msn spaces! Yeah... I guess I could just type in the feeds, but GOD DAMNIT! I want to be considered special.

So yes, anyone with an lj and a mac (it's universal, so ANY mac) I would definitely suggest this sucker too. It's freeware!
And on the note oflj software, I'm addicted to the Xjournal Client, which I am using to type this entry.

Hot potatoes!

ETA: Right after I posted this, I discovered that Vienna works with Xjournal, so you can write frivolous posts about the stuff you read on your feeds! More reasons to procrastinate?! OMGWTFPOLARBEARDORKDOM!

The first stop on Erin's Excellent Reading Week Adventure is Julie's (kementari) Grandfather's house in Montreal. Which I am writing this from, coincidentally! He's in Florida right now, if I'm correct, so we reign supreme in this kingdom of 1950s hifi gear and thriftstore books.
To set the scene... we're saving our money so no clubbing for us. Which allows us to get drunk in a neighborhood pub (which coincidentally was Irish), stumble back the bus route home and wonder what to do.
Erin's home on a friday night? What's she doing? You guessed it. Julie's already agreed to try it, even though the first time she'd be doing it would be while in her sweet-old grandad's house.
So yes... we're rather wafting right now. I'm quite happy... enjoying the art galleries, irish pubs and back-yards in Montreal.
- - -
I am stoned. How very remarkable. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
-- ♥, Julie
- - -
I think that there's only one way I can end this....
and i'll bone you completely,
but then.. I'm gonna fuck you HAAAAAA-AAAH-ARD, HAAA-AHHHH-ARD!

[written at 9:00pm, Saturday, February 17, 2006, posted retrospectively. Sorry for the delay!]

RIP
Waffles (the Goldfish)
October 2006 - February 2007

Well, I guess I just suck at keeping things alive, eh? At least my snail's still motoring... (I think)

Have you ever realized that your life was starting to get out of your hands just in time to jump back on the bandwagon to get it back together, only to come to the conclusion that you never wanted to be put back together in the first place, instead you just wanted to get in a car and start driving, maybe to mexico, or new york, or house on the rock, or even that pie place on the way to toronto, but it turns out that enterpriserentacar.ca doesn't rent to anyone under the age of 21?

I just had my last class of Utopian Philosophy today.
The Prof was this amazing women who, while she had a kind of nervous desperation to her laugh, lectured so casually so that it felt like you were having a one-to-one conversation with her. I can't express how much love I have for her class, not only did we have discussions on gender roles, the political connotations of playing pretend, christmas as a dystopic utopia and the possibility of having a life-long orgasm, but she gave us cookies.
Twice.

Anywho, point of the matter is that she gave out half-page study guides for the exam today. And what did it have on it?
The Twelve Days of Christmas (for Utopians and Dystopians)
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, A Benefactor Ruling Dictatorially
On the second day ... Two Philosopher Kings,
On the third day ... Three Playful Grasshoppers,
On the fourth day ... Four Utopian Socialists,
On the fifth day ... Five Doses of Soma,
On the sixth day ... Six Members of the Industrial Army,
On the seventh day ... Seven Commandments of Animalism,
On the eighth day ... Eight Alternative Schools,
On the ninth day ... Nine Impartial Bureaucrats,
On the tenth day ... Ten Mothering Persons,
On the eleventh day ... Eleven Federalist Papers,
On the twelfth day ... Twelve Invisible Machines

(Cookies to anyone who gets more than five references)

P.S. I am better than everyone because I made a five minute documentary in two days. And it wasn't TOO bad either. Take THAT Little Shop of Horrors!

and check this out



c/o Neil Gaiman's blog (♥)

Once upon a time a household of four students in Kingston bought a hookah. For several weeks, they had an uproarious time smoking the delicious strawberry flavoured shisha. All was right in the world until one dark day when they household discovered they had run out of their strawberry friend. They quickly looked into their piggy banks for more pennies in which to pay the hookah-man for more tobacco, their hands full with pennies they ran to the hookah-man and plead "Please may we have some more of your yummy delights?". The hookah-man looked down on their up-stretched arms and shook his head heavily. "Come back when you have more pennies. That is not enough to buy my shisha with."
The students were very distraught, but instead of getting work to buy the Hookah-man's shisha they ventured off to the great city of Toronto in hopes of finding a different Hookah-man that would take their pennies. After many long days of searching, they finally discovered a small Hookah-man in a small store down a small street. Although he smelt of strange fishes, they bought three exciting fruity flavours and ran quickly back home.
They tried the first flavour. "This tastes like soap." The first student cried.
So they tried the second flavour. "This also tastes like soap." The second student cried.
So they tried the third and last flavour. "They all taste like soap!" The third student cried.
"Why must all of our yummy shisha taste like soap?" The students cried.
The fourth student, who would not so easily give up, took a look at the box and read the back.
Tobacco Free - Nicotine Free - Tar Free - Ingredients: Ugarsay anecay agassebay, Molasses, Preservatives, Flavour

The moral of this story?
Don't buy anything that lists its first ingredient in PIG LATIN.
(Sugar Cane Bagasse is often used as a fuel for sugar mills, which has definitely NO RELATION to tobacco.)

You're locked in an empty room. It's a fight to the death.
How many 5-year olds does it require to take you down?
Answer realistically, and with a number. Show your reasoning.

As a side note, the maiden voyage of Bilgemunkey Radio was on tonight. Three hours of modem problems and piratical news and music. I was quite impressed at his spread of music. There was some really cool and unusual choices which isn't an easy feat in the not-surprisingly-small genre of pirate music. One of my favorites was a gospel song called "Pirate Gospel", they had a gospel choir Yo ho-ing too. If anyone knows where I can find it, please send me a link.
I'm pumped for next week, Monday nights 8-11 CST. Check it out.

ETA
Where the hell is Alan Moore's credit on the DVD case for V for Vendetta? They have the illustrator, but not the god-damned writer?! The hell, guys!

Dear all,
IT'S SNOWING!!!!! WHOOOO!
Thank you for your time.
Yours, etc.
- Erin

Name Meme gakked from hippediva

( It's quarter to three, don't blame me )

As a side note, BTAS + YouTube = Orgasms Galore.

Off to a thanksgiving potluck at Helen's tonight, I'm really excited. Real food that I don't have to cook? Yes please!
My donation is going to be two fresh baked pumpkin pies (although I think Marc, my housemate, and I might reduce it to one before I leave). They're still not done yet, but the entire house smells like pumpkin and spice.
I feel so proud about the fact that I made them. It's almost sad.

Oh, and dear flist,
Happy Canadian Turkey Day.

Guess what was just delivered to my door, a week and a half early?

Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality, and the Masculine Identity
Turley shows the ways in which sodomy and piracy are inextricable from the cultural imagination of the eighteenth century and, in doing so, encourages us to rethink not only pirate history, but the history of sexuality as well.

Apparently it's really dry and academic, but it sounds SEXY anyways!

What's next on my books to buy list? The $99US Absolute Sandman, and the slightly cheaper Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean. Academia, how I love thee!

Major props to when_it_rained for pointing me towards Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. There shall be lending of it.

Dear University,

I printed out my book list from the campus book store today. It's printed off on 1.5" recipt paper.
It's taller than I am.

That's too many god damnned books.
Please get a life.

Yours, etc.
Erin