Night Moose

I liked the dream I had last night. Towards the end of it I was staying in a fancy cottage in the middle of some deep dark woods. It was night time. I was out sketching by moonlight, and Mummy and one of the ladies who owned the cottage were out bird watching, standing in the woods just off the path. Something big and dark came gracefully lumbering along the path towards us. At first we thought it was a bear (and I went to stand beside mummy), but as it came closer I realized it was a big male moose with huge antlers. This was less scary than a bear, but in many ways just as dangerous, because if a thousand pounds of moose hits you with all its sharp antlers and hooves at 60 km/h, your just as dead as if a bear decides to eat you. The moose came running along the path, and as we were admiring him as he drew level with us, another male moose came running along the path. The first moose turned and fought. They were clashing their antlers and dancing in circles around each other, sometimes with big leaps skittering away, each seeking for an opening. At one point our first moose leaped past us into the woods, and as it did it brushed against my shoulder. It stood beside us underneath the trees for a little while, at one point it bumped into me (and apologized). When it was rested it leapt back into the fray and the moose danced and fought off into the distance, and I slowly woke up.

Make 'em laugh!

Planes are being held up all over Europe. At the Frankfurt airport they brought in clowns to entertain the waiting passengers.

hallelujah flash mob

Watching this I first thought, "I wish real life was more like this." Then I realized this was real life. Then I got really happy.

sleepy giggles

Rafiki stayed up late studying last night, and as he got into bed he got a fit of the giggles. I woke up to him next to me laughing for almost half an hour straight. Every time I moved or touched him or told him a story or offered him water it set him off again. It made me so happy that I started to giggle too. It was delightful.

Beaming

بي رجل is proposing his dissertation NEXT WEEK! (What happens with a dissertation is that you write a proposal first, get your committee to approve it, and then you propose the dissertation in public). I am so immensely proud of him and actually, in awe of him too. I'm in awe of his work. I'm in awe that he is so fully beautiful, beyond his work. And sometimes, I'm in awe that he can be so fully beautiful in spite of his work.

doodle

Dragairaffalina and I were doodling to keep our spirits up before presenting to the class. It is a part-dragon, part-cat, part-ballerina, part, giraffe. A Dragiraffalina-cat ... after which Dragiraffalina is now named.

What an excellent question!

Today I logged into my facebook account, and scrolled down my news feed. There I saw a status up-date posted by an old college friend of mine that instantly made me smile. Her three year-old son, Alejandro, had inquired this morning: "Why don't apples have wings?"

Classical Meets Reggae

This me happy. My friend Code Yeller has been sending me a collection of music as I work. This song is my favorite:

Happy Advent!

I definitely count you among my blessings. And here are some sheep:

Happy advent!

December!

It's December 1st!

The beginning of Advents!

The official beginning of the Christmas Season!

I is a happy girl :)

Now if only we could get some snow....

It is because they are angels :)

I find this magical and wonderful:

Scientists do not understand how bees can fly, given the size of their wings.

IT'S SNOWING!

IT'S SNOWING! Real big fat downy flakes, and they're staying on the ground!
I love the first snow of winter with all the possibilities of snow angels and snowmen, and skating, and drinking hot chocolate cupped in cold hands with steam defrosting your eyelashes.

Education

I had a dream that I was teaching kindergarden and I had a little Einstein and a little Charlie Chaplin in my class. And although they were little kids and not simply mini versions of themselves Einstein still had his floofy hair, and Charlie Chaplin still had his little moustache.

Cute...

KITTIES!

Hoes before Bros

Uterus-es before duder-oses
Ovaries before boy-varies

:)

I heart Wittgenstein

114. "The general form of propositions is: 'This is how things are.'-That is the kind of proposition that one repeats to oneself countless times. One thinks that one is tracing the outline of the thing's nature over and over again, and one is merely tracing round the frame through which we look at it."

115. "A picture held us captive. And we could not get outside it, for it lay in our language and language seemed to repeat it to us inexorably"

-Philosophical Investigations

Spoons are pretty cool, manners get you far, and you'd be amazed at the applications for Elmer's glue.

This is one of many letters that Helen Jane is writing to her unborn baby and posting on her website. First of all, I love the idea of writing letters for your little baby to read when she's older. My own Mum has lost a lot of her memory and ability to speak or write, so I know that these snippets can be so precious when the unexpected strikes. Secondly, I just love this advice:

A Novitiate can be defined as either the time or state of being a novice or a house where novices are trained.
Novices are new to the subject.

Welcome to your Novitiate.
(That’s our house.)
You will arrive a novice human, brand new to our species.

Who knows what experience you’ll bring to the game?
Past lives or old soul?
Brand new or wide open?

We’re thrilled to have you.
Your Papa and I can’t wait to show you what we’ve learned about being a human.
Spoons are pretty cool.
Manners get you far.
And you’d be amazed at the applications for Elmer’s glue.

There are two great things about you being you in this Novitiate.
You can either take that information we share with you and run with it, or
you can reject that information and find your own human truths.

But try to wait until you’re a teenager to reject that information.
We need to feel sage for at least a few years.

Borscht "Recipe"

Filly thought this was kinda funny, and I thought it was kinda yummy so here you are!

Okee, so here is me trying to remember pretty much what I did:

Stick a pile o beets in the oven to roastify, skins on. That can happen while you do the rest.I think the organic beets really helped with the deliciousification.
Chop up some onion and some leeks, I used more leeks than onion this time. Caramelize them in the pot with butter or oil and add some spices. I used some sage and lots of pepper. While that is happening scrub up some potatoes - I left the skin on but you could peel them i suppose. I used a mix of purple and red potatoes, mostly purple but do as you like. Dice those and throw them in the pot. Stir em around some. Push/peel the skins off the beets and dice them and throw them in. If you have some format of chicken with a bone on it you could put that in (I only had a boob so I used that), with an onion with some whole cloves stuck in it, a couple carrots and celery sticks, some whole peppercorns and a bay leaf, and some salt, and cover with water, a couple inches above the stuff. If you don't have those things just use bouillon and add chicken. I sorta did a mish mash of both: I had some turkey stock I had made but not that much so I put that in with the boob and co and threw some sprigs of dill in as well. Add a wee bit o sugar, I used brown. Let that simmer up for a while but not boil. I'm not really sure if when you put the acid in affects things, but I put mine in after it simmered for a while and then I let it simmer summore. I used a little bit of spicy balsamic (reg would do, but I did kinda like the wee kick) and some apple cider vinegar. I will say to add it slowly and carefully, because it is DEFINITELY better to have too little than too much. Simmer til you think it's tasty and take out the chicken bone and break up any big hunks o chicken. Shortly before it's ready throw in some chopped up kale. You can take out the stock veg, but I tend to just leave them in so them can keep tastifiying the soup. Eat with some fresh dill and yogurt or sour cream in the bowl. I think that's it...Yum!

This can totally be vegetarian - obviously just take out the chickeny parts and use or make vegetable stock instead.

Yup, that's my "recipe".

sweetness

I've been having a rough week/month/semester, and this morning my mum came into the room to find me in tears of frustration because I'd realized I had another paper in my imminent to do list that I'd forgotten about. I said I was okay, and she was quiet about it and left me alone, but when I got home today the little box on my dresser was filled with sweets and little chocolate mice.
It made me cry again, but it a good way.

My mummy is so nice.

To the Future and Beyond!

I was in a foul mood yesterday, a horrible mix of stress and helplessness and frustration.
I called and called but no one I knew was free.
I wanted to go see Back To The Future which, in honour of its 25th Anniversary, was being shown on the big screen.
I hummed and hawed, and then thought, screw it! and I went anyway by myself.

It was the best possible decision I could have made.

The audience was wonderful. Everyone was in a festival mood. There were cheers when the delorean was unveiled, cheers when George McFly punched out Biff, and wild applause when the movie ended. The faces that Doc, Marty, and Marty's parents make are delicious to watch, and there were jokes I'd completely skipped over as a kid. One of my favorites:
Marty: Doc, you turned a delorean into a time machine?
Doc: Well, I thought, if I was going to build it, why not do it with style?

It was nice to be reminded that I find myself damn fine company, and am okay on my own too.

Rawr.

thriller!

Next time you should all come thrill the world. It is SO much fun.



I loved being a zombie. And if you mess up the dance steps, who cares? You're a zombie! Just twitch for a bit. After all, zombies don't think about dance, they think about brains. BRAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSS.

It was also awesome being on the subway and seeing all the zombies heading home from the zombie march. There was an awesome Kiss zombie with "GLAM IS DEAD" written on his shirt in blood, and an excellent nurse with green skin. Someone on my streetcar would periodically shout, "Knock knock, who's there?" and all the zombies would cry, "braaaaaiiiiiins!"

necessity is the mother of MacGyver.

zomg, I've come up with the best thing ever. I put my little night table on my bed and now I can use it as a desk - it's just big enough for my laptop and a notebook - without straining my neck and while sitting wrapped up in all my covers. I love it.

Superman is doing good work in Canada

"In self-defense, we can only say that the magnitude of [our] errors is almost certainly less than if we had simply consulted our prejudices, which seems to be the usual alternative." – Charles Jencks, sociologist

incidentally, unlike usual portrayals of it in the media, the crime rate and severity index is going down in Canada, isn't that nice?

Great Marxist Quote

"...collective bargaining by riot..."

I picture super menacing looking rioters waving axes, knives, and possibly a guillotine, saying very calmly and politely, "Now sir, you can have your head or you can have our rights, but you cannot have both. We'll give you a few minutes to think about it."

Moss Landscapes

The ground around the cottage we went to this weekend was covered with a blanket of pine needles and moss. It was so soft to walk on, and made beautiful mini landscapes everywhere:

Love, illusion, freedom

The thing I like about writing up study notes is that I come across a plethora of quotes I found interesting and meaningful.

"An illusion cannot dispel a distressing reality. It just makes the reality more perplexing."

"Love may make the burden worth carrying. It does not make the burden light."

"No one can completely constrain another person. At some level, freedom is not just a right, it's a fact."

Pableo & Atheniet

Sometimes Why seemed to find it funny (strange?) enough, so I thought I'd share...


Me: "Can I bring anything to the Mexican dinner?"

Sometimes Why: "Can you get soft corn tortillas anywhere in your neighbourhood? That would be awesome if you could bring those! they are persona non-grata in greektown for some odd reason"

Me: "Oh, and you can't find soft corn tortillas on the Danforth because Greeks & Mexicans have a long running Toronto blood feud forbidding them to enjoy one another's delicious food products..."Opa" is actually a bad word in my end of town, and "souvlaki" is what we call unscooped dogpoop. "Opa! What the hell is this?! Some asshole dog owner left another souvlaki on my lawn!".

Maybe if we fall in love it will be our generation's neighborhood version of Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed Torontonians...called "Pableo (Sanchez) & Atheniet (Acidophilakis)", a real West(East)Side Story..."

Pirate's Booty

Mmmmm...Pirate's Booty

A nice philosophy

My favorite part of the book of Lao Tzu so far:

"He who knows others is wise;
He who knows himself is enlightened.
He who conquers others has physical strength.
He who conquers himself is strong.
He who is contented is rich.
He who acts with vigor has will.
He who does not loose his place (with Tao) will endure.
He who dies but does not really perish enjoys long life."

Mostly I like the first five lines, but it sounds weird without the rest.

chills and thrills

I love my steamer.
The boy next to me in German class has bedbugs. I came home and steamed and then poured Borax into my knapsack. I love the familiar smell of steamed cloth and wooden floors. I love the small measure of a peaceful mind it affords me.

I also did two very awesome (and free!) dance classes today. One was to learn the zombie dance from Michael Jackson's Thriller, and the other was a modern jive class that happened to follow it. Me and Jaja have some new and awesome moves to practice in the kitchen, and Jaja, Rafiki, (hopefully) Dragiraffalina, and I are all going to be awesome dancing zombies at the end of October! Ahhhh! So excited. *flaps arms*

Living in the library

I wrote course work due dates into my agenda this morning and then made up a song that went a little something like this:

I'm living in the library.
There's no life for me
Beyond this page
about a chinese sage
The words float into my brain
and sometimes out my ear again
Whether it's spring or fall
I cannot recall.
It's clear
I'm in fourth year.
All I see is in 2D
I'm living in the library.
...living in the library...

I also was sick yesterday (and the day before) so rather than working I made an advent's calendar. One down! One million to go :)

You're never too fancy for icecream

I saw this on Jezebel and loved it.

http://jezebel.com/5634120/youre-never-too-fancy-for-ice-cream

Anti-crimes

I love being mean in a nice way. A highly satisfying example of my way of venting anger is to make an advent calendar carelessly with no personal touches at all. Those are the first 24 postcards with a vaguely wintery feel I found? Then those are the 24 I'm using. I think that one might appeal to your sense of humour, or to our memories together? Well, then it's out. What are the 24 most impersonal snippets that are still with humour and christmas flavour and the ability to fit on a postcard? Well, those are the 24 I'm using.
It's a lovely combination of being innocent and vicious, doing something terrible and letting it slide.
It's like being extra polite to someone who is rude to you. It makes their behavior look ridiculous if they don't stop, and confuses the hell out of them.
Hell, I might also regret it if I said something nasty, did something mean. My temper is strong, but it passes. Im unlikely to regret being extra polite or an impersonal gift. It's not something that tends to burn bridges.
Watch out, if I ever get really mad, I'm likely to take up a life of more serious anti-crimes like breaking in and decorating. Probably in neutral colours.

Awww! Tootin' my TA horn

I am a TA this year for Philosophy 100. I've had two tutorials so far. The course director for Philosophy 100 sent me this compliment that he received about my tutorials :

"A nice comment from one of your students:

My teaching assistant in your class, ______, is so unbelievably helpful and has made both discussions entertaining and successful."

Awww! I like you too students!

GPS Wheelchairs

In the midst of my grumblings about the CNE, I had a lovely moment that made me smile. I was locking up my bike one day by the gate and an elderly couple cruise (well, an elderly cruise) by joking with each other.

Lady: "Oh, that's where the Dufferin Gates are! My goodness."
Fella: "Well, I guess if we had come on our GPS wheelchairs we would have found it a little earlier."
Lady: (chuckling) "Yes, maybe. Maybe we would have."

Beautiful Yum

I made cupcakes and then cookies with the left over icing and I'm proud of them.


The cupcakes are made out of stripes of chocolate cake and lemon-ginger cake, with cream-cheese icing (plain and chocolate) and chocolate butterflies (milk and white). The cookies are crispy orange-maple cookies with chocolate-lemon cream cheese icing.

My neighbours

Often I'll do reading, grading or writing out on our porch. I'm often visited by these little butterflies, who carry on a love affair with this bush in our yard.

"God loves all her children, even the straight ones"

This video made me laugh out loud-and hurrah for gay rights in California!

Being on the mend

I'm sure you know the moment I'm about to describe. This is the moment when after a time of being sick, you find yourself able to perform mundane tasks, and it thrills you. These are tasks that, when in good health, you perform without thinking. Like plucking one's eyebrows, or making the bed, or getting dressed. It felt so damn good to get dressed today.

I like this moment between illness and full health precisely because it highlights the minute tasks my body can perform and makes them miraculous. Today, I am very grateful for my resourceful and resilient body that can do so much, including pluck my eyebrows:)

Princess Dragon and Us

I really enjoy that my mummy calls the cat's food "Stinky Tom" rather than the accurate "Snappy Tom". It is a far more descriptive and evocative of the essence of the food.

"Chicken" Noodle Soup

I'm sick, and so is بلدي رجل. Nonetheless, he is making me vegetarian "chicken" noodle soup with miso and rice noodles this very minute. He is so very the best.

Food of the Gods

I woke up in a huffly-grumpy mood, and there on the desk in front of me sat a bowl of watermelon glowing in the morning sunlight. It made my morning.

The Macrame That Yoda Made

Dad asked Jaja if she had seen "the.... on the table."
Jaja heard "Have you seen the macrame that yoda made on the table?"
Dad asked "Have you seen the macrolepiota on the table?"
It was a mushroom :)

yummy deliciousness

I've been feeling like Liebchen doesn't really take care of me in the doing of nice little things for me the way that I do for him.

Apparently he heard me loud and clear because it was his day off today and I came home to an amazingly delicious totally gluten and dairy free bread pudding.

It tastes so good all on it's own but it's even that little bit sweeter 'cause he did it just for me.

Cafe and the Opera

I wish every cafe I went into was like this.

That's What She Said

Sound bites from this evening:

"What?! How?! What is your tongue doing in there?"

"It's too short, I can't fit it in."

"I bit the end of mine off and now it doesn't work properly."

so we we're talking about tying cherry stems in knots ... tee hee hee

Baby Raccoons Bottoms

Baby raccoons bottoms are so FLUFFY! They are little city bears.

Complaints Choir Coming to Toronto!

Harbourfront Theater is organizing a complaints choir in Toronto!

"We're inviting people across Toronto to join our Complaints Choir. No singing skills required! The more diverse our participants the better. From retiree to teenager, everybody has something to complain about. The only thing you need to do to join the choir is to send us your complaint.

Our choir director, Bryce Kulak, will compose a song using the complaints as lyrics. Then the choir (that's you and everyone else who submitted a complaint) will meet to rehearse. As we said, you don’t have to be a professional singer—you just need to sing loud and proud. It’s all in the attitude!

Once you've got your songs down pat, the choir will perform at locations that you all agree on. Perhaps it will be a spontaneous performance in a public space. Or perhaps in a more intimate venue among family and friends. Whatever your choir creates, you'll have memories to last a lifetime!"

I loved the original complaints choir from Helsinki when it emerged on the internet.


I am very very excited and shall be joining in.

Happy Fire-Hydrant is Happy

Small things

1. I dreamed I was magnetic to butter. It kept flying at me, but I could deflect it, so I kept throwing it at the wall or people who were not entirely nice.

2. The bike path was covered with baby birds finding their wings, and a very small fluffy baby mouse.


3. I ate mulberries off a neighbourhood tree on my way home.

4. A grandmother, her daughter, and her daughter's three very very rambuncious children came into the store today. I sighed when they came in because I was feeling antisocial and solitary, but they turned out to be funny and happy people. They had entered a native garden competition called flower power. Last year they won third prize even though they had only gardened a tiny part in their front garden. This year they did the whole backyard so they have their fingers crossed for first. I liked that they were so enthusiastic about gardening, even though they might not normally be gardeners. They made my day with their jokes and silliness.

Dance Crazy

I love that I woke up to hear Mummy playing this on the computer in the next room. I love that my whole family is madly passionate about dance; if not doing it, then watching it. I love that Dad will watch dance shows on his own, and that Mummy's favorite genre is hip hop.

Genius! Mad Genius!

I got on the Dean's List in recognition of academic excellence at my university. I feel proud.

the beach

I forgot how beautiful the beach was in the early morning. So beautiful and serene and perfect. Some man was bringing his canoe down to the water. It was unpainted wood and gleamed in the morning sunlight. I walked past as he was pushing off, and he waved to me. I almost asked him for a ride. I thought there would be nothing so perfect as canoeing on a calm clear lake. I skipped some stones, and two sunk in a desultory fashion but one went skimming far touching down seven or eight times. The sand was warm and lovely.

Encounter with the Boys in Blue

In the midst of the G20 summit, Nanermellon and I had a police encounter. He shouted at us from his car window until we stopped and looked over in bewilderment wondering why we were in trouble.
"Where did you get the Booster Juice?" he asked.
We grinned in surprise and gave him directions.

Lounge Wear

Kryptonite once wore a lime green suit with a purple shirt. He owns it.
Will the wonders of the world never cease?

Smutty Scrabble

Last night Rafiki and I played smutty take-two over the telephone (only provocative words allowed). It was the silliest nerdiest cutest flirting activity I have ever taken part in.

Miracles Happen

I had a nice sympatico tech support guy! I didn't know they existed! He was awesome. He was pleasant and patient and positive. He upgraded my internet connection to three times the speed for three dollars less, and is going to send someone on monday with a new modem/router that should help resolve some of the local and wider network problems we've been having. Hurrah!

Gigger and the Ladies

I am a shower ocotopus

Someone inadvertently put the shower mat into the shower upside down with all it's little suction cups pointing upwards. I felt like an octopus - whenever I walked the shower mat tried to come with me and my feet made pleasing shloop noises when they got free.

welcome home

There were two kittens on my front stoop when I got home last night. One was sleeping on the front steps, and the other on the front lawn. Not wanting to disturb them I curled up on the lower front steps and read my book. After a few chapters the cat asleep on the steps woke up and came down to roll on the lawn with a loud rumbling purr, while looking up inquisitively at his cat-mate. His cat-mate viewed such overtures with alarm and set up a disgruntled rumbling of his own. I watched them for a while until I reluctantly decided that since I had many things to do I really ought to get up and start doing them. The cat from the stairs came running over to be petted. He was adorable, Jaja soon joined me on the porch and we fed him cheese and generally lounged about companionably. When either of us went inside the cat would follow us in and explore a bit until we went back out to the porch for more petting and cheese and conversation.

There is a five leaf clover growing in my backyard.

Doggie

My billeting family's dog Stitch greeting me upon arriving home. What a sweetie.

My coffee is perfect

water and a windy day

1. I like the way the bathroom feels after my sister has a shower. Even if I come home after she has left, the room feels like a greenhouse. It is steamy and the air is rich with the smells of flowers and tea tree oil.

2. Fabbalous started working at the store again yesterday. She called my name and gave me a big hug when she got there. I'm so pleased she's back.

3. I like showers. The hot water soothing muscles... It's like swimming without worrying about having to breathe.

4. I like my work. All the plants make me happy.

A wall in the house I'm staying

Small and Awesome

Visually Mental messaged me the other morning. He sent me this, saying he thought I would like it:

It turns out he directed the official video for the National Ballet School. It is an incredibly small and awesome world.

Cozy living room

Sitting in my host's living room, watching the snow (!) swirl past...beside a cozy fireplace with my coffee.

International Dance Day

A flashmob invaded the Eaton Centre and started dancing.
I missed it by about ten minutes, because my streetcar detoured, but my friend Dragiraffalina was in it!
I love that I live in a place that has events like this.

books bring contentment...

Most of my big books live way up on a high shelf that I can only reach by standing on a chair. Today I moved some of my favorites down to a shelf that lives on the floor, so I can easily reach them. I now have my book lover's repair kit, a writing ideas book, my sketchbook, some of my favorite gardening books and children's books all at my finger tips.
That was the best thing about today.

tiny hairy buddhas

I like sloths. They make me happy.

spring studying

The weather's been so nice. I got home from an exam a few days ago and went straight into the garden. I turned over the vegetable bed so it's ready for planting, and dug up all the dandelions, washed the leaves and saved them in my fridge and freezer. I cooked some today with pasta sauce, and ate it with noodles and avocado. yum.

Code Yeller got so excited about all the plants his friend gave him for his vegetable garden that he made me turn on video chat so that he could show them all off to me. He had peppers, and eggplants, and all sorts of things.

I found more silly quotes on the top of my lecture notes:
"A cow is useful as a cow. I mean, you could ride it."
"I found out that amaryllis when they get scared, don't curl up, but jump high into the air." [he meant armadillos, not amaryllis, but I like the idea of jumping flowers].

After my next exam Dragiraffalina and I sat on the grass nibbling on sweets and basking in the sun. We tried to remember all the words to the song "video" by India Arie and we wandered around singing it. Dragiraffalina has a lovely voice.

Playing tonight at the Rockabilly Soundstage

My favorite scientist duo are Needham & Begg. Don't they sound like a 1950's rock band?

Pondering "being a grown-up"

(This post isn't prima facie "happy"-but it's glad and introspective:) I would love if you made it a discussion with me).

I wonder what it means to be a grown-up? I wonder what feelings I associate with the idea of "being a grown-up"?

I just filed my first American tax return. I had this moment, as I was moving around my kitchen putting away dishes, where I felt calm and ok...I thought, I have a kitchen, I have dishes, I have a home and a job, I can file taxes, I can do things right, and things are ok. I feel...safe and competent...to run my own life and not make a mess of it. (Wow-can I really do that?!) I think I always imagined that "adults" have these feelings. I think I'll decide that having this safe and confident place is part of what it means to "be a grown-up"-and try to cultivate it.

:)

When I woke up this morning, the day belonged to me

I woke up this morning, and Kryptonite was online, so I messaged him and asked if he wanted to ride downtown together, as I had some stuff to hand in. I was somewhat late getting to the streetcar stop, so I thought I'd missed him, but he showed up with a hot chocolate for me that he'd bought while he waited.

The trees have little green pom poms on all the tips of their branches.

Bulbs are blooming all over the place, bright splashes of rich green leaves and happy flowers.

A man with two ferrets on leashes entered the subway at the same time as me.

Raccoons that wander about my backyard, digging in the dirt, climbing trees, and smelling their hands like wollen teddies.

I find little notes of things my prof said that I thought were funny scrawled across the top of my lecture notes:
"I don't know what the function of parties are. I like to have conversations in depth and parties make that very difficult."
"He ran the roman empire. You try to run the roman empire." (raises eyebrows).
"Tell them you're allergic to placebos."


"When I opened my eyes this morning,
The day belonged to me.
The sky was mine and the sun,
And my feet got up dancing.
The marmalade was mine and the squares of the sidewalk
And all the birds in the trees.
So I stood and I considered
Stopping the world right there,
Making today go on and on forever.
But I decided not to.
I let the world spin on and I went to school.
I almost did it, but then, I said to myself,
'Who knows what you might be missing tomorrow?'"
~Jean Little

I'm Gonna Sh*t My Pants!

I just found this hilarious video series by Sarah Haskins. This is the first video I saw, it's her take on yogurt advertising.

Tunes!

All day (well, on and off when I've been home anyway) I have been listening to an awesome playlist that my lovely friend from Manitoba made just for me. It also makes me giggle because we call it the Vagipod collection...

Call me old-fashioned, but I like it when people show you they like you. It's nice.

Soaky Soakie

After being away from the blog for a couple weeks due to travelations and poor northern internet, I got to soak up 3 pages of happy from 3 of my favourite people on the planet.

:)

Thanks for sharing.

Pretty Poster!

Guys, look at the poster for our conference!!!!

I didn't have any shoes on either

A small girl grinned at me as we past each other on the beach.
"I don't have any shoes on!" she told me in obvious delight.
I relate to her sentiments completely.

Happy Midnight

Kryptonite texted me at 3:30 am last night to ask if I wanted to go for midnight walkies.

Spring has Sprung

1. We had tutorial outside on the grass because the weather was so beautiful.

2. I glanced out my window and saw two men on unicycles riding up my street.

3. There's an academic Journal of Happiness Studies :)

Rilke

Here is a love letter that I like, written by Rilke:

To love is good, too: love being difficult.

For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
For this reason young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love: they have to learn it.

With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered close about their lonely, timid, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love.

But learning-time is always a long, secluded time, and so loving, for a long while ahead and far on into life, is--solitude, intensified and deepened loneliness for him who loves.

Love is at first not anything that means merging, giving over, and uniting with another (for what would a union be of something unclarified and unfinished, still subordinate--?), it is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself for another's sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things.

Prrrrr

Heard of a bear hug? This is a lion hug:)

Hugs from Filly!

Embrella is a wonderful, responsible, and intelligent, cat. I admire her and I am proud to be her friend!!

nibbles

I am holding a warm egg (freshly boiled) after eating a bowl of extremely cheesy noodles. It is surprisingly pleasing. I recommend it.

You Are What You Eat

My mummy eats lots of apples. For example, she bought a half-bushel basket once and finished them in a week.
I was putting away the laundry and sorting out the clothes in the bottom of her closet. All the places on her clothes that would normally smell like sweat, smell like apples. :)

I get to hug a flavaflav soon!

1. I made an appetizing bowl of green today (asparagus, broccoli, spinach and avocado).

2. Flavaflav will be in town soon!

3. I played pool and conversation with the incomparable Fighting Monk this morning.

Canada Post Spring for Fun

I had a delivery today. It was a Canada Post man delivering flowers for the first day of spring.

I leapt on him and kissed him, which made him laugh, and say in a severe voice "You're not supposed to kiss the delivery man, ma'am."

I had to fill out a delivery report and sign for the flowers.

As you can see...

They were radiantly lovely, designed by Maypole, with circus roses and (by request!) kangaroo paws.

Which I admired before dancing the delivery man round my kitchen.

It's actually going to happen

Here is the program for our conference. It appears that it is actually going to happen. Can you believe it? Nuts.

the place of psyche: politics, art, nature

15^th annual conference in philosophy

villanova university

Keynote Speaker: Johnathan Lear, University of Chicago

In addition to his training as a psychoanalyst, Professor Lear’s philosophical interests include conceptions of health, happiness, and the human psyche in the work of such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, Kierkegaard, and Wittgenstein. His recent publications include The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley (Edited with Alex Oliver, Routledge 2009), Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation (Harvard University Press, 2006), Freud (Routledge, 2005), Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony (Other Press, 2003), Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life (Harvard University Press, 2000), and Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul (Harvard University Press, 1998). He is currently John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago.

Friday, April 23^rd

West Lounge, Dougherty Hall

10:00am – 11:00am

“Incorporeal Nous and the Science of the Soul

in Aristotle’s De Anima”

Adam Wood, Fordham University

11:15am–12:15pm

“Beyond the (Kantian) Pleasure Principle”

Todd Kesselman, New School for Social Research

12:30pm – 1:30pm

“The Attraction of the Kalon”

Sarah Hegenbart, University of Oxford, St. Anne’s College

1:30pm – 2:30pm

Lunch

2:30pm – 3:30pm

“Mapping the Psyche through the Railway Network: A Reading of Freud’s Metaphors from the Project for a Scientific Psychology to Interpreting Dreams”

Claudie Massicotte, University of Western Ontario

3:45pm – 4:45pm

“The See-Through Self: Aquinas on Reflexion, Self-Awareness, and Freedom”

Therese Scarpelli Cory, Georgetown University

5:30pm, Keynote Address:

Johnathan Lear, University of Chicago

Saturday, April 24^th

West Lounge, Dougherty Hall

10:00am – 11:00am

“Virtual Lives and Virtue”

Anna Mathie, Catholic University of America

11:15am – 12:15pm

“The Maternal Psyche and the Work of Civilization:

Kristeva’s Rewriting of Civilization and its Discontents”

Pleshette DeArmitt, University of Memphis

12:30pm – 1:30 pm

“Psuché, Arété, Phusis”

John Wolfe, University of South Florida

1:30pm – 2:30pm

Lunch

2:30pm – 3:30pm

“On Levinas’ Heroic Critique of Authenticity”

Beau Shaw, Columbia University

3:45pm – 4:45pm

“The New Problem of Akratic Action”

Charles Norman Todd, University of Chicago

5:00pm – 6:00pm

“Primal Intersubjectivity, Alienation, and

the Establishment of Subjectivity”

Anna Johnson, Miami University of Ohio

A sunrise by maxfield parish

I have a rather odd thing to be happy about. It's a bruise on my bottom. I leapt out of the way of the cold water when I turned on the shower before going swimming on wednesday, and leapt right into the handle of the shower stall door. It's left a gloriously dark purple bruise, and I'm rather proud of it. It's such an excellent example of it's kind.

Also, Rafiki, when he saw it, said "Oh Cat, what happened? Your bruises turn blue?" because they don't show up the same way on his skin.