The reason why I can't go to the bank today:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/10/30/power-outages.html

Windstorms hit pane

In Toronto, the lights also went out on Sunday and winds knocked over a home under construction.

In Ottawa, the windstorms were blamed for knocking out an outer window pane Sunday afternoon on the 25th floor of a highrise office tower downtown. No one was injured, but traffic remained in chaos Monday morning, as buses and other vehicles were rerouted around the closed-off street below.

The inner pane was still in place, but was unstable. Crews were waiting until winds died down enough to safely remove the pane so they could reopen the street.

CBC.ca

Said highrise was the plaza where my bank is. I went through the building through an alternative way but there would've been no way for me to enter the bank. (There was a sign on the door when I was inside the building reading "Due to falling glass, this door (made of glass too) has been locked for your safety". There were still glass shards outside in the front too. Yikes)

Did I mention that I had ventured through said windstorm yesterday just to buy some yarn? Well I did. And yes, regardless of if there's a blizzard, a windstorm with 90km/h winds, rain, hail, sleet, flying pigs...er...any other possible crazy weather, I will venture out to places far away (this case South Keys) to get my art supplies when inspiration like this strikes. Besides, I found it quite fun being lifted up a bit off the ground while I walked with the wind at my back. All in the name of Art.

Oh and they had a 40% coupon, which i used already damned, that had I found this cheap watercolor set I would've used it on that too. :(

I think I should inquire about a membership at Michaels because, Michaels Arts & Crafts is incredibly big and here, is only a 20-min busride as opposed to a 45+min busride in Calgary and I can definately see myself going there more than twice a week.

Oh and we had no powerloss in our area luckily.

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you an interesting announcement

I am learning how to knit and also, I am in love with art again. Art, art, art, art, art. So much so that I ventured out into today's 50km/h wind(storm) to get some more yarn from Michaels in South Keys.

Montréal....(Or McGill--NorAms) People seem to be going to the tourney to judge but seeing as how my services have not been needed by the UofO's Debating Society at all though I have offered them, I may or may not go so you know what? *shrug* to that. I wouldn't mind going soley to take photos for the debate wall back at ABE though. I have a camera.

Besides, I'd have nowhere to stay and if I call any of my mum's friends, I might get the "You need to call in advance" spiel again like what happened 20x this summer (See Montréal Trip posts). Although, that's the weekend of my birthday kind of so a trip to Montréal would be a nice gift to myself and seeing people again would be nice too. Meh.

On with the destruction of history? =/

So first, there was that Av du Parc/Park Ave issue still rumbling and now, according to this Montréal blog, there might possibly be a referendum to discuss the enlargement of Molson stadium (aka Bell Centre).

Why am I mad at this? Possibly because Molson Stadium was built ontop of rail that CP used to use back in the 90s (That might've been the Bell Centre too) and was built right near my mum's old office in CP's old and longtime HQ since the 1880s. More specifically, the expansion of Molson stadium/Bell Centre may mean the destruction of the old Windsor Station building. Me =/= happy.

I could go on with pages and pages of great times I had wandering around the old station and the little shop. Oh and the BIG christmas tree that used to be put up for people to drop gifts in for the needy which some of the workers took to charities. In some spots, you would be actually standing where the old train platforms might've been and the old signage for the train times is still up there last I checked.

So what is it with this apparent obsession with replacing bits of Montréal's history? Montréal's classic buildings and historic streets are it's crown jewel. (among other things)

There will be a meeting for the public to come in but I have no idea if the Montrealers who live around there will care about it as much. I mean, I do, perhaps mum's co-workers do (they all worked there I suspect from the 70s or 80s until our move in '96)...but do they? *is hoping that the "emotional attachment to historic monuments" factor prevails*

Molson Stadium: It's where the Alouettes play. I remember when it went up. I was pretty darned confused as to why it looked like it was ontop of the railways.

If there's less than 120 signatures, they'll go ahead with expansion. If not, there'll be a referendum on the matter. (And it's not like it's got asbestos or anything, CP's rail engineers still work in a little corner of the building at the moment.)

I'm hoping a bit for the latter.

Windsor Station: Located right across from the Queen Elizabeth hotel, only a few minutes walk from Central Station, right beside the Bell Centre and an old church.

Blog entry is here. Building from 1885 possibly refers to Windsor Station which is the only building I can think of that would be demonlished (It's the nearest historic building to the Molson Centre)

Windsor Station

Wow, me = slow worker

So it took me from 2pm - ish today until now (12:34am) to get my FLS texte compte-rendu answer-33-questions-plz 95% done. But I had started my intro to my crit review of Durkheim at the same time sooo...

And I have to finish reading about Monsieur Durkheim and do a Crit Review about him for Tuesday and I plan on starting my Socio lab writeup tomorrow after the morning class and after my evening class and onwards until Wednesday (or paper--but in all due tecnicality, it is like a science lab writeup and Sociology is a science *goes on about Socio being recognized as a science thanks to Durkheim blahblahblah*)

Then I have to do the usual per-end-of-unit German assignment too. But Sociologie, /gy and FLS are le important. (So's reading that chapter of Psych but for now...)

But gosh, I had no idea I worked so slow. Ah well, as my aunt has been "harrassing" me, I've to manage my time, manage my time, manage my time. Yay having a retired student counsellor for an aunt. *celebrates half-sleepily*

It snowed today too. (or wet-snowed if you're a weather-stickler) but it's been raining, raining, raining---I think the weather's trying to get me to wear my bright-very-pink raincoat.

my gods, there's 5 1/2 more weeks left of the Fall semester. (12 more classes per course left (So in total 48 except for FLS were we have exactly 7 classes left since I have FLS once a week)

Ah yes, bed. Bed's good. Not getting enough sleep before going to 8:30am class =/= good usually. Nope.

Did I ever mention how much I love Montréal?

No? Well then....

:D

(You thought I was going to go into a big 10-pager about how great Montréal is didn't you?)

http://helpsaveparkavenue.blogspot.com/

I could mention all the fun times I had with my mum, my cousin and a bunch of people going around various parts of du Parc. There used to be this cute little kids clothing store mum and I went to and I got these undershirts all the time and they used to come with big stickers of the logo (Ferries I think it was called). Oh and there's a beautiful saree/sari shop down there too. Or was. Oh oh! And the old radio station my cousin worked at for a few years is on the other side of a block near Parc....

It's next to impossible for you to have lived in Montréal and not heard of Park Avenue/Av. du Parc.

Us Montrealers have deep emotional attachments to our city's history and it's streets and such. *nods sagely*

If legislation does get passed, I'll go make myself a t-shirt reading: "It'll always be Park Avenue to me"...or something. And all three busroutes will get name changes (I mean there's three buses with "Av. du Parc" as a route name). The 80 was a cool bus.

To try and help non-Montrealers make sense of this, say one beautiful day Mayor Bronco decided to rename Crowchild Trail to Ralph Klein Trail. Without talking to the public about it. Or even better, he decided to rename Crowchild Trail or McLoed (I cannot spell it. =P) Pierre-Elliot Trudeau Trail. The cons would go bonkers for sure. Harper would come down too.

Then I realized, no one made outcries of "ARRRGH!" when they renamed highway 1 to Queen Elizabeth II Highway. So my examples aren't really at all concrete then.

Oh and I love the Canadian Museum of Civilisations btw.

M. Tremblay... Renaming historic streets is a bad idea

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2006/10/19/parcave-renamedafterbourassa.html
And doing it without consulting Montrealers (again) is even worse.

Our only hope is if Montrealers band together and have massive protests on Parc Ave like when Tremblay "suddenly" merged all 29 villes/towns into one big Montreal and all the Mayors of those areas were out of jobs on New Year's day 2002. Don't tell me you forgot what happened then (The next day? Massive protests and a referendum a months later to see who wanted to stay in the Metropole or keep their town names)

(Someone should make a "How "Montrealer" are you?" quiz and put 'You're easily angered when a historic boulevard is changed without consultation from the mayor' and 'You turn to protests or rallies as a method of reversing a change' on there)

Random con about the thing: There already is a boulevard Henri-Bourassa, wouldn't a Robert-Bourassa be more confusing?

EDIT (11:27am)
I love my city. Montréal is just that awesome. http://geocities.com/helpsaveparc/

Exams

Assuming I want to go, I won't be back in Calgary until around December 21st or 22nd. Silly Sociology final scheduled on the 21st...Sillyyy...

I am thankful for...

abe_anything_goes.

Because the pics that are up so far of Lois Hole bring a huge grin to my face. You guys are silly. And after being half conscious/dealing with severe dizziness all day (I just woke up and felt like the room was spinning. It's a sickening feeling, I can assure you), this is a good thing to smile to. :)

*wobbles*

I'll go to bed before I wobble into a wall and scare my aunt.

NB. para usted (or really par vi/voi ) Mike, Gee or Kate:

Did Mike M...wait, McCloed(do I know how to spell that? No. When he was in my 3/4 split class could I spell his last name? No.) and Malcolm and Karlie K join debate or am I seeing things? Oh and kid I met on the train who worked at Stampede seems to have joined too. Hm. (Though I could be wrong...)

Retitled: Did I mention I miss band? I must've... + dad proves his sillyness

It should be noted, I miss band all too much. Especially band in grade 11 because, my goodness, so much fun being around people my age for once (the then-grade 12s) and the bassoons (Mainly Mikey and Amy) stuffing things down mine and Oliver's hoodies during practice (Okay, so we were both a bit annoyed and Mr. Paddock must've thought we were nuts but meh)

So established fact: Is missing band and is itching to play the Bass clarinet again.

I've been having songs from as far back as grade 7 playing around my head like Anasazi, Steppes of Russia, In Memoriam, A Day at the Zoo, (something) Gloucester, that Sherwood song Second Suite, El Camino Real etc.

Other established fact: I also have French kindergarten songs playing about my head like songs with lyrics like : "Tous les légumes, au clair du lune (somethingsomething). Ils s'amusaient, comme ils pouvaient et (somethingsomething). Les cornichons, tournent en rond. Les haricots dansent avec les petits chots(?)" oh and "La téléphone sonne, vite je vais répondre: "Âllo? Âllo, qui est là?" "Bonjour, bonjour à toi, dis-moi comment ça va?" "Moi, ça va très bien!"

Other established fact: I need to go and look for orchestras to join in Ottawa and stop whining about how much I miss band.

Also, I might go to Montréal with the Club d'immersion in November I think...I'll check it out.

Also, I'm done midterms...I have learned that keeping up with the readings is in fact key to success on a test.

AND, I won't be getting my box of things from Calgary perhaps not until later this month or early November courtesy of dad being lazy and not having transferred my things from the original big box to some smaller box as per what he said he would do back in September. I have Vanccie on standby to go over to my house and do it but hopefully it won't get to that. (Watch as (if I do) I get back and it's still there in my room)

Isn't it sad that it's been over 2 months since I packed that thing and it hasn't been sent? I want my art things so I can draw again on the computer and I would like to know if I should be depressed or worried or happy if I backed up my photos from my other computer before the reformat of my laptop.

PS. Les Cowboys Fringants are incredibly amazing x infinity. I'm trying to prevent myself from getting another CD of theirs or getting a CD period.

PPS. I found an ad in a September issue of L'équipe (Sports paper from France) against corporations advertising on sports clubs' jerseys. (It's got a player wearing a hmm....pancarte littered with corporations' logos taking a corner kick and all the other players on the field are wearing pancartes littered with logos too)

Oh and new Doctor Who and Heroes tonight. I'm very much looking forward to that.

Okay, so I missed yesterday + the day the before because I was studying. And I've gotten over that silly Level 2 Oral Expression grade thingermabob.

For yesterady, I must say that I am thankful for Doctor Who. Perhaps one of the best British sci-fi series I've stumbled upon in eons. (My aunt used to watch it waaay back when---there must be this "Unlimited Love for British TV Shows" gene that runs through mum's side of the family or something. Not that I'm complaining at all.) Can't wait for the new episode on monday! :D

The day before's "I am thankful for..." would be HMV + Les Cowboys Fringants, and Ottawa because they have Francophone CDs. I must say La Grande-Messe is a very good CD and En Attendant and 8 Secondes are perhaps some of the best tracks on there. (And they're political and real-life-problems centred---En Attendant is basically a "No to exploitation! No to privitisation! No to imperialism"-type songs...in fact that was just part of the chorus)

Today? My aunt and ours' mad pizza-making abilities. Today we made pepperoni pizza for supper. It was yummy :D

And I'm certainly glad to be living with my aunt, without most of her help, I'd be lost and a ball of incoherent stress by now.

One step way to dent one's "ego"

"Ego" being a term used loosely here because I have no idea if I have one. Haha (Or well, one that flaunt...Or well, one I don't think I flaunt about)

So I went to the mentorat, was told that they lost my text-response for the test (D=!!) and that my level of French spoken orally is at Level 2.

With Level 1 being the lowest.

Though, when I think about it, I didn't speak French as regularly as I did when I lived in Montréal and I lived in Calgary for 10 years which is a surefire way for one to loose their French. But I do well on written expression usually (or I've been told). That and I was possibly having mini anxiety from the topic I had to respond to (We get a topic, then through the mic, we have a time limit to say some things about the topic. If you're uninformed about it then you have a problem saying your response)

I guess today I should be thankful that I still have some French left.

Somalis vow holy war on Ethiopia

Seriously, if there's another war, I'll be saddened/angry. This'd be the 2nd war in about 6 years (The last one went from '98-2000---Eritrea and Ethiopia fought, again.)

I'm thankful for still having my dreams

I had no idea my childhood dream of becoming some great manga artist was still alive...I had no idea until my aunt and I got into a talk and I mentioned my 62% in Art 7 from Walker and she mentioned my seemingly "poor luck" with art teachers (63% in Art 10...even though that mathematically didn't add up to what I had gotten on all the projects) and I shyly/bashfully mentioned how it would be great if one day I mastered or knew enough Japanese, and was in Japan proposing to Shueisha my manga idea to some editors to be published in Weekly Shounen JUMP, it got accepted, was well received by the Japanese and suddenly the next I knew some animation studio director was asking me if they could adapt it into an anime series.

I had no idea that I still had any desire to get that far. No idea. None whatsoever. (I mean, it's a silly sounding dream, wanting to be a "manga artist" and all that. Oh boy.)



I guess I'm also thankful that somehow through all that I had to deal with during the last 3 years (or well the 5), through all the emotional troubles, the turmoil, the endless rollercoasters and obstacles I've managed to get this far....and I should I guess be also thankful that for the first time in an eternity, I've finally made friends whom I can actually talk with and get along with and am happy to be around with.

*sigh*

Nevermind what I was thinking before...

And I might give up on the UofO debate club methinks. I have offered my services as filmer/photoperson (which I didn't know made me an Asst-Coach at Abe) but haven't heard back from the President so *shrugs* (Then again, I no longer debate so that could be it) Silly soccer intramurals got all filled up too *was vying for the winter/January-intramural session anyways*. Perhaps I will inquire about the club d'immersion as it seems they have fun trips to Mont Tremblant to which I have never been (I know, tragic. I've never been to La Ronde either) and to Montréal.

Hey, I didn't notice that today was October 7th. I'll be 19 in a month.

Dear Psychology textbook,
Why must you be so long and weigh alot? (Takes me 3hrs to read a chapter--and I have a midterm coming on Wednesday)

Dear Sociology textbook,
You're short, light-weight, extremely portable and exciting with your chapters on Comte, Marx, Spencer and the like. Stay that way.

And am I making friends? I think so. A friend of mine who was in my Sociology class* wants to hang out with me during the weekend, another in German coaxed me to join Facebook and added me (which is rather difficult to use...the layout screams "Help organize me so I'm more visually appealing") and I have a friend in Psychology with whom I exchange pained looks with whenever people talk during lectures or someone asks a sex-related question when we're barely covering something that would warrant that type of question.

Midterms to study for await me...as well as doing that French journal, and that Critical review on Spencer and my systematic observation project for Sociologie I should start soon. Oh and catching up on Sociologie readings would be nice too.
(*Sociologie=french class Sociology=my english one)

I was hoping to be a Curious Commuter again and take the bus all the way out to Orléans during this weekend. Oh well.

Best Air Farce moment

"And so Parliament resumed this week...

Wierd Health Minister Clement walks by Layton and puts him arm around his shoulder from behind..."

"Then they exachange pleasentries and walk away.."

"Oh wait, it seems as if Clement may have insulted Layton's sister! Layton turns around...and he headbutts him!!"

*Layton headbutts Clement*

"Oh and here's the Speaker of the House issuing a red card for the offence...Layton's not looking too happy..."

Honestly made my day. Lots of Harper-centred jokes in this episode.

Montreal Trip--now located on the side bar

if you're looking for my posts of my trip to Montréal this summer, they're on the sidebar :)

People who talk during lectures should be promptly smacked over the head

Those who complain about a professor's accent should get a sign saying "Sorry, I stupidly forgot/didn't check that the deadline to switch courses was September 21st and now I'm sitting about whining about my prof's silly deranged accent. Durrh". Same goes for those who say "My prof sucks and I've been skipping classes...could someone send me their notes?".

I hate my SOC 1102 and PSY 1101 classes so much. SOC 1102 mainly. Everyone talks while our prof (West African) lectures. People leave in the middle of her lectures too. Even while we wait in the waiting area, people go on about her accent and how they can't understand it. Perhaps it's because I'm so used to foreign accents from Europe to Africa to China to the West Indies, but she's not really incomphrehensible as people have been making her out to be. Why does it seem in my only French-taught lecture-class people listen? (I was going to try this French-Socio class next semester that seems to be taught by a North African fellow and it's an interesting class too--save, it's 3hrs long. (Most 3hr courses only go for 2hrs))

PSY 1101, I've gotten used to my profs comparisons of whatever psychological aspect we're being told about to sex. Mind, she's stopped now but people kinda began asking sex-related questions in return (...And Sue Johansson that sexologist lady is here tonight too) and my god, when people tell you don't sit at the back of your classes in University, they mean it. Hell, stay away from the middle if you can, people talk lots and it can get annoying. Stay as close to the front as you possibly can (Not right up front in case your prof spits. That's not fun)

But since this is no perfect world, I'll just keep myself from going "YARRR!". Besides, I'm too sick (again, possibly a throat infection--crazy) to go crazy on someone. Meg, my friend in Psych's annoyed too but we just go "Yarrrgh" in our heads.

People here and everywhere else I've been can be so bloody inconsiderate.

And I like SOC 1102 and PSY 1101...just my peers should get a good talking to or should be promptly hit over the head with something.

I should be working on German...not really happening. Instead I was reviewing my psych notes from earlier. And yeah, I'll see a doctor tomorrow about my throat. Maybe I'll get lucky and I'll be able to swab the back of my throat myself as opposed to getting a tongue depressor put so far into my mouth that I nearly gag.

Post Script:

Australian comedy spoof-type shows are dreadfully funny. One compares the Doctor Who theme (accompanied with an earlier sketch where they're attacked by Darleks) to 60s Belgian Jazz and a Belgian Jazz version of the song plays while a narrator, speaking in French narrates randomly. "C'est lui...dans la nuit. Docteur.....Qui! Il voyage dans le TARDIS. La boîte de téléphone---fantastique, n'est-ce pas? L'intérieur et beaucoup plus grand...que l'extérieur!!" followed by things like "Ancroyable! Il veut contrôler (Davros--some bigbad enemi) le monde...toujours contrôler le monde. Il se lève les matins, il veut contrôler le monde! Après le petit-déjeuner, il veut contrôler le monde!" and "Ah zut alors, nous avons perdOO! Le docteur a gagné. Il rit "hahaha" et hahaha! Parce que je suis, Docteur...QUI"