Fuller
Terrace, a pretty wee street in the North end. Love all the different
hues. When I was in Alberta last year I was struck at the lack of
colour in the new subdivisions, all the houses seemed to be taupe,
beige, grey, white. I think with the harsh winters in Canada we need to
see colour to brighten up the day:)
Here is a quote I read recently that resonates with me.
"The easiest way to get what you want is to help others get what they want"
Don't you think that is true? Something to think about today:)
Some people love the internet, some people hate it... I like it for the most part, but I know several people who are very anti-internet, for several long-winded reasons that would take too long to explain here. Instead of arguing with them, which I know I'd fail at - I'm rubbish at debates that don't involve food or prizes - I decided to write a blog post instead.
One of the things I love about the internet is the ability to share my opinions online - I was always too lazy to keep a diary, and always wanted to edit what I had written. Yay for blogs! I write a blog for myself, as a record of my life. In several years time, when I'll have hopefully have had more experiences, and generally be much *ahem* wiser, I'll be able to look back and say "Ooh, that's what I was like when I was younger! Why was I such an idiot?" I'm lucky in that respect. What other generation has been able to document their whole life digitally? Websites such as Plurk and Twitter also mean that I can keep track of what I was doing on a particular day, and what my thoughts and emotions were.
There is also an abundance of articles and information on the web, and this means that I no longer have to read through dusty old textbooks to find the relevant information that I need. Less time at the library means more time at home procrastinating on my next task!
Like most people, my primary use of the internet* is to talk to new people, make friends and forge relationships. The sad fact is that there will always be some people who are socially awkward, and I fall directly into that category. I trip over my words in real life, and speak without thinking (which usually means I am known as the 'sarcastic one', the one to avoid).
Generally, I hate public speaking, and will avoid it at all costs. But I do know how to write. Typing stuff to someone on the other side of a computer screen is easier for me because it gives me time to phrase my words.
The internet is a refuge; a place to meet and talk to people who actually know what a meme is, unlike most of the general population.
A forum post I read a few months ago stuck with me. I realised that even after I'm long gone, my comments and opinions on various websites will still be floating around the internet, hereby giving me some sort of immortality. Bwahahaha! I is living in ur internetz! Future historians will no longer have to assume what life was like in the early 21st century. They'll know from something as simple as a Google search. I have no qualms about the internet being here in 1000 or so years, provided the earth doesn't blow up in our faces then.
*Aside from faffing around with bits of code and wasting time playing games on social networking sites.
Originally published at rammi.glomp.me. You can comment here or there.
These are my entries for this Christmas e-card competition. If you like my drawings please, please vote for me. Thank you!
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In an effort to consolidate all things bloggy and potty (euw)...I'm moving most of my blogging activity, posting of items and all general stuff to:
But that doesn't mean I'm abandoning this space. At least...not entirely. I'll try to crosslink updates and of course, I need to keep this account active to keep an eye on you hooligans.
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Baby Dee ♥ Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (12/01/09) |
Before her last song, she introduced The Books by telling this joke about next to the dog, a man's best friend is a book. Next because inside a dog, it's too hard to read.
The Books set up two chairs and their movie projector at 9 o'clock. Remember, this is the Cedar, their shows starts early and ends early (no later than 10:30pm). Which its audience is an older (and probably gainfully employed crowd), so they like early shows.
So, back to the Books, they provided the live soundtrack to their movies. Everything is in sync, no technical problems at all. They even went so far as having a one-minute intermission song as they tune up their instruments. The intermission song features anagrams of the word "Immediate". Everything is calculated.
I find that trying to watch the movie and watching Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong was somewhat distracting. I think they prefer you watch the screen, because watching the duo play isn't exactly that exciting.
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The Books ♥ Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (12/01/09) |
As for the encores, which incidentally is predetermined because of the movies that is associated with the songs, they did two songs. The first is a Nick Drake cover "Cello Song", which Paul explained is their only cover they do. It was for the benefit of the Red Hot organization for Aids awareness. If you recall, I've previously endorsed the organization by buying many of their music releases. Their final song is "An Owl With Knees" from their 2005 album, Lost and Safe.
PS, This is my final concert for 2009 (I hibernate during the winter), I would like to thank everybody for offering shows for me to review. I will be able to accept assignments in March-ish 2010, and/or whenever it stops snowing.
12/02/2009 11:29:30 ♥ vu (
) ♥ thebooksmusic.com ♥ myspace.com ♥ twitter.com
After
yesterday's gloomy picture I thought I would post some colour! I had to
use up some of my veggies on the weekend and found a soup recipe
that used leeks, red cabbage and tomato. It was quite good. I love the
internet for that sort of thing. Type in ingredients and voila!
Last night's Zumba class was REALLY fun. I was surprised at how quickly the hour sped by. I think what really made it for me was the sheer number of participants. About 200! The music is Latin, Bollywood, Arabic, and pumping good! You cannot help wanting to move:) It is held in the field house at Dalplex and there is plenty of room. A bit disconcerting at times to feel the floor moving up and down, but I'm sure it is safe. There was a great mix of people and all ages:) Zumbaa!
Got a lot of calendars mailed out yesterday. More to do today. If you want one, last chance to email me and let me know. Another busy day here. Hope yours is great.
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12/13/09 Loring Kitchen & Bar Minneapolis
Discography
12/20/09 Loring Kitchen & Bar Minneapolis 12/31/09 Loring Kitchen & Bar Minneapolis
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Minneapolis duo Bella Ruse self-classify their sound as “indie folk jazz,” but when Joseph Barker plugs in his electric, as on opener “Push On,” the result doesn’t quite fit the categorization. The sparse, moody guitar and Kay Gillette’s intimate vocals would be as appropriate for a sparse, moody Jim Jarmusch film as for a smoke-filled jazz club. While “Push On” is Bella Ruse’s standout track, the rest of the EP is quietly pleasing. “J’ai Presque Peur” is a smooth Pinot Noir toast to Edith Piaf and “Heart of Everyone” jangles along nicely. When Norah Jones released her debut, I remember being underwhelmed at first, certain that her foray into “jazz” was one clarinet short of Lite FM. However, after a few listens, I warmed up a bit, mostly because beneath the soccer mom ear-bait, I could detect the slightest shade of melancholy, and this interested me. Bella Ruse is interesting in a comparable way (they had me at “kind of sad”). Gillette’s voice calms rather than excites and sure, “Hold Me Close” would probably excite a Meg Ryan character (when she realizes that the Tom Hanks character is The One*); still, revisit “Push On” and convince me there isn’t a little Scout Niblett/Chan Marshall angst beneath the romantic sentiments.
In his track notes, Barker admits that “Push On” was not an immediate favorite. In fact, it took Gillette’s persistence and encouragement from fans to convince him that the song had a place on the EP. Although this baffles me, I also kind of get it. “Push On” is Bella Ruse’s “Hide and Seek”: a stand alone track that deviates from an otherwise comfortable style. There’s a reason why I’ve listened to the song a total of 27 times since I received the EP, except the ‘reason’ is actually a sensation—a slight tingling, milder than goosebumps but equally elusive. My request for the band is simple: more, please. More blood, sweat, tears, booze, ultra-lights, magic fairy dust or WHATEVER combination birthed this beauty. More Pinot Noir, too.
Besides their debut EP, Bella Ruse has also released ‘Twas a Bella Ruse Christmas, a 4-song compilation of Christmas favorites. Both albums can be purchased digitally at http://bellaruse.bandcamp.com. For more information visit the band’s official website or e-stalk the pair on Facebook and Myspace.
*Sadly, my Nora Ephron references are dated. Help.
12/01/2009 23:35:26 ♥ lara (
/lara206.vox.com)
♥ bellaruse.com ♥ myspace.com/bellaruse ♥ twitter.com
Somewhere along the line of when I was learning how to use a computer and eventually managing to build a website, RSS feeds became the 'thing'.* If you owned anything that updated, you HAD to have an RSS feed in case someone wanted to follow what you were saying.
In my case, no one.**
I did try to make a go out of using it, honest! I spent ages subscribing to the blogs I liked, organising all my feeds into relevant categories, and checked them whenever they updated. But it's just a bit disconcerting when you open Google Reader and there's thousands and thousands of unread items. I know I could just mark everything as read, but my conscience kept on whispering to me, "you haven't read that one yet. Or that one. Or that one. Or that little one you thought you could get away with. I saw what you did."
I'm one of those people that can't stand anything unread, and will always read all my emails (despite being crap at responding). Luckily, I can keep up with all my emails, but having thousands of unread items in Google Reader every day was annoying, despite me spending hours each day clearing it all. Eventually, I had had enough, and promptly removed the thing.
In retrospect, I could've just subscribed to blogs that updated less, but then what would be the point? The blogs I like update umpteen times a day, and I have no time to follow all their posts. Unlike some, I don't want to know what I've missed, which is what my RSS reader kept trying to do. I found it a bit like a whining relative. "You haven't read [blah]'s post on [blah] yet! Read it or it'll stay unread!"
This blog does have an RSS feed (but that really wasn't my choice; it came with Wordpress), and you're welcome to follow it if you like, but if you agree with what I've said above, don't. Heh. I would be honoured if you counted me as one of the people that you want to stay updated with.
I do see the virtues of RSS, as if you want to stay updated with everything a website does, and keep up with all the latest news, it's perfect. However, I feel that ignorance is bliss (at least when it comes to blogs). My way of keeping up to date with everything is... *le gasp* MANUALLY! I have a disarray of unorganised bookmarks of the blogs I like.*** I open them in multiple tabs every now and then to check on how they're doing; sometimes there's something new for me to read, sometimes there isn't. I may miss out on some things (for example, I missed out on the chance to buy a signed xkcd book a few weeks ago), but generally, I like the feeling of surprise and delight I get when I visit someone's blog for the first time in a few days to see that they've added something new that wasn't there before.
For me, the pros balance out the cons, and I know that my old-fashioned bookmarks won't nag at me if I don't read them for a while. They may be old, but they still lead me to amazing stories and show me new things every day.****
*Wikipedia tells me RSS properly took off in 2005, when Microsoft adopted it. Meh.
**A quick check of my stats actually reveals there are 17 people subscribed to this feed. Erm, hello there. Stay with me, please! *clings petulantly*
*** After spending ages organising my feeds in Google Reader, I just couldn't be bothered to do the same with my bookmarks, despite the fact that I am primarily using bookmarks these days. It's on my To Do list, honest!
****And my strange metaphor of the day is that RSS is the nagging aunt to my bookmarks, which are the really awesome grandfathers. I'll take the awesome grandfather any day.
Originally published at rammi.glomp.me. You can comment here or there.
Before I begin..what is going on with Vox? It's been acting weird..first I inserted a photo and it ended up on some weird part of my screen. Now there's a weird vertical orange line in the content box...I don't understand?!?!
I have a new addiction...and it is called needle felting. Have you tried it? It's so fun. I also started wet felting. I've made this funny looking macaroon cookie thing. I need to buy thos weird googley eyeball things and stick it on it. I've made a pin. I wet felted some soap. And now I'm working on a weird cuff/corsage. I can't stop! I need an intervention where someone stops me from going to the Home Ec Shop.
You can take a class with Jenny Ryan, who is really nice and sweet and super supportive. I'm so glad I could take a class this time. I always miss out because they really sell out pretty fast.
Thanksgiving was super fun. We actually had an early celebration the week before and then the day of I hung out with Ambookgeek and Melle. So fun! We watched "The September Issue" and then ate at the French Market/Quarter in WeHo. I'm so glad I could spend it with 2 fantastic friends.
Also, there's only "14 teaching days" (someone corrected me this morning after I blurted out - "We have 3 weeks left til break!!!" - nope only 14 days.
I think I will bake my cookies for the staff & faculty next week. I have some new recipes and I invested in a Kitchenaid stand-up mixer. I already made this awesome chocolate pecan pie with it. Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
Also, it's Worlds AIDS day today.
My last project at uni was to create book covers for Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll) and Perfume (Patrick Suskind) for the 2009 Penguin Design Award. Two book covers in two weeks is a lot of work but I got it done, albeit with some blood (got to watch those craft knives) and tears.
Here's my final cover for Alice, which my second and third year tutor selected as one of their two favourites out of the year (who knows why).
Here's a discarded idea for Alice that had quite liked.
