Trouble with Chickens

Posted on by boj Posted in General

In the dressing room
In the dressing room

After searching through sewing, knitting and crafts stores for Hen patterns and not coming up with much, Chris and I decided that Chapters was our last chance. As we were browsing through the knitting isle, a helpful sales lady came by to ask us if she could help us find anything. I asked for sewing or knitting patterns for hens and she was off to do some searching for us. When she came back she was sorry about not being able to find anything, but we could always try and use a dog sweater pattern but only make two leg holes. My answer was Arooo? but Chris got the gist of it and explained that we’re not looking for a pattern to knit a sweater for our hen, but a pattern to make a stuffed hen. We all had a good giggle about the confusion and went off to finish up the hens that we started.

Preliminary Photo Shoot
Preliminary Photo Shoot

It is so facile

Posted on by boj Posted in General, Music

You might have noticed, though you probably didn’t, that I haven’t really refreshed my CD walled for a while. I have been in a bit of a rut musically. I wasn’t really ready to move on from the albums I was listening to, wasn’t willing to buy more of the same and wasn’t ready to get into something new.

I try and really wear out an album before I put it on the shelf for future reference. I had really hard time doing this with the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album I got in February. Overall I enjoyed it, but it never managed to stay in my car stereo for more than a few listens. Today it dawned on me that it is a double album with a single album’s worth of good songs. There were a couple of clunkers that made the album a pain to listen to. So my solution is to burn a CD without the dud songs. Now I’ve got a CD with 11 decent songs and can’t wait to start listening to it.

On another note, I’m all in arts and crafts over my latest decorating scheme. My friend Marina and I are making yuletide decorations over the Internet. If you don’t have holiday decorating plans yet and like hens, I’m your girl! Drop me a line and I’ll give you the full scoop. Here is a little sneak peek. Keep in mind that this is a prototype and as such it looks like the bottom of the pecking order.

Hen's butt

It’s a hobby

Posted on by boj Posted in General, Higher Education

This week I decided to pull a Rory and take some time off school. This was a very difficult decision since I’ve never dropped a course before. Of course in undergrad, if I didn’t have the bandwidth to do the course I would just float along, show up to classes, attempt the assignments and get a C. It got me through the university and got me a job. I don’t regret it since I have great memories of hanging out with friends and doing great fun things that you only get to do in university.

The underside showed up much later when I was not able to get into grad school with that record and ended up doing half a Master’s degree worth of courses just so I can prove that I can do Masters. When I got my first A+ in grad school it was a complete surprise. I finally figured out how to get good grades. I went through pretty much my entire education getting Bs and Cs because those were the only grades I knew how to get. The thing is that I always wanted to do grad school. I got fed up with my teacher the second week of elementary school because I wasn’t in grad school. I wanted to read journals that analysed plant growth and benefits of watering or the effects of communal and personal ownership on society. When all I got was condescending speeches on importance of washing hands after going to the bathroom (which was what I have been doing since I was old enough to go to the bathroom and wash hands by myself thank-you-very-much) I was outraged. It didn’t help that all of the kids around me were drinking in this wisdom like it was the first time they’ve heard it.

The gist of it is that I love grad school. I love submitting quality work and getting good grades. But I am really exhausted this year and can’t get myself to work full time and do a good job in school. I caught myself slacking and drifting in class. It is not because the class is boring. In fact, this is one of the most interesting classes so far, but I am not in a shape to deal with it and I need to rest. I am no longer interested in getting a C and just pulling through. I had to drop the class.

So now I have some time to rest. It is getting really busy at work too so I will have to put in extra effort to get things running smoothly. I am also very excited about the things I can do with my newly vacated time, but I have to make sure I get enough rest.

Book report

Posted on by boj Posted in Books

*** note to the nosy ones – I apparently already reviewed the Life of Pi. Well, there you have it. Not one, but two, brief reviews of a lovely Canadian book ***

I just realised that I’ve never talked about a few books I’ve read over the summer. So here it goes:

In The Skin Of A Lion
In The Skin Of The Lion Skin
I enjoyed this book. It talks about Canadian immigrants in 20’s and 30’s. It is also a mystery, an examination of society and a love story. Yay!

The Life of Pi
The Life of Pi Skin
Well, what do you know, I liked this one too. It is about a boy who gets shipwrecked on a lifeboat with a tiger. I’m not going to say much more about the plot because it twists. But it’s good and enjoyable and all that.

Currently I’m reading Margaret Atwood. I’ve been putting her off for a while due to her intimidating ways. For my non-Canadian readers, according to some young punk author on CBC, you’re made it in Canadian literature if Margaret Atwood answers your phone call.