thundering blissful

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*

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

January 12, 2007

sidenote to Sarah:

the pens were a good idea.

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

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.

.

breakdown to follow, but for now:

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

December 06, 2006

note to self: make these bad boys:

A La Cuisine!: Macarons (IMBB 10)

it seems like things that aren't work are mostly: attempt to get hands on Wii. Fail miserably. Bake. Repeat.

on the upside, the stories are getting better, and at some point I'll be able to buy one of the fuckers.

oh, I'm working on drafts for a couple sites, too - it should be a pretty interesting December.

December 04, 2006

three things

- interview wednesday for a project management assistant position.
- my Frakkin Cylon shirt came.

November 25, 2006

trials and triibulations

was fifth in line for four Wiis this morning at Zellers
Future Shop, Best Buy, Toys R Us and Superstore were all out.

bleh.

November 18, 2006

five in heavy rotation:

I sort of thought about pitching this as a feature to Streethawk, but the simple fact of the matter is that I am too entangled in other things at the moment (baking, overtime, not-schooling-when-I-should-be, financial planning, cute boys at work, the redesign I keep going on about, etc) to really put enough into it to satisfy myself and by extension the editors.

That said, I'm going to put one up, because it seems like an easy way to ease back into writing, and though I am typing all day, I'm not writing and starting again is a good thing for me; halfassery here leads to fullassery in things that matter (shirts, photography, etc)

so here they are:
Herbert - Something Isn't Right
Despite the title, I think there's a lot right here; the interplay of the vocalists, the endless sound-collage that Herbert crams into every sonic nook, and the gently groovable beat have landed this song a large number of repeats. Also the line "cover up / it's an Allied slaughter" appeals to my mildly twisted war-joke sensibilities. I wonder if Herbert would find the squid cake funny...

Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
I didn't really like this song until I heard it live, and along with John Wayne Gacy, Jr., it's become stuck in my head on repeat. It's hard to pick out any one thing that really, really stands out because it's all quite nice. I think it's the bit near the end "though we have sparred, wrestled and raged / I can tell you I love him each day" which is reminiscent of the end of Stars' Your Ex Lover is Dead but not really. Now, if only it was a waltz.

Radiohead - Like Spinning Plates (I Might Be Wrong version)
The guy who sits next to me, who listens and enjoys to most everything I put on during the day, asked me for my opinion on Amnesiac. I commented that while it was interesting, I thought a lot of the songs got a lot better live, and he asked me to demonstrate, so I played this. I'd forgotten how much I liked LSP live, and live Radiohead in general, so this popped back into rotation.

Ellen Allien - Alles Sehen
Previously mentioned cubemate turned to me halfway through this song, incredulous: "was that R2D2? Awesome."
He's also a big fan of Push, "so this song consists entirely of the words 'push', 'kick', 'your', and 'ass'. I like that."
Berlinette is good music for mindless typing to, and paired with the above quotes, it goes on at least once every couple days.

Ellen Allien and Apparat - Metric
[thump] [thump] [waaaaaaaaaaow] [strings]
While I have to remember to turn the bass down before I play this one, or my cube becomes the stationary version of That Guy In The Civic At The Intersection, there's something about this track that just works, be it in the bass, the subtle tension, the gorgeous string bits, or in the robot-cycling-down whooshes and whirrs that also occupy the song.

the downloads'll go up later; I'm going to read for a bit and then call it in so I can get up bright and early to go pick up a Wii.

October 16, 2006

whee!

glarkware :: frakkin toaster -- NoN -- ships late nov

this doesn't get to me until november, but goddamn if I'm not excited now.

braces, day 90

I'm not actually keeping count or anything, merely noting via Wikipedia which day of the year July 18th was (199) and which one this is (289) and then doing the math.

that said: I can live with this. The only real problems are the speed at which I go through toothbrushes, flossing and financing, and those are relatively minimal and I can see the effects already.

In retrospect, I should've taken monthly photos, but it seems like that would be making a bigger deal out of it, and while I'm quite pleased that this is a large positive change, there's no use fetishizing it.

I am, however, approaching the point where my jaw misalignment is pretty apparent, and while that's progress of some sort, it's also moving closer to the infamous jaw surgery, which promises to be a) painful, b) expensive, and c) will mean I can't talk for roughly ten weeks.

I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I suppose.

October 13, 2006

wrapped up in books

it's weird to realize that impulse-buying novels has become an avoidance mechanism and even stranger to make an effort to stop, but here I go.

the last six books for me to read are queued; three novels, what is apparently the best typography book written in a long time, the second of three photography books from Ansel Adams and then a re-read of Pattern Recognition, for nothing more than the flow of Gibson's sentences.

after that, I intend to move from almost solely consuming back into creation; I'm looking forward to getting my photographer's eye back. Also I find more practice helps my writing get better; both in terms of content and deliverance.

for now, I'm going to go finish Wind Waker and then shelve the Cube for a bit; while I admit to shifting gears rather abruptly, it's no excuse to leave things unfinished.

October 12, 2006

for posterity

me: "oh, fuck off. you're the one who was threatening to spoon me shortly after I met you."
corbett: "I didn't know you were going to like it!"
me: "well, fuck; neither did I."
corbett: "shut up and take the shot.
also, pour some beam into the slurpees."
me: "dude, it's 3 pm."
[pause]
"let's roll."

and that was how we kicked off one hell of a saturday at whistler.

October 11, 2006

triptych

the thing about posting lately is that I sit down and end up wanting to write three things in one, and in doing so end up doing nothing. I guess the most intuitive thing would be to write all three, so, uh, here goes. no neil-fu this post, and I'll explain that one later.

the thing about whistler for me is that none of the things that you're supposed to be doing, seeing, thinking about, or planning for are the ones that stick with you. This year's short themes for me were: bonding with Bock (things are cyclical; this was my year to watch over the puker and make sure he had water while he slept) and T-Whatever (Cosy/Rex/Bone/Bag/etley); coming back up to speed on ACF; quality time with Ryan; getting comfortable with my satellite-like status; and seeing Pringle again.

came back from whistler, passed out in the office (and didn't go home) then went out to sushi to see Jill, going from Old Man to young'un, and walking in to meet Paul to be introduced with "this is Gerald. we became friends after he puked on my feet." It was nice to reconnect on both ends, to remind myself of this transitory phase (within a transitory phase) and also to where I want to be in six months, as a motivation.

there's more to say here, and I'll get back to it later; for now I'm going to ogle cameras and create a savings plan to afford one.

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