taking an unecessary break from this paper...

Er, Harper, your new ads against Dion? Already getting old. (And it's barely been a day!)


Especially when three air within the same timeblock almost every commercial break. (with two airing barely a minute apart in the same commercial break) My aunt and I like watching our TV without having to watch terribly made commercials.

I'd like to know how much these cost. I mean, it costs alot to buy commercial time and if you've paid for time to air it three times, you're obviously spending...alot.

PS. the last Conservative who pulled this stunt by attacking a Liberal leader via attack ads, the whole thing blew up in their face. (But that was based on ignorance of how Chrétien had had Polio)

PPS. I see you're emulating the US now with personal attack commercials...What next? attack Layton's lack of hair?

PPPS. 22 Minutes and Air Farce shall be having a field day mocking these ads like they did the Liberal "HARPER HAS PET DRAGONS!!! DDD:!!" spoofs last year.

PPPPS. I think you guys just gave CBS extra viewers for the Superbowl too.

Prof F-P Gingras and his Guide de rédaction de travaux universitaires (there's an english version too) is my hero.

Stupidity should note that this would've been handy had certain professors last semester noted it's existance

Bugger.

I'm having difficulty reading this chapter for History of Canada for a critical review due Monday evening. Granted, I'm learning tons about 'ancient Canada' and 17-18th century Canada in addition to remembering material and facts long believed to be forgotten from Jr High. (Did you guys know that Christopher Colombus was a total bastard, forgive mon français, going about semi-dellusional-like thinking that the Arawaks in Jamaica/Haiti had gold mines and chopping the hands off of the ones who didn't meet the "Gold Excavation" quota for the day eventually slaving them all into extinction?---Granted that's not a totally clear explanation...) but I cannot for the life of me want to critique how these authors wrote and explained vis à vis their POVs the era from 1604 to 1763. I would gladly go to 1945 to Today but "Today" stops at 1994 right when the PQ were elected and also, that chapter has over a 110 pages compared to other chapters which have 60 pages or so.

Mind, 1604-1763 is the foundings of Quebec City (1608--400th annivesary next year!), Ville-Marie (aka Montréal 1642), the seigneuries, fun French absolute monarchies, the 7-year-war, the Filles du Roi, the fall of Nouvelle-France to the English. It's interesting but my god, I'm avoiding their little blurbs on the sides because they always end them with useless questions and critiquing this is proving difficult...especially since I have not bought the coursepack which contains a Guide de Rédaction des Résumés Critiques. I have one from a lecture where she outlined (brief) steps, short and not detailed and usually if I have a guide, I for some reason, need it to be detailed completely or my mind goes: "AWIHOAW!" and I end up getting unnecessarily frustrated and NOTHING gets done.

Instead, however, of finishing reading all of this (as easy to read as it sounds--it is. Just, you have to get me in a willing mood to read it (hey, now I feel a bit in the mood. I've got three units in the chapter left to read) I be knitting.(Plus the critical review is 4-5 pages double spaced about 2 1/2-3 pages single I suspect).

Also, aunt baked gingerbread cookies. But also, I am reading and knitting.

Thoughts....

It seems whenever I'm going back to Calgary I think to myself "Buh, Calgary. It's terrible, grim, and is almost synonymous with monotony" and whenever I go back, I think something bad will happen. And it usually does. Prime example? Earlier in late-December. Bah-zing-bing-ding. One month later, he's still in hospital. Unfortunately, it's a thought I can't really shake when it comes to Calgary. In my mind, it has almost (or probably has to me) become synonymous with just all around bad.

Oh well. It's my duty as the daughter to go visit their parent when they are ill and injured like this. I would like to give a piece of my mind to some of my siblings and tell them to just take a day of their vacation leave and come. But I don't know how their jobs work or anything so I don't know if they can take that. That and, well, we're all half-siblings and some of us (myself excluded) have not seen him in 20-30 years perhaps (in the case of my sister in Montréal) never have seen him. Then there's the three or four who are currently in Ethiopia and as much as I'm sure they'd love to experience a Canadian winter, I don't see them coming anytime soon.

Speaking of people not seeing their dads in 30 years, still haven't called my sister. Brother in BC feels uncomfortable doing the phone call and so it's kind of up to me to call. Funny, at one point, I was determined last year to get in touch with her.

And I figured out why my sleep has gone WOOSH. *mock Bill Nye* Stressssss. Yes, yes, I know it's almost 3:30am.

Also, Starbucks makes the worst hot chocolate and apple cider. Seriously, they used to make really, really really good apple cider and their hot chocolate makes me feel ill. Cheers to Second Cup.

And, I bought this funky new brush-pen. I like it. Doodling is not helping me sleep though. Nor is knitting :( (though, I bought this nice yarn--I have too much yarn though...uh-oh)

so, yes, i will (unfortunately) be in calgary

I'm arriving Feb 18th until the 26th. Again, it's really not for vacation. I suspect I will be taking care of dad and such. Assuming he's back by then. Maybe I'll be lucky and I'll get some help from my brothers, if they can get time off. All three of them work full-time.

Yay, first Reading Week being spent taking care of a family member. Should be grand. Oh crap, there'll be no food in the house. Shoot. and possibly food that should be thrown out Airport food to the rescue! (and aunty's baking!)

edit nevermind. If memory serves, I actually never got a chance to go and buy any food while I was there because, shock, life happened. Life likes to happen to me a lot these days. >:U

waugh, can't sleep.

Sitting about, my sleep schedule basically shot since late-December and listening to the Amélie OST, I wonder...actually, I don't wonder. I tried and pulled up a blank trying to wonder what I was wondering about. Nevermind.

When I have trouble sleeping, I should doodle or something...There's an idea :D (Or there's that Charlie Brown book I bought in October that I haven't read yet. That'd be a mistake to read at this hour)

And I might be back in Calgary for Reading Week. Not for relaxation, though.

As a méthode d'inspiration I'm going to put up my panoramic poster of the Paris skyline that I bought back in September up on the wall in front of me on my desk. (As much as I love the mint-green my aunt used, it gets a little boring looking up from my laptop screen and seeing...mint-green. Aunt agrees) I'm going to Paris, France on exchange for a year at one of the UdeP universities and nothing is going to stop me. (Paris, Marseille or Strasbourg. But mainly Paris)

/end random moment of determination

My cousin, is basically my favorite relative ever. My cousin is awesome. Also, the ability to look 20-30 yrs younger when you're actually in your 40s or 60s gene definately runs in my family. I thought my cousin was 20-something. He's not. He's not in his 30s either. He's in hs 40s and looks 20-something. Serious. Mind, people think my dad is 40-something when he's almost going to be 70 and I had people comment asking me in gr 10 if my brother in BC was my boyfriend when he's...in his early 30s after he dropped off one time.

I think I'll be in Gatineau more often to visit him (Gatineau meaning not the Hull that became Gatineau. Hull is right beside it in the distance where Place du Portage is). Awesome thing is that OC Transpo buspass can definately be used on STO buses. Wow, this semester pass really is worth it's 216$. I'm paying for an excellent-quality service (Monthly passes are 58$--fare is 3$ for local, 4$ for Express and 5$ for rural express--yes rural. think a public bus going to Cochrane or Airdrie or other towns to Calgary. There are buses that are regular fare that go to Stittsville. That's far. Cheaper if you have the little tickets which for local is 1.80$ or 2 tickets or something, express 3 or 4 tickets and rural, 5 tickets) Haven't seen him or my other first-cousin in a while.

Plus, he gave me his old scanner, save, I don't know if it works. There's no light to tell me if it's on and my computer isn't picking up the USB connection it looks like. (Though I did get a "There has been a problem installing the software" in the bottom so I might manually download it)

For my diagnostic for ENG1120, I'll be writing a short review on Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Go me. :)

Also, Roméo et Juliette: De la haine à l'amour has wonderful music. Like Vérone or Les Rois du monde or La Haine.

stressed? nah. nahh.

I dub my Fridays, "English Fridays" as I have figured out that I have both ENG1100 and ENG 1120 6 hours apart on Fridays. And today in Canadian history we finally got to the 16th century with Jacques Cartier. (To which the class let out a tired enthusiastic "Hourrah!") I had to make a comic about his travels (w/Moe) back in elementary. It was an awesome comic (helped me somehow remember that big important chunk of history). Donnaconna, should not have let Cartier kidnap his kids! And Cartier! Snubbing the Amerindians is bad! That's why you all got scurvy! D: (erm, don't ask)

PS. Christopher Coloumbus was an awful person.

And I discovered a lovely musical. French, even-- Roméo et Juliette. First started hearing music on Rock Détente 94,9 (with Aimer) and I heard one song twice and loved it and could not find it. So today I randomly downloaded songs from the musical and I'm listening to a bunch when the one I could not find for ages comes on--Les rois du monde. (Aimer I had never heard before, randomly downloaded it and the voices sounded the same as the previously unknown song) The music? Very, very good. No, amazing.

Recommendations:
Listen to Yannick Noah's "parody" of La Marseillaise on the environnement and climat change and politics. (Aux Arbres Citoyens) The parody is that some lines sound similar to the anthem but are altered (like "aux arbres citoyens", which is the begining of the anthem's chorus which goes "aux armes citoyens!") but musically, it's not the same.

Then, watch the video:



I think if I can find Yannick Noah's newest CD Charango (but he's from France, I'd have to go to Hull or Montréal to find it) and Stefie Shock's Les Vendredis, I'll be relatively happy.

Re: stressed?
Hahahaha...Raspberry ginger ale keeps your mind off a lot of things.

So, while reading the Canadian Desk Companion, I concluded the following:

Saskatchewan has the best name for a city/town/settlement ever.

I present:

Uranium City, SK.

I guess if you're from there, you're a Uranian. But what happens when we find a way to live on Uranus?

wow, even eldest brother agrees

That all 8 or so plus of us have all done poorly in the maintaining communication department. So, eldest brother is quite interesting. He's in IT in Dallas (dad said Houston...pshh) and he has a 15-month-old daughter (my niece!) who has a cute name and by default, though I have yet to meet her, must be cute.

That was strange.

Anyways, next task for me:

I'm going to phone up the sister in Montréal whom I just found out was barred from being in communication, or seeing dad for all her life by her mum. She doesn't know him and I don't know why. If you guys want to speculate do whatever you want, I won't be able to answer any questions since I virtually know nothing.

Oh what an awkward phone call this shall be...

A bit silly though that we 'mobilize' only when dad is dreadully ill or critically injured like this.

In other news, I have a shiny new pair of indoor soccer shoes, plus shorts because my BRIGHT VIVID royal blue ones are only good with a white jersey or blue one but since I wore none of those but a bright orange long-sleeve jersey (I wore an old pair of navy track pants that later got duct taped at the knees and said duct tape fused with my pants due to heat caused by friction against the evil incarnate and every indoor sports player's archnemesis that is Astro Turf), my t-shirts that I would wear wouldn't work. Plus I'm not used to playing goalie in a t-shirt. In all due honesty, I feel slightly bare not wearing a long-sleeved shirt with pads at the elbows.

In other news that would make sense of the previous paragraph, I discovered there's drop-in recreational soccer on Mondays.

*insert sad face here :(*

So, I have concluded that it is possible that people wanting to register for intramural soccer must line up at 8am the earliest. Got there with Robert at near noon-ish, were told that soccer was completely filled as of 10-11ish. :(

I'll be stalking the field in front of Tabaret with my "gloves in tow" for pick up games when the weather gets better.

So then to pass the time, I got kidnapped to watch recreational badminton and met a lovely exchange student from France and we chatted. She was determined to improve her English and she was so curious and amazed with Canada. (Franco-Algerian) We talked about French, Canada, France, soccer, Zidane etc. It was fun.


And someone told me I have a France-French accent. Buhwah? Interesting that.

And I'm still confused as how I won an award for academic excellence at ABE. I have never gotten an end-of-year average above 75%. Never. The highest marks I ever got were in Band and that one time in Math 20 where I at one point had an 82% but finished with a 78 or 79. Still, I'm in "Er, I believe that this is a mistake" mode right now.

Yes, yes, contrary to popular belief I was never an 80s student, I failed three courses in high school and got yelled at by one of the assisstant principals while her office door was open and I was in her office. Oh and I was constantly paged to her office and guidance in grade 12...I forgot why though...Hm.

In other news, oldest brother from Texas will call later tonight. This, shall be weird. I don't know what he sounds like, looks like or anything really save for he's the oldest of us.

Weiiiiiiird.

I'm a very descriptive person. *nods sagely*

I'm asked "How are you feeling?". I respond: "Aghbleh and meh...buh".

When asked to elaborate, I respond with: "Mrrgh. And generally Augh". Descriptive I am. Haha...

So tomorrow, I'm braving the long lineups of soccer fans to sign up for Intramural soccer. My skills have probably gotten a bit rusty (haven't played in a year and a half) but meh. They're actually regulation indoor games with two 22 minute halves with no games ending in ties (if there's a tie, it goes to penalty kicks--fun). I need to be distracted and have fun. If I manage to register, I'll need to go shoe shopping. My old pair or indoor shoes are a size and a half too small and the heel-part inside got indented (1/2 inch deep) by my orthopedics' heels :(

Hm.

Getting a hoodie for 14,25$ instead of 50$ is a good deal. Especially from the Bay.

Was talking with my brother in BC and he'd asked me if I had any of our other half-siblings' numbers. Numerous searches on the internets have turned up nothing. Really is stupid. It really is. I'm about 4hrs from my brother in BC, 5 from my brother in Texas (via plane) and 2hrs (via bus) from a sister whom I could've met as soon as I was a year old. I'm still furious at the fact that missed out on growing up with a sister especially when said sister lived on the same island as me and at one point, the same area of said island. (NDG is big, but it's not difficult to get around :/) Anyways, let's just say we're going to have to find 7 people who could be anywhere in the world at this time. Meh, if we can find the Doctor of the family he'll be able to understand whatever procedure occurs. Real worries right now are that a) Won't be able to find most of them and b) Many of them probably want nothing to do with dad. and c) Due to things I still don't know about, (with one thing I wish I hadn't learned about) there are perhaps many reasons why some of them would not want to come or care.

Reading this Intensive Care: A Support Guide for Families is informative yet slightly unrealistic at the same time. There's parts that are like those support guides that sound a bit "bouncy" and parts that don't and are serious without sounding grim. I'm a little surprised and disturbed at my blissful ignorance at what is going on. If I could classify it as "blissful ignorance" that is. Maybe more like ignorance. It's like I'm going along with my daily routines and forgetting that what's happened to dad is even going on. It's a little scary actually. Possibly because I can't or don't feel like talking about it since all I've said is a bunch of "Meh"s and "Aghbleh"s Not very deep but fairly self-explanatory. Damn the 2hr difference or I'd phone someone right now. :/

Anyway, on page 12, you're greeted with this picture of a 'patient' (more or less a sketch) with various tubes and such sticking out of him out of various places that are all named. It's all a bit gross.

Hmm. Well, the Intensive Care book did say that as a member of the family of the patient I should get some sleep as "Sleep is very important for good health..." Hm. True. Seems I'm failing at that bit right now it seems--whoops.

And dad is starting to be responsive again and such but I'm not all "whoop whoop" about it. Fairly skeptical is what.

Also, it seems that I have succumb to the classic "days are like a blur" feeling. I had no idea today was Saturday and I'm having extreme difficultly placing all the events (like phonecalls and such) in a proper timeline. I think one thing happen a day earlier when it had happened mere hours ago. Haven't felt like this since mum was sick.

Crazy stuff. Hey look, it's almost three. I should go.

አማላኬ (if you cant see that, install this self-extracting file from here)

Taking a break from being bitter

And because this post has lots too, you won't be able to tell that I wrote a long bitter, angry post yesterday. Le gasp.

Someone should keep me away from Loomis in Ottawa and it's Quebec counterpart Omar de Serres (It's huge, huge huge in Montréal. The store was packed on my two visits). Oh, oh, and Michael's too. I easily spend 29$+ at Loomis on art stuff, so many things I know I'll need and will get in the future and Michael's I need to stop buying yarn.

SOC 2511 is possibly going to be the class I'll love with content that I possibly won't enjoy judging from general comments (Methodology and Research Methods aka interpretation of data, qualifying it, presenting data, stats etc.). Even though 5 out of (judging by her class roster) 50+ students were there. I registered for a History class that I ended up missing because I was registering for it and I nearly mis-read the professor's name as St. Orange. So, 3 out of my 5 courses are in French. I like. (The other two are in English because...they're English classes) I'll figure out the Psychology thing, summer course seems like it's in order. Or, taking a 6th class (if possible) at Carleton or something.

Oh and I had a rare university student (or student in big university) moment earlier today on my way to buy my books. I ran into my SOC 1501 prof from last semester and I we (him and his socio-savvy profbuddies) were walking in opposite directions disscusing stuff and I thought "Meh, I'm at a big university and 1501 was a class with over 170+ students. No way will he recognize me. Nahh just nahhh---" but then I hear "Bonjour!" and I'm like "Ah! Bonjour professeur!". Very cool stuff.

8:30am class tomorrow, so far so good, I'm keeping my mind off of things. But I'm phoning mum's friend in a bit so whoo, bitterness may return! :O

PS. S0c 2511, we have to do presentations of research data (like of documents or stats) individually in front of the class. Ack et Gah. Oh and 2511 is the French version of 2111. Hm.

Firstly, I hate Calgary. I hate the city, I hate Global TV's somewhat discriminatory and, dare I say it, racist subsitute 11pm news anchors from Jan 1st (long story) and I simply hate the city so much that I just don't ever want to be there again, even if I was being offered a job with a 6-figure/per year salary. But, due to circumstances that shall be explained since few know of what happened, I will be back as soon as Reading Week, not for vacation but possibly to babysit.

Second, I failed Psych 1101. Not F, fail, but an E which isn't as bad as an F but it's bad. (A to D is pass. E is a "special" fail and an F is a flatout fail) But I saw that one coming. It was an elective and according to what my aunt dubs the "[Social Sciences] Bible", I can replace a failed elective by re-taking it or taking another elective and replacing it with that one. (Marks come out gradually--I have three more to find out about)

Third:
My dad was in a car crash/accident/whathaveyou on the 27th. He's been in hospital in the ICU since semi-conscious and not responding to commands given to him by doctors and nurses (though he had been but briefly) and basically, but not entirely, covered with IVs, tubes and with stitches on his forehead. His condition hasn't changed save for he developed pneumonia and he has a breathing tube but now it'll be one via tracheotomy or however you spell it. As you can guess, I spent the break, stressed, stressed, sick due to stress and not being able to eat due to sickness for two days, stressed, worried and generally feeling all kinds of bad. Of course, I stayed at my mum's friend's house.

No, he is not in a coma. I don't feel like typing up all the list of what's wrong with him and I'm not up for being on MSN this week. Phoning or emailing me works wonders. Or Skype since I (shock) have my headset device. D:

So, all in all, I hate Calgary, I hate Calgary, I hate Calgary and I never ever want to go back there again. (Perhaps I will go to Vancouver, maybe stop in Calgary for your guys' grad but I never want to go back ever again. The city hates me, and I hate the city. Then again, what with me suddenly having to be like most of my peers' parents, I'll likely have to make semi-regular visits to take care of him if/when he gets home which won't be this week or the next or possibly the one after that)


Did I mention I hate Calgary?


I have classes tomorrow morning. To bed. Maybe. Wheee, I am angry, M is for drugs as I shall read Ansem Retort in all it's crack glory.

edit I did little "spending time with friends" btw. Hm. I'll have Socio tomorrow morning and not be a big ball of anger D:

edit 2 (Jan4, 10:55am) admittedly I'm mostly bitter, but er, looking back at what I wrote last night, that was really "YARRRHATE" and such. Huh.