green tea iced tea

What to Wear On TV

2011-11-26T17:38:00.002-05:00

Don't wear a lot of red or white - a white shirt under a blazer is fine, but white shirt & blazer will not look very good on TV.

If you have very dark skin, and you wear mostly white, it becomes difficult for the camera to pick up all the detail in your clothing and face - medium shades of clothing are better.

Don't wear light bright green, ie green-screen green, chances are you won't be in front of a green screen but better safe than sorry. In front of a green-screen, anything that is green becomes invisible - eg. "keys out".

Men
Don't wear your outdoors coat when appearing on TV. Don't wear a leather jacket or a jean jacket. Don't wear a buttoned cardigan unless you're over 65.

Wear a blazer. Wear a collared shirt. A dress shirt is better than a collared shirt, you don't need a tie unless you're a politician.

A golf shirt is better than a shirt with no collar, a golf shirt with a blazer looks better.

A turtleneck might cause problems if they are using a lavalier mic - it clips on like a tie clip. If you wear a sweater, a v-neck or crew neck works best.

Wear nice pants and nice shoes - you mightn't see these on TV, but then again, you might.

Women
Don't wear a short skirt, you might be perched on a chair.

Don't wear anything sheer, even if it's dark fabric - TV lighting is bright and you never know where the lights are pointed at, and what they might reveal.

Wear a blouse rather than a dress - the mic cable must be run up the back or front of your garment, comes out of your neckline and clipped on to your clothing. A skirt or pants are a safer bet, you might need the waistband to clip on a mic battery pack.

A turtleneck or floppy elaborate neck might cause problems for where the mic gets clipped on. A crew neck, v-neck, or a blazer are optimal for putting on a mic.

Don't wear jewellery that will jangle or clatter or swing - a better bet is to wear a colourful scarf. Your necklace might swing and hit the clip-on mic, and bangles that clatter at every move of your hand can distract from the reason you're on TV.

Don't talk too long! Watch for cues that your time is up. Get your message out concisely. It can look awkward if the host is trying to get you to stop talking and you add "and for another thing..."

Parents and small talk

2011-09-24T19:17:00.002-04:00

When parents meet with people who are not parents, they are often stuck for conversation topics. Often they end up saying things that are not intended as harmful, but come off as condescending, like "people with no children have so much free time!" They are attempting to relate to the non-parent, but only by discussing what it's like to be a parent.

Labour Day thoughts

2011-09-06T10:39:00.004-04:00

So yesterday was Labour Day. Labour Day celebrates the work done by unions, to secure safe and consistent employment for its members.

Did you march in a Labour Day parade yesterday? If so, did you then go to a convenience store to shop for a few things, or a fast-food place? Maybe you did, because in my area, the Metro grocery store was closed for Labour Day. Maybe you went home and watched the news on TV, to find out how the weather was going to be for your kids to go back to school.

I think that to be in a union, actively supporting it, and marching in a Labour Day parade, and then to go home and consume products and services that are not created by union-organized labour, is hypocritical.

People who work in fast-food joints and convenience stores are often not in unions. So don't give their bosses a reason to be open on Labour Day! If nobody buys anything on a stat holiday, the stores will eventually no longer open those days.

Television programs and commercials don't just happen magically. There may no longer be people physically pressing "play" on tapes, but there are certainly people at work on Labour Day making sure the computers play the right commercials at the right time. People who work in the TV industry are likely unionized, but scheduling unionized workers to work on Labour Day is kind of beside the point of having a Labour Day, is it not? Don't give the media a reason to broadcast anything on Labour Day. Let them have a test pattern up all day, it will give everyone a reason to think about why we celebrate Labour Day, and everyone can enjoy the day off at home with their families and friends.

And while we're at it, doesn't your ISP have people who make sure your internet is always up and running? Stay off the internet as well on stat holidays, give everyone a reason to have a holiday just like you.

Advice on dealing with your childless friends

2011-08-19T13:01:00.004-04:00

Yes, we don't have any children. But that doesn't mean that we have no idea about children at all!

Some of us vary in what we know about children, how to talk to them, what four-letter words to not say around them, how accommodating we are about them. Maybe I was an only child, maybe I have step-siblings not far off in age from your own children. Maybe I am a teacher or nanny or daycare worker.

Most childless people DO have younger siblings, nieces and nephews and cousins and other small children in their life. If you tell us a story about what your kid did, chances are pretty high that we can relate to it, however in a childless person way.

If I am your distant cousin, or a sister-in-law you don't see often, it can be even more difficult to gauge how much I want to hear about your kids. The LAST thing I want to hear is "but YOU wouldn't know anything about THAT!" It might be the god's-honest-truth, but it comes wrapped in a very condescending package. Or if you were to congregate with other parents you just met at a family gathering, talking about your kids and not including anyone who is childless. Don't assume I want to hear nothing about your kids. Talk about them all you like, just don't exclude me because you don't think you can't relate to me.

Please remember that we were ALL kids, even if it was long ago. Most of what you talk about, can be made relateable to the average childless adult, even if to say how much things have changed. I realize that children experience childhood differently than parents, but it is only polite to try to make conversation with another adult. Maybe if you meet someone new that seems to have nothing in common with them, you ignore them, but that's your business; I try to make conversation and be accommodating.

Please don't insinuate that I have all this free time, and don't be fake-sympathetic that I don't have kids.

Free time is like attic space: it gets filled up, no matter how much you have. I am given the shitty shifts at work because I don't have kids at home to attend to, and I cover for parents who must leave early or be off to attend to sick kids. I have a full time job, I have to keep my clothes up-to-date, I have to work late, I have to upgrade my skills, I have to commute, I have to go back to school. If I am not married, I have a boyfriend who takes up a lot of time. If I am single, I am dating all the frogs in search of my prince.

Maybe I do indeed have all the free time in the world. However please refrain from pointing that out, because maybe all that free time is a huge glaring painful fucked-up irony in my life. Maybe I am in a lot of grief over miscarriages, or missed opportunities to have my own children. Maybe I would trade places with you in a heartbeat, so please don't tell me how difficult it is to be a parent. Hearing about how hard it is to be a parent doesn't make me feel better about being alone.

Maybe I have pets and no children. Please don't go there suggesting that pets are not like children. My mom, who had 4 kids, and knows enough about kids to be an amazing primary teacher, says that animals are like children. Animals get jealous of each other and fight, you have to clean their poop, they are dependent on you. I get it, they are not children, but for many childless people, they are indeed members of the family. Don't say they are not the same; don't go there at all, because if a pet is a substitute for a family that has left home already, or children that were lost, it's too painful to have a conversation about. The children aren't there; the pets are, it's pretty obvious so it doesn't bear mentioning.

If you have children and messy pets, my condolences! That sounds like an awful lot of cleaning up poop and settling arguments.

I do have a lot of respect for parents. I enjoyed being one of four children. My mom and dad did a great job. I would give my eyeteeth to be a parent. So please don't tell me how lucky I am to have all this free time, because I fill it with hobbies and the internet, whereas I'd rather have children instead. But don't be fake-sympathetic, just talk to me like a human being.

Three things that are now gone

2010-10-25T12:37:00.004-04:00

There were 3 things that ended this year that I think it's too bad about.

CSVU.net
This used to be a place where I read Coronation Street. "visual updates". Mike Plowman supplied a plot summary along with screencaps. He did a great job - I was able to follow along for about 3 years when I did not have a television. I started reading his updates around 1999 or 2000. Granada eventually had him work for them, and his updates appeared on their site.

I have a television and a PVR now, so I don't read them anymore, only when my PVR didn't tape the shows, CBC Television feels free to move them to different times and my PVR can't catch up, at least the way I have it programmed.

So I had a peek I think in September, and the main page of the site was gone, though some of the material was still on the server.

From what I have been able to glean from the internet, Granada was cutting back and cut Mike Plowman. So no more updates, which is a shame.

Atlantic Ceilidh
This was a radio show on CIUT Community Radio in Toronto that focused on traditional Irish types of music, and like its title suggests, it spanned music from parts of Ireland, Canada, Australia, and other parts of the world.

I checked the schedule one day to listen to it, and it was gone. I called the station and asked about it and was told the host left because he no longer had the time, and that "no one stepped up with a similar show so we gave it to someone else" ie a staff member, I saw the name on the contact emails page.

I regret not listening every week, because I would have known about it and perhaps had the chance to step up and possibly become a host.

However I have had my fill of volunteering from my 2 years at CHRY in North York. Just the navigation of the system to get a show would suck. If I went now to propose a show, I'd have to start with a crappy overnight time and work my way up the food chain to a better time. This is best left to someone who is a grad student with a flexible schedule. I couldn't have assumed responsibility for Atlantic Ceilidh's existing 2pm Thursdays timeslot anyhow.

Apparently the host has gone to work for CBC. I'm not hearing his good work because all they play on Metro Morning is R&B or Latin music.

Ask A Nurse
The other thing that recently died is ask_a_nurse.
It was a Livejournal community that answered health questions. They had issues with people commenting with possibly inaccurate advice, so maybe this finally had them give up and shut down the comm altogether. It's too bad there was no explanation posted anywhere, it's just been deleted.

2008-02-24T01:14:00.001-05:00

I saw Jodhaa Akbar last weekend, I saw it again tonight. It wasn't quite as magical the 2nd time, I was analyzing its structures and how they cut up the songs - I had downloaded the soundtrack earlier this week and often had it on repeat on my computer or iPod. The sets, costuming, music, and actors were gorgeous. The music drew from a few different Indian styles, but I detected a vocoder here and there, it was a nice blend of modern and traditional. The movie struck me for a couple of reasons: the lead character, the emperor, was very committed to following his own moral path, almost like a superhero. He was trying to maintain peace and reduce the number of soldiers who died in wars, which seems the opposite of how conflicts are solved nowadays. At a few points, the characters were caught up in religious moments, and these moments grabbed me - I experience my own religious belief in my heart and body, rather than as dogma and rituals. It was nice to see religion worked into the plot on the big screen, it was validating for me.

vaughan mills visit

2007-12-24T08:14:00.000-05:00

Well I finally made it out to the Vaughan Mills mall, with its flagship store Bass Pro whatever it's called.
That mall was an assault on my visual senses.
The food court was painted a pukey hospital green, and there were some "food" mural illustrations near the ceiling at either end: the colours were pretty saturated, and they and didn't add anything apart from kind of being a focal point in a large space. There were some ceiling panel type things high above the fast-food counters, in a dizzying array of designs. It seemed no two were the same, which kind of made the whole room a hodgepodge of patterns and colours and I couldn't see any unifying anything about the area. I know some things that might look good on paper (or a computer monitor) might not translate into what looks good in the form of actual steel girders and corrugated steel ceilings.
There was one throughway that had a narrow purple ceiling with all these plexiglas curved panels reaching up high. That was the only thing I liked.
Some areas had carpet that was wrinkling up. My dad would have commented that the carpet needed to be walked upon and stretched a bit, before it was to be permanently glued to the floor, but in a mall, you don't have that luxury to let people walk on it to break it in, the way you do in a house. I'm guessing that it was the wrong carpet for the job.
I'm normally spending time in Sherway Gardens or Square One, which I realize are established malls and have had some renovation since they were built. Note to Vaughan Mills planners & builders: you can't go wrong with a beige or black marble floor in a mall. It will last forever, and you can dress it up or down, depending on what you do to the walls.
There is some "canadiana" in the food court, which is a kind of a nice touch. We sat at a table that had a map of where I grew up, embedded in the tabletop. But it gave the place an American feel somehow. (One thing was from Windsor, never been there; something with an old-school picture of Kleinburg's downtown would have been more appropriate.) Especially the Canadian flags in the Bass Pro store... wow that place is waiting to be spoofed in a movie, with its dioramas with stuffed raccoons and bears atop the change rooms. I kid you not! Also it makes extensive use of murals. I'm not sure what the planners were trying to say, by having all that type of decoration, strikes me as going for the most obvious, and lowest common denominator as well. I can shop for GPSs and tents with a bit more dignity, thanks, in MEC or Canadian Tire. The aquarium was a nice touch though, with people showing their kids the fish, right beside a rack of kids' toy guns. I was a bit moved, by someone's young Asian dad being riveted by the fish, he reminded me of the racially-motivated harassment that Asian fishermen were experiencing in local lakes and rivers lately. :(

I'd get it to listen to NPR I guess

2007-11-25T14:53:00.000-05:00

I was in the mall a few days ago, and they had a few armchairs set up in the mall corridor, but on the table beside them, these ones had little satellite radio recievers with headphones. I had a listen, and I found Bloomberg Radio and NPR, both of which might actually make it worth my while to get a subscription. If I lived in the US, I would probably just get it so that I could hear CBC Radio One, but I imagine I could get by on NPR. In any case, they market satellite radio by touting "Howard Stern, sports radio" which I give a big thumbs down to - if they'd told me I could get NPR, I'd've had more interest in it to begin with.

2007-10-18T08:33:00.000-04:00

Facebook has a crappy interface, especially when dealing with photos.

Can I make a photo that is in an album already, into a profile picture? No! Of course not! I have to download it from the album, to the hard drive, and then re-up it as a profile picture. I had to do this for my neighbor who is in her fifties. Also she cannot add photos at all, either I add them, or another neighbor does.

I have the distinct feeling that someone has cooked up all the menus and stuff without actually testing it on anyone.

babbehs

2007-08-08T11:14:00.000-04:00

I went to visit my wee nephew a week or so ago, he's 9 months old, and capable of getting around not too badly - he doesn't walk but he crawls. He can pull himself up to a standing position, and when I was there, he leaned against the coffee table, and proceeded to pull items off the shelf one at a time and smash them against the table top. My mom said there's a difference between boys and girls from the start, and clearly this dude is "busy", as she'd term it. His tenacity at getting his hands on any item in reach, is adorable and frightening.

In other baby news, I just got some photos and news about my cousin's daughter... she is not home from the hospital yet as she is not over 5 lbs, I don't know the whole story but to see her with a little oxygen and feeding tube setup was kind of... I dunno, my cousin is a super nice guy and to think that they can't take their wee daughter home yet and cuddle her at home, is kind of bleh. I'm making yet another baby afghan, I think this is the 5th, and I have it down to a science how many balls of yarn of which size make up how many rows of crocheting. But it was fun to pick out the cute pink yarn! Other babies had unknown gender when I bought the yarn, or were boys. I got some yarn for a wee cardigan as well, it will be wee for sure because a baby who is 5-6 lbs will still fit newborn clothing. I'm terrified that any sweater I start for my nephew will be outgrown by the time I finish LOL but with this little girl I think I have some time, of course I hope she outgrows it quickly :)

wired for sound

2007-05-09T13:35:00.001-04:00

My folks are moving... a long way...
they unloaded their stereo... on me! :D (:o)
It's a Technics setup, the speakers say 75 watts - it's rather nice and boomy. It was purchased likely in the early 80s, and our technophile neighbor helped my dad pick it out.
Right now I have Winamp wired into the Tape In phono jacks, and I'm re-experiencing some of my fave music through a new set of speakers, therefore with a new sound. I have never heard John Scofield's Uberjam so loud in my living room before.

I totally hadn't expected them to donate it to me, but I'm ever so pleased.
in other news, smog days are back, my allergies are acting up. I needed a refill of my Flonase spray inhaler or whatever it is, and because I hadn't realized how old the prescription is, I was told to get a new prescription. I hate the chokey feeling I get and it will be a relief to get this all over and done with. I only use it on smog days but I'm miserable without it.

tear up the roots

2007-04-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

My parents are moving... in 3 weeks... across the country. They sold the house fairly quickly, and the closing date was quick too. I am moving my crap out of their house like crazy... I wanted to scan in some of the photos in their albums but I will have to unpack them first. O.o

chemical brothers ho ho

2007-04-24T00:39:00.000-04:00

How have I not understood that this Chemical Brothers album, that I would like it so much? LOL I got it when my friend was dumping a bunch of CDs that she got given, that she doesn't listen to, and ha I like it quite a bit. I mean I'd heard of them, but never heard the album... I want more like it (Come With Us is the album)

Though listening to it as tired as I am, feels like I'm at a party

dunno!

2007-04-11T09:49:00.000-04:00

ugh... my throat is still sore and no one knows what is up... I have an appt. with a specialist... bleh. Not knowing is crappy... sometimes, in order to cope, a special kind of doublethink is required.

2007-03-23T23:10:00.001-04:00

I had a great day. Work was depressing, however we finished at 3pm, again, similar to last friday. And similar to last friday, I called my sister's house, hoping to drop by and see what was going on. My sister's father-in-law answered, they were babysitting and he wasn't sure when anyone else was coming home. I thought "what the heck" and went and bonded a bit with my inlaws and my wee nephew. It was fun, then we had dinner: inlaws, their friend, my 2 sisters, and my brother in law. It was some knid of crazy lamb dish but it was good.

The end.

2007-03-18T23:18:00.000-04:00

went to the santa claus I mean st. patrick's day parade... there were lots of other things besides Irish cultural things in it... I got there a bit late so it seemed pretty short. And yeah santa I mean St. patrick was the last thing in the parade.

after that, because it seemed really short, I had time to join my sister and her friend and my brother in lunch, we went to some funky asian fusion cuisine place. I tried a bite of my sister's pad thai, and realized that even non-takeout pad thai is maybe too spicy for me. I had tofu and asparagus and some other veggies and it was good. and not that spicy. Zanta made an appearance outside the restaurant window, and the staff quickly lowered the blinds.

I had a Sewing Circle kind of evening with my aunt. She made me dinner, I helped her assemble a baby carriage cover for her soon-to-be-born first grandchild. It took awhile, so we discussed everything under the sun, so it was very bonding. She makes excellent dinner so it was cool. She is my Aunt Martha Stewart. When we were kids, there was always the danger of us breaking something at her house, because she has everything Just So.

2007-03-15T23:52:00.000-04:00

man... the Domain Name Registry of Canada burns me up. (also the Domain Name Registry of America)

I created and maintain a web page for this lady. I got an email from her that she sent money to the Domain Name Registry of Canada, presumably because they sent her a letter that her dotcom is about to expire. It will soon. However, I have it hosted with Netfirms, and there is a lock on it so that no one else can renew it. So they complained that there is a lock on it, and she said "well can you refund my money" and they sent back a kind of "we can host for this amount, this many gig of download" etc. and so she emailed me, "help".

I called their customer service and said how it was a misunderstanding, could they refund her money? They said "who are you WTF" and I told them I am the webmaster and they said they'd email the lady to confirm that she wanted this, they didn't want to deal really with me. Fair enough. So I told her what email to expect, that it SHOULD be offering to refund her money. We'll see!

Basically they want to provide hosting. But how they do it, is to send you a snailmail letter, saying that you need to renew your whoever.com, and that you should really do it with them. The person 1) thinks that this is Internic, and that their whoever.com is in jeopardy, and sends them a cheque 2) thinks that they are actually the hosts, whereas they aren't yet, and the person will then switch over hosting to them. Then they offer cheap hosting. WTF?
What a fucking scam.

2007-03-11T23:51:00.001-04:00

As promised, my acoustic cover version of Perfect Way.

Please excuse the general mistakes and quality... improvement will have to wait until the blister is gone from my thumb. But the main point was the fun of the thing, so that might indeed be the final version LMAO

perfectway2007-03-11-21-37-38.mp3

I've learned a lot about how I don't really need to use a capo anymore, ever, if only I can get those barred chords a bit better higher up on the neck. :P

weirdo covers

2007-03-09T01:14:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to learn Scritti Politti's "Perfect Way" on acoustic guitar. It's quite an effed up little song, with its crazy harmonic structure. But I hadn't bothered to lift it till now, for some reason, though I love Scritti Politti. For example, the chorus is in Bb, which for my crap guitar skills, is kind of an alien key altogether, I have figured out to play it high on the neck, with my crap barred chord skills that can't help but improve through such abuse. The verse and whatever are in F#, which means that my C chord will improve which it should really anytime soon. I'm awesome at A and E and D, but I was already so who cares about that. I'm suspicious that while composing that song, someone just played a bunch of chords, cause I can't see how F# and Bb relate together at all, except to bend my mind out of shape, which is why I like it. As much as I love 3 chord song music, it's nice to take my crappy guitar skills out for a real highway ride, instead of still trying to practice parallel parking for 234897987 hours. Not to mention how crazy harmonic patterns look so different on a guitar fretboard, I'm more likely to remember them, as opposed to a piano keyboard, where my fingers slip into grooves worn down long ago.

I'll try to post an audio file if I can manage to get it to not hurt my ears.

more pavee lackeen, my entertaining brother

2007-03-04T22:53:00.000-05:00

I had an awesome day. Pavee Lackeen was amazing. It was shot as though following the family around during their daily activities, which included the kid getting booted out of school for fighting, visiting her brother in jail, gas-sniffing, shoplifting, and filling the kettle for tea, from a tap near the side of a road. Her mom was illiterate. It wasn't playing on your emotions, it was just pretty stark. The family is part of the Irish population who were booted off their land I dunno how many years ago, maybe 100, 200? I don't know, and have been living on the side of the road ever since. They tend not to get an education, and they don't work as much as they hustle for a living. Ireland's social services are trying to get them housing, and so forth, but this family's mom was getting hung up on not living in the neighborhood she wanted, etc. (I had to switch high schools and move around a lot as a kid, so I had no sympathy for them on that part!) Anyhow it was really good and my mom and dad enjoyed it. One dude sounded EXACTLY like a guy from Newfoundland would.

A bonus was that my brother showed up and saw it with us. He had gotten my email about it, but I had already shut off my cell phone so was unaware that he was going to hang out with us.

After the movie, my parents took off for their long trip home, but my brother and I went to Chinatown to eat dinner. Now THAT was hilarious, because he speaks Mandarin, and here's what happened: I got entranced by a store that sells, among other things, stone pigs, so I went in and bought one, because my chinese horoscope sign is the boar, and this is the year of the boar, so I need all the luck I can get, the lucky money I got last year didn't work, etc. etc. etc. While I was paying, my brother demonstrated his Mandarin speaking skills to a surprised fellow near the cash register, and some conversation ensued about whatever, I caught "Toronto" and "Ireland" - I know some cities and countries in Cantonese. When asked about his language skills, he was explaining to them that we were Irish, and then that Ireland had its own language, though we don't speak it. My brother told me the guy was likely a native Cantonese speaker, because he'd start in Cantonese by mistake and switch to Mandarin. The conversation looked lively enough, but there was some confusion on this fellow's part - my brother told him "my wife is Taiwanese" then the dude asked my brother if I was his wife. I wanted to try out my Cantonese skills on them but all I could remember was "yao mo gao shooah" which isn't polite - "do you know what you're DOING?" Besides I think that and being able to count to 10 don't matter much beside a dude who speaks the whole language.

Then we went to a restaurant that my brother and his wife go to. It was Northern Chinese cuisine, and our server was a chatty Mandarin speaking lady. She was also entertained by my brother's Mandarin skills. They engaged in quite a bit of conversation, and Ireland came up again. She said I was pretty, then later, that I looked French. He was explaining at some point that he had gone to McMaster, and I chimed in with "Hoymingdon" which is Cantonese for Hamilton (where McMaster U is) and she quickly told me how you would pronounce Hamilton in Mandarin (it escapes me at the moment) and I think they proceeded to make fun of Hamilton but I don't know that for a fact. Our food was good, I had some tofu that was deep fried and had some sauce on it. We had corn soup (seemed easy to make, chicken stock, eggs dropped in, corn, green onions) and we ordered too much food but some was stuff my brother wanted me to try, so you only live once, eh? I had tofu once that was deep fried with a coating like spicy fries, I like tofu.

Going to Chinatown with my brother is like going there with a special passport into a different world.

pavee lackeen

2007-03-04T12:11:00.000-05:00

I'm going to see Pavee Lackeen with my parents... my dad grew up in Ireland and he's familiar with the Traveller community - or "tinkers" as they were called. I saw it in eye magazine, my dad is all excited about seeing it, he was "where did you find out about it?" etc. etc. I'm excited that my dad is excited! He's not much one for movies or getting out.

another link

OMG I just read that 2nd link and I want to cry. "No, I wouldn't want to live in Venice. Eight euro for a cup of tea. I couldn't wait to come home."

ugh - baking misadventures

2007-02-17T00:27:00.000-05:00

Dammit - I made another ugly loaf of soda bread. The crust is hard and burnt, inside it's still a bit doughy in places. It should have a dense moist texture, which it has somewhat. It tastes okay, due to some sugar in that particular recipe - okay but still not really the way I remember my grandma's bread tasting. Then there's the issues of in Europe how they measure by weight, and in N. America, it's by volume. It's supposed to have buttermilk, and I use milk that I've just put a few tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice to sour it... maybe there's something in the buttermilk that does chemical magic that I'm missing. I think my baking soda might be too old. So there's many things that might be going wrong here. :D

But I just did some productive googling, and found out that in Ireland, they have mostly flour made from soft wheat, whereas in Canada, that's called pastry flour, bread flour is made from hard wheat. All-purpose flour is somewhere in between. So I'm going to go see if I can locate some pastry flour, that might be the majority of my problem, as every single loaf of soda bread I've made has been either too tough inside, or the crust was too hard, or both.

As it's supposed to be made with whole wheat flour, and there doesn't seem to be a whole wheat pastry flour (go figure! LOL) I'm going to have to try to use half all-purpose whole-wheat, for authenticity, and half pastry flour, for the right texture. It's supposed to be mostly or entirely from whole wheat flour.

Hopefully this finally works. I'm not exactly jumping off my chair to try baking again tomorrow, but I'll see if I can locate the flour at least, ready for the next time I feel like baking.

"passion for the industry" hmph

2007-02-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

I think I've come to the kernel of a thing that bothered me when I was at film school, and former students came to speak to us.

I was ripping something out of the free newspaper, and there was an article on film editors, a statement from it from an editor was "a lot of us lucked into this job". Well isn't that great for the person who has the job already! What does that mean to an audience of students with aspirations to have that job?

I would say, if someone is somewhat vague about how they got a job, if there was any large amount of luck involved, they seem kind of "I am not worthy" and smug at the same time, or, (my favourite) you need "a passion for the industry", then I would think very hard about whether you want that specific job, or whether you are able to roll with whatever opportunity comes your way.

yikes

2007-02-07T08:46:00.000-05:00

So this morning in Unrequited Dreams, I read about the sealers who were lost on the ice and found frozen to death.

Heh it's cold right now, -15C, without taking the windchill into account, so yeah, I'm glad I walk from the train station to work, one heated place to another. Though in that climate, doing that work, clearly it was an accomplishment for them to be coming home alive as often as they did. My own grandfather was a fisherman, and never learned to swim. How about that! It's the kind of thing that grounds you and you don't want to forget, but I don't want to tell it to my wee nephew if it's going to sound like it's making a caricature out of my grandfather. Our family doesn't roll like that.

colony of confused anecdotes

2007-02-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

I'm reading Colony of Unrequited Dreams. It's good, Wayne Johnston is a good writer.

Unfortunately my mom knows him, or knows someone who knows him, and also he's written a book about where she's from - Baltimore's Mansions - so much of what I know about his books is about all the "inaccuracies" in them. I was truly not sure what section in Chapters to look for Colony of Unrequited Dreams in, it turned out to be in Fiction. Oh wait, on Amazon, Baltimore's Mansions is listed as a memoir, to add to the confusion.

It's weird to have so much written about what is basically a small town, that happens to have a lot of my history in it, history that I largely have no idea about - what I do know is blended with a lot of folklore-like anecdotes that I have heard over the years from my mom. It was weird to go there last summer, and see people who were related to the people in my mom's stories about the place.

(Of course, small towns being what they are, I could see potential new anecdotes happening before my eyes, as we drove around, and as she talked about the goings-on)

Anyways for me, I don't think I'll end up learning more about Newfoundland by reading these books, as much as it'll be adding to the big stew of fact, fiction, memory, and memorable people that exists in my head about the place. I'll be reading closely, yet taking it with a grain of salt.

AM DX listening

2007-01-26T01:07:00.000-05:00

I like figuring out what TV and radio stations I can get.

My new mini shortwave radio would be fun if I could get shortwave stations on it - however it's just as much fun figuring out which DX AM stations I can get. I was surprised at how far away I am getting stations from: the italic numbers are distance from Toronto in km.

Of course I can only listen between 11pm and 6am, but because it's Dr. Laura and/or all news stations, I'm not really missing out. I don't mind a kooky late night show about UFO sightings, but haven't found one yet. My fave 11pm-1am host on CFRB is moving to another time, so I will be free to listen to shortwave & DX AM as of next week.

Looking at the map, I want to try some listening at night for AM stations when I'm in Newfoundland next!

I think my shortwave station frequencies and times need to be looked up on the internet again... it's been about a year since i last figured out any shortwave listening stuff.

radio geekery

2007-01-14T22:18:00.000-05:00

I bought a wee radio from this Radio Shack that is shutting down soon. For about half off, I got an Eton radio, it's made for Grundig, is about 2x3" and has 200 memories and gets shortwave bands. It's a great radio for travelling. So now I'm entering in the stations I got when I was in Newfoundland and Ireland (yes, I still know what they were - I figured them out before I went, or, I made note of them while I was there) and I'm going to figure out the Montreal CBC Radio 1 station, and some other Canadian cities just in case. For good measure, I'm going to try to put down talk radio AM stations from England too. Finding CBC Radio One in cities across Canada is not difficult because the music and talk is so distinctive, (and the audio can be shitty because some of them were wired with AM quality network feeds, but now air on FM) but the Ireland stations were a bit trickier - first, I have no way to recognize their programming, and second, because RTE (their version of CBC) will advertise its stations as "90 to 92, Two FM!" meaning that across the country, they might have transmitters here and there broadcasting on a range of frequencies between 90.0 and 92.0 MHz. For example, I could hear three or four different transmitters broadcasting what turned out to be the same thing. There's no way to really know what transmitter served my area best, it's better to tune around when I get there, and look it up when I get home again. However I'm going to bring a rough guide of the stations' coverage next time. Before I went to Newfoundland, I mapped out the CBC Radio One FM frequencies and the one AM station, and I got a grand total of zero of the FM stations in the area I was in. Still, my inner geek was pleased to know what kind of range the stations did (not) have.

Time to get some kind of padded case for this radio, because eventually, I WILL drop it.

Know what? BBC has an Asian Network, radio in Punjabi, Gujarati, Mirpuri and Bengali. How about that???? How cool is that?

the fun SCA event

2007-01-14T10:59:00.000-05:00

Well I had a fun day yesterday - it was awesome because the past 2 weeks have been a bit hit-and-miss. I went to an SCA event in Mississauga, not too far from where I live. I don't go regularly, one of my NY resolutions has been to start getting out to these events just to stay connected. So because I arrived after work, it was a bit boring because everyone was eating dinner already, I said hi to my one friend that I speak to on MSN, and then found a random table to pass the time. Boring at first, but it paid off - I got caught up in the dancing activities afterwards. I have always enjoyed these, haha, I won't pass up the chance to hold the hand of a nice strange man. Most dance steps were simple, some familiar, ie one dance had a do-si-do, and another had what I termed "the hokey pokey" because we stepped to the left, then right, then turned ourselves around. One person was terribly enthusiastic, and dragged in both people who were somewhat experienced, and newbies, and called out steps as we danced... so I guess if it was line dancing on a boat cruise, I would still have fun... don't tell anyone though. My friend from college was also there, so we sat down and chitchatted first, then we both did dancing, so it was pretty fun.

tout le monde en parle

2006-11-18T22:47:00.000-05:00

I'm having fun practicing reading French here... the FAQ section of the Tout Le Monde En Parle website.

It's a TV show in Quebec that has caught my eye from time to time... I only understand snippets of what they say, but the energy of the hosts and guests is entertaining nonetheless, and sometimes I recognize some of the guests.

Here's a sample letter from the section where the host answers audience letters:

7 novembre 2006
SUJET DU MESSAGE : Plus d'artistes connus

Je pense que vous n'invitez pas assez d’artistes connus.
Éric Brassard
Je pense que vous ne connaissez pas assez d’artistes.
André D.

OMFG. Pretty much, it goes:
Q: I think you don't have enough well-known artists on your show.
A: I don't think you know your artists well enough.

I wish I knew more French, but the French I do know is getting a fun workout.

more cat trouble

2006-11-15T18:11:00.000-05:00

well I heard from the vet.
It's not thyroid, it's not kidney trouble, it's not diabetes.
So now what? He wants to xray or ultrasound the intestines to see if there's something blocking there.
Not to sound like a bad cat owner, but it's expensive already. I talked to a person at work, he said that he draws the line at a certain point money-wise, and also at any procedure that is invasive, that is likely to stress the animal out more than it adds to quality of life. I agree. He gave me some good ground to stand on, regarding when to say "no" to the vet people. So I think I will say yes to the ultrasound, but no to anything surgery. But then what's the point? If the exams show she's clearly gotta be in some pain, then I guess we can put her down, and if she doesn't seem to be in pain, then I guess let her be, and try to make her comfortable.
I feel terrible for her because there's nothing to do for her yet. I tried feeding her, putting canned food in her mouth, but she's not so enthusiastic about that, and I feel pretty futile. I'll try again tonight but meh.
It feels weird to have Heidi under the bed, and Deena snuggled up to me ON it. I miss having 2 kitties on the bed. :(

sick Heidi

2006-11-14T15:21:00.000-05:00

My poor kitty is sick. She's 15 years old, I adopted her last year because her owner went into an nursing home. I have another one who is 6, I've had her for a number of years.
I came home yesterday and Heidi wasn't at the door - lately, when I put my key in the lock, I can hear her bell jingle almost right away. So I went looking for her, she was on my bed - usually she is waiting with Deena to be fed. But last night she was not interested in food, not even yummy canned food. She was a bit weak and slumpy.
Same story this morning, so I brought her into the vet's. I was in shock at the vet bill, but what can you do? As cats age, apparently they get either diabetes, kidney or thyroid problems, so they did a test for those. I thought she might have had a cold and have lost her appetite. I nuked some canned cat food and put it on her paw and cheek to see if I could get any of it in her. Since her last vet visit, she's gone from 8 lbs to 7, so I doubt it's just a cold at this point. My friend's cat died of kidney failure, his cat went real real skinny, poor thing. So I figure that she has something along the same lines. Cats can't talk, so I have to act for them, they are vulnerable.
Tonight I'm going to see if I can get some more food into her, or I might try baby food or milk or something.

2006-11-05T10:02:00.000-05:00

The fire alarm went off in my building last night. I tried taking a cat with me, but to no avail... I didn't make a really good effort, because last time, the alarm was triggered by a problem with water in the elevator, so I figured chances were fairly low that it was a real fire.
I was right. On my way down, I saw indications that the alarm was pulled as part of someone's domestic dispute.
I have heard that women, in reaction to being abused, will do something that ends with themselves getting arrested. I don't know what the end result was, the fireman eventually shooed us back upstairs. I listened on my scanner, but I didn't hear anything.

more geekery

2006-10-19T00:25:00.000-04:00

so... I'm getting somewhat proficient at morse code... well, better than I was a year ago. A year ago I ordered a 2 CD set of morse code lessons. Since then it's been kind of on and off... but recently I have plowed through it with more enthusiasm, and I know all the letters of the alphabet except for Q, Y, X, and Z. Well, I know Q and Y, but I keep mixing them up.
It's been a great thing for me recently, what with me having no social life whatsoever... it's a great distraction from that, better than eating in the Ikea cafeteria, or people-watching in Square One. It's a great thing to take your mind off of stuff, because, as daunting as it is, sooner or later, the more you listen to the CD, it actually starts to sink in, and you make progress.
Like, the milestone I have now reached, is while I'm walking from the GO train to work, I look at something around me, and I mentally spell out its name in morse code to myself, or I spell out things on street signs or whatever. It's fabulous, it's another language, and I have mostly learned it. The first day I did that easily, it was like a little breathless eureka moment and it was awesome.
And that's not all... I think I'm at around 5 words per minute, which is like 15 km/h. Slow. My next challenge will be to get practice MP3s on the net, which are rated at speeds up to around 40 wpm, which starts to sound like a human modem. If I can get 15 wpm, fabulous. That seems to be the higher level of ham radio license in canada anyhow, who cares about ever achieving 40 wpm. I will be happy if I can decipher the morse code automated IDs that the local repeaters beep out periodically during the day (on my scanner).
Morse code is geeky? Faaaahhhhhkkkk... who cares. I have a ham radio license anyhow to go with it. One of my favourite things about playing the piano was practising scales... same thing - enough repetition, the skills start to develop, and it's satisfying.
And! I am teaching one of my co-workers to knit. I started her off hard, with a 2x2 rib for a scarf. I figured, we're all grownups, why not? Flipping gears between knitting and purling is still messing her up, but she seems to be getting it all right. I'm showing her how to recover from mistakes too... as a kid, I learned one thing at a time, but as adults, we need lots of things to keep our interest level and motivation high.

sick still

2006-09-28T11:54:00.000-04:00

I'm still sick. I had mostly gotten over my cold but a few late nights seem to have brought it back full strength.

However I'm making some progress learning morse code from my ARRL CDs. Not much else going on, so I'm focusing my attention on it, and it's paying off. I'm getting bored already with the speed of the morse code on the CD, so I edited the files a bit in Audacity, and sped up the morse code parts, because eventually I'll need to hear it faster anyhow.

heh heh

2006-09-21T00:30:00.000-04:00

Today at work, it was fun, because on our break someone discovered that Hilarious House of Frightenstein is on during our break, on the Space channel or something. Aside from its camp Canadiana value, and the fact that it reaches quite back far into my youth, it was surreal to hear my Hamilton-area-dwelling co-workers discussing minutiae about where the show was taped and where Vincent Price stayed when he was working on the show. It's just a really funny show in a tenderly bizarre way, without even really REALLY trying.

Tonight I listened to Abba on my way home, and it was all I could do to not disco dance on the GO train.

sick

2006-09-18T10:24:00.000-04:00

Most summers, for one or two days, I have to break out the Nasonex to keep my airways open enough to breathe. This summer I didn't get away without using it, though that 1 or 2 days seems to have happened in September. O.o I have a bad cold, usually this kind of thing is due to smog.

TGIF

2006-09-15T19:41:00.000-04:00

Gah I'm sick today... I have a cold, one of those ones that makes you feel like you were hit with a truck. I took an advil one night because I can feel this pain from my jaw to my temples, and behind my ears - not sure if it's my TMJ + stress, or if it's sinus trouble. Today I didn't feel like eating much... for my before-the-news snack at work I had a strawberry freezy popsicle thing and some (wait for it) green iced tea. Nestea is my favourite - I don't know what they put in it, but crack isn't mentioned on the ingredients list. Thank god it's the weekend. I wanted to call in sick so bad, but I'll put them in a pickle at work, cause someone else is already off this week. I have a birthday thingie to go to tomorrow, I don't get out much so I do want to go, but I still feel like scheisse so I'm not sure.

some music goofing around

2006-09-14T07:43:00.000-04:00

here is some music that I made last night.
It's 12 min of random piano playing... I think a summer of trying to wade through Ulysses, and buying a Brian Eno CD this week have taken its toll.

Seriously though, I heard a thing on Ideas about 4 years ago on the connection between brain waves and music, and since then I've been interested in the idea that music reflects the brainwaves of the person who made the music (more or less) and I believe that those brainwaves can then occur sympathetically in the brain of the listener. The researchers on that particular Ideas had somehow transmuted brainwave info into MIDI data controlling a keyboard... and it sounded like relaxed improvisation, with chords - it made sense musically. So after I heard Thursday Afternoon, (well some of it) I thought if Brian Eno can make 60 min of the same chords, lemme see what I can do. However the material on that MP3 is not relaxed LOL

outlaw inlaws

2006-09-11T08:59:00.000-04:00

My sister and her husband have picked out maybe 3 Irish names for their impending offspring. However, after hearing the names, at the shower, a Greek chorus of inlaw aunts were hollering "how about something we can spell?" Ummm, we've had to spell our last name constantly, forever, so try again, let's hear a real reason? Our own first names aren't Irish, but I have to constantly spell my first name too, so meh. If I need to give my last name for something official, I don't bother pronouncing it, I skip right to just spelling it out. For unofficial things, I don't care if they spell or pronounce it wrong. I only have so much time in the day, right? In any case, these aunties have proven that it's better for everyone to find out the name after it's on the birth certificate.

back home from the rock

2006-09-04T20:24:00.000-04:00

Well I am home now from Newfoundland. It was truly surreal. After growing up without many close relatives nearby, it was weird to spend time on a road in which everyone was related to me, except for 2 families. !!!!! There was fabulous scenery as well. here are some pics

I saw Little Miss Sunshine. Not a film for the kiddies, lots of cussing and drug use, but it was very very good.

fun on the rock

2006-08-25T18:03:00.000-04:00

I'm in Newfoundland, on the avalon peninsula, in the Land of the Unnanounced Visit. I'm listening to CBC Radio One, either the Hali feed on Expressvu, or scratch AM radio form St. John's. It's unbelievably beautiful here. I'm related to almost everyone on the road I'm staying at. There is no gas station in this settlement. I picked blueberries randomly while on a walk today. Messenger is going nuts on this computer I'm on... I have no internet connection where I'm staying. I'm taking about 50 photos a day... I can see the ocean from the kitchen window. :D

I'm still trying to read Ulysses. It's gonna be a hard slog through it. I was starting to like the Erica Jong book a bit better. I also have a couple of Gabriel Garcia Marques books I'm starting on.

rock info update

2006-08-20T17:33:00.000-04:00

So I talked to my mom.

She is going to show me around St. John's. Good. No arm-twisting, she seems happy to do that. Yay! However I was advised to bring both winter and summer pyjamas. And not just fall stuff, still bring shorts & summery tops. Hmm! In my rapidly filling, brand-new, funky-coloured, carry-on-sized turning-out-to-be-not-quite-big-enough suitcase, I think I will have to rearrange. There is no DVD player available, at least they haven't been able to hook it up, so I may have to call my film & TV education into play when I get there, but not sure still if I should bring my King of the Hill and Office DVDs.

I made an intriguing discovery. Apparently, any area of Newfoundland that is NOT coastline, is pretty much uninhabited. Google maps, sattelite view, kind of bears that out. On teh Avalon Peninsula, one highway weaves close to the shore... that's it. Otherwise wilderness. *gets excited* My mom is funny though. I asked her if people go out into that wilderness at all, etc., they go for walks, but only as far as they can go without having to pee. LOL

Another bit of bizarre info, apparently the local mass is a half hour... LOLOL standard length of time of a Catholic mass as far as I know, is an hour. Well, all the more time on a Sunday to pick blueberries. 3 more sleeps

2006-08-19T20:38:00.000-04:00

Four more sleeps till I fly to Newfoundland. I was cutting and pasting from Google maps, to make myself a map of the area I'll be in, and I'm looking into what radio stations I'll be able to get there. Hmph! There seems to be no terrestrial CBC television reception in that area... I think my parents have a dish. We had a half day at work... I had lunch with some co-workers after, and it was fun. I mean it was more than fun, it was good to reconnect with them - I've been a bit grouchy for the past several months, I think I reconnected with myself today as well. I'm doing laundry & doing a trial run of packing my suitcase. I got a carry on size one because I thought I was all low maintenance, but it'll be tight packing 2 weeks worth of stuff in it, it looked big enough, but I think it's smaller than my deteriorating backpack. I don't know how to dress there, because it's stinking hot in Toronto, but I'm sure it'll be cooler there, don't know just how cool. Now that I'm used to the heat, I don't want to sit around being chilly.

2006-08-17T00:39:00.000-04:00

I go on vacation in less than a week. I am freaking out already at the thought of bringing my cats to the vet to be boarded. One hates the car. The other I only got last fall and I don't know how she behaves in the car. Just the thought of a chorus of tortured-sounding meows from the back seat of a car makes me a little sick to my stomach. I am going to Newfoundland where my mom is from. I haven't been there in 20 years, so I'm all ready to see some relatives I won't recognize. I am not entirely convinced about the goodness of this trip. I hope it's not something that I should have listened to my intuition about. O.o

day for night

2006-08-15T23:52:00.000-04:00

I made a neato discovery... Day for Night on Bryan Ferry's Bete Noire CD. I liked his music from hearing it on CFNY way back when but I didn't buy it till recently. I didn't start listening to it till I got an MP3 player program on my computer. Anyhow, I'm having fun learning it on my acoustic. To make my life easier, I tuned down a whole step so I could play the Dm in Em fingerings. I had to decode some of the chords on the piano first. Some of the chord progressions remind me of When Smokey Sings.

back to school?

2006-08-12T09:37:00.000-04:00

My knee is still painful, and I'm thinking it's not just the skin but some bruising or damage to what's underneath. Much of my weight came down on it when I fell. :[ I was poking around the skin that is not damaged, to see what parts still hurt. I can't bend my knee all the way, but I'm trying to keep everything moving. When I cut my finger (3mm deep) it took A LONG time to get back normal feeling & movement after the skin healed, so I know it can just be a waiting game.

I'm looking into taking some art courses at Humber. They are to trowel over the gaps left between my art history draw-your-dreams university education, and what would have been a better choice, graphic design. I mean, I did SOME design courses at university, but they... I dunno, in the senior years I did photography and sculpture, not anything that makes me confident for designing an ad, which would be the optimal goal of what I would need for a more senior position at work. Had I studied typography and graphic design at university past the year 1 or 2 level, yeah, I might have been more confident with things.

So... I've picked a little certificate program at Humber. I wanted to just take 2 courses, but the more I look at it, all 6 would be useful. HOWEVER some are prerequisites for the others. Yikes! My sup had indicated that Rogers would pay for an upgrade course for me, but for 6? And if one is in drawing with pen and ink, heh that doesn't relate to my job very much. :/ So I emailed someone at the college, and, thinking I could be exempt from computer basics (Illustrator, Photoshop & Quark) and drawing (did that at University, but thought, hey, a refresher course would be fun), the reply was that since the last formal courses I took in Illustrator and Quark was 9 years ago, she said I should likely take that course... sigh... I have visions of myself helping people with creating mattes and using the pen tool during the class. :[ But she said that with a portfolio or transcript, I could be exempt from the drawing. I mean, I can draw with 3 point perspective, but my drawing instruction was quite literally "draw your dreams" at university and I wouldn't mind brushing up those skills in a more graphic arts sense. In any case, the thought of making a portfolio has me thinking of all the things I could put in it, ie drawings of everyday objects, supplies I want to buy, etc. :D :D :D I'm getting excited about drawing again. The only drawing I do is the occasional doodling - the only reason I want to draw is to show them off to be critiqued in front of a class, to show off my drawing-fu.

first post

2006-08-11T19:03:00.000-04:00

Hello world!