Monday, November 30, 2009

Oops, I don't know how to just put up the actual video I guess...will someone show me sometime?

Surprised Kitty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8

I've watched this four times already!!!

Saturday, November 28, 2009

salt heart

I was extremely stressed and near to tears about an essay I had to write that wasn't coming together. I came home and made myself a boiled egg. I dipped the egg into the salt in the bottom of my bowl, and it left a perfect heart. I felt the universe was telling me it loved me.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Presenting with the grown-ups


I made sure to store the pink, yellow and blue colored notes containing the wise words of Embrella Cat in my backpack. After weeks of anxiety and outright fear, I forced myself to get on the plane to my first professional conference...

The conference went much better than I expected! First off, no one threw rotten fruits or insults at me upon giving my paper- a very good start if I do say so myself! Secondly, I got some positive and useful feedback about my paper and, I also got a taste of how the profession works outside my own little department. Additionally, there is a chance my paper might be published in a series that comes out of the conference every year. (In the world of academia, publication is considered important, and it makes getting hired potentially easier).

Whew! I did it! And what's more, I think I can do it again:)

When I arrived at the Philadelphia airport, it was midnight, but بلدي رجل was there to pick me up anyhow! He brought me a single white rose, followed by many kisses and hugs.

This whole conference debacle just highlighted to me how very lucky I am to have authentically supportive and loving people in my life.

PS, I've since learned that بلدي رجل translates literally into something like "my man a state" and is completely non-sequitur...best keep using it then:)

Monday, November 23, 2009

Different Aspects of a Unified Whole

One of the things I like best about cognitive science articles and textbooks is that the authors are as likely to use female as male pronouns when referring to characters that don't have a specific gender such as "the reader" or "the average person" or "the main character of the story", it's refreshing and exciting.

I also like the silly examples they use. In a recent paper Daniel Dennett, a highly influential figure in the field, made a lengthy example of his vacuum and then descibed "Dennett's lost sock center: the point defined as the centre of the smallest sphere that can be inscribed around all the socks I have ever lost in my life."

I also find in the writing moments of insight into the incredible beauty of the world, "The most admirable and crucial feature of human intelligence that I see around me is not any ability to be right all the time, but an amazing competence in getting things on the right track once our beliefs, plans, or actions, have gone astray. As Joerg Siekmann once said, the most admirable moments in a mathematics seminar are not when someone presents a well-oiled proof, but when he discovers a mistake and recovers on the spot." My favorite moment of any ballet performance I saw was when Rex Herrington lost his balance doing fouetté pirouette and rolled out of it to come up on one knee, arm extended to his beautiful leading lady as if he was about to propose. Now that is grace.

My essay for a cognitive science course, is not coming together as I would like; but on the bright side, when I wrote to Code Yeller in alarm "I started talking to Mum about my essay and suddenly realized I am fucked. Oh shit."
Code Yeller wrote back, "Awesome. You are closed to finishing then. :) You've reached a critical stage, just pass it and you're done!"
So basically, I have to be like Rex Herrington, roll up onto one knee and extend my arm to my leading lady. No probbrem.

Good Surprise

I ran into Rafiki as I was walking to the subway from my last class. I leaped at him, and he caught my hug midair so my toes were dangling a few inches above the pavement as we hugged.

A Jewel for Margo's Navel

Kryptonite and I were wandering about our hood hungry with bellies rumbling, but Kryptonite explained he was in the mood for something slightly different, something new. Unless you have a special fondness for sushi, croissants or dog biscuits, and can consider each new variety as something exciting, there is never anything new in our neighbourhood. So we hopped on the streetcar explore our options in the many exciting cafés and restaurants opening up in Leslieville - all of which were closed. We wandered the blank and desolate streets our tumbling stomachs getting tighter and more insistent. At one particularly barren corner beside the Duke's tavern where some poor soul got shot last year, we stopped to catch our bearings. Kryptonite made a comment about an ad in the bus stop, and I asked "What are you talking about?"
His eyes lit up. "You don't mean you've never been there?" he said.
"The Sultan's Tent? No, what is it?" I asked in interest.
"Let's get a taxi," said he, "I think we can make it in time for the belly dancing show."
So off we rushed to eat in Morrocan splendor, while a beautiful girl belly danced between the tables for our entertainment, with hips that could dance like sunlight on water, a stomach that could undulate like the waves, and a costume so lovely in the colours of pale sand, that I coveted one for myself.
She brought people up from the tables to dance with her. My favorites were a little girl, who stood and shook like a stick in a blender; her daddy, whose hips could really move; and some old arabic man who really let loose with his own style. I danced too.
For dessert we took the waiter's advice and dumped my pistachio dusted creme brulé on top of Kryptonite's chocolate oasis and ate them together. Creamy, rich, lovely.
It was an awesome time.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

(update on) a world where it's always rockabilly

Alright, so I know the first video I posted is verboten (forbidden) for some strange reason in our country. So here's a taste of their goodness.
This is a fun video of their cover of Katy Perry's Hot 'n Cold, which gives you a taste of their 1950 stylin':


And this is the 1950's rock 'n roll style of cover of Rihanna that makes me dance around my room repeatedly. Aww yeah.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Study Aids

I've got my study aids all set up. I'm sitting in bed. I've got a bowl of clementines, a mug of hot apple cider, and a bag of chocolate chips. I'm as grumpy as hell, but I like my preparations.

Bubbly Words, Some of which I Understood!

A little girl and her daddy were speaking German in the grocery store I stopped by on my home from German class.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

many many many

It makes me very happy that any time I search for an email in gmail from any of my 3 lovelies I get a listing that tells me I have hundreds of emails from each of you.

It's enough to make a girl feel well-loved.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Stunt Action Hero!

Nanermellon got a call from Mr. Bond (stunt coordinator man) who she worked with 2 weeks ago...Mr. Bond wants to bring Nanermellon in for another stunt job! This lil elf may or may not have been in a store when said call was concluded, and may have been completely busted by another customer when she did a happy jig/jump and so said: "awww, you totally caught me red-handed doing my happy dance!"

The actual stunt is no big deal, but it means he wants to test out my other skills a little bit because he likes me and thinks I got skills. Mr. Bond is one of the main stunt coordinators in the city and does TONS of work. Although this is for the same show, "Cra$h & Burn". I have rehearsal for it tomorrow morn!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

I'm a sneaky elf :)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

We ALL want to be like you

Jaja was getting ready this morning and she said, "I want Kippen to give me more pants... I want to dress like Kippen too!"

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

I'd like one in extra fluffy.

I went to the Royal Winter Fair. All the cows were getting their hair cut, blow dried, brushed, and styled. It was extremely cute.
I would like one of these cows:




Their emo hair cuts and short stubby legs combined with extreme fluffiness were extremely appealing. We watched them being presented in the ring, and some of them got stubborn and grumpy, and walked into other cows, mooed expressively, and did their best to walk in any direction but the one their owners wanted to go. I really liked them. I asked Kryptonite if I could take one home as a pet and keep it in my backyard. I'm sure Mummy wouldn't mind...

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Grumpy Monkey

http://solomonblecher.blogspot.com/2009/11/grumpy-monkey.html

بلدي رجل Sent these photos of his nephew's third Halloween to me today. The subject line read "aw, grumpy monkey". If you have a look at the comments on the blog, he writes "What a nice little monkey. I would like to take him home with me." Nephew AND uncle-so cute!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

rustic pears for autumn

I got called into work today. Work is absolutely lovely. Walking through the door is like stepping into another world. It is a blast of warmth and humidity, and smells of good green things growing. It smells of life. The displays are beautiful, and it's beautiful and interesting to see their new incarnations... I have arranged them a time or two myself, but they are never the same. This time rustic pears nestled everywhere, like the pots had borne stone fruit for autumn in imitation of the trees in the fields. I adore my boss. I got to bring flowers home, and they are warming my entire room, rich and loving.


Encounters

1. There was a man in his truck singing at the top of his lungs as he drove down the street.

2. There was a man walking carrying a large stuffed elephant.

Monday, November 2, 2009

I'm in the pursuit of happiness

1. One of Jaja's ladies that she teaches brought her two bunches of flowers from her garden, "One for you, and one for your mother." They look beautiful.

2. In German the word for wife/husband is the same as the word for man/woman. In class today we were learning about possessive forms "mine, yours, his... ect." We were doing an exercise that had the sentence "Wo ist seine Frau? Er sucht siene Frau." and while working on it, one student translated it as "Where is his woman?" which sounds undeniably gangsta and funny. I like this student. He has a habit of saying funny things in a mild way. For example, when we had to draw our family trees it came out that he has 7 or so brothers and sisters. I heard him comment, "You know, I like having all these siblings, but if I had known I was going to have to draw a family tree, I would have left a few more condoms lying around the house."

3. When I do homework sitting in bed Princess Dragon often comes and snuggles up to my legs, using one of them as a pillow.

4. Rafiki called from the grocery store to find out if I had made apple crisp as planned last night, because if not, he explained, we could make it at his house tonight.
Well, I had made apple crisp, I said, but we could make another one.
"Did you eat it already?" he asked.
"Of course we ate it." I told him.
"Well, we could make it and cookies tonight." Cookies was our original plan. "What with the oven being on already."
"Of course we could." I agreed. I like the way he thinks :)

5. Jaja read me a story that made me go "boh" softly because it is so cute and solemn and sweet and true. It is from 'Adventures of a Homebody' by Karen Parker.
"A friend of mine claims she became a changed person the warm October day she saw a red leaf in a brown puddle. She was eight years old, composed - as most women are at that age, ambling aimlessly and happily through life. She stepped in the puddle; the disturbed water moved the leaf and caught her attention.
'It was just a leaf, like many others, and an ordinary everyday mud puddle,' she explained to me with that apologetic note we use when moved to something beyond the mundane, by the mundane. 'But , you know, something stirred in my mind or my heart - oh, I don't know - all I know is that I felt different from then on. I'd seen a leaf in a mud puddle. Really seen it, for the first time.'"