January 31, 2007

5HR: January 31

Five in Heavy Rotation - those songs that temporarily put themselves on repeat, demanding to be heard and leaving just enough of themselves bouncing around to require one (or more) repeats.

Today's edition includes (and will be up for download later):

Wintersleep - Insomnia
Guillemots - Trains to Brazil
Man Man - Van Helsing Boombox
Broken Social Scene - I'm Still Your Fag
Swan Lake - All Fires

in other news, I hate my computer and am thinking about building a new one.
*grumble*


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cellular shenanigans

I really need to start adding pictures to my phone listings; I almost called Claudia (of Ubyssey/Joblink fame) instead of Claudia (ACF Exec) yesterday intending to either discuss or leave a lengthy voicemail regarding the lineup.

Failing that, I should just add tags like the above... now that I think about it the idea has some promise.

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January 30, 2007

like a monkey with a miniature cymbal

first staff meeting last night for XVI.

we watched the video from 11 and I recognized half the people (Graham with purple hair! Spencer on front gate! Ollie!) and then introduced the fair and our positions and whatnot.

...ye gods I feel old.

also I missed 24 and am torrenting it now but if anyone says anything, heads will roll.

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January 27, 2007

testing testing

I can't quite figure out what it takes to make my Recently Updated box update - it's running a feed from my last.fm profile but it's not working exactly as expected. I thought it would be all but live but I'm guessing that it only rereads the feed when I publish a new post, which is sort of lame.

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January 25, 2007

all systems blue

so blogger has a new backend, and in the name of science, I thought I'd give it a shot and see what the big deal was.

I'd already had the chance to play around with it to some degree when designing Elections Insider and I didn't really like what I saw; it took the previous notion of "design your page, and then inject our code" and replaced it with "ground-up solution! hoo-ah!" which makes some things easier, but makes most personalization harder, especially with the weird live colour preview system which isn't documented and requires a little bit of reverse-engineering if you want to add any variables of your own.

It did keep a copy of the (admittedly stale) scrapheap design so I can switch back if I want, but for the time being I'll probably keep poking at the thing and reporting back.

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January 24, 2007

life lesson #13483

there's much debate re: Joanna Newsom, most notably where Warren Ellis referred to her as a yowling autistic playing the harp with a brick and then got chewed out for it. as well as Ys' place on multiple year-end list and heck, Emily making it fairly high up Pitchfork's 100 Songs of the Year.

...damnit I lost my point.

oh, wait, here it is: I like it. It's not immediate, and it's not something I would put and leave on repeat (like, say, the Guillemots' Trains to Brazil) but it works for me and I found myself captivated earlier by the following verses:

Anyhow - I sat by your side, by the water
You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Thoough all I knew of the rote universe were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember

That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee


in closing: give things a shot, no matter what your favorite tastemonger may say. who knows what'll happen

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January 21, 2007

just a box in a cage

I can't help but wonder if I've used this post title before.

anyway: I'm not writing much, and I've been wondering as to whether I want to keep this whole shebang, but I've noticed that all hiatuses and rather long bursts of non-activity tend to lead to more promises to post more, and then more hiatuses.

Maybe I'm just a sporadic writer, or I fell out of whatever mindset is necessary to catalog and/or monologue about whatever my day included.

That said, I do like having an outlet (although I don't really like how the blog looks at the moment and will eventually get around to fixing it.)

also: is it weird of me to consider setting up a domain just so that I don't have a bog-standard gmail address? I mean, not exclusively but more along the lines of including it in the 'pro' column on the mental pro/con chart.

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January 12, 2007

sidenote to Sarah:

the pens were a good idea.

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how not to lead.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stephanie Ryan <auspresident@xxxxx.xxx>
Date: Jan 12, 2007 1:57 PM
Subject: [aus-list] A Simple Threat From Your President
To: aus-list@xxx.xxx.ca

Next week better be the best Arts Week ever.
If it's not I will kill you... all.
Remember Whistler, I will actually kill you.
--
Stephanie Ryan
Arts Undergraduate Society President
e. auspresident@xxxxx.xxx
c. xxx-xxx-xxx

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January 01, 2007

fuck you, 2006!

standard year end meme follows: go forth

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before?
Kissed a guy, came out, worked full-time, bought a console within a month of launch, had psychological counselling, used anti-depressants, had an RRSP.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
No and yes.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Clearly no, because I can't remember any.
[In retrospect, Tara did but I can't say we're close anymore (sadly)]

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No.

5. What countries did you visit?
The US.

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
To move out.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I can't be arsed.
Fair, birthday, wisdom teeth out, braces in, missing Spencer leaving, moving in, first night in own. fucking. bed., counselling, work, WUF, day one on drugs, Thompson Rivers, spelling bee, etc.

would I like to forget the summer? yes. will I? probably not.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Being control, walking away, letting myself be helped.

9. What was your biggest failure?
There were a lot.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Wii.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
They know who they are.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
They know who they are, too.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Braces, mortgage, tuition, etc.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Seeing people, Debutante Ball.

16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
Another Radio Song - Okkervil River

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Sadder.
b) thinner or fatter? Maybe a few pounds fatter.
c) richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Admitting.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Commute, meetings.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
At home.

21. Did you fall in love in 2006?
Yes. No. I'm confused.
Hold me?

22. How many one-night stands?
None.

23. What was your favourite TV program?
Battlestar Galactica.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nobody new.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Elements of Typographic Style.

Close runners up include the Virgin Suicides, and How to Be A Domestic Goddess

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Pipettes, or the Hold Steady, I guess.

or Sufjan. Hard to say.

27. What did you want and get?
Material stuff, space, etc.

28. What did you want and not get?
Material stuff, freedom.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
The Science of Sleep

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
21, and nothing, due to exams.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Stable neurochemistry.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
I like sweaters.

33. What kept you sane?
Effexor, 150mg, once a day.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Uh, most all of the cast of Battlestar Galactica.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
gay marriage reopening, Quebec-as-nation, etc. I wasn't stirred a whole lot, in retrospect.

36. Who did you miss?
Most everyone. Living in Surrey and working in Langley makes it hard to see people.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
uh, Luc and Jules from work, Ben King, and Julie Patrick.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:
everyone falls; it's the getting up that defines you.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
The Dismemberment Plan - Gyroscope: If he spins fast enough then maybe the broken pieces of his heart will stay together / but any gyroscope can spin forever, yeah / happiness is such hard work, and it gets harder every day /and it can kill you, but no one wants to be that tacky about it, yea / if you spin fast enough than maybe the broken pieces of your heart will stay together /but some things I’ve seen lately make me doubt it.

.

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breakdown to follow, but for now:

so much hangover. SO MUCH HANGOVER. I'm pretty sure I drank nough for, like, three last night.

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