Went to see Rent last night: God those people can sing. i really really liked it. i want the soundtrack. i want the movie on DVD when it's released. i loved being able to feel smart because i understood the references to literature and philosophy. i want to live la vie boheme. i do not want to get AIDS (obviously).

Thoughts on Blogger: I was reading about the Canadian blog Awards, voting was last Thursday, and a surprising number of them are hosted on blogger. now, i like blogger and all, but i think the best of the country would most likely be found on someone's personal space, no? of course, i have had to give up on the website since my FTP uploader stopped working. lovely.

The weirdness of language: When did "grandma" become a derogatory term? I was reflecting about this on the metro. what's wrong with our society that we call old people family members to insult them? this is ridiculous.

Lastly, an update on my car: The wipers died. Lovely. Because i needed another repair bill before actually buying that stupid for sale sign. it looks like i am officially not going to be working next semester. part of me cringes at this idea, but another part of me is revelling in it. i am torn. is this good or bad? will i be able to cope with all my spending money being debt?

Plans for today: i am going to go fold my laundry and take a shower. then i am going to study for my latin test on wednesday. depending on how long i can manage that, i may spice it up a little with some studying for italian and working on my final project in latin. oh yeah. and i am supposed to see Steve today. what we will do is a true mystery. i don't feel up to lounging in front of a tv all day but i see no other options for the poverty stricken. i have $5 for the week after gas and that does not include what i will have to find to get the wiper fixed. crap.

There are so many. Primarily, i have been engaging in some serious non-academic reading. Watership Down, which by the way is FANTASTIC, if you have never read it do so, and a novel by Amelie Nothombe entitled Robert des noms propres. Also very good. Yeah, we've reached that time of semester where i manage to find tons of activities to avoid doing the work that is piling up and looming over me. The good news is that despite finishing both these books i have completed by arab essay, done my latin homework and begun my final project for latin. i have 13 out off 55 lines pseudo-translated. They do not make sense, but there are English words.
I had intended this post to be a tad longer, but Steve just called and he is already at home so i need to get ready to sleep over at his house tonight. i did not see him this week at all because of bad traffic and snowstorms. i hate winter. the only good part is the mittens, scarves and toques.
i am going to see RENT with Lisa tomorrow! Woohoo.

The cats have fleas. I can’t cope. Besides the torturing them by fastening a piece of plastic around their necks which make them scratch all the same, we brush them for at least half an hour each day hoping to manually remove every little egg and nasty, creepy, jumpy bug. I’ve been bitten numerous times during the past couple of weeks, but, oblivious to the facts, mistook the itchy bumps for spider bites. Spider bites that disappear in within a couple of hours of waking. I am stupid.
It was the bites that clued us in finally. Apparently my Mum is particularly appetizing to vermine. Which is ironic, because when we were infested with head-lice when I was in high school, thanks to that bane of a younger brother again, she was immune.
I have had at least three nights now of flashbacks to waking up in the middle of the night and combing the little buggers off the base of my neck. I ended up shaving my nape with a razor and wearing a ponytail really low on my head for at least eight months. It was hell.
So, on reflection, this experience has pointed out two aspects of modern society: one good, one bad. Not having parasites breeding, feeding and sucking on your body is definitely a plus. However, why are there little liquid caps to be applied to the nape of a cat’s neck to get rid of fleas, but not a similar remedy for the head lice that still circulates in primary schools. If I contract cancer later, I will know it came from spraying my head with the toxic lice-killing product for my MATTRESS after two years of useless shampooing.

for the first time since school started i have completed all the homework i planned to get done this weekend before an ungodly hour on sunday/monday night. i am celebrating my not writing a long blog to keep me up longer. i may write tomorrow, but i am pretty fed up of typing this weekend and know it is only going to get worse as i have more papers to do and reports to write at work this week. i am feeling good though. plus, my car is running and parked on my driveway...if anyone is interested - $2000. I need the money to buy my books next semester. pass it on.

i have a big paper due for monday and i am trying to write it tonight. unfortunately, i have spent too much time in the last two days watching the gilmore girls and am now getting pretty stressed out. i still have other work to do too, but it is the paper that is a problem. i am taking a break now to blog and then do another page of latin (also monday as well as an italian chapter test again).
i worked 17 hours this week. money is good. my car is supposedly fixed now. i am go pick it up saturday if all goes to plan. i went out for breakfast with Isabelle this morning, ate french toast, crepes, a heap of fruit and english cream before we walked back to my house where i burned a CD with some pdfs for school for her (she doesn't have the internet). i did laundry, my china history readings and fell asleep. i started writing my paper, did two pages of latin and then watched another two episodes of gg before spaghetti for dinner. not super productive. i have written another paragraph of my paper, confirmed that i have no italian homework just studying and am now blogging. i am not going to go to bed until the paper is done and i am going to do a page of latin in between each paragraph, so i will be lucky to be finished by 1am. it's my own fault.
tomorrow i am supposed to go get my car and go to walmart with my dad and grandmother because he asked me to as a special favour. i am hoping to be able to watch my China lecture tomorrow too. Maybe Sunday i will be able to start my latin project due the last day of classes...oh wait. i have a test in latin next wednesday. what's more important to start? God i hate this.

Today's blog is only on the videotron site. I put this here to let you know and give you the opportunity to comment should you choose.

I just finished a lovely dinner of chicken thighs my Mum made. Surprisingly enough, that is not a sarcastic comment. I am waiting for the water to boil so i can make tea and consume insane amounts of banana bread while attempting to translate 60 lines of Cicero's Scipio's Dream.
I think this will be the last week of posting to blogger rather than the videotron website. I am going to try and set-up a comment section, but if i can't i will just include a form for my readers - ha - to email me responses.
Last night i got drunk on three different types of alcohol: tequila, sambuca and vodka. We were finishing the bottles in Steve's parents' liquor cabinet. I do not actually remember falling asleep. After a day of hardcore studying it was a much deserved break from thinking. i discovered that i really like romantic program music however. Useful day. I am also far enough to begin writing my Arab History paper. I am going to stick to Latin this evening however.
Steve and I watched both Ghostbusters today. He shaved his head. It is quite a look - skinhead with a chipped front tooth. We made a big breakfast of little potatoes, cheesy scrambled eggs and toasted belgian bread. yum. it made up for my lean cuisine and grilled cheese sandwich dinner the night before.
i can't come up with anything deep right now. i should also seriously consider some creative writing soon, as i have gone a whole week now without making so much as an attempt. ugh. does designing the website count as "creative" because it should. i am looking forward to coffee with Lisa tomorrow.

i promised myself that i would blog tonight. i have a headache and my cat is determined to sit on the laptop. i want to see that i am in pain wil evidence itself in my writing. i think it might be easier to push further when it's crunch time at school if i really thought it would help and that my work would not just be crap. from the few times i have tried to finish latin translations after midnight, i have learnt that it is pointless to do more than 15 minutes or so.
yesterday i was supposed to do homework during the evening. i ended up getting my italian exercises done while watching CSI and doing my assigned readings for Chinese History before going to bed. The rest of the evening was "wasted" talking to Lisa and working on the CSS and index page for the webpage. Talking to Lisa was not a waste. I am happy to find out how she is doing. The webpage was though. A waste i mean.
i got a phone call at about 9am this morning, a hour into my homework doing and steve told me that he was not going to work today. i called him back and told him he couldn't come and pick me up (my car is broken again, but that's a different blog entry) until 11:30 because i just had too much to do and tomorrow couldn't replace today because i have an optometrist appointment. This upset me more than it should have. At 12 he was not here so i called and he had fallen asleep.
We went to see Jarhead this evening. it was very good. like full metal jacket but not as purposelessly disturbing. he loses it in one scene, but it is more effective if the guy has to live with the consequences of his actions anyways.
work went well yesterday. Neil had me explaining the origins of credit notes to him. i got to write up an essay on it (okay, not an essay, but i can't think of any other word right now, headache remember?) which, because i was in a peevish mode, mimicked the origins of species a little and included a section title in latin. yeah. i'm a loser. hopefully Neil will want to keep me even at eight hours a week next semester. Dad thinks he will, but he always overestimates my intelligence.
i only have five minutes left until it becomes tomorrow and i wanted a post for today. i did write SOMETHING yesterday. The mission statement on the webpage. it sucks. i can't write about myself or my goals without it being horribly one dimensional. i guess everything i write is very one dimensional, but i am more critical of my expressions of things that are important to me.

what a catchy title you say...
well, they are. i don't mean the normal adverbs that fit those oh so NOT useful definitions we were taught in high school: "words that modify a verb." I am refering to those pesky, unrememberable adverbs that are called "adverbs of time" or "adverbial conjuctions." have you never asked yourself what type of word "now," "today," or "furthermore" are? Well, i give you the answer. And they are a bitch to memorize, because in every day usage we take them for granted. They have come to haunt me in Italian now rather than just Latin (they are pretty much the only words i always have to look up in a dictionary now in the latter). We just completed a test on "adverbial prepositions," i.e. above, below, inside, outside...yup. those are adverbs. you try differentiating them. not fun.

on another note, i spent a good hour working on the other website. should you feel the need to check out the new layout, you can do so at this link. I found the time because my latin class is cancelled today. woohoo. i am going to go to Prof. Gittes' lecture of the Aeneid instead. Fun fun.

have you ever heard of a black serial killer? or a hindu child molester in north america? what can explain what appears to me to be a genuine phenomenon - i.e. those not of the ruling (i.e. white male) class or less likely by far to engage in horrible abborations of social norms. Actually i have a theory, you are surprised i know...
I think that this weird phenomenon stems from the fact that implicitly society validates the failure of any non-white male. White males have no excuse for failure, but on the other hand, society will permit them, just via their white maleness, to maintain a very limited sense of success for a short time (say to their early 20s). As they reach full-fledged adulthood, they are no longer able to function because they are actually so estranged from the goals of their social class - but they have nowhere to turn. Members of minority groups not only have a more worked out social network (i.e. a defined subgroup of semi-kin) but also have no "excuse" for not succeeding. This sense of powerlessness and failure exhibits itself in extreme cases as serial killers and child molesters - needing to hurt others solely for the purpose of making themselves feel power. note that unlike rapists, this is a long-term source of gratification - i guess the same would apply to serial rapists too like Paul Bernardo, but i also kind of consider him a serial killer so he doesn't destroy my argument. Members of minority groups (and in this case even women) who suffer from such problems manifest them much earlier on and they might even be channelled. Black youths in inner city areas turn to street gangs (as do other minority groups), women turn to prostitution or drugs and sometimes they recover.
Anywho, i am always interested in uncovering ways in which society is not just for the benefit of the "ruling class" because i find so many examples of affirmative action repulsive to my egalitarian principles. should there really be compensation for factors that are perhaps equally noxious to the other sex/group?
Lorne - i am particularly interested in your social/psych interpretation of my more philosophical theory.

I had a very nice time Saturday. Sunday sucked as Steve and i spent the whole day fighting, but what can you do?

I reflected on how nice it is to hang out with people who are generally more observant than the general population. Apparently, my conversation really reflected my desire this weekend to be kind of validated as an attractive creature and i kept having the same conversation over and over again with different people. the overall effect was me feeling better about myself. nice. originally this little blurb was going to be a bit of a reflection of how people can read other people's vibes if they just pay attention, but i don't feel up to it anymore.

on another note, and this one is more soul-bearing, yesterday with Steve was just so miserable that i don't know if i can take it anymore. i don't see why i have to validate the desire to spend time with my friends from school over the weekend just because there are guys involved. i do understand why it is upsetting for a significant other to be excluded from an activity. after much soul-searching i wonder how it is that we are still together. hard-headedness on both our parts i imagine. and because of car troubles and general money-worries he is on a binge of saying he wants to kill himself already...but how much of my being fed-up is actually my own inability to feel anything because of stress... i think the most upsetting element in this for me is the feeling cornered by his problems asides from our relationship and being prevented from making a decision. i am pretty sure i would not be considering breaking-up if i actually felt i could. but i can't. because i'm not that cruel. knowing you can't do something is just about the best way to find yourself contemplating if it might not be the "right" thing to do. i need a break from my life. i want to be needy and not the rock.

okay, that's enough dissing steve. it's horribly unfair as no one hears his side of the story, which i am sure is equally valid (if could stop my inner monologue long enough to actually hear it).

I am a little upset that no one gave me any contribution towards the gas purchased for car-pooling. i hope some people will step up to the plate and be responsible. as my dad says, if they don't it will just prove how horribly hypocritical left-wing students are...sharing the wealth is fine until it's your wealth...

there is a banana loaf in the oven. i plan on sharing it with the people who are coming to the LAS's annual Theme Week-end: This week-end's theme: "Murder in the Forum" a murder mystery/toga party. I have the wine bought, the car packed, and am getting kind of antsy to leave at pick up my carpoolers at the Cote-Vertu metro.

yesterday was a boring day. i spent the majority of the morning making directions and confirming they were right by driving up there. i managed to get a little homework done and some cooking. I went to Steve's, ate left-over chinese food for dinner and when going to return a movie, he got a ticket. now, though he says he stopped at the stop-sign, and i don't remember and i actually believe him because otherwise i think he would just complain about the purposelessness of a stop sign there, he is going to be able to get out of the ticket anyways because the police officer stupidly made out the ticket for not stopping at a stop-light. There is no light at that intersection (if you want to call it an intersection, it's where videotron's parking merges with a teeny residential street) and we can prove it simply enough by taking a couple of pictures. so we spent the whole evening worrying about money matters (we meaning him with me just be quiet while he fumed) and this morning when we actually took out the ticket and read it, lo and behold, no problem. i like it when things get resolved easily.

i got breakfast in bed this morning which permitted some extra reading while it was being cooked upstairs. yummm. and Arabian Nights is great! I can't believe no one ever reads it. There is a problem with our choice in reading material apparently.

okay . i need another cup of tea and should probably start my latin homework. i just didn't want anyone to think that i had dropped off the face of the planet. tata for now.

i don't actually believe in karma, but today my skepticism is being put to the test. as you may or may not know already, i stole a very desk-chair from the computer downstairs that my brother is always sitting at to write an exam two weeks ago. i have not given the chair back as i have decided that i "deserve" it more, i.e. i do homework in it. well, my cat has stolen the chair for the second consecutive evening. he sleeps there during the night too, so it isn't just a question of moving him. I have lost my bed buddy! Sniff...

I have come to a decision about next semester. If i can find a job for only 8 hours (roughly) a week, i will take 4 classes. If i cannot find myself a job that will permit only working one day, then i will enroll in a fifth class. i am aware this is not a cost-effective solution, but i think for the fifth class i might take something different like biology, journalism or creative writing.