I am feeling at peace with the world right now, perhaps brought out by this self imposed solitude and giving ol’ Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s 2006 release another go. Perhaps it is the fact that it is warm outside again, and with it a false sense that things are going to be ok.
I especially like the imagery of the third verse of this song:
When the fever hits your forehead / and two sad mice chew up your bed / and you call on God / but God is dead…
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: Love Comes To Me
…until I start unleashing Christmas hell on your collective asses.
I even created a new tag, check it
So last night’s cryptic post about the poo smell turned out to be much, much worse than you, or I, could ever have dreamt. I will refrain from the gory gory’s, but use your imagination and I guarantee you that it was worse. Traumatized.
Trust me, you really don’t want to know.
I got to school this morning with that sick “pre-getting-your-test-back” dread, and moments later I was on top of the world…..85%! This is good. I think I may be able to pull off an A- in the class, and this is better than I could have hoped (or cared) for.
I still say “fuck stats,” but with a smug sense of saying it because I really hate it and not because I am doing terrible in it.
It seems as well that this blog is starting to grow legs – I had a record setting day, with almost 500 unique views today alone (all of which are going to one post, the Simpson’s grad studen’t clips, and not my award winning musings on life, love and a statistics text book). I also made it onto wordpress’s “Blogs of the Day” list, coming in at a decent 86th place. It’s gonna be hard to not feel sad once all these new visitors have gone from whence they came. To be honest, I feel a little cheap from the whole thing.
You got the touch! You got the power! (from the Transformer’s movie)
I was at my cousins house once whan I was little, and their house always smelled funny (there were 9 kids, so this fact is not surprising). This one time I went there, and it was the worst smell you could imagine. It turned out that a hamster had got loose and then died in some heating vent. When the heat came on, the smell was wafted throughout the entire house.
I am at work, and it smells really bad. Except, instead of a hamster, it smells like someone took a dump in the register.
I am not a happy camper right now.
This is from the Weather Network’s warning for Calgary and Southern Alberta. Note the apocalyptic ALL CAPS that they use, SO YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT MESSING AROUND:
THE STATIONARY YUKON HIGH WHICH BROUGHT FRIGID CONDITIONS TO MUCH OF ALBERTA REMAINS ENTRENCHED OVER WESTERN CANADA. NORTHWESTERLY OUTFLOW WINDS FROM THIS HIGH OVER CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ALBERTA ARE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE EXTREME WIND CHILL VALUES AFTER SUNSET AND INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. WIND CHILL VALUES OF MINUS 40 TO MINUS 45 ARE FORECAST FOR THE ABOVE MENTIONED WARNING REGIONS. LEASE REFER TO THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECASTS FOR FURTHER DETAILS.
My drive up was a little disconcerting, playing out like a scene from Mad Max (exchanging the extreme heat with extreme cold, of course) with all these frozen cars along the side of the road. After Friday’s events, I was feeling ultra paranoid that this could be me, and I drove with the wheel tightly gripped the whole way. Because, you see, this is the biggest problem with all those other poor bastards – they were not gripping their steering wheels tight enough! It makes a huge difference.
You can thank me later.
I love this: 700 Hobo Names (be sure to check out the illustrations while you’re at it!)
On my travels between Calgary and Deathbridge, I have been listening to an audio copy of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise. When I am done with it, you can borrow it if you like!
The full title of this book is:
An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order by Me, John Hodgman, a Professional Writer, in the Areas of My Expertise, which Include: Matters Historical; Matters Literary; Matters Cryptozoological; Hobo Matters; Food, Drink, & Cheese (a Kind of Food); Squirrels & Lobsters & Eels; Haircuts; Utopia; What Will Happen in the Future; and Most Other Subjects; Illustrated with a Reasonable Number of Tables and Figures, and Featuring the Best of “Were You Aware of It?”, John Hodgman’s Long-Running Newspaper Novelty Column of Strange Facts and Oddities of the Bizarre
I find myself chuckling a lot, and does a good job at passing the time quickly on these long, tedious drives (for example, in reference to only having two references to sports, Hogman deadpans “for more information on sports, turn everywhere else in our society”).
I am out the door, and I am going to try not to crash my car that I just spent $2246.91 on. Or maybe I will, because I just spent $2246.91 to fix my car.
My favourite thing is when people take big books and type long passages out of them for me to sprinkle in my papers…
Such as this guy did with the best book I read this year, John Law’s After Method: Mess in Social Science Research.
When I am researching a paper, I do this as well, and I am going to start posting them online.
For example:
Realities are not explained by the practices and beliefs but are instead produced in them. They are produced, and have a life, in relations. (p. 59)
Actor Network Theory summed up in one line!
Also, here are some pictures of people dressed in bannana costumes.
I love bananas!
I can’t leave them alone!
I’m crazy,
about bananas!
because banana’s ain’t got no bones!
Don’t watch if you can’t stand a thousand f-bombs…
Hot Chip: Boys From School
I listened to this song many times early this summer, and listening to this again is sort of like inviting an old friend over for pie (a weak excuse to revive some blocked, distant trauma).
For some reason, I forgot. I saw the video on The Wedge a while back, and had to strain to remember the melody. I knew it, somewhere inside; never leaving, buried under hope for the future and statistics.
Whatever it was, it rises again to make me feel incredibly sad.
Now this song will have to share a distinct summer at the lake memory and a November blues and christmas lights up-too-early again memory.
APPARENTLY the feud between PARIS HILTON and LINDSEY LOHAN has been heating up…
<- blatant hotlink
(this is blatantly copy and pasted. I did not write a word of it)
Lindsay Lohan has accused her on-again-off-again rival Paris Hilton of hitting her for no reason at a party held at a mutual friend’s house in LA.
Sporting a bruise on her left arm, she made the astonishing claim to a camera crew that was waiting outside her Los Angeles hotel.
She said: “I’m saying this on tape. She hit me for no reason, apparently, at my friend’s house. I didn’t know she would be there and she hit me with a drink and poured it all over me. It hurts and it’s not OK.
“I’m sorry for everyone who thinks I’m crazy but I’m just trying to act.”
The more you know….
For those of you, like me, who are up at this ungodly hour writing about Jack Katz and wishing he never lived (…bastard), here is some night-time post-rock instrumental inspiration, in liquid form.
Explosions In The Sky: Welcome, Ghosts /Look Into The Air/A Song For Our Fathers/Memorial/Your Hand In Mine/A Poor Man’s Memory /Yasmin The Light
______________________________________
“late hours, like gray hairs, are among the penalties of success”
I found this nifty little Dissertation Calculator.
This is a note to my PhD cohort: we should each pool 50 bucks or something and the pot goes to the first person to successfully defend (aka: me).
Remember: it is quantity, not quality.
So after a hard afternoon (and with a long night ahead) of manning this very keybord, I decided to take in some fine cinema in the form of Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny.
A few things first:
I came into this film a fan of the D, dating back to their Mr. Show appearances. Secondly, I totally identify with these guys. Which is both awesome and sad at the same time.
The thing about The Pick of Destiny is that there is nothing new about it. These two have been milking the “D” for almost a decade now. However, this is fine with me as the “D” have never failed to make me laugh. Throughout this film, I laughed a lot, and a few times, I was crying with laughter.
However, when I looked around the half-filled theatre, I also noticed that 90% of the audience was not getting the humor and were playing with their phones or sleeping or praying for death. In fact, there were a few points where I was laughing loudly, and then realized quickly that I was the only one doing so. This actually kind of sucks.
Take that as you will: if you are a fan going in, you will probably have a few shits and giggles, and if you are not, I probably wouldn’t reccomend it. Also, your enjoyment of this movie will be directly proportional to your tolerance of Jack Black.
Even if Dave Grohl is playing Satan.
here is a clip from the movie:
For those of you with a perverted sense of humor, may I present you with The Perry Bible Fellowship, my favourite web-comic.
A bunch of my favourites:
Here is something new to listen to while thinking about maybe doing some writing…
Maritime’s We The Vehicles is in my top 10 albums of 2006, which I will post near the end of December: Calm /Tearing Up the Oxygen / Parade of Punk Rock T-Shirts
I am pretty sure that Owen’s At Home With Owen will be up there too: Bad News
Bright Eyes: Lua / Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh (!!!)
Iggy Pop ( from The Idiot, 1977): Sister Midnight / Nightclubbing
Suicide (1977): Ghost Rider
This weekend, I got the best present ever…
The limited edition, numbered vinyl (10,000 copies worldwide, mine is 5972), with mono and stereo mixes of Pet Sounds on yellow and green vinyl in a gatefold sleeve. Very hard to find online, I almost gave up hope that I would ever get my hands one one without paying a million dollars for it. This thing is beautiful, and I almost don’t want to ruin it by listening to it. It sure beats my beat up original copy with all the pops and crappyness.
I am listening to it right now, and remembering why this is my all time number one favourite album of all time number ones.
Thanks Leo! You rule the school.
as described last week, and then check out this one (thanks Sheena!)
The Annotated Everything 