Must Share

This is one of the loveliest and touching articles I have ever read. It is beautifully written and made me smile, please read ...

I did try to interest Madeleine in the Jeremy Irons version of Brideshead Revisited, but it annoyed her so much that she went to her room and quietly closed the door. We eventually learnt how to compromise our movie nights with films starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers — though we may be watching them too often, as Madeleine has started “dressing” for dinner, and in mid-meal extending her hand to me for a dance.

An excerpt from The Trials of Being a Single Father by Simon Van Booy

... cue me falling in lurv.

A Good Read

I'm now on GoodReads!

Check out what I've read, am reading, and hope to read in the future Here or click on the link under ELSEWHERE in the sidebar. Also in the sidebar, check out my virtual bookshelf for what I've read and how I've rated it! Read on!

Mid Summer Goalatude Check In

It's been a little while since i've updated my progress with my Goalatude updates. Unfortunately I've come to the inevitable realization that I will not be able to achieve all my goals - and that gives me the sads. So let's do a Mid-Summer run down of what I've achieved for each so far...

1) Meet a Gregor ... yeah this is the impossible one ... and I can confirm it IS from a lack of trying - I don't even know where to begin - If a Grego happens to come across this blog, let me know and I'll count you.

2) Read 7 1/2 books - I have read 4 1/2 so far and will definitely be able to read 3 more so this one is not in danger of falling by the way-side. Books I've recently read: Almost Moon, Regency Buck, Bath Tangle (that's the 1/2 - I do plan on finishing it). Book I'm reading now: Northanger Abbey.

3) Re-Learn French .... ya, well if you count watching copious amounts of Poirot as exposure to French then I'm doing QUITE well! If not, things are dismal - I have even let my Coffee Time French podcasts go unlistened too. Maybe I'll do one today.

4) Get Outside: FABULOUS - I am outside almost everyday! Just today I biked to work, then the gym, then home with Kiki and chilled outside. and on monday I went for a long walk with Kiki and Ben!

5) National Geographic ... reading interesting articles as they come. check!

6) Save Money ... well I haven't spent everything I've earned ... so that counts right?!

7) Find a Craft: Completed x2!!! I finished a tin of coffee the oher day and thought "Now someone on the internet must have thought of something clever to use these for!" And they have! This Blog had the wonderful suggestion of covering the tin with paper (which I have left over from my cereal box magazine holder) and use it to hold knick knacks such

as nail polish - perfect and oh so easy! I'll defo make another for a pencil holder when I finish my next tin of coffee (soon)

8) Expand Vocabularly: I think I've done okay with this! I've definitely started saying retard more often (since seeing The Hangover). I've been taking note of Google's word of the day. I used the word pilfer instead of steal in a sentence the other day ... yes I think this Goalatude is coming along nicely. Also have been steering clear of suspicinouns.

9) Listen to CDs: I've been listening to Kings of Leon, New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, Duffy and MGMT in the car when not listening to my own mixes. I've been making the conscious decision not to listen to my Killers, Feist, Coldplay, Beck because if i do I will hate them even more when my family insists on playing them in the car on the way to P.E.I. Have also considered buying a new CD or two - possibly something by Beirut... oh and Ainsley informed me she's ordered a new copy of my Stars remix album (which she 'misplaced =P) so maybe I'll listen to that when I get it!

10) Still haven't decided on this Goalatude yet and I'm running out of time .....

So Clearly I need to focus on 3 and 6 and find a 10 .... ALSO blogger formatting is pissing me off I need spaces Blogger I NEED them! Why do you deny me this simple right!

Special Delivery!

Today while blogging and working the doorbell rang - and who should it be but a courier with a package from the Queen's Campus Bookstore just for me!!! I got the brilliant idea last week to order some of the books I'll have to read for the two English seminars I will be taking this coming year. I am always shamed when the end of the year comes and I've not been able to read all the required material for a course. I am especially nervous about my shortcomings this year because I'm enrolled in small seminar courses where I'll be expected to participate regularly with thoughtful input, hard to do/fake when you've not read anything. And once I'm unable to complete one book the whole semester is blown, I can never catch up. Case in point: I could not for the life of me get through Invisible Man last fall semester and do you think I successfully read all the novels that followed in my American Contemporary Literature class? Of course not. Neuromancer, Woman on the Edge of Time both only half finished ...
I decided that in conjunction with Goalatude 2 (which by the way I've read 2 1/1 more books since by last Goalatude update!) I would try an read as many of the (mostly long) novels for one of my seminars. I've started with Austen's Northanger Abbey which I'm only 20 pages into and already am enjoying. Then maybe I'll read Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey, because it is short and there is a greater chance of success with it. All in all I'm quite excited to start this reading adventure, I've wanted to read Middlemarch forever and Villette's back cover description intrigues me. The only novel I am not so excited to delve into of the group I ordered is Wuthering Heights - I've purposefully avoided this novel for 21 years and now it's finally caught up with me.... help. Wish me Luck! (I guess my pouffy Georgette Heyer books will have to wait - okay by me, I love owning books I've not yet read - Antici ...... pation)

Goalatude Progress Update: G.2

I've finished yet another book. I thought I'd take a break from novels and rest my brain box with the memoir of Mr. Russell Brand's My Booky Wook. I'd like to say the book was delightful, but that would be a lie. For the most part I read the book while cringing at his antics and the series of unfortunate events that comprise his youth. Fortunately, so far there is a happy ending to this tale, as Brand is clearly beginning to make his mark in the U.S. and has firmly secured a place in the national psyche of Great Britain - Bravo! I highly recommend this book if sex, drugs, profanity and cheeky humour all in copious amounts does not offend you too much. 7.5/10

I'm already entrenched in my new book, the novel The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold. It's dark .... very dark - I hope the main character shows me some redeeming qualities - soon.

Respect Wordsworth.

What a wonderful way to begin a new month! This morning, while eating breakfast, my sister handed me an envelope from the Queen's English Department, the contents of which was an acceptance into the 4th year honours program of both Classics and English! Let me explain. For some time now I have been toying with the idea of changing majors. This is not always the easiest or wisest decision when you are going into your last year of school. When I spoke to the Classics Department head she gave me the old raised eyebrow in response. But as Queen's Classics majors know, the Classics Department LIES all the time. Example: this year I attended a Classics info session for first years by accident (mislead by my latin prof - lie #1). During the course of the presentation one of my favourite Classics profs laid out available courses - LIES, only half of these courses are available in a given year. Then she insisted one would not have to take up a classical language in order to satisfy their degree requirments unless they want to go to Grad school - LIES! There aren't enough courses offered NOT to take either Latin or Greek, and most often both are needed. Here is where I find joy in my English department acceptance. Because I've been accepted into the honours English program now, I WILL NEVER TAKE ANOTHER LATIN CLASS - THANK YOU SWEET JESUS! Latin as I have mentioned on this blog before is the bane of my exsistence. Although it gives me a certain pleasure in knowing that I can read a dead language that was used for 1000s of years by some of the most historically important people on earth, Subjunctives, Deponent Verbs and 2nd Declension Nouns populate my nightmares. OH HAPPY DAY!
In honour of this momentous occasion I give you MC Nuts for Cumbria Tourism rapping William Wordsworth's poem Daffodils. I myself am partial to Blake, but Respect Wordsworth.

Goalatude Progress Update: G.2

I've been working dilligently on (some of) my Goalatudes. I've been biking/walking to work/the gym and going on bike rides through the forest - Goalatude #4 - CHECK! I've sometimes tried reading the french on the sides of food packaging - Goalatude #3 - semi-CHECK! I've decided on some craft projects to work on and begun collecting the materials necessary - Goalatude #7 - CHECK-in-Progress. I studied in detail a map of the Arctic Ocean and the claims held by Russia, Canada, the U.S., Denmark on their 'respective' ownership of the Arctic Shelf - a map that came from one of my National Geographics - Goalatude #5 - CHECKTASTIC. And I've finally finished reading the ever-amazing Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden! That means I only have 6 1/2 more books to read to complete goalatude #2. But that's not ALL kids - I've already begun reading my next book - and this one i've been excited to read for over a year now - MY BOOKY WOOK by Russell Brand! I'm only on page 32 - but I already love it!

School's Out - Fun's In...

... so read the icing of a chocolate cake my stepmom made when she was a teenager. I know this because I've seen the picture of her holding it and it is amazing. Saturday I had my last exam and it went okay... and I just turned on my computer to find an email from my T.A. in Greek Archeology with my mark and explanation on my paper ... Groan ... But that is the only part of this post that will be devoted to school work ... now for the fun stuff. Went out Saturday night to party it up End-Of-Year style. Got a few more bumps and bruises then I bargained for. I know the bruise on my leg is from walking into a part of a building in downtown Kingston, but I just discovered a little cut above my right eye for which I have no explanation of its cause. Saturday was amazing because I got to see two real live fights. Well technically only 1 which went something like: lady hitting and running after a guy and i think screaming "Don't hate/touch my mother-in-law/stepmother" in the Pizza Pizza parking lot (the details are foggy). The second was inside the club we hit up and aparently 2 chicks got into it - But I kinda couldn't see that one properly. Gooooooood Times. Sunday I woke up waaay too early and continued frantic packing then grabbed brunch with my dad and drove (yes I drove - practice makes perfect for the G test) all the way back to Oakville. I then spent the rest of the day unpacking and organizing my room, which unfortunately I have to share with a messy younger sister. But everything is in order now and today I'm settling in, which means I'm thinking about all the things I want to accomplish this summer. Last summer is going to be pretty hard to beat as it was my most productive and possibly most fun to date. I had 2 jobs (1 full time), took and Aced a summer course, roadtripped with the fam. to Maine, roadtripped to Barrie (okay admittedly less glamourous a destination) for the Spectacular in everywayshapeandform Jack Johnson Concert and touristed it up in Kingston: visiting the Penn museum and embarking on the Haunted Walk of Kingston - for reals that town is crowded with spectres (just felt like using that word ... got a problem with it? wanna fight? just joshing).

This summer however I'll be luck y to find 1 job, let alone 2, and I'm defo not taking a summer course (that shiz is BELOW me now - not really there's just nothing else I can take at an appropriate level). As for concerts - I just checked Ticketmaster --> Kenny Chesney and Jonas Bros--> Ummm yeah that's a dallop (what? it's a word if we want it to be, right Dorcas?) of "Not in this lifetime" with a side of "When Hell freezes Over" respectively for me thanks ... Hold the purity ring (gift with purchase). Instead of that traditionally fun stuff, I thought I'd make a list (I loooove my lists) of things that I wanted to accomplish/do this summer...so, in what is sure to be the first of many drafts, here is the fabulous, the combobulated (once again folks, a word if I WANT it to be), the magnifique ...

CAITIE'S SUMMER GOALATUDES (I just like the sound of that):

1) Meet someone named Gregor .... perferrably THE Gregor from CBCs Wiretap (but I'm not picky - if this was last summer maybe, but this summer I gotta take what I can get)

2) Read 71/2 books. (7 is my favourite number after eleventy four and also seems a reasonable goal. the 1/2 is there in case I start a book only to find that I have a wickedbad case of the hates for it)

3) Actually listen and engage in some of the gazillion 'Learn French By Podcast' episodes that automatically dowload onto my pod. (When I first subscribed I was so into it and then I listened to a couple of lessons and peaced because it was too easy... now I've reconsidered ... yeah I basically get schooled by my entire family in the department de francais so I got get proactive before their next attack.

4) Get outside. (Even though I was superproductive last summer I remained unforgiveably pale because I was so busy studying or working to enjoy the sun)

5) Catch up on my National Geographic Magazines.

6) Save Money. (gawd this is like the worst entry on this list. Boo to you part of the brain that fuels practicality, reason, and good judgement... Boo. to. you.)

7) Find a craft and do it awesomely. (Not even just a craft, maybe add to my scrapbook, or paint, or buy [uhoh I can already see goalatude #6 flying out the window and and being torn apart by a pack of hungry "I want. I Want. I WANTS!!!"] one of those big boxes of crayola crayons [you know the one with the sharpener at the back - does that even realy work?]and drawing things) ... (are you sick of all my thought-tangent parentheses yet? I am [a little bit] but not enough to stop =P)

8) Expand Vocabulary. Ridonculous, Awesome, Rad, are all ... awesome (ah!) I mean delightful (phew!) words and some of my favourites to use in conversation on-the-daily, but I really need to punch it up (where is that phrase from?) and start using some seriously BA vobulary... also: should defo try using full words ... nah it's so much more fun to routinely shorten words in a way that will leave at least one person in a group conversation completely clueless =D. 2nd part of this goal is to continue trying to reintroduce the catchword "Boss" into current slang/lingo. I have been working at this since grade 11 - thats a 5 year stretch of casually slipping it into coversation and then patiently explainign when people don't know what it means. I was, I think, somewhat successful at helping bring back "Bitchin", popularizing "Ridonculous" and effectively killing "Jerkface" back in the day, so I think I might have a chance with this one.

9) Listen to More of my CDs. (I love my Pod and cann't imagine living without it, but I still buy CDS because I like listening to the full things the way the band wanted them to be listened to. That being said, for convenience sake I often just use my pod to play music. NOT this summer. While there are thousands of songs that I only have in mp3 format, I also have a sizeable collection of CDs. First on my list to listen to ... hmm: perhap Miracle Fortress and then Mattew Good Band)

10) Open ... Haven't decided but I know I'll think of something to put here...

Wow that is one boss list. I know that with a little hard work, a lot of self-encouragement and a healthy dose of "believing in myself" this list of Goalatudes with surely be complete by summer's end. for reals.

Now listen to I Want You by Kings of Leon. I FINALLY bought their newest album and popped in my car's cd player it is more wonderful than I could have possibly imagined. I actually LOVE every single song - there are NO fillers - just feels so hot and dirty and summery and ... like a real rock album... also, PLEASE check out their old stuff (some of my favourites: Soft, Knocked Up, Fans, Talihina Sky) because it is likewise rifrickendiculously boss.

	Kings of Leon - I Want You
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Through the Arc of the Rainforest

I haven't read the novel in full but I do plan on it and I like what i've read so far. That being said, we are discussing the novel by Karen Tei Yamashita in my American Contemporary Lit. class and today's class brought on the giggles. Tha novel itself is written in first person omniscient, narrated by .... a ball .... which is suspeded a few inches in front of another character's forehead. I know what you're thinking ... AWESOME! anyway. My eternally cute professor decided to lecture wearing a homemade contraption: a head band with a styrofoam ball connected and dangling in front of her own forehead with wire. This was of course hilarious as she tried to be serious with this thing flinging about the place. Another funny was created when, while reading the Epigraph of the book my pof asked, as did the Yamashita herself: "What is the opposite of a bird?" to which one of my classmates quickly responded: "A Fish." needless to say I giggled some more. =D Now back to latin I go =S