momku

quiet,white,fresh snow
cats stretched full in the warm rays
spring's around the bend

I could really do to lose my Catholic conscience...

I'm not, as most of you know, Catholic, but I sure know how to feel guilty like one.

It's been a stressful couple of days 'round these parts. It's that time of year, I guess, and I also kind of suspect that this must be a full moon week. The silver lining in this weekend has been that the Bay area really caught only the edges of that massive snowstorm that's messed up the rest of the province, meaning that we got 5 cm compared to the 30-40+ experience by other areas of the province.

International Women's Week happened this week, and it was nice to be able to participate in that sort of thing again. Dr. Monia Mazigh was the keynote speaker this year, and she was very interesting, if a little brief. I also got to see the Vagina Monologues, and have come to the conclusion that I really don't like the play at all. I actually have a prolonged and extended critique to write someday, but I'll save it for then, because I would hate for anyone in this particular production to feel that my criticisms were of them rather than with the play itself.

The youngest sister is up for the weekend, and is currently sleeping peacefully on my bed. She's had a long couple of days, too. She's in town with her boyfriend and his parents, and I had to pick her up from their hotel last night around 11:30. When we got back here, a guy had managed to run out of gas AND kill his battery in the intersection nearest my house, and he asked us to give him a boost.

The whole situation was a bit weird, and I really didn't know what to do--there was definitely a creepy vibe. (I've also never boosted a car before, and my own battery is low, since it's almost six years old now.) We gave him the initial boost after he got back from the gas station, and then hightailed it back to the house, and turned all the lights off, etc. I'm pretty sure he came knocking at the door again, but I really had no desire to go back out there.

I feel really guilty about not going back to help him. But at the same time, as two young females, what other choice did we have, especially given the creepy vibes we both had from him? (Also, if his battery managed to die at the same time as his car ran out of gas, doesn't that imply that there's something perhaps more seriously wrong with his vehicle?) I hate that I have to choose between helping someone and my safety...but what other choice do I have?

shave and a haircut...

Before:




After:

Lego MMO and a good laugh

From those guys at Red vs. Blue:

An MMO based on the Lego universe was just announced.
Burnie -- Some things seem like a great idea for kids, but in reality are actually harmful. Like aspirins that have a tasty orange flavor. Or those scented markers that teach kids to huff. Why do they make those?
Geoff -- This does not bode well for the Lincoln Log MMO I've been trying to get off the ground.
Jack -- Finally, an MMO that mixes my favorite solitary activity as a kid with my favorite solitary activity as an adult!
Nathan -- It takes you 8 hours to build your LEGO castle, and 8 seconds for me to break it down with my LEGO lightsaber. Sounds awesome.

*sigh*

Sad but true, folks, sad but true.

"Oh, you must be a home ec teacher!"

Back to school this week. Reading week was great--I zipped home for a few days, saw pretty much everyone I could ever want to see at Cellarman's, spent some time with my mom, and then headed down to Guelph, where I also saw almost everyone I could want to see.

I tried to organize a SETS mini-reunion with people from the Great Guelph Area, which was not successful numbers-wise (special thanks goes out to winter weather and winter illness for that), but was very successful in terms of fun had. Sherrin came up from London, and Sean popped over with his bebe, and we ate delicious food at the Woolwich Arms. I'm hoping for a second round in May, when things should be a bit more accessible to everyone.

I spent more time with Sean the next day, when we met at that most venerated of eating institutions, Toxic Smell, and proceeded to thoroughly geek out about his experiences at the PCA/ACA Southwest and Texas region conference at week before. He read my paper in absentia, along with his own, and chairing our panel...and then the third presenter just didn't show, so it was a whole hour of Sean. He brought me back the program, and my name tag, and a sweet messenger bag that is totally being converted to a knitting bag ASAP.

I also got to see the Evanses, and introduce them to the bountiful goodness that is the Red Papaya.

Then Ms. T and I drove back up here, with a wee pitstop in Huntsville, where we ate a delicious lunch (SWEET POTATO FRIES!!!) and visited Sheepstrings, where I successfully convinced her that she could learn how to knit. (You can see the evidence over at her blog.) Once in North Bay, we picked up a few crafting remnants at Wal-Mart, prompting the cashier to ask us--twice--if we were planning on teaching a home ec class. Classic!

There's more, but it is time to take Caitlin to Dollar Days at No Frills.

Thoughts on The Stand

Ian lent me the TV miniseries for The Stand, and I'm slowly working my way through it. Before I talk about how I feel about the miniseries, I should probably say two things, the second of which is a caveat to the first. On the whole, I really hate Stephen King's writing. I think he's schlocky, cheap, and manipulative. Considering that I don't care for his work, I've actually read a pretty surprising amount of it, and on the whole it just leaves me....meh. That said, a friend of mine from Teacher's College lent me The Stand a few years back, and it is, for lack of a better term, holy shit good. Great story, full of tension, drama, and very interesting characters. It suffers from many of the same problems as the rest of his work, of course, but the story is so compelling that I'm willing to overlook the things that normally bother me.

So I was pretty excited for the miniseries, because I think the story has a number of qualities that would transfer well to that medium, and also because King wrote the teleplay himself. (I like to think that when an author has such a direct hand in creating the final product, it ought to be of reasonably good quality.)

Good movies happen when the writing, directing, and acting all converge in a way where the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts. I would say that The Stand is somehow less than the sum of its parts, but the sum of its parts really doesn't add up to very much, which is made even more apparent by how poorly the miniseries has aged--I'm pretty sure even the CBC had better production values in 1994.

Point One: The Acting. I hardly know where to start here. There's the good, which can be summed up in two word: Ed Harris. There's the serviceable, like Gary Sinise, Corin Nemec, and Kathy Bates. There's the bad, like Molly Ringwald. There's the forgettable, like Ruby Dee and Jamey Sheridan. And then there's the just plain bizarre: Rob Lowe as Nick Andros (if one of your central characters is a deaf-mute, maybe you could try casting someone with actual charisma?) Laura San Giacomo as Nadine Cross (She's really wonderful in other roles, but girl is in way over her head in this ingenue rule--she is not convincingly sexy at any point). Bill Fagerbakke as Tom Cullen (Because developmentally delayed translates to "speaks slowly and softly"--interestingly, he's probably getting more work than anybody else in this trainwreck, as he is the voice of Patrick on Spongebob Squarepants).

Point Two: The Writing. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether the problem here is the acting or the writing. All of the Nick parts really suffer because nothing interesting happens for such a long time, and that's partially Lowe as an actor, but it's also King as a writer, like, just DO SOMETHING already. Ditto Molly Ringwald, who is out of her depth here, but is also saddled with some truly clunky dialogue. I also understand, from King's point of view, that it's very difficult to cut 1000+ pages of writing into something manageable for the small screen, but some of his choices are bizarre. If you're not going to do anything with the Joe/Leo storyline, maybe you could just cut it? We continually get such shallow snapshots of the book's major characters that none of their actions ever have the impact that they should. Do we ever really have a sense of why Harold goes off the deep end? Do we ever really sympathize with Franny as she prepares to have a baby who might die from the same illness that has killed everyone else she loves? Do we ever get to enjoy Glen Bateman's verve and wit as he sees all of his abstract sociological theories play out before his eyes? Do we even get to see Larry's progress from the arrogant rising star to the thoughtful caretaker?

Point Three: Directing and Production. I don't know what to say here, exactly, because the first two factors have already significantly handicapped the production, but it is worth noting that if you don't have the money to do something properly...maybe you just shouldn't do it. I know it's a TV movie from 1994, but there was some quality stuff being made at that time, and some of the visuals in this just look so amateurish. The other major problem from a directorial point of view is the pacing. There is absolutely no tension or urgency to this story. When I read the book, my heart was pounding the entire time, and I could hardly read fast enough to fit it all in. By comparison, the movie just crawls along...and there is virtually nothing in it that is actually scary.

There are a few good visuals--mostly relating to the Flagg/crow imagery; the one that comes to mind is the one where we see Flagg sitting like a crow on top of a telephone pole, but overall, it's too little, too late. I'd love to see this story given the treatment it deserves. What's HBO upto these days?

academic foot steps

Great news! The PCA/ACA people are willing to let me make a video of my paper on race and narrative in World of Warcraft, so I can still present as part of the MMORPGs and Narrative Panel at the SW/TX region conference. I am super excited about this (almost as much as if I were actually going, but doing it this way will save me almost $900, so I really can't complain). The downside? I need to get cracking on writing the actual paper. Good thing I have Sean to motivate me.

I've also been asked to take part in NipissingYou's speaker series, so I think I will rework the paper to fit that format, as well.

Having lived under a rock for the now 12 years that I've been a frequent and habitual users of the interwebs, I only discoveredthe blogging awesomeness of Terra Nova. A recent topic of discussion has been the upcoming Virtual Worlds and New Realities stuff that's going to be happening at Emory University in a couple of weeks, and the kind folks there are seeking answers to some questions to promote discussion for their panel. Here are my thoughts:

1. QUESTIONS THAT MATTER: What research questions or inquiries are important with regard to studying virtual worlds in the next several years (think 2008-2015)?

*Do synthetic worlds (sorry, my Castronova is showing) support, subvert, or reinscribe dominant ideologies?
*In the case of heavily male-centric MMORPG worlds like that of Azeroth, what are the critical and social implications for women who choose to participate in those worlds?
*What opportunities do synthetic worlds provide for transgression?
*How do sythetic worlds function as liminal spaces?
*What is the ceiling for growth?


2. METHODS: What research methods and approaches are valuable in the study of, and study in, virtual worlds?

I believe that an under utilized approach is that of literary/cultural studies. I use that term to cover a multitude of theoretical approaches, from feminist and postcolonial studies, to phenomenological (sp?) approaches and beyond. I think this type of research is particularly for MMORPGs, because of the way that narrative is integrated into the synethic world.

3. COLLABORATIVE INITIATIVES: What might be some ways to effectively establish more multi-university and multi-institutional research, both with regard to studying virtual worlds as well as using virtual worlds to facilitate research collaborations?

I think that establishing networks of interested parties could potentially be quite useful. For example, one of my current interests is in queer identities in MMORPGs. If I could find similarly minded people, we could construct a plan to create queer identities in game, and then collectively share and analyze the data collected from our experiences.

gastronome

Most of you know me know how much I love to eat--I can't do a night of drinking without having a suitable array of snacks, and, as my mother likes to put it, I'm always "thinking about the next meal before [I've] finished this one", a trait I've inherited from my father.

One particular food type I have no use for, though, is soup. Oh, sure, I like my sodium-rich Liptons Chicken Noodle soup when I'm sick, but other than that it really isn't something I go out of my way to eat. Unfortunately, soups tends to be cheap and filling, and freeze well, all of which are important to people who live by themselves. So I've decided that I need to learn to like soup, pronto.

I've mastered my mom's turkey noodle soup, so long as I have a roast turkey carcass, so my next step was to take on a beef based soup. The problem with a lot of beef based soups and stews is that they have tomatoes or tomato paste in them. This is a problem to me because a) I really try to avoid using canned food whenever possible, and b) the acids in the tomatoes tend to give the soup an awful, tinny, acidic taste.

In the spirit of being creative, I struck out on my own on Friday, and created a beef based soup that actually turned out unbelievably good: full of rich beefy taste, complimented by cremini mushrooms and pot barley.

Mushroom, Beef, and Barley Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb. stewing beef, cubed (if they seem large, you can cut them into smaller cubes)
1/2 cup medium dice onion
2 cloves of garlic, finally minced
1 to 1 1/2 cups of cremini or portabello mushrooms, thinly sliced
1/4 cup red wine (I use Yellowtail Shiraz as my go to red for drinking and cooking)
1/2 cup pot barley, rinsed**
3 1/2 cups beef broth (I used a combination of Campbells beef broth in a carton and the Bovril instant bouillion mix)
3/4 cup red wine
2 bay leaves
herbs to taste (I used 1/2 tsp dried rosemary)


1) Heat oil/butter in pot over medium heat. Pat cubes of beef dry, season with salt and pepper. Brown in batches in oil. Transfer to a plate
2) Turn heat to medium-low, and add garlic and onion to pan. Allow to cook for five minutes until softened, and then add mushrooms. Allow to cook for another five minutes. Add first 1/4 cup of red wine and deglaze pot by scraping up all browned bits from the bottom. Allow to reduce, so that the mushrooms become infused.
3) Add broth and barley. Allow to come to a boil, then add remaining red wine and bay leaves. Any seasonings can be added here too.
4) Simmer with lid on over low heat for 1 1/2 hours, or until barley is soft and meat is tender enough to cut with a spoon.

Enjoy!

winter, with a vengeance

I have always been an ardent defender of my adopted city, which is one that people love to hate. I definitely understand why people don't like it, and will often complain of the same things that the haters do (music scene, wot wot?) but at the end of the day I'm generally pretty willing to see the beauty and charms of this city. I also love winter, which not so many people do.

That said, it is currently -19 out, and I am not so in love with the cold. My skin is just parched, which means irritated and sore, and I keep having moments where I just can't seem to get warm. My poor car has been a real trooper through all of this, but man can I see the difference it makes to my fuel consumption when I have to let the car warm up in order to drive it. (Thankfully, Boom has wicked fuel economy and I fuelled up last night for the first time since I stopped in Huntsville on my way back to the Bay after the holidays. Yup, that's Huntsville to North Bay and three weeks of city driving on 3/4 of a tank. I love my car.)

This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one. It is the last huzzah for Sarah before her trip to New Zealand and teacher's college, and Darren is coming up to celebrate. He and Ian and I have plans for some sort of geeky movie marathon for Saturday. I also have my Robbie Burns night on Friday, which is a social for the 3rd and 4th year students. I should really find myself a kilt...I'll have to plan a trip to the VV Boutique tomorrow, I guess.

bits and bytes

Mum pointed me in the direction of some good programming on CBC Radio One this morning. Go! host Brent Bambury (who I met/saw briefly on Test the Nation) had Dan Misener in to talk about a reading series he developed called "Grown Ups Reading Things They Wrote As Kids". Dan read a journal entry from his grade one days in Sackville, NS that described a trip to the ice cream store for a "root bear flot". The next reading is in Toronto on 10 March at the Gladstone Ballroom. If I'm in the area I'll definitely check it out.

In other fun internet news, Penguin Canada and Amazon.ca have developed a list of the 52 Best Books Ever Written (or, the 52 best books published by Penguin) and are proposing that you read one per week in 2008. Penguin has a great library, so it should be exciting to see what they come up with. They've started with their best foot forward, too: First up is one of my favourite books, Robertson Davies's Fifth Business. It's a brilliant realized, complex, and moving story about Dunstan Ramsey, who is always "fifth business" in his own life:

The novel explains its own title as a character of an opera who has no opposite: the odd man out—neither heroine nor her lover, rival nor villain—yet without whom the plot cannot happen.

I read it for the first time when I was 17, and it's one I'm always happy to come back to. There's magic, politics, war, sex, the divine, and all manner of truly fascinating things in it.

take me to my country home.

There's this really wonderful moment when you're at the top of the hill here, and you can look out across North Bay Rock City all the way to the water, and see the beauty of Lake Nipissing. It's stark and desolate in winter, but beautiful nonetheless.

The days are starting to get longer already - it's no longer pitch black out at 4:20 when I get out of class. Thank goodness for that.

how the smart woman gets what she wants

So there's this new commercial for Cadbury Thins that starts with a placard reading "How the smart woman gets what she wants". To summarize, the smart woman walks into a store and sees another woman trying on a dress. This other woman is happy and excited, and clearly loves the dress (which does look pretty good on her). The smart woman gets what she wants by telling the other woman that the dress looks bad on her by shaking her head, and then we see the smart woman buying it because it's on sale.

God, that's maddening. Nevermind that the smart woman is tiny and thin while the other woman is a normal size--I am so frustrated that women are continually told that the best way to get ahead is by beating other women down. Seriously--if a complete stranger came up to you in a clothing store and literally gave you the thumbs down on something you were trying on, how upset would you be?

Starting of a Brand New Day

I've finally polished up my blog--I've been using my Google Reader almost exclusively lately, so I can't even think of the last time I actually *saw* someone's blog rather than just their text. But I'm pretty happy with the way this looks for the time being. Nice strong colours.

Not too much is new here at the moment. I'm procrastinating on my marking (not a surprise) and debating a trip to the university. It's finally open again after a week without power because some idiot stole copper grounding wire that caused a grid overload. I bet it's going to be ridiculously cold on Monday.

Really, I'd just rather be knitting, you know?

2007: That Was The Year That Was

I won't give a huge year in review here, but instead maybe comment on a few things that come to mind at the moment.

The Good: Job in Collingwood, appearing on Test the Nation, return to North Bay, becoming "Professor", trip to BC, first car, driver's license, weddings, 26th birthday, first Etsy sale, cats, friends, family, Mathieu. Overall, quite a lot to be thankful for this year.

The Bad: Still no permanent job, still undecided about PhD, still lots of stuff "living" in parents' basement.

I'm not doing anything huge in the way of New Year's Resolutions except that I am going to do my best to stick to the doctrine of "Eat Less, Do More". I'm currently at my lowest weight in about two years, which is nice. My ideal weight is about ten lower than this, but I'm not going to worry about it too much, since that contradicts my second resolution, which is to try my best to be happy.

The Hearthstone Hat

I realize it has been a while. Nearly seven months you say? Ouch. Bringing back the blog is one of my goals for the new year, and I'm starting with one of my first knitting designs. (Actually, in the interst of being honest, let's make that "first and only".)

If you're a World of Warcrafter, the image of the Hearthstone will be very familiar to you; if you're not a Warcrafter, let's just say that it's important because it takes you back to your home base.

The hat part of the pattern isn't perfect but I do like the actual Hearthstone. I worked it in Patons Classic Merino Wool (100% merino, worsted weight) in Too Teal and Natural Mix.

Please feel free to use and adapt this pattern if you like it; I only ask that you let me know that you've done so (and send a picture, if you can!) Feel free to contact me with questions if you've got 'em.

crise de conscience

It has been an interesting few weeks round these skylarkian parts. I have entered and am now in the full throes of my quarter life crisis (though, as my dad likes to point out, it's more likely to be a third life crisis, as I am unlikely to live to be 100 years old).

My Daemon (from the Golden Compass)

Just like you said it would be...

It really bothers me that Blogger cannot be bothered to remember my login information no matter how many times I check that little box. Ah well. It's small potatoes, really.

The last few weeks have been busy. My taping at the CBC went well, if a little on the long side. I can't talk too much about it but I gather that Test the Nation got pretty good ratings, so we will hope that our proposed air date of September goes ahead. I got to go down early with the Sneeze, and meet up with a few friends down there, so it was a pretty good time all around. Plus I got lots of lovely LUSH stuff. Seriously, if you ever have a chance to attend one of their in-store events, they really treat their people right. Also, I purchased some new cleanser and moisturizer and I can't believe what nice things they are doing for my face (including making me smell a bit like vanilla ice cream).

School continues on, same as it ever was. I got approval from Western to take a summer ABQ course in Drama, so that when that mat leave gets posted, I will be prepared for it (assuming I can stump up that extra $1000 it will cost to take it). OSSTF, my union, also acts as our certifying body, which means that they examine our qualifications and determine where we get placed in the payscale. OSSTF has been reluctant to acknowledge graduate degrees that aren't in education because they don't provide any specialized curricular knowledge, which means that I've been placed in Category 3, along with everybody else that has an Honours degree (and yes, this did kind of piss me off). Over the March Break, OSSTF reversed this decision, which means that I can apply for recertification, and hopefully be granted the change from Category 3 to Category 4, which is a difference of about $2000 a year starting out and moves up to about $7000 once I've been teaching for 10 years. Needless to say, I am pleased by this turn of events.

I've been crafting and curling a lot lately, with varying degrees of skill. I finally made my Scotland scrapbook (awesome when you consider we went FOUR YEARS AGO) and made a really nice sterling silver necklace. I also finally curled decently well, and my team played in the finals today and lost. I'm glad I did it though, and I'm happy with how my game improved over the course of the year. I also have a lump the size of an egg on my knee.

I am hungry like the wolf.

My TV Debut

This March Break has flown by impossibly fast. Which means that I have been having far too much fun, and doing far too little work. Oh well. I will, indeed, repent at leisure.

Things I have done so far: Gone out with friends, gone shopping with my mother, drank far too much (x2), gone to Toronto (x2), crafted up a storm, slept a whole bunch, taught pre-teens from Columbia how to curl, made dinner for my parents, eaten sushi (x3) and eaten pizza. Finally. It's still as good as I remember it.

Things I have left to do: marking, packing, laundry, general tidying, another trip to Toronto, more going out with friends, and making my TV debut.

Mat and I are headed down to Toronto today, to hit up our usual Queen West business, and to meet up with other friends for good food, some drinking, and if we are really lucky, some Playdium. It should be a good time.

Hard to believe I go back to school on Monday. My job seems a million miles away right now.

March Break, yo

I will blog later about the last few weeks, but first I would like to note that for the last two or so years, I've led a very active fantasy life in which Miss Stevie Nicks comes to play at Casino Rama, and Dad and I get to go, and she performs "Rhiannon" and it is AWESOME and basically my life is complete.

Guess who's coming to Rama in June?

Oh yeah. It will be awesome, even if tickets start at $85.