Things you learn on halloween

1. if you press snooze on your alarm clock, and also bump the regular time up by three minutes (to shorten the snooze time), your alarm won't go off.
2. apparently, people will party on Halloween night, even if it's a Wednesday.
3. Spike hates fireworks and I think my neighbours spent their entire month's rent on them. It's been three hours.
   
4. I'm such a lucky person to be receiving the sweetest packages in the mail from all over (Canada, America, & Bangladesh). They make me happy like chocolates and bananas. I mean, I knew this one before today, but it bears repeating. Hi Bears!
   
5. if you live in a small apartment, don't go buy Halloween candy because you will get NO trick or treaters. But don't worry- you can manage to pawn a lot of it off on your friends.
6. if you drink those coolers your friends bring you, and knit... you will be frogging a lot of stitches. Grandpa's sweater will not get finished by Xmas at this rate.
   
7. 50% of students will get the Medusa thing, the other 50% will think you are Jack Sparrow (dreads).
   
8. Moms are just priceless. Priceless.
   
9. teaching a guy how to knit a scarf for his girlfriend is so much fun.
   
10. it's 11:20pm and I won't be sleeping for awhile yet (see points 2 and 3)
    

So there it is. I've learned a lot today. And by the by, thanks for all the sweet comments left here on the last post. You all rock.

Peace, yo.

Lazy teacher candidate

You know what is funny? I've become less confident in myself as a teacher since entering the program. There is just so much to know, so much to pay attention to, so much to plan, organize, read, reflect, analyze, discuss... and that's just now! I've still months to go! And my teacher keeps on telling me to work on my confidence, because I raise my voice at the end of some sentences, but I'm like.... this is just going to get worse. Soon I'll be a high pitched David Beckham teacher. Ah well.

Today we have a day in lieu. I have hoards of lesson plans to get started on. Math, social studies, gym, and just finished a literacy one. But the thing is, the more stressed out I get, the more I want to knit, the more I knit, the less schoolwork I do, the less schoolwork I do, the more stressed out I get.

It's a fun month.

Luckily, the majority of my presentations are over. I presented on gifted learners, evolution, a case study on a teacher named Nan, A Bad Kitty, and soon... Dance! (Jazz hands!). I got a lot of positive feedback from my presentation on evolution which was nice. I was very concerned I was going to have some stern looks. Now, keep in mind this was a presentation to facilitate discussion, so I couldn't take sides. I did present both sides and since one side, you know- the sane one, has a stronger argument than the other my position was clear, but no one felt attacked for anything so that was good.

And here is a picture of Spike. This is when he decided to help me prepare the table for my friend's birthday dinner. He's just warming up the spot I was going to put the cake.

What a good kitty. A very very good good good kitty.

Everything is a secret

This was suppose to be a post about my knittings- it still is, but I just realized I didn't think this out enough before hand.

So this first project is a secret because it's for winner of the best halloween costume contest. And also, it's crochet. This is a funny story, remind me to tell you about it after the winner receives it. And this one is an Xmas present! Sheesh. This is as close as you are going to it get right now (it took me like three tries to get that sentence right!). I've been knitting on this at school and people are outright threatening to steal it.
This next photo isn't suppose to be a secret. It's the syncopated cap seen here (scroll down) designed by Kate Gilbert, but I didn't take any photos of the whole toque before giving it to its new owner- my friend James. I'll get a photo of it some time at school and show it to you then. It's totally awesome.
So there you have it. Is secret. And ohmigod, have you seen this site? Thanks to Jenn for that one. I have a lot of blog entries for this weekend. I have a rant about food, a rant about telling upsetting stories in public spaces and of respect to the dead, and a rant about intelligent (snicker) design. And then another one about embracing the chub.

I'm going as Medusa for halloween, what about you?

Twice the funness!

So this picture is funny but it's the only one that turned out half decent. It's my new hair!And this is a short post because it's 11:16, I have school tomorrow-but you see, I CRASHED this afternoon and zonked out for three hours! Three hours! Wtf? I'm not the one with a splitpea!* Honestly. So now I'm totally awake. Sigh.

Anyhoo, in other very exciting news... I got featured in yarnival! That's very neat and makes me smile. The other entries are uber fun, I'd recommend spending some time on all the blogs there.

Okay, I'm going to go drink warm soy milk and chew calcium pills.

*Wheeeeeeeeeheeeheeeeeeeheheheheeeeeeeeheheeeheheheeeeheheheeeheheeheehehee!

I mean really people

So, people from all around are using my apartment's dumpster because of the strike, so when I went to throw out some trash, it was full. I mumbled something about bastards and decided to wait till garbage day and left the little bag of trash under my sink. Anyhoo, some more bastards went and left their garbage in front of the dumpster, cause you know, the garbage man always gets out of the truck and puts bags into the dumpster. No wait, he doesn't. It's a machine arm and it doesn't care. Hence garbage day came and went and now garbage is strewn allllll around the dumpster. Ew. I didn't want to go near it, but today decided that I had to throw out the trash. Until I looked out the window and watched my neighbour pile her garbage pile her garbage ONTOP of the dumpster. Seriously. I mean, what was she thinking? So now if I want to throw out my garbage I would have to take her 4 bags off of the lid or just pile my garbage on the ground with all the other stuff. Decline of civilization is living all around me. I was going to put a picture of my new hair on here but I figured I would wait until I had a blog post that wasn't all about garbage. And oh yeah, I did a quiz and at the end it turned out to be one of those stupid chain things were if you don't send it to X amount of people than your wish will never come true. So that's right people, my wish that I could find my nail clipper isn't going to come true!!!! Oh no! Just for the record, I hate everything to do with that 'chain' mentality, please never ever send me one. I just get angry. But, I did find out some really life changing things, like that my priorities are (in this order) pride, love, family, career, and money. I like how money is last. Student loans will do that to you. And that I think of myself as noble, need perfection in my partner, see my enemies as 'ew' (that part is true enoug I guess), sex is precious (I'd do the fat hobbit), and my life is calm. Right. Calm is *so* the word I would use to describe my life right now. And also, for the friend labeling one, it said that I'll never forget one friend, and for another friend it said I'd remember them for the rest of my life- isn't that the exact same thing? Ugh.

I'm kinda cynical and snarky tonight. I think I would go to bed.

Bonne nuit!

*snuck*

so apparently I'm allergic to Calgary. Sheesh. I'm trying to do things like, oh, I don't know... schoolwork and maybe also... housework (since I have a friend coming to stay with me for four days and the place is trashed) but it's hard when you can't hear out of one ear, blow your nose every two minutes, and basically feel like crap. It's a sinus infection I think. I feel a little better today than yesterday but I don't want to miss school so I'm taking it very easy. I'm not leaving the house, nor am I getting out of my pjs. Frankly, I'm amazed I got out of bed.

So here's an interesting thing I noticed about Calgary. I could never live there because a) I'm allergic to it and b) sushi is VERY expensive there, but you know what? We went to the mall and compared to BC, women have more than one body shape there. Here, everyone is skinny, everywhere you go, skinny (and not the good skinny that some people are just naturally, the emancipated skinny). In Calgary, women came in all shapes, some skinny, some curvier, some bigger, but I mean, they were all good, and it just seemed like a greater range of body types. I loved it. We need to figure out how to get that over here. Rant over.

I went to my cousin's wedding this weekend and it was just wonderful. The service was good, the bride was *beautiful*, the reception was awesome- overlooked one of Calgary's 'lakes', good food, yummy yummy cupcake-cake, excellent tunes, and mostly free and then very cheap drinks! Woo! Go Lisa and Nick! Seriously though, it was just wonderful and I'm so happy for my cousin and her husband, they are perfect for each other. It was also great to see a lot of the family, my Mom, my aunt and uncle, my cousins, my grandparents. It was a very good way to spend thanksgiving. The turkey dinner comes next week when my friend and I get together to celebrate a belated thanksgiving (basically we want to eat turkey).

Okay, I'm going to go lie down now.

What's going to have to happen?

The title is in reference to my feelings about school, and what it is going to take in order for me to do my schoolwork. I love my readings and I love being in class, but oh my, between papers and groupwork, I am so not into it right now. Sigh. Some of the things I think need to happen are 1. more organized workspace 2. more organized binder 3. less groupwork 4. more good eating (this weekend was full of the very good, but very bad, kind) and 5. good hair days (I got my hair cut so hopefully that will happen soon). Anyhoo....

So here is my spinning stuff for mom. First I buy lots of yummy fleece. This here is 100% mohair. Very slipperly. But beautiful.
Then you take that fleece and you pull it and pull it but you never break it (well, sometimes you do, no big deal really). This is called drafting. Then your fleece is drafted and reading for spinning. So this is impossible to take a picture of without a friend there, but this is a 'representation' of what goes on: you spin the spindle and feed the drafted fleece to the spindle, and voila... yarn. (not so voila, there's more swearing involved and dropping of the spindle, but remember, this is just a 'representation'). Then you get singles! Singles have a lot of energy that will slant your knitting, so you can leave it as is, or ply them. To ply, I put my spindles into center pull balls, and then you can either ply singles to each other, pulling the center out and plying it with the outside, or you can ply two singles together. I wanted a really long skein so I plyed the two singles together.
This is a bad shot but basically, I put the yarn into little tubs with holes cut out of the top and then spin the two singles together, but this time you spin in the opposite direction. This turned out to be waaaay too much yarn for my poor spindle but I managed to get through it. And then you have the prettiest yarn you ever did see me make.

And now, back to the soul-draining paper. And oh yeah, if someone could come cook me dinner all this week, that would be awesome.

Thanks. (next blog, more talking- less whining, I promise!)




ETA: you may notice the progression of natural light in the photographs. I did all this spinning in one day (it's a gift skein) and started at 11am, finished at 9pm. I also did laundry but mostly, spinning. All day. It was more exhausting than I expected.

How to knit yerself a Pirate Scarf (or... it be a scarf only a pirate could love)

Avast! Here be yer lesson on pirate scarves. Of course pirates knit, yer scurvy dawg, many hours on the ocean vast, what else is there to do, to kill the time betwix pillaging and plundering? Eh?

Here be yer pirate scarf. Ah, that be a fine pirate scarf.
First, yer spin some yarn. Different lengths, different widths, this be a pirate scarf, full of piratey chaos, not some fancy thing an englishman would wear (oh I be mocking the englishmen!).

Next yer boil yer yarn, dye it in blood coloured koolaid.

Or, for the more modern day pirate, you microwave it in a marth stewart goblet. Be sure to assert your pirateness at all time by saying 'arrr' a lot and possibly doing some pillaging while waiting for the yarn to cool off.
Ahoy! What a booty of fine coloured yarns!
Armed with knitting needles that be adorned with the heads of your smaller enemies (9mm sized enemies to be exact), cast on (ahoy!) seven stitches and knit! Knit like a pirate!
Arrr, let the enemies of knitters beware! Remember, stripes be a pirate's trademark, we don't knows why, but it just is. Aye.
Change yarn when yer want, change the amount of rows, you be a pirate, you follow no rules! However, even a pirate with chaos in her heart knows, when one bulky yarn be placed next to a weaker, thinner yarn, it's good to modify the pattern to prevent a puffy scarf, like those of popular pirate sleeves seen on TV. When knitting with yer bulky yarn, decrease from 7 to 5: knit one, knit two together, knit one, knit two together, knit one. When you switch to your scrawny yarn, increase back up to seven: knit one, knit into front and back of yer stitch, knit one, knit into the front and back again, knit one. You be a smart pirate indeed.

And like finding a rich village to pillage, you soon will be quite a wealthy pirate. When you rampage a village, the innocents will stop to remark on your scarf, ah, the foolish die so quick. Wear your pirate scarf with pirate pride and remember, if it's chaos inspired, and you say arrr a lot, it may be a pirate thing. You may be a pirate yet, ye scurvy mate.

Helper Kitty

Since I've been so bad about blogging for Spike, we've decided to stop posting on his blog and I already a category for him so he'll just post his stuff here too. So tonight the post is about what a helper I have in Spike.

Here's Spike helping me read a knitting pattern. (ignore the mess) I don't know if this means he really likes the sweater, or really hates the sweater.
Here's Spike helping me break in a gift Julia sent me from Dhaka. It's a Hello Kitty cereal box. I guess he really wanted all the cereal to himself.
Here's Spike viewing the outside from ontop of my bookshelf, where he is not suppose to be. And it's completely impossible to get him down from there (he will scratch you) since you know, this is a very important vantage point in which to view the 'others'. It's for my own protection I'm sure (and if I have to pick up books from the floor afterwards, so be it).
Here Spike is helping me keep the laundry from the dryer warm. I had set it down to shut the door and I looked back and there he was, helping out. He zonked out for a few hours in order to fulfill his kitty duties.
Here he is helping me when I spilled soy milk on the floor. He stared and stared and stared, then he sniffed it, than he stared. Then he decided finally that it wasn't worth licking and walked away. And then I cleaned it up and mopped the floors. He's a big help.
And finally, here he is helping me with my homework. That sheet he's sitting on was my reference paper, and I guess he decided that I had done enough schoolwork and it was actually time to pet him. He's a very diligent cat.
So that's it for now, I actually have a tonne of photos of Spike, and I could do a whole blog entry about him helping me put the daybed together, but another night. I need to go get some spinning done :)

And no worries Mom, I'm putting together a spinning post for you- just wait to see the new fleece I bought! Wheeee!

Mmmm.... new obsession

So while my cat is freaking out and yowling in the curtains (literally, he's behind the pink curtains yowling and I can see his tail whipping back and forth behind them) I figured I would blog about my new obsession! Since I stopped getting cable so I could focus on schoolwork I've been picking up a lot of new hobbies to do instead of schoolwork, and spinning yarn is something I've always wanted to do but seemed really unattainable.

Nevertheless, here it is! My yarn!

It's just over 4.5 metres of length and is two ply. It is really really thick in some sections, kinda thin in others. I did this skein the night before my spinning class, just to get some practice on the yarn, but I didn't want to do too much cause I actually didn't know what I was doing, but I spun these two ...And then plied them together! Isn't that a beautiful drop spindle? I lurve it. I really hope I don't break it because sometimes I send it flying out of my hands quite spectacular like. Then I took a class, and despite being half an hour late (damn buses! I hate them so!) I was fine. I still have a few more classes which is good. I learned that I wasn't drafting the fleece that's why my yarn is so thick and fluffy. So this is what my drop spindle looks like now. I get a lot (a lot!) more yarn on there which is nice so I can get more yardage and it's much more consistent, and more fine.
I only do the inchworm method right now but I'm going to learn the more recognized way next week. And I'm going to get to work on a wheel! But they don't let you take those home :( . Some people in the class didn't own a spindle so they can't practice which is sad. Oh my, and there was one woman, who left after about 45 minutes, she just left! She said it wasn't for her or something and took off quick as a whip! She paid for all the classes and everything! She even had the NICEST wheel I've ever seen to work on! Craziness I say. I'm going to try to spin a little every day and then one day, hopefully this month, well, this month for sure, I'm not going to wait that long, I'm going to use my pretty pretty fleece!Isn't it gorgeous? Yum!

Okay, good night! Sweet dreams.

To this I do solemly (soberly?) declare....

to blog five times a month. Yup. I'm sorry but the last three months have just been plain bad. Three posts per month? Bah! (August only counts as three because the rant about raverly is more.... rant than blog) So that way I will have blogged approx. 70 times in 2007, and since the new spiffy blog layout, I've gotten kinda inwardly competitive about blogging more than before. So at least this will put me above 2005, but I don't know if I can beat 2006, and if it happens, good, but I don't want to force myself to blog cause then you'll be reading the same blog entry time after time (ie. bitching about something). If my life gets uber interesting and I'm ontop of things, then who knows, maybe I'll blog a tonne and beat 2006, or maybe my life won't get interesting, and I'll still be motivated to blog and blog lots and lots (ie. bitching about something).

I guess, and don't take this the wrong way~I adore blogging and all the excellent friends I've made through it and the doors of communication it has opened~, but I think that because before I had a lot to bitch about, and more free time, and blogging was a really neato fantastico fun thing for me to do. And blogging still is really fun and cool, but I'm finding that a) teacher education is taking up a lot of time (who knew?) and b) I have a lot of things now competing for my interest. It's like... ohmigod this is SO cool I totally need to blog about it.... and ten minutes later... ohmigod this is SO cool I totally need to blog about it..... ad nauseum. The rough part is getting to the blog before I fall asleep while reading Adrienne Gear (and not because she's boring, she's wonderful, she came to our class and rocked the freaking cazbah). So yeah, ranty blog means that I will blog more because I love it, but not become OCD about it.

So here's a fun list of things I've noticed to end the long ranty blog.

• PDA is gross. I don't care how much you are in love, nestling your head between your girlfriends ample bosom on public transport is icky!
  
• Spike sheds like a demon and in the six days I have been gone has learned a new meow that basically means 'you left me for six days so now I expect food and pets every second'.
• The thing about having a really good friend housesit for you is that you come home and discover she's taken photos with your camera, not dirty photos or anything... just really random photos. It's a good thing, my friends are crazy, but it's a good thing.
• Taking a break in Vancouver versus Prince George? Kinda like comparing the finale to the fireworks celebration of light to.... that rock over there.
• Packages from Dhaka sealed in cloth with string and wax are the COOLEST packages to get!
  
• Hello Kitty has a cereal, and it's pink!
• Angela got married!
• My Mom still makes the best dinners ever and I'm really glad she recommended the Beatrix Potter movie even though I missed the middle part I'd still recommend it to you.
• Jim is getting better at Mariokart.
• My sister is crafy.
  

And with that I bid you goodnight.

ETA: So this turned out to be this huge ranty email that I was not planning, so I just want to clarify, I don't think that people who blog more than me have uninteresting lives and have nothing else to do, not at all. I'm saying this is a new issue for me, stricking balance in my blog. I read some people's blogs and fall off my chair at the amount they do, it's all relative. Just wanted to note, is all. I was actually planning on writing about how much I love teacher school (seriously, I knew there was a lot going on behind the scenes but I had NO idea!). That will have to be another post. :P

ggrrrraaaaAARRGGGHHHH!!!!!

so.


turns out I was in Raverly months ago. They sent me an invite on JUNE SEVENTH!!!!




my bloody hotmail account noted it as spam so I never got it.









*smashing forehead on table*




but now I am in.

so I'm going to go there and try to feel better.

I'm trying to reconcile with it since I have been really busy with school and it would have been a major distractions.



still.




*cries*

and now I have a clock that tick tick ticks

I don't have a picture of the new clock, but I do have a picture of sushi. Mmmm...... sushi. So my Mom was up for a few days which was awesome. She was home waiting for me after my last class for the summer semester. We had a great visit, ate fun food, took lots of photos with her spiffy new camera, and rearranged my living room! It looks neato fantastico now. We also went to Granville market, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and went to see friends, and of course, shopping. Anyhoo, my new and improved living room looks as thus....
It's hard to see the Spike on the daybed, but he's there. We found wonderful muted purple pillows that were priced too good to pass up. There be some Bears beside the daybed there. The print is from the VAG, it's Romaine Lacaux by Renoir which brought me to tears the first time I saw it (you would cry too if you were there). The yarn on the chair there is in prep for a small knitting party I'm throwing tomorrow.
Ah, here is a shot of the Spawnkitty himself. He's guarding my knitting.

Here's another shot of my mantle as I wasn't happy with the earlier ones. The glass stars I purchased at a artisan fair in the North. The cubes are from a project for a class. Those took way too long to make.
Oh! Here's Mom and I at our sushi place (these photos aren't in order). Mom and I have a blast when she comes down and with her new camera we have a photo diary of everything (us at the art gallery, us at the piers, us at our friends house, etc.). There's also an awesome photo of me at a toy store overjoyed to be among the throngs of Bears to be (stuffies for those who don't speak Bear). Maybe I'll show you that one.
Ah, here is the painting if you didn't click on the link. It's mounted on a wood frame that's about two inches wide.
And my new yarn wall! Well, there's also books there but mostly yarn. I'm putting all the children's books I've been buying there as well, and my puzzles and magazines and chess set are there too, and Spike's toy, and my comics and such. Overall, my living room rules.

two second post

1. My bed arrived and was assembled but is faulty. Sigh. So the new part comes on Friday and my question to you is the pillow scheme.... a)one colour theme and if so what colour? b)season theme and if so what season? or c) rainbow theme?

2. I have spent the last four years growing out my hair from an unfortunate choice to shave my head (I looked like a monkey) but now I am seriously considering cutting it short (I'm still looking for a pic of the cut I want). Do you think I'm completely mad for thinking of cutting it short or do you think I mean, hey, hair grows back... so yeah, what do you think?

Beds, Books, and Blisters

First of all, look what I bought! Except mine is white, and it looks a lot better when it's covered in pillows, which I will do as it's mostly going to be a couch. Isn't it stellar? I wanted a sofa bed but I was finding that the couches were so much nicer to sit on, but more expensive, and then I saw this and I loved it oh so much! I get it on Sunday. Wheeeeeheeheehehehee!
I can't wait to cover it in pillows and knit away on it! I had so much fun at Ikea, it was nearly sinful. I could spend soooo much money there! And it was an uber good thing I had a good friend with me (Hi Sheena) who knew how to operate the store or else I would have been so lost.

So books, yes, books as in books and books as in reading. I had four presentations in two days, but at least all my presentations are over now for the rest of the semester. I've gotten really good feedback from my presentations so I'm pretty happy. For one I spent way too long making 16 paper cubes (who knew it took so long to make those?) to play a word game, another one was based on a chapter from my favorite book Matilda by Roald Dahl and I got my peers to read out loud (hilarious- one student so did the Mrs. Trunchbull voice), another one was funny in that it turned out another person in my group did homophobia in schools but we had two really different presentations, and the last one was group project but for my part I did it on self-efficacy and I did a drawing activity which was soooo much fun. Basically you get people into partners, ask them to draw a portrait of their buddy (so funny), then give them a lesson on basic face drawing skills, and then get them to redraw the portraits. It was totally fun. And it meant nobody could go on their laptop while I was giving the lesson either :P School is so good. No like honestly, I totally mean that. My living room is covered in paper, books, and construction paper scraps, but I'm so happy. Whee for me!

And blisters. Apparently, I'm developing a thing for shoes. Yeah. For Thursday presentation I wore my most darling twilight blue satin kitten heel pointy toe shoes. I got so many compliments about those, from both sexes, but oh, my poor baby toes. And I also have blisters from a new pair of sandals from Sketchers that are covered in miniature charms like starfish and seahorses, so cute! But yeah, no more painful shoes till my feet heal.

I'm going to metrotown tomorrow to buy some household stuff and pillows for my daybed, so hopefully photos on Monday! Possibly of my bedroom! I've a busy weekend, I really hope I get my bed early on Sunday so I can still make it to the Pride parade or at least some fun activities, and I'm going to the fireworks finale tomorrow night (I'm going to brave English bay!). So yeah, busy weekend so thank goodness for long weekends!

More photos

Brief text as somehow it became 11pm without my knowledge. The exciting news is that I actually did some serious knitting today! I mean, two rows on my cardigan and a swatch for a vest but still, compared to three rows on a sock that's something! It was kick started by a visit to a yarn store where I may or may have made purchases. Maybe.

Anyhoo here is a layout of my place (if anyone is wondering, I've had lots of requests for photos and plans, hence all the photos). The pink x is my walk in closet which is much bigger than it is shown here, I just didn't feel like fighting with portions right now, and the blue x is my mantle for my faux fireplace.

Number one is my front door, the brown fuzzy door below (in real life, not so fuzzy). And then my pulp door is beside that.

This is the view you get when you first enter my place. Right now the curtains are a bedspread from when I was young, which I totally adore. We're going to eventually get a sewing machine up here or something or take these to a sewing machine so they are more curtain-like, but I love that they are a piece of my childhood in Vancouver. And that's Spike on the floor there, and the floor is my kitchen floor.
To the left of the entryway is the bathroom, yup- here's a photo of my bathroom. Pretty exciting (and messy). And also number three on the layout in case you didn't catch the 'bathroom' label. I'm sure there was a reason I put the three on there but now I can't remember.
To the right of my entry way is my bedroom door (#4) and no, you cannot see photos of my bedroom yet. My bedroom is suffering most of all from lack of decorating. Sigh. The my bedroom door is a pirate girl, and on the walls are a star from Greece and a vase of yarn (bamboo and silk).
This is my kitchen from further in the entry way. Yeah, don't know what else to tell you.

And this is my living room from further in my entry way. See the star from Greece? Is it coming together? I'm trying to make this coherent but I'm never sure of the job I'm doing. Notice the papers on the floor? Those weren't on the floor when I left the living room. At least he doesn't jump on the mantle anymore. And if you go through the living room and go around the floating wall, you enter my kitchen again. Neato fantastico!
C'est toute! Bonne nuit!