Author Archives: Gillian
Coolest News of the Century
Possibly that is a slight exaggeration, but it is still pretty nifty.
For those who don’t know, my Oma was an artist, but we (immediate family – that is my dad, sister, and I) only have 4 of her paintings or drawings. There weren’t that many to go around after she died… until this:
Hi,
[My uncle’s wife who is a teacher] is on school break this week, so we took the occasion to clean up the basement a bit.
Do you remember a big trunk in [my aunt/dad’s sister’s] room? I never opened it till now. Guess what it contained…
It contains many (over 100 I’m sure) of Mother’s paintings, water colours and some oils. They are beautiful. We just brought them upstairs to air them out a bit (at least 15 years in the basement, I moved here in Feb 1991).
Whenever you come this way, you can look through them, and pick out the ones you want.
[My uncle]
Pretty neat eh??
Too good of a day not to post!
Okay, well it didn’t start out as a great day. I daydreamed through Interpersonal Communication, slept through Cognitive Psyc (I haven’t been feeling well the last few days), came home, had a nap, then went to my seminar fully expecting to play volleyball after it. I got to volleyball and found out I was told the wrong time and the game was actually at 9:30pm instead of 10:30pm, so I came home, slightly bummed because I was looking forward to playing. And that is when things got better! Waiting for me was the mail of the day – a card from friends of mine saying they were going to support me for China and a package from a publishing company. Inside the package was an advance copy of a book by a favourite author that I get to read, review, and post my review on this site! (So stay tuned for that, it will be exciting, I promise!) That is all very exiting for me, and my day got even better when I turned on my computer – I checked my email and I got a letter from my all-time favourite prof expressing his support for China and another contribution! All in one day! Could it get any better?!? Ahhh, bed time. 🙂
Its that time of year…
This is just a heads up to everyone who makes there way over to this area of cyberspace every so often: I’m becoming a hermit for the next week to ten days because of catastrophic numbers of papers and exams… so don’t expect to hear much from me unless I am in dire need of procrastination. So take care and I’ll talk to you in a bit (if I survive…)
Grad Photos!
I went and got Grad photos taken last week, and the proofs came back today. Now I need everyone’s opinion! Let me know in the comments which one you like best (or your top three)! (Click on the photo to enlarge it, and use the comments thread to vote). If you want some extra-fun, guess which one I like the least! (Hint: it is the one that makes me look about 40 pounds heavier.) Happy picking!
Back Home…
Well, I’m back home again after house-sitting for the last five days or so. In between sorting out my iPod (for the 10000000th time…) and cleaning up my room (where everything has just been dumped and the floor, as well as every other semi-flat surface, is difficult to see, I’m sitting here and taking some time to post.
On reflection, I spent way too much time in the last 2 weeks watching the Olympics. And the crazy thing is, by the end of the games I was still tearing up every single time there was a Canadian athlete on the medal podium. Call it what you will, but I’m going with fierce patriotism.
The other activity which occupied way too much of my time over the last week was searching and researching (in both senses of the word) a psyc paper. Every phrase I entered into the online journal database available through UVic library yielded either 5000 hits or none at all. That got to be a little frusterating after awhile, consequently, the researching has come to a screeching halt. Fortunately, I still have a week and a bit until it is due… I guess I will continue to perfect night-before-it-is-due-paper-writing technique.
You look happier than the man who thought a cat pooped on his pie and it turned out to be a blackberry!
I wish.
The ongoing saga of Apple continues…
In the last 2 months of the ownership of my iPod, I have been able to use it for possibly less than a week all told. Why? you ask. Well, because something is royally screwed up with either the iPods they keep sending me as replacements or the updating program as it is on my computer. It seems that every time Apple comes up with an update for iTunes and iPod software, my iPod goes haywire. I have owned this lovely thing since the end of July and in that time, I have had to send it back for repair no less than 4 times. Frankly, I’m getting a little sick of it. I still like the whole concept, but is there an alternative out there for me? I don’t think I could go back to a discman because the size and storage of an iPod is just way to fabulous for that. *Sigh* I’m at a bit of a loss at the moment, and quite sick of everything Apple.
On a brighter note, Canada actually scored a goal today in men’s hockey. Not just one goal either, but three. On the downside, they were all easy goals and “not worthy of the top ten show” (as one commentator said), but hey, they won. On the other hand, they are going to have to play a heck of a lot better if they ever hope to beat the Russians tomorrow.
UPDATE: Scott Feschuk is back!!!
Blog Boy on the Olympics:
That Said…
Let’s not count out the Canadian side. After all, that Gretzky chap can be quite canny. In 2002, he had that lucky loonie buried at centre ice to help lead our nation to gold. Maybe this time he’s buried a forward line that can sustain pressure in the defensive zone and actually score.
Perhaps even now The Great One is picking up the phone and darkly whispering into the receiver: “Begin the thawing of Lanny McDonald.”
Open Letter to Team Canada (Men’s)
Win a game already. Wait, even better, try scoring a goal. To win, you need to score a goal. Maybe I’ll convert to watching curling.
UPDATE: Ron MacLean has just made my favourite comment so far: “Grapes really thew them off with all the talk of running up the score.”
Yep, I guess we don’t need to worry about the men’s team running up the score. We need to be concerned with them getting a score.
Reading Break
And thus began the first day of my favourite week of the whole semester: Reading Break.
One thing I have never quite understood, is it a break from reading or a break for reading? Well, regardless, for me, the week will be a break for writing. And some reading too. I have an exam the first Monday back (which is, in my opinion, cruel and unusual punishment on the part of my prof) as well as 2 papers to get a good start on and a third to work on with my group. Did I mention that I am house/teenager sitting this week? And cleaning my house? (Well, maybe not the latter, but it is wishful thinking.)
Today was good though. Went into town in the morning to a great little breakfast place – John’s Place – and met up with a bunch of camp people. We sat and talked for a long while, which was a nice way to start of the day and week. Then Patty and I wandered around downtown for awhile, which you don’t get to do much but which I have managed to do twice in two days. Yay for a week of no classes!
Aside – I’ve been watching the Olympics [way too much watching to be precise] and am slightly concerned with the shots they have on the bobsleds and luges as the athletes go down a training run. Its kinda freaky to be looking straight ahead and see people standing horizontally at the edge of my visual field… these guys are nuts!
Feeding Fish
Only on AC’s blog can a discussion of hockey turn into politics. Case in point:
Leafs suck because Torontonians will remain loyal to them regardless of their performance. Just like the Liberals. The Liberals could run geckos as candidates in every Toronto riding and the House of Commons would be full of lizards. Likewise, the Leafs could ice a team of rhesus monkeys on skates with a gibbon in goal and a lemur as head coach, and Torontonians would still pack the place to the rafters. And I say this as a Leafs fan. Those Doug Gilmour/Wendel Clark/Felix Potvin days were great weren’t they? (comment by Raging Ranter.)
I don’t know who this housesitter is for AC while he’s away, but I like him already! I mean, how bad could someone be when their first post is about how bad the Leafs are?!?
gillian's island 