The Beaver

Actually! Question!

2009-10-19T08:42:00.006-05:00

I was going to post a long update of long - I keep on forgetting to blog, actually, which is kind of embarrassing.

Then it hit me. I should ask.

Does anyone use LiveJournal, around here?

Also, is anyone still reading (or occasionally checking) this blog ?

cough

2009-07-30T09:11:00.006-05:00

And as the week wears on, more is written - this is good, I hope it keeps up. I've been thinking about Nano lately, and I really hope that this year I can write more effectively than I did last year. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm reading more lately, but it also has to do with wonderful prompts I've been getting from friends. This means that I have to think of daily prompts for November. In order to help motivate myself, I might even publish them here - the prompts, that is, not their results. I'm selfish about original writing.

Maybe I'll do Nano differently, this year. I started off with an outline last year and was unable to keep up with it, mostly, I think, because I didn't like my story all that much. I may, instead of an outline, give myself daily prompts that only mesh in together insofar as that they relate to the same group of original characters / universe, etc.

Where I originally wanted to write something that is non-fantasy (an old, old project of mine prompted by the desire to please Mommy Dearest), I think I probably will go for fantasy this year. This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that Mommy Dearest herself is supporting my attendance at WorldCon, WTF. She is earning my eternal adoration for this. And for everything else, but. This Is Cool.

Epic long post so that you will all forgive me

2009-07-27T11:22:00.006-05:00

I had a horribly, monstrously busy weekend that involved two plays and a child birthday party. The latter was almost unexpected: the friend who was supposed to give me a lift had not given any sign of life until the last minute, and I had to rush out because I hate making people wait. I kind of died of adorable with the little ones, though.

The first play was fun - it was Boeing-Boeing, a farce about the down sides of polygamy, in 1960's France (which was adapted twice for the big screen, including in the US with *gasp* Jerry Lee Lewis!) The play was directed in Vaudeville style, with a local twist and some regional expressions. It was very enjoyable, aside for the bit where I was the only person laughing at the really funny jokes (wtf, audience?). I will never truly understand these people, I think.This was actually part of the Just for Laughs festival, which has been litterally on my doorstep these past two weeks. Every day, I got off work to wander into a street full of clowns and revellers. A bit surreal, but wonderful all the same.

The second play was Shakespeare's As You Like It, as directed by Repercussions. I enjoyed the fact that it was a bilingual adaptation, and adored the way it was directed. It was funny, witty, well done, and all in all very pleasant to sit through. It was also, alas, sometimes hard to hear over the popping of fireworks. You gotta admit it, life in Montreal is wonderful in the summer, even if one free activity actually gets in the way of the other.

And as I've taken to writing a lot of fan fiction lately (it's a good exercise in writing), now I must ask. Are there any curious readers, out there?

I love Virginia Woolf more than is healthy

2009-07-26T12:47:00.001-05:00

So since there were takers, here is a list of papers, as published on Scribd. I would love any sort of feedback on them, and actually, I do have a question. Is there a trend, and if so, which one?

And yes, I love Virginia Woolf more than is healthy, I know.

ETA: HTML fail + laziness = if any of these interest you, just comment and I'll throw the URL at.

Title: Northumbria: Illustrating Political Impact on the English Language
Length (including works cited): 5 pages
Thesis statement: Regionalisms cannot be dissociated from their topographic referents - such is the nature of a dialect, that the explanation for its existence is directly connected to the history of the lands where it is spoken, in which lies the mode of creation or preservation of a given regionalism, such as Northumbrian Middle English in the fourteenth century.
Cited author (one of them): John de Trevisa

Title: Being Sublime, the Poet’s Contradiction
Length (including works cited): 4 pages, plus a 3 page-long annex.
Thesis statement: The purpose of this essay will be to discuss her usage of the words sublime and sublimity throughout her novel Mrs. Dalloway and to explore how it can be linked to the Freudian concept of sublimation through the transitional figure of the Chiefly Poet, one of the definitions of “sublime” in the Oxford English Dictionary (“Sublime”).
Cited author (one of them): Virginia Woolf, Charles Baudelaire

Title: Virginia Woolf and Herbert Marcuse: discussing sublimation in Mrs. Dalloway
Length (including works cited): 8 pages
Thesis statement: My approach will be to examine Marcuse’s exposition on the matter of neurosis and happiness, and how his application of psychoanalysis to the social phenomena can be applied to the characters of Mrs. Dalloway.
Cited author (one of them): Virginia Woolf

Title: Defining Feminism in Woman at Point Zero and Persepolis
Length (including works cited): 11 pages, including one page of translated quotes from French.
Thesis statement: Despite being worlds apart, both Satrapi and El-Saadawi share a doctrine of what we will call mystic feminism, that is, a vision of the feminine condition which is rooted in the quest for individual actualization, rather than on the mobilization of the masses.
Cited author (one of them): Marjane Satrapi

Title: Bilingualism and Loan Words: Factors of Evolution
Length (including works cited): 5 pages
Thesis statement: The purpose of this essay will be to examine the process by which words were borrowed from French into the English language, and to attempt to determine what part the Norman Conquest and the ensuing necessity to use French in England played in it.
Cited author (one of them): Charles Laurence Barber

Title: Constructivism in Angels in America
Length (including works cited): 7 pages
Thesis statement: Our purpose will be to discuss how Kushner’s compelling play illustrates Foucault’s theories of social constructivism and counters essentialism.
Cited author (one of them): Tony Kushner

Title: Bartleby the Scrivener, the Myth of Liberty
Length (including works cited): 6 pages
Thesis statement: Liberty is, in nineteenth century America, as well as in the budding French republic, a growing concern amongst the thinkers of the era. It is with this in mind that I will review the figure of Bartleby, another allegory (or statue) of Liberty, immobile and objectified, yet failing to convey his essential truth, defeated by law.
Cited author (one of them): Herman Melville

Why does he get more worms than I do…

2009-07-22T12:31:00.001-05:00

I really, really, really, really need to get this gisting done (though my kind of gisting is much less glamorous than that one - as a side note, I never finished that book. But). It probably won't take more than a day, but currently, I'm really late in my schedule, and it has to somehow be made better. So. Gisting it is. *siiigh*

A quick note about a million things.

On my way to the college where I work for the summer, I walk every day by a church where the homeless come for breakfast and the bare necessities of life. It breaks my heart a little, and at the same time, I'm glad those things exist. At the same time, I'm acutely aware that there are not enough of these services. I don’t know why I feel the need to bring it up – perhaps it’s because I feel like I should do something. I’m not sure what and even less how, yet.

Also, I keep on forgetting to mention this, but I got accepted into the Arthurian Honors Seminar in the fall. *bounces* I’ve rarely been as excited about studying as since I went back to locking myself up with classics and writing essays. I really have no regrets, I’ll confess. This is so much more up my alley than law school.

Which brings me to a question, flist. Is anyone interested in reading some of my papers? I don't mind spreading the joy pain if there are takers. As a side note, I wouldn't offer to show any papers that didn't get excellent grades. If anyone is interested, I'll pull up a list of what's available.

And now about aSoIaF. I’m still reading, and still enjoying, though I’ve taken the weirdest habit: now I read POV chapter by POV chapter. *facepalm* So if anyone out there wants to know where I’m at, I just finished Dany’s POV, and I’m on to Jon’s. In late news, thus:

1) I enjoyed very much the descriptions of Qarth.

2) I think I sort of ship Dany and Jorah, and it makes me feel guilty.

3) My current loved characters are Dolorous Edd and Craster. What’s with me and impolite old men?

“The dead are likely dull fellows, full of tedious complaints – the ground’s too cold, my gravestone should be larger, why does he get more worms than I do…”

- Dolorous Edd, A Clash of Kings (.205)

BEST QUOTATION, EVER.

The cavalry is always late

2009-07-20T12:37:00.000-05:00

No time for a long comment - at any rate, I'm pleased with the castin of Sean Bean as Ned Stark, and !

Here is an amusing article about it. The wank about the synopsis amuses me particularly.

And to complete GRRM's post (some pics were missing), here are:

Jack Gleeson as Joff (picture taken from Batman Begins).

Harry Lloyd as Viserys (taken from Child Hood)

... and now that I've seen this I'm going to have to burn a couple hardly won CAD, in a few weeks. BECAUSE WHEN PEOPLE LIKE GRRM AND NEIL GAIMAN COME TO YOUR HOMETOWN...

That's what you do. Yup.

The Bookish and the Beautiful

2009-07-14T12:42:00.000-05:00

So I’m done with Game of Thrones (unsurprisingly), and am moving on forward to Clash of Kings. Too early for any comments, but in general, I do enjoy the reading quite a bit. A few comments, however.

1. Danearys, three dragons, whut? I actually wouldn’t mind too much (though why three, where one would have been enough to make her ~speshul~?) if there wasn’t that red comet of OMGDRAGONSAREBORN at the start of CoK. Because /really/, that’s a bit too close to sue-age for comfort. I’ll say, though – the bit where Drogo dies is very, very sad. Almost sadder than Ned’s death, though that’s pretty darn hard to beat.
2. I’ve been enjoying Jon Snow’s bits. I’m impressed with him and his friends, and with the presence of Aemon. I think I kind of adore the old Boar.
3. Tyrion. Tyrion keeps on getting better and better. And I love his chemistry with Shae. And I love the way he talks down Cersei. That’s just so totally badass it’s too badass for badassness.
4. Robb the Lord is impressing me – the way GRRM writes him, he manages to help us forget regularly that he’s really only 15. Poor kid, though. Really. Even if it’s not unheard of in the medieval times, it’s still sad that he is being ripped off his teenage years. I know it won’t happen, but I really would love for him to duel with Joff and just kill him dead, or something. It’d feel good.
5. I’m still intrigued by Varys. And by Littlefinger. I want Janos Slynt to hurt a lot.
6. Sansa is ---- going up in my esteem at a rapid pace. The kid has got balls of steel, you gotta give her that. Poor little thing.

I’ve been busy offline, lately. Saturday was epic socializing day, Sunday was epic reading day. Last night I rented Hellboy: the Golden Army. It was in fact quite good – where I expected a B-level movie, I found interesting villains and great photography. A few notes, however.

1. … Liz, really, /twins/ ? They’re not even a couple in the comics. That’s pushing it a bit, here, screenwriters.
2. As someone said in chat last night, yes, the villain (or the antagonist, it`s more appropriate) is at times more sympathetic than the hero. Because seriously, he’s not really evil.
3. The death of the elemental. Saddest. Thing. Ever. Also, Most Beautiful Scene in the movie ever.
4. Now I know to expect a sequel, what with that whole Death Angle scene. Also, go, Nuada, for almost killing Hellboy. That’s totally badass.

Me and my ever bubbling social life.

2009-07-11T12:43:00.000-05:00

Mmmmph, so Rache is going to BC and to San Francisco for two weeks, and she's called a meeting of the circus folk so that she can hear our tremolous goodbyes in person.

We'll be going to Cafe Sarajevo, which is absolutely awesome : it's famous and I've never been. I said I wanted home early, which usually would mean that I'd get back around midnightish my time. (That makes it 9PM PST).

Hmph. I'd prefer to be asocial, but I can't ignore sweet Rache. She's too adorable and sensitive. So I shall return. Soon. Hopefully.

This week, on as the book turns…

2009-07-10T12:44:00.000-05:00

So I’m still reading GoT, and ah! I suspect I will be done with it imminently.

Things are getting clearer. But let me now make you wait any longer, before I dispense my pearls of criticism gleefully.

…. Okay, I feel bad about this. The character I have the most enjoyed so far is… *drum roll* --- Old man Frey. Heh. Now, I know he is a horrible horrible person and a really mean person and he’s going to get all the woobies killed. But. His characterization is amazing, and he made me laugh more than everyone else so far. I’ll also concede that the idea that the ugly old man has a sixteen year old umpteenth wife is *squick*, but it’s not that squickier from the rest of the squick, in a way.

One of the lesser characters that I find truly interesting as things go is Varys. He’s shady, strange, and doesn’t have a pair, but that’s all that makes him all the more intriguing.
I’m starting to understand a bit more the Catelyn hate – but I don’t relate to it. True that she treated with Frey, jumped the gun on Tyrion etc. But well, basically, she’s just being a mama bear, and that, to me, is alright. Besides, it’ll come back and bite her in the rear, so.

I’m still not a fan of Sansa, but I hate her a little less. I suppose all that character development will make her more likeable as things go. *shrug* I will grant that if it weren’t for her, with Ned dead, we wouldn’t have any info on what’s going on in the Red Keep, which is useful. And I'll give her that, her pleading for her father's life was both hear-breaking and touching - and heh, *old man Frey*, I almost had hopes for her. Deep down, though, it probably convinced Joff to kill Ned, but the poor thing couldn't know that.

OMG THEY KILLED NED. I’m not surprised, but I’m still really sad. His last POV chapter was the saddest piece I’d read in a while. Even if I was warned, I probably looked a bit mortuary as I read it in the bus this morning.
I enjoyed the Bran chapter with the call of the bannermen quite a bit – particularly the bit with the Greatjon. Ah, and Roose Bolton gives me the hibbie-jibbies.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for more soon.

Yay

2009-07-08T12:45:00.000-05:00

Yay because I saw Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, in 3D, no less, and it was made of awesome, with lots of Crowning Moments of Awesome (I spend way too much time on TV Tropes, can you tell?). Including my favorite re-adaptation of a famous quote...

"Hasta la vista, birdy."

Loads and loads of stuff

2009-07-05T12:35:00.002-05:00

So I went off to the boonies for 48 hours. Alas, though I did bring the Wimax with me, it didn't work there. My hopes were slim, and my estimation was correct. Stupid thing won't catch a signal up there.

There is a strange sort of peace in going up to the cottage. For one, everything is green. It's like being flooded with only one side of the pallet - not bad, and somewhat soothing. During my year out, I went to lots of places, but they were rarely green - usually grey or yellow, actually, as you would expect most urban centers - so the invasion of flora is always both calming and unsettling to me.

I basically turned into a lumberjack for the weekend, its highlight being my destruction of our longstanding picnic table. To be fair, the thing was begging to be put out of its misery: when I tore it apart with my trusty crowbar, it basically squirmed in thanks. The bugs that were living in the holes were a little bit less happy, though.

My wrist has been doing better - I was able to work without too much pain, and the dull ness in my pinky and ring finger has subsided quite a bit. It's a good thing, because I will be having to do lots of typing next week for the textual analysis project. On Friday, Liberty was very happy with my work on that - she is hoping she can keep me around after the month ends, and frankly, I'd like to stay. Hopefully the college can figure out a way for that to happen. Even better, hopefully, I'll be able to get a class to teach soon. That would rock my socks off. Really. They do have an interest in grad students, so I may yet have a chance.

The archiving on Friday went remarkably well. It's amazing how motivated I can get with the idea that getting this stuff out of the way will ward off more time dealing with Carb's moody temper and abusive behavior. The worst bit is I'm not sure Carb even realizes what a bitch she can be. So I've been trying to do in a day the work I would normally take three days to do, and it's worked. I'm very grateful for that.

Just a note on the matter of the social life thing. On July 1st (Canada day, haha, though here in QC we call it Moving Day, because you know, we like to be rebels etc), we went for dinner and desserts. We were supposed to go to the Old Port for the Festivities, but eventually just had too much fun at the dessert place to move on. Amongst other things, we played the totem game, and apparently, I'm a lioness. I find that to be very amusing - I always thought of myself as a dog instead, but admittedly, it might have to do with the fact that someone told me that a while ago. It has to do, I'm told, about being both fierce, protective and hard-working. I really like my friends. Mac got the fox, which works well with his intellectual and very intelligent person. Lola got the Siamese cat because of her elegance, Rache got the Zebra because she's rare and she has a dual identity, and Phil got the puppy, because he's just too damn adorable and fuzzable. He's also our resident federalist, and we tease him a bit, and he mock growls, and all is well. That's how things should be: no matter what political stance you take, keep it smart, keep it light, keep loving your friends even if they think differently.

Next week looks like it's going to be a bit quieter, which is good. Rache is going off to Vancouver for two weeks, Maclola are going to New York. Phil and I can hang out, I suppose, and go to lots of movies, though I could use a bit less of a social life and a bit more rest. I'm seeing a doctor on Monday about my wrist, because I can't let this thing develop more, even if it looks like it's under control right now.

On the book front, I'm still plowing away efficiently through GoT, which I am very enthused with. Somehow, the fact that I'm very spoilerified doesn't affect my appreciation of it.

1. I'm developping a particular liking for Tyrion Lannister, Bran, Arya and Ned. Tyrion is intriguing and interesting, Arya kicks more ass than most adults, and Ned is just such a tragic, beautiful, strong figure - he seems to also be the only sane fellow around. I feel sorry for him just about every time I get to his POV bits. Bran also has my attention because of his unique perspective. I keep on hoping he's going to remember it was Jaime, and why.
2. I'm also starting to understand Sansa better, though for now, I'm not finding her to be very sympathetic, despite my best attempts at being gentle to her in my head. I think it might be personal bias: as a tomboy, I do have issues with girly-girls in general, though I think it also has to do with how she keeps on frowning over Lady's death, but she has not a small thought for the HUMAN boy who also died in that fail. And how knowing that, she is a) unable to relate to her SISTER who is clearly mourning, thus showing serious lack of empathy, and b) actually being kinder to Sandor, who is so far not particularly gentle, and who allegedly killed her sister's friend. And the spoiler knowledge that she's going to get beaten and have half her family butchered somehow does not make her any more pallatable to me, possibly because she kind of feels like the foetus of a sue. Or something. Sorry, fans out there. I'm just not on board with that one. Nope nope nope.
3. Ah, I do have a question. Sandor, WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TELLING THAT GIRL ABOUT GREGOR? It just makes.... no sense to me. At all. Not on such a short acquaintance, at any rate. Nope nope nope. Way to go for winning the tourney, though. Guess not everything you do is fail, after all.
4. Jaime and Cersei are not gaining much sympathy so far, though that's hardly surprising. Cersei hasn't had much screen time, but she does already look cunningly horrible. The Kingslayer just showed a feat of terrible cruelty by getting Ned's men to be massacred on Tyrion's behalf. Joy. We expect more horrible to come. Yay.
5. I want to strangle Joff. That thing is a little monster. Someone should probably smother it in its sleep. Or something.
6. I'm still intrigued by Catelyn - I can already see the seeds of psychosis in her, actually. In a way, her stubbornness and meddling probably are also part of why the Starks are destroyed(ish), ultimately.
7. Robb is as adorable as ever, but that's no news at all. I love when Bran calls him Robb the Lord. It makes me giggle lots and lots.
8. Jon Snow is also adorable, for that matter, but that also is not anything new. I find interesting his dynamic with Samwise - and everytime I read Samwise, Galadriel in my head twitches. It's funny. And I'm curious to see where that's going to go with those two, but I'm kind of in love with the concept of the Night's Watch.
9. Also, Lysa Arryn is certifiably insane. Maybe there's a genetic thing going on in that branch of the Tullys. I loved the description of the Eirye, though. However that thing is spelled.
10. Ah, Loras? The Hound saved you from being smashed to little bits and pieces of flower knight by his Monstrous brother. Be nice. Also, we love the flaming. And the defeating Gregor Clegane bit. Really.
11. Speaking of Monstrous. I... kind of feel like I should ready myself mentally to adopt Gregor. Though I'm not sure how much room there is for him in my head, I would kind of glee at him being killed dead repeatedly by just about everyone I can think of, including some of his potential headmates, and particularly a bloodthirsty one.
12. Ah, I like Daenerys Targaryen. I love to hate Viserys. My only problem? The girl's age. It makes me go *squick* every time someone mentions her sex life with Khal Drogo.
13. Generally, I've been facepalming at the Starks quite a bit, and more so at Robert Baratheon. That's a direct effect of spoilerification, alas.

For those who want to know, I'm halfway. Still facepalming lots and lots.

This is SO not funny

2009-07-02T12:28:00.001-05:00

I had a good evening last night - lots of fun and apparently got told that my totem is the Lioness. Interesting.

I'm not going to write much - my left wrist, elbow, pinky and ring finger are going numb and I feel pain in my tendons. Typing is painful, and I should be working anyway (which also involves some typing, but never mind).

Hopefully, I'll have a chance to catch up on tags tonight or tomorrow before I go on a two-day long lawnmowing trip to the Land of No Internet. *sigh*

On the other hand, resting my lefties from potential Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (I read the thing, it's terrifying) is probably not a bad thing.

I'll be reading the flist, and trying to tag slowly. *sigh* This is so not what I needed.

Emotional fears, cont'd (it gets better)

2009-06-28T12:30:00.001-05:00

No, really, it does. How straaaaange.

So I called an outing of sorts last night with the usual Uni crew. Simply enough, that included Mac, Rache and Phil. (Okay, let's be honest, Maclola.) The fun bit is that Mac asked to see me before, and LO AND BEHOLD, we actually broke THE WALL OF SILENCE and made up. And he apologized for being a way that he doesn't want to be, even if I actually warned him.

The conversation went this way:

Mac: ... hm. Are you angry at me.

Me: Not angry. Disappointed. And also unsurprised.

Mac: .... unsurprised?

Me: Yup. Told you this would happen.

Mac: Oh, shit, it did, huh? Meeeeeeeeeeeeeh. *sheepish* msorrydoyoustillwantobemyfriend?

And then I talked his big brother Dom ~~I totally do not have a crush on this guy of course not~~ into coming with us, and he did, and it was fun. Even the bit where we walked home from downtown because there were no more busses and it took us an hour. Ah, the joy of having friends who are also your neighbours.

I haven't seen Willy and Jay this weekend, though. But Crichton (not Tom, haha, haven't seen Farscape in so long and why am I making unrelated disgressions) and his family are coming to town next week, so I'll be touring them in Montreal, and going to the Jazz Festival. We're all going to go see Stevie Wonder on the 30th, which will be absolutely awesome. And Phil is coming, which is cool, even if he a) tends to cling andn emo lots, b) needs constant reassuring that everything is okay. And on the 1st we have Mac's birthday, which will be a picnic at the park, again. So yay.

Next weekend, I won't be around because blaaaaaaaaaaah I promised Mum I would be going to the country house to mow the lawn. I hate that darn lawnmower, but it must be done.

And then I have nothing planned that week except work work work and a VERY VERY GOOD FRIEND coming back form a certain ~~workshop~~ thing I hope she enjoys, and training, and also working on the weight loss. And at one point Rache and I are going to go speed dating, because this has to be experienced once based on how ridiculous the concept sounds. And we need to do that quickly, because wtf, she's going to Vancouver for 2 weeks in July and I keep thinking that she's going to be around all summer.

There are a few things I do want to do, like read aSoIaF ASAP (I think I may go do the bookstore today, didn't have time yesterday with my trepidating social life, WTF), icon Tom Cruise in Vanilla Skies, and possibly Charlize Theron in North Country. And write Fic, because clearly I haven't written enough in the past months. Icons of mine can be found at and the fic at , whenever i actually post something. I started to read Sandworms of Dune, but alas it does not excite me as much as it should.

AND THIS WOULD BE A GOOD MOMENT TO MAKE ICON OR FIC REQUESTS, BECAUSE I COULD USE SOME PROMPTING, RIGHT NOW.

So, that's it. Yay. Go me. More emo to come from House of Emo. Or, as Mac put it last night, the Melancholy smile.

Yet another entry from the Emotionally Scarred

2009-06-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

Or the emotionally scared, for that matter.

Mac called to invite me to see a show with him and his girlfriend. As a matter of fact, I should refer to them as Maclola, as Rache and I did last night, since they have been an inseperable entity for the past month, at least as far as I am concerned.

Mind you, I'm happy for him. At the same time, I find absolutely exhausting the repeated failures at seeing him, the last minute cancellations because they're busy snogging, etc.

So I said no. Passive-agressive of me, I know. Mostly, I didn't like the last minute phone call, I didn't like the fact that he (they?) choked on us last night, I didn't like the fact that it felt contrived.

So I said no, and he ended the conversation very quickly. Oh well. As things go, I might as well become fully asocial and decide that I don't need anyone. There's still Willy and Jay, though. I don't know if it's because they are a gay couple, or if it's because I have a personal relationship to both, but I don't mind the couplehood thing with them. Maybe it's also because with them, I feel loved. In the most platonic way possible, but still.

I got a text message for a movie date (too late, i have to think of charging that cel phone more regularly) from an unknown caller. I think it might be Scott, and if it is, I'm not sure what to do. I like him. I'm afraid of liking him. I'm afraid that he may like me. And there's the whole snaffu with Bud and Lia to take into consideration. Hmph.

In short? I fail at being social on every possible level. Go me. I think I'm going to go curl back into my shell, now.

2009-06-22T11:58:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this right now, you have more luxury than someone in Iran could ever hope for right now. If you are watching TV or a video on youtube, updating your status on Facebook, Tweeting, or even texting your friend, you are lucky. If you are safe in your home, and were able to sleep last night without the sounds of screaming from the rooftops, you need to know and understand what is happening to people just like you in Iran right now.

They are not the enemy. They are a people whose election has been stolen. For the first time in a long time, a voice for change struck the youth of Iran, just as it did for many people in the United States only seven months ago. Hossein Mousavi gained the support of millions of people in Iran as a Presidential candidate. He stands for progressiveness. He supports good relations with the West, and the rest of the world. He is supported with fervor as he challenges the oppressive regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Friday, millions of people waited for hours in line to vote in Iran's Presidential election. Later that night, as votes came in, Mousavi was alerted that he was winning by a two-thirds margin. Then there was a change. Suddenly, it was Ahmadinejad who had 68% of the vote - in areas which have been firmly against his political party, he overwhelmingly won. Within three hours, millions of votes were supposedly counted - the victor was Ahmadinejad. Immediately fraud was suspected - there was no way he could have won by this great a margin with such oppposition. Since then, reports have been coming in of burned ballots, or in some cases numbers being given without any being counted at all. None of this is confirmed, but what happened next seems to do the trick.

The people of Iran took the streets and rooftops. They shout "Death to the dictator" and "Allah o akbar." They join together to protest. Peacefully. The police attack some, but they stay strong. Riots happen, and the shouting continues all night. Text messaging was disabled, as was satellite, and websites which can spread information such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and the BBC are blocked in the country. At five in the morning, Arabic speaking soldiers (the people of Iran speak Farsi) stormed a university in the capital city of Tehran. While sleeping in their dormitories, five students were killed. Others were wounded. These soldiers are thought to have been brought in by Ahmadinejad from Lebanon. Today, 192 of the university's faculty have resigned in protest.

Mousavi requested that the government allow a peaceful rally to occur this morning - the request was denied. Many thought that it would not happen. Nevertheless, first a few thousand people showed up in the streets of Tehran. At this point, it is estimated that 1 to 2 million people were there. Mousavi spoke on the top of a car. The police stood by. For a few hours, everything was peaceful. Right now, the same cannot be said. Reports of injuries, shootings, and killings are flooding the internet. Twitter has been an invaluable source - those in Iran who still know how to access it are updating regularly with picture evidence. People are being brutally beaten. Tonight will be another night without rest for so many in Iran no older than I am. Tonight there is a Green Revolution.

For more information:
PICTURES:
here and here
NEW INFORMATION:
Here - near constant updates
Here - ONTD_political live post
ON TWITTER:
@StopAhmadi, @ProtesterHelp

دنیارابگوییدچطورآنهاانتخاباتمان دزدیده اند
Tell the world how they have stolen our election

- original post by one_hoopy_frood

</div></div>

My heart goes out to these people. I want to be there. I want to fight for something this right. This, this, this. Is why it pisses me the fuck off when people don't appreciate what we have.

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP

# The most obvious thing to do is stay informed. Keep an eye on reliable sources on Twitter, refresh blogs and news sites that are covering the stories.

# If you are on twitter, retweet information from reliable twitters, but REMOVE THE USERNAME if they are in Iran. People have died because of the lack of responsibility by fellow tweeters and the media in this front. They can be tracked down by the government of Iran.

# Spread the information elsewhere. Repost this article or write your own on Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, or anywhere else you can think of. If you write your own, make sure you are concise and accurate. Link to your sources for people to learn more.

# Change your location on Twitter to Tehran or Iran, and your time zone to GMT +3:30.

# DO NOT auto-refresh and take down websites, even if you are asked. It slows down the internet for the rest of the people in Iran.

# If you make a proxy DO NOT post it publically, otherwise it is useless. Send it in a direct message to a trusted source.

# DO NOT spam the hash tag #IranElection with useless things to "confuse the government". This does not help at all.

Meh

2009-06-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

I should write things. As in, I should take up blogging again. In the past year, it seems I lost interest in chronicling my own life – and that’s not to say I lost interest in my life altogether, but simply that writing down things seemed to suddenly lack in justification.

So in short – the semester ended with joy galore – my grades are sufficient for the next step – and GAWD, I hope I don’t spend too much time loitering around before I graduate, because as much as I love the academic world, this is my second degree, and I’m not getting any younger, damnation be done!

But it’s been good, remarkably so. Mainly, I loved the papers and the studying, and I loved the classes. I’m failing terribly at my reading list, though, since the summer started. Two reasons explain this:

1) I found a full-time temporary job at a college, which is awesome but takes up reading time.

2) I seem to fail at going to get said books, and read other things instead. For example, I finally finished Kostova’s Historian, which was excellent and really took over my brain, and I’m now completely engrossed in Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran. I wish I’d read it sooner – it would have been a helpful contribution to my paper on oriental feminism, though perhaps that would have filled it with too much material. I also have Alexis Zorba half-started. I fail at following plans.

Also, weather, stop raining. It’s not pleasant and it kills my Internet. And please, friends who don’t have a summer job? Don’t ask me out late on week nights. I just won’t do it.

My mother seems to have taken up the obsession of helping me lose weight. In the process, we’ve been working out every morning, which is great for my body and terrible for my sleep, as I can’t seem to bother myself with going to bed earlier. One of the down sides of going to the pool for laps a 7Am is the Very Obese Old Russian Streaker. I swear, her body is a vision of horror. Another one is quinoa cake. Really. Forget all about flavor, all ye who enter here. The perk is the cute lifeguard who waves at me every day. And smiles. He’s totally adorable.

My former employer contacted me about a well paying contract for one month – it’s a travelling gig, it always is with them. I declined because it made me miss 4 weeks of class in the fall semester, but I feel kind of icky about it, mostly because I miss the crew.

Last but not least, I think the summer is getting to me – not the sunshine and pleasant weather, but the onslaught of public snogging everywhere. I’m sticking to my ‘celibacy is the thing for me scenario’, but --- yeah. Occasionally, I feel almost like I should question that. And then I’m myself again.

Ah, and So is coming in from Boston tonight, though I won't see her until tomorrow. I think it's been something like 3 years since we hung out. Fun times.

Updates and some ramblings

2009-04-05T10:19:00.005-05:00

More essays. I turned in two out of the four essays

I listed in my last post. The subjects changed quite drastically, thou

gh.So far, I produced:

Madness in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, analyzed in conjunction with Herbert Marcuse's application of psychoanalysis to society, in Eros and Civilization ;
An analysis of Arab Feminism as portrayed in Nawal El-Saadawi's Woman at Point Zero and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.

I yet have to produce :

A study of the mutual influences of the French and English languages one on another.
A lexicographic analysis of one English word, with a cross-cutting stury of how Woolf (yes, Virginia, again) used it.

I've been having good weekends, lately. In short because I don't have a million years to discuss them...

I attended La nuit de la philosophie two weeks ago with a friend from university. It was wonderfully stimulating, and of course, I was kind of dead: it is 24 hours of intense conference attendance and philosophical reflection, after all. But it was great.

Last I had a dinner party with Kiki and her family, which is always fun! I also went to two musical shows: Sherazade les mille et une nuits and Starmania Opera. While the former was

only good for someone who didn't understand the very dreadful lyrics (which I did), the latter was wonderful and heart-breaking. I'm including an extract of Starmania below:

And yesterday I was over at friend's house to help with a move - today, I'm going to the Cabane à sucre with a bunch of friends. Basically, the idea is to stuff one's face with maple products: it's spring, it's the season in which maple syrup is prepared, it makes sense.

What I've been doing lately

2009-03-12T09:54:00.000-06:00

Paper writing. It seems to almost be all that I do these days.

Since the beginning of the term, this is what I have produced:

History in Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millenium Approaches, or the quest for a sexual or a historical identity ;
A reflection on the development of the Northumbrian dialect between the 8th and the 12th century ;
Bartleby the Scrivener: an evocation of the Statue of Liberty ;
A detailed analysis of Ronsard's 9th Sonnet to Hélène, or the protrayal of a love duel ;
Béroul's Tristan & Isolde, the symbolism of the Mal Pas, or the farce which allows to reintegrate the social space.

I also have the following assignments to produce over the coming weeks:

A lexicographic analysis of three semantically related words ;
Madness and marriage in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway and Charlotte Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper ;
A study of the mutual influences of the French and English languages one on another.

There is one more larger essay for which I need to pick my topic, but it isn't due for a bit, so I do have time to decide.

Ah, woe is me. I do enjoy what I'm doing, though. I'll post excerpts when I can get to editing the raw bits.

Even if so far, I'm doing extremely well with my work.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Hm.

2009-03-04T11:30:00.005-06:00

I haven't blogged in a while. Not tweeted, blogged. As a matter of fact, I haven't twitted either. I blame mid-term rush.

Because I am remarkably lazy, I'm re-editing an email I recently sent to a friend about my current situation. Pardon the lazy.

I wouldn't go back on my choice to leave my traveling job for the world, even though I'm just about to enter mid-term rushes. To be honest, compared to the demands of my past professional life, it feels very palatable.

I took five classes, this semester. The Department Head is open to evaluating the possibility of sending me off to a Masters program in September. I have two Historical Linguistics classes, one focusing on French, the other in English. It's fascinating how the two languages were interwoven through out medieval history. I also have an epistemological class on Sexuality and Representation - though it may be a bit more abstract, it's fascinating, and I particularly enjoy the readings. Then I have two methodology classes which may be less exciting, but are interesting nonetheless, both in the matter of analysis, one in French, one in English, again. I am rediscovering through all this how I very much enjoy essay writing and research.

And so my life is really much like that of a studious monk, once again, but I am so engrossed and stimulated by what I do that it does not bother me one bit. The occasional weekly evening out with friends participates in the preservation of my status as a social beast. I still live at my mother's for now - the arrangement suits us both.

With mid-term rush over, I'm currently enjoying Reading week - and unfortunately getting distracted with writing fan fiction, which is most terrible, and at the same time very liberating for my inner geek.

I'm linking here to my profile on FanFiction.net. Feel free to read, and even more, to review. Comments, as usual, are love.

The Beaver

Tweets for Today

2009-02-17T23:06:00.001-06:00

11:40 Good class on woolfe today. Hanging out with the asso folks. I love this department.
16:25 Feeling kind of sick, actually. Went through what i set out to do, but why am i grinding my teeth?

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-15T23:06:00.001-06:00

10:45 Must avoid tweeting about food today. Rly. Social day, today - lunch with my NameSake, and dinner out with Madre Querida. &Must.read.Green.
14:14 Now off to readabitanddothings. Ha. Lunch with Namesake was fun, she actually knows about Phonetics and issues relating to pedagogy.
20:40 Hmmmm dinner was fun, good convos and all that. And man. I love chocolate.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-13T23:06:00.001-06:00

09:25 Yay, reading day. Pray that I may be productive!
11:48 Read: Pierre de Ronsard, Sonnets pour Helene. Poor guy. 7 years and not even a kiss.
19:27 Read: Rubin's "Understanding sex." Despite the subject matter, it is boring.
19:28 Reading: Green's "Becoming a visible man." Is fascinating, really really. So why did I fall asleep in the middle of it?

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-12T23:35:00.001-06:00

07:41 Aaaand of to that class again. Methodology bored me do death. But at least I know I can accomplish the work. Le sigh.
18:25 Gah. Long day, today - mostly research. I don't hate it, though.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-12T21:39:00.000-06:00

07:41 Aaaand of to that class again. Methodology bored me do death. But at least I know I can accomplish the work. Le sigh.
18:25 Gah. Long day, today - mostly research. I don't hate it, though.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-10T23:31:00.001-06:00

07:45 Heee, off to quiz day this morning. Will be studying medieval languages this afternoon. I predict a migraine. Burrows, why are you so harsh?
14:54 Found my essay subject: bartleby the statue of liberty. Prof was impressed!
15:11 If i create a villain, they shall be dubbed meretrix.
16:21 Burrow, my friend, your essays are lengthy. Where is my advil?
16:28 Am i langland's dreamer?
17:47 Heee! Forgot that poetry reading was tonight. Must prepare! *skitters off*
21:54 Poetry reading went well ! I always get so nervous about these things !

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-09T23:30:00.001-06:00

09:46 Up again and ready for the new week. Studying Roy and Foucault today, and also preparing for the quiz on Faulkner. Doesn't feel very Beavery
12:07 "rather than massive censorship, a regulated and polymorphous incitement to discourse."michel foucault, on the matter of sexuality in mo ...
12:13 Disquieting enigma. What an intriguing syntagm.
17:46 Coffee with Willy - awesome to laugh over chai and to speculate about the class's attitude. Srsly, why are people so quiet about sex?
18:24 For context: why are people so quiet about sex... ~in a class about Sexuality~ . Damn it.
19:09 Randomly, I love Creme brulee.
00:10 Also, "A Rose for Emily" is the creepiest short story I've ever read. Ever.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-08T23:36:00.001-06:00

13:58 And up again. Read Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." That is one creepy short story, my friend.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-07T23:28:00.001-06:00

11:19 Awake! And cleaning some over due documents, haha!
21:59 Oh god, the Tudors are fascinating people, aren't they? And I love Jonathan Rhyes-Meyers.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-06T23:34:00.001-06:00

08:48 Yay, Friday. Phonetics study session. Not!Bro called last night. He got the gig. Me glad for him. Also. I'm an aunt, AGAIN.
18:44 Gah. Spent all day studying phonetics and Ancient French. It hurts my brain.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-05T23:30:00.001-06:00

00:44 Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov - The World's Oldest Living Bolshevik. Tony Kushner, I like your sense of humor. I sporfled.
07:35 Aaaaaand up again, off to text analysis class. Is -4F/-20C today. Brrrr.
15:33 K.S., baby. Lesion number one. Lookit. The wine-dark kiss of the angel of death . . . I'm a lesionnaire. The Foreign Lesion. (Kushner)
15:34 The American Lesion. Lesionairre's disease . . . My troubles are lesion . . . (Kushner again. He knows how to take the tension off.)
15:35 Also, this is a LIBRARY, damn it. Can't people STFU? Or at least get a room? Le sigh, once more.
20:37 Hmmmm foods. Is good. And I want Bailey's Ice Cream.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-05T01:49:00.001-06:00

08:25 And yet another day. Off to read about the arrival of printing in England, French phonetics, and Angels in America.
09:22 You are on the bus when you suddenly realize ... you need to fart. The music is really loud, so you time your farts with the beat.
09:23 After a couple of songs, you start to feel better as you approach your stop.
09:23 As you are leaving the bus, people are really staring you down, and that's when you remember: you've been listening to your ipod.
09:26 Last few tweets? No, not a true story.
12:08 Project gutenberg and wiki source: god's gift to academics. Particularly the broke ones.
14:24 Pet redue
14:26 Pet peeve: if the class does not interest you, stfu or leave. Don't keep up the chatter.
21:10 Cold and humid: not a good combination.
23:13 Chilling out at home, but bed beckons.
00:19 My journal: I do have one. I keep on forgetting about it. Is bad.
00:44 Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov - The World's Oldest Living Bolshevik. Tony Kushner, I like your sense of humor. I sporfled.

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Tweets for Today

2009-02-04T01:02:00.001-06:00

07:31 Nnnngh, Early mornin', off to class, and to study Herman Melville. Woot!
13:55 Gah, procrastination is the death of me. Must. Go. Read. Aaaargh.
14:21 Entranched in the library. Will not leave until caught up! Must. Have. Resolve.
16:31 Medieval French: it gives me a headache.
17:53 Had enough. That will do for today. Strange man in the library draws circles on maps.
18:34 Home is nice. Brain is turned off for the night.
22:40 tinyurl.com/c59334 <----- is one of the most ridiculously funny vids I've seen in a while. Kids, don't do this at home.

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Lazy tweets

2009-02-03T00:45:00.001-06:00

08:11 Yay, another day. Must go read stuff. Woo hoo!
17:36 Good day of work - think I may be making a friend in g-boy. Professor discussed lengthily the symbolism of shit, today. It was hysterical.

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Lazy tweets

2009-02-02T02:00:00.002-06:00

10:41 Alive, she's alive! Up and awake, and will soon get ready to go to Dinner.
14:45 <3 to everyone. There will be absence tonight due to semi-family obligations. Ha.
16:57 I am newly reacquainted with my old disliking of yos. It is purely irrational.
17:20 Irresponsible, i am, and proud of it!
17:20 Being a little kid in public transportation sucks: all you ever see is knees.
17:20 It is a truth universally acknowledged that hair with too much gel is uber unsexy.
18:22 My mother is an Obama fangirl. It's cute.
19:49 Two bottles of wine later, my boredom is numb.
23:34 Hmmm... should ponder the word misanthropic.

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Lazy tweets

2009-02-01T01:12:00.001-06:00

14:15 Had a good night's sleep - staying quiet at home and lounging in pj's. There is little better than lazy afternoons.
15:02 Think mum is annoyed at my lazy saturday thing. She wants to go /do/ ~things~. I want to veg out. Different rhythms ahoy.
16:55 Working on making a movie. This computer has never been so slow.
17:20 ah, good, looks like the roommate is in a better mood. *sigh* and in need of attention.
20:29 Survived dinner and heated conversations about dialects and social classes. Must this always be antagonistic? *goes back into shell.*

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Lazy tweets

2009-01-31T04:22:00.001-06:00

12:35 Slept all afternoon yesterday - feeling better. Today is study day. Off to the library to meet my partner. Readings are a bit late. *Sigh*
12:54 It's snowing again. What the hell, weather?
17:32 Had a good study session - but still feeling beat. No plans for the weekend - I'm not really complaining. Have a lot to read, too.
19:28 Chillaxing with The God Of Small Things by Arundati Roy. It's a fascinating novel. Also, my back hurts.

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Lazy tweets

2009-01-30T08:23:00.001-06:00

12:22 Having lunch with Paula after the lecture. I rocked the class.

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Manual Tweets

2009-01-29T16:46:00.001-06:00

Because LoudTwitter failed.

Gah, this essay took forever due to lack of synthetic skillz. But at long last it is done. Huzzah! 2 days ago
Woke up late - but still on time to go to class. Today is essay remittance day - and there's the Proto-French. Didn't read for that one. Ow. 2 days ago
Okay, off to class. I have about 1h to read Proto-French before the lecture. Yes, I can. It's only 20p, right, right? *facepalm* 2 days ago
Working on making interfaces talk to each other, ha! 2 days ago
Survived the storm. Back to my window at the library. Just realized that I lecture tomorrow on philosophy. This is wow. 2 days ago
Louis 16 disait: le roé c'est moé! Also, everyone is a viking! 1 day ago
Damn you, snow! You have deprived me of my wit! 1 day ago
Prof liked the questions that work with my essay. I is happy. Hopefully the essay will go over well. To tired to work in Diderot. Tomorrow. 1 day ago
Mum came home from theater. She's in a good mood. Premiere is tomorrow. It will rock. 1 day ago

Lazy tweets

2009-01-28T01:12:00.003-06:00

08:10 So, first tweet ever! In the bus to uni, i'm late. What else is new?
17:13 Just got home from uni - and very excited. My essay is well underway, and my professor seems interested in my thesis idea! Life is good.
18:18 Dinner was good - couscous, yum! With discussion about the war of 100 years and the various degrees of norsification on the English Isles.
21:24 Also, saw Pride and Prejudice with Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy. Just a bit in love. Not a lot. Knowing the story was a woman's work helps.
22:42 gah, slaving on a very short essay. why is this so painful? Oh, right. I want to say a million things and I can only say two. Urgh.

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Erhem

2009-01-27T06:44:00.003-06:00

In case anyone was wondering, I'm still alive - and I am rather engrossed in my new job - that is, to be a full time student in Bilingual Studies.

Because I am horrible at posting, I'm going to try something new.

That is, I'm starting to use Twitter. Updates will be posted here as well.

Apologies for such long silences.

No longer a Hobo

2008-11-27T14:39:00.004-06:00

So.

I'm home. I mean, really, really home. I mean, home, for good.

So.

If you are my friend in RL and you still have a set of fingers, use them and call me up for coffee. Because I am HOME, Baby ! (But yes, I know, I know, and I am getting on that phone, yes, I promise.)

I just went to college today for my "English written skillz admission test".

I rocked, of course. Because I rock.

It's a bit like being on the recovery track after a long illness - I go to the swimming pool every day. I eat well. I try to be a good girl about my own life. I have about 60lbs to lose, and I'm working on that. I also know my brain is going to come back in shape.

I'm on the mend, and that's good, it's really, really good.

Also, one of my pictures made it to Schmap for the iPhone. How cool is that?

Check it out here.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

297 tears

2008-11-04T22:09:00.003-06:00

I've never quite cried over politics.

But I'll admit that I am crying in emotion right now - in relief. History has been made. American citizens, you are changing the face of your country, changing the face of the world.

I wanted it for America, my southern labor. I wanted it for the world.

For the past year, I've been consistently mistaken for a US citizen, in all the countries where I've been.

For the past year, I've had to tell people my opinion on what I see as foreign politics.

For the past year, I've met Africans, in Africa, rooting for Barak Obama.

All my life I've wanted equality.

Today, it happened. Martin Luther King would be proud. Nelson Mandela certainly is.

297 tears.

Of joy.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

A bunch of random things

2008-11-04T06:02:00.003-06:00

On the eve of this election, I urge you to watch (if you can find it), a "Clean Escape", by Sam Egan, which was the first episode of "Masters of Science-Fiction".If you can't find your hands on it, read this very detailed and adequate recap - but warnings, because it is SPOILERIFIC.This being said - I'll be watching, and crossing my fingers. The US is making history, in the next 24 hours. So what else is new?

------------------------

I fail at work, these days. Come to think of it, I'm fail at a lot of things - including NaNo, it's not even funny. I'm not sure what's wrong with me in that respect. For work, I know - I'm suffering from Short Timer Disease. Even if I'm trying to motivate myself with the desire to not let down .... Mr. Burns. (current boss, here, yes, he really, really looks like Mr. Burns, except he's actually nice, and I actually like him. No, that doesn't make me Smithers. **shudder**)

ETA: My boss just made an impersonation of Monty Burns. I am flailing inwardly.

------------------------

But for NaNo, I'm not sure. I like my story - it's a fun adventure thingie, where I get to be very cruel to my people. I created a fun pair of characters, and I like them. So. Why can I not write? Damn it! I feel so lazy, at night, it's not even funny. I told my mum about NaNo, and Burns, and also ... how do I call this one? I'm going to call him Wallace, for the Wallace in Sin City. No. He should be Helmholtz Watson, from Brave New World. Because he's perfect. Though I guess I could recast Mr. Burns as Bernard Marx, in that case. Which makes me Lenina. It even works because BMarx has been sort of hitting on me, much to my despair. I'd much rather it be HWatson. Srsly. Anyway. HWatson said he'd be my reader, which is cool. I like him, and I trust him. Too bad this is a one-time assignment together.

------------------------

I saw Sin City again last night. It was awesome. I love Marv. I love to hear him say, "That is one damn fine coat you’re wearin’ ". I love Dwight McCarthy so much, too.

------------------------

I've been rediscovering Pink Floyd. High Hopes feels so appropriate - I'm not sure why, exactly, but it feels like a good song for a place like Rwanda, were innocence has been so direly tested over the past 40 years.

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun
Along the long road and on down the causeway
Do they still meet there by the cut
There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

****

Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many times

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever

That's it. Tata. Sorry for being so random.

Oh me. I'm late again.

2008-11-01T18:05:00.002-06:00

Well, I'm still in Rwanda. I just spent the last two weeks out on the field, and well, I didn't quite feel like writing about that. So instead, I joined NaNoWriMo. I'm writing a novel in my free time. I have a month to write 50,000 words.

Here is the synopsis of my first novel to come, Dead Ends.

Vivien Saint-Amour, a shy, insecure and socially inept Anthropology PhD postulate from Montreal, arrives at an unknown Latin-American airport for a few weeks of vacation.

Her easily planned vacation soon turns to a nightmare as the first attempt of her life at an act of courage propels her into a world she never knew existed.

Torn between her own fears and her survival instincts, she will find out who to trust, and who to fear, and will discover that heroism takes the most unexpected form.

So, if you see that this blog is sleepy, have a look at the counter, on the side. The soaring word count will tell you that yes, I'm still alive.

I'm just busy writing a book.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Yeah, I live

2008-10-10T04:20:00.006-05:00

Apologies for being a horrible friend who doesn't keep in touch. Seriously.

Wow. I haven't updated here in about a couple million years. I think I need to write something, just to prove that I'm still able to. Seriously. I just haven't been keeping up with Facebook, or my own blog for a bit. Call it a thinking hiatus.

I realize that I didn’t write anything since my European trip - mostly, I got absorbed in the offline world and in Madrid - in Paris - in Luxembourg - in England. It was fantastic, and I moved on just in time to go to Aceh for my next assignment.

Aceh was alright - there were some pleasant moments with my team - I did manage to blog some then, thankfully so.

And then there was the summer leave during which I went to a family bash in France and got in trouble in England for being a bad packer. (Not a backpacker, though it could have been that too.) People, that swiss knife? Just leave it at home.

Then there was Haiti, again, otherwise known as Hell. I spent weeks and weeks locked up at work or in my room, waiting for it to be over - and still sort of traumatized by my English experience. I didn't update - I honestly had little to say or to tell. It was just a waiting time. Jachere. It was a good thing I had a long leave of absence planned after that.

So I had a long vaca - it wasn't lost, though. I made some decisions - mostly about ending my current gig, and going on to uni. I need to be in the world of Academia again. When I see those dorky professors and musty classrooms, I get all emo. So. Instead of going on like an idiot about how I need to change my life, I did.

I quit. I'm going back to school in January. One last gig, and I'm done with this slave trader of a boss. I admit, I'm going to miss my friends at work, though it's only a matter of time before they move on too - it always is in this business.

It's a big deal - it's my second degree, I know. I just need to be intellectually stimulated again. I want to think of Edgar Allan Poe's translations of Baudelaire. I want to reflect on the contruction of Finwean linguistics. I want to take time to write essays about how Jane Austen was repressed and how she is just like Madame de Cleves.

I'm going to be a lit professor.

Fuck joining the corporate world. It was never a life for me. It doesn't work for me, it never did.

And I also say, blah to trying to change the world. It's impossible - even the best intentions get twarped by politics. It's time to face the fact : I want to do things I feel like doing - not things that I have to do because I should fit in a mold.

I don't want a white picket fence.

I don't want 2.5 kids.

I don't want to give up my freedom just because it's a condition of being like everyone else.

I don't want to be like everyone. I want to be me.

In the meantime, I’m in Rwanda for another month and a half. I’ll live.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

AWOL

2008-06-13T03:43:00.005-05:00

Leaving Indonesia, like NOW - I'm at the airport. Will be swallowed by my personal life and my family for the next three weeks, so more silence, I am so sorry.

I love y'all very much, even the lurkers. Yes yes yes.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

So. I suck.

2008-06-08T06:03:00.003-05:00

I’d be hard pressed to give a reasonable explanation for this long silence. I like blogging. Only thing is, I’ve once again become disengaged, as it’s happened to me regularly over these past few months.

I suppose I should own the fact that I am becoming blasee. The wonders of the world no longer phase me. I turn my mind to other things – to my inner universe and the stories I want to write, the imaginary people screaming to be born of my mind.

Yet, my pen is sterile and it is a blissful torture to be so inhabited by unborn phantoms.

Perhaps it would be kind of me to describe the setting in which this rant is born. It is on a boat, a small ferry that reeks of lake water and market smells, a place so full of the chatter of old Indonesian ladies, it is a wonder I can write at all. There are six bullays on this ship: yours truly, Spade, Vee, a man with too much belly and very bad skin, another with stunning blue eyes, and a girl who has backpacker stamped on her forehead.

The ship leaves, to the sound, very alien, for this setting, of La Lambada. It takes me a moment to recognize it. Destination: Samosir, on Lake Toba, North Sumatera. It is my second tourist outing in Indonesia, an they are only a week apart.

I was last weekend in Sabang, on the island of Palau Weh, off the coast of Aceh. A much needed breath of fresh air, with highlights including roast beef and snorkeling. I didn’t find Nemo, but maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. I suppose getting sunstroke might also be a partial explanation as to why my efforts were hampered.

Also, hammocks rock. If I ever stop being a gypsy, I want one in my home. Another highlight: waiting for the night to crash on me as I belt out Yeats, Edith Piaf and Streisand to myself.

I guess I’m not so unphazed, after all. Just lazy. Aaaargh. Must be productive. Must must must.

Oh, a hammock.

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Catching up...

2008-06-03T05:04:00.000-05:00

May 18th:
1) I found a new thai place that is absolutely yummy AND sells booze AND is in walking distance of my place. And they have salsa night on wednesdays. My life is good.
2) I'm temporary relieved of being a troglodyte due to the necessities of business travels. My access to a place with a window is only for a week, though, unfortunately.
3) I have been reinstated in my earthly possessions, which is good. Wearing the same shirt gets old after a while.
4) Had a sushi dinner with my Snape-Dragonish boss and looks like we're cool. If I deliver on Monday, that is. *Looks at the time* Oh, shit, I should really get to work.

June 3rd:

1) Out of the fishbowl again as of just now. Happy as well - and off to the roads of Germany soon - so yeehaw. We shall post a hiatus notice when the time comes - but it won't be long, we promise.

2) Snape-Dragon has been much more pleasant - and much more worthy of being called Spade recently, though he still hasn't taken up to smoking. The big news is that he's quitting - and we are stunned to realize that we will, indeed, miss the moody and hardboiled boss.

3) We have gone searching for Nemo and found the clown fish. Actually, Spade did - Beav' only found Dorie - and got sunstroke in the process. That's all good now - but still. We are happy. We are no longer the color of a washed off sink.

4) Still late on deadlines though - the Beaver officially sucks at giving papers on time. Time for a new horizon, it seems.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Unkept promises

2008-05-20T10:02:00.005-05:00

I still own the Euro-Trip stories, I'm sorry. They're coming, eventually.

I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be writing about. It's crunch time, and I don't feel like working. And blah to me, because I know I'm going to pay for it, big time, very soon. Oh well.

I've recently developed a fascination for hardboiled PI characters. I'm not sure where that comes from. And my new favorite word is hardboiled. Which I like to think I am.

The worst part is, I think Snape-Dragon (SD) is actually a hardboiled type - the only reason I'm not quite able to refer to him as Spade, and not at Snape-Dragon, is that he's not... I don't know. Anyway. Since this realization boomed on me, I've found his company much more pleasant. Bear witness : 7 sushi-bar staff members who heard me laugh all night yesterday over his antics.

Then again, SD does have amazing, funny stories about all the places he's been - including the one dish in the world he was never able to eat, a green radioactive stew with suspicious, unidentified brownie-things. He can even be charming. Disturbing. Anyway.

I had a blast again - even after I'd left SD and gone almost home. Yeah. Almost home. Because there's a club downstairs where they have live cover bands every night - and good stuff, even if they don't do any Janice. I'd promised the barman I'd pop by - he's a bud - and ended up belting some John Lennon to a crowd of befuddled Malaysians. Such is my life.

Oh, and I'm in Medan. And there til next Monday. Mucho better, thank you.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Troglodyte

2008-05-12T06:33:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I became a troglodyte during the weekend. So I have nothing to say, save for the fact that:
1) I'm thankful there is Internet at the hotel ;
2) Golf on TV is boring ;
3) Thanks to the Dragon, at least I had a glass of wine on saturday night. That was the high point of my weekend.

So...

Bene moved. Pesky illegal booze sellers, always on the move. Thankfully, from one dark alley to another, they were unearthed and booze was obtained.

All is well.

On another note, I'd somewhate lost my groove at work, but it seems to be returning. I'm very pleased to be safe from short timer's disease.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

I don't get this

2008-05-08T10:28:00.001-05:00

So I blogged about my ordeal. Here’s the deal. My luggage NEVER left the airport of initial departure. Aaaaaargh. Good news is, I get my clothes tomorrow. Me happy.

Today… nothing of note happened. I did have eggplant juice a lunch, with spicy mango salad. Does that count? Since in Indonesia, the variety of available juices is mind boggling, I’ve resolved to try them all while I’m here.

So far I’ve had:
- Carrot juice (yummy) ;
- Avocado juice (delicious, seriously, there’s chocolate in there, it’s sinful) ;
- Starfruit juice (a bit bland, but whatever) ;
- Eggplant juice (dutch eggplant. It’s surprisingly pleasant).

I’m still struggling to put up the pics of my trip to Europe. My connection sucks. I’m sorry for the delays, really.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Big UFO Landing pad

2008-05-07T20:49:00.002-05:00

I was presented with a map of the town today... some indications on it are pretty "tongue-in-cheek" as the yankees say... for example:Road names include Pizza House road, Stadium road, Some road, Some bigger road, Some other road, Some main road... And landmarks include two "Secret beer shops", Some weird building, Crappy bridge, Big flaming pink [insert NGO name] guesthouse, Malaria Swamps, Puke green house, Governor's Pimp pad, Retarded intersection and my favorite, Big UFO Landing pad.

All restaurants have indicated "Beer!!!" under their pin, when they serve it, and directions out of the city include: "To north of Banda Aceh via crappy road and tsunami wastelands", "To west coast beaches, that wood fired pizza place and Meulaboh", and "To Medan and the free world, a hell of a long way."This goes to say, they haven't figured out street names and addresses in this country yet.

Also, yesterday went down in history as the day where we managed to find a cab (a becak, mind you, it's a motorcycle with a side care, and the most common form of transportation), which knew to take us to the expat restaurant with beer.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Once upon a night in Banda

2008-05-07T01:23:00.005-05:00

On TV, for background noise, I put on the only occidental channel available, Star World, and right now, they are showing Friends. I've never followed the series assiduously, and so my understanding of the storyline is very limited, but I like the fact that it is almost every where I go. Consistency in a world such as mine, where everything is ephemeral, is much appreciated. I just got off work, a second day of a 6 week long assignment. My team and I are sitting in a place which we call the Fishbowl, because it is surrounded with glass windows, and I spent the day idly revising documentation, trying to find gaps in the system.

Indonesia is a strange place to be, and for all the painful memories it holds, I do like it. The language is exotic, the people are smiling, the architecture is alien and elegant, the food burns my pallet exquisitely, the smells assail me everywhere. Even cigarettes smell differently here: the Indonesians smoke Kretek sticks, and they contain clove. Some people don't like it, but I do – I find it spicy and pleasant, contrary to the ordinary stuff.

I've opted to skip dinner out tonight. For that, I have a lot of good reasons. One of them is, I'm running out of cash, and I can't go to the ATM until tomorrow. The other is, since my luggage got lost on the way here, I have few clothes, and it's so hot and humid outside, my scant reserves are going to dwindle much too fast if I go out again. And… well… my boss is moody tonight, and that means unpleasant company – so I'm skipping. Best to be alone then poorly escorted. I'm alright, though. Now, if only my room had more natural light, I'd be happy.

I'm not particularly depressed... but this inspires me with a poem that echoes of the darkness surrounding my sleepless state.

My name is solitude, in a cave of darkness I dwell.
Arpeggios and songs fill my mind, treasures unshared, unkept.

My name is longing. I seek warmth and only find the chill
Of all that is lonely and sullen, of all night’s obscurities accept.

My name is ugliness. Nothing beholds that which will
Seduce or ensnare, but all that is monstrous, in the lottery, I swept.

My name is solitude, and I wish to be broken.
My name is longing, and I wish to be sated.
My name is ugliness, and I wish to be reclaimed.

Oh, lotus-eater, where art thou?

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

A commute…

2008-05-05T09:21:00.005-05:00

So I’m back…. And I’m blogging, and blogging about sunny and exotic Indonesia rather than about medieval and mind-boggling Europe. I’m so unpredictable, I should get an award. So after a whirlwind passage home in Canada, which followed my gipsy vacation touring Europe, I had to once more traverse the world to go to work. This is my commute. It starts on a Friday night, and ends on a Sunday evening. It lasts over 36 hours, before I can lie down and collapse in Morpheus’ arms. It brings me to the brink of fainting, to seizures in an airplane, before I can rest. It makes me lose patience with annoying officials, and it deprives me of my personal belongings.

Flippin’ air control
Travel time: 0h
Cigarettes: 1 (before boarding)
Annoyed and concerned Beaver: 1
Phone calls to travel service: 1
SMS to mum: 0
Comment: Flight no. 1 was late, because air control didn’t give it the go-ahead. There is no other connecting flight this day – so I’d have to sleep there at my expense and fly the next day if I miss it. I take a gamble and fly anyway.

G*ddam security goon
Travel time: 3h
Cigarettes: 0
Free Bacardi and coke: 1
Phone calls to travel service: ½ (Line is cut and plane takes off)
SMS to mum: 1
Comment: Because of this, I almost missed flight n. 2, and might still have, even though through sheer power of running I made it to the security checkpoint 20 minutes before take-off. Indeed, a security guard at the gate in JFK airport didn’t like the logo on my boarding pass. I had to perform a “stand in”, a standing up version of Martin Luther King’s “sit-in” for them to call the airline and get me on board.

The moron next-door
Travel time: 21h
Cigarettes: 0
Free Bacardi and coke: 1, plus 2 wines, dinner and breakfast.
Phone calls to travel service: 0
SMS to mum: 1
Frustrating stops in Germany: 1
Comment: But I made flight n. 2, and it lasted a painful 21 hours, with a neighbour more inclined for conversation than for sleep, or watching movies. But I survived….

Foot worship
Travel time: 4 h standby, 2 hours flight
Cigarettes: 3
Free Bacardi and coke: 0. I get coffee instead
Phone calls to travel service: 0
SMS to mum: 1
Comment: Flight n. 3 was fine, and waiting for it was lovely. I bought expensive shoes and got a free foot rub while chatting with another passenger.

Stripped
Travel time: 3.5 h standby, 4 hours flight
Cigarettes: 0
Free Bacardi and coke: 0. I could really use one though.
Phone calls to travel service: 0
SMS to mum: 1 (very late, after I arrived and dug up my charger and spare phone from my carry-on.)
Comment: Upon getting off, I had to collect my luggage and recheck it into Flight n. 4. Lo and behold, my 16 kgs (yes, I travel light) of luggage never made it past JFK. So I file my complaint and walk over to the domestic flight counter to find that I had to stay on standby and maybe not be allowed to fly… due to a mess-up on my travel agent’s side.

Anyway, so here I am, in Banda, working and blogging instead of working. It’s kind of nice to be back, in an odd way. My “sister” has lent me clothes until my luggage reappears… Singapore airlines does not know where it is in the world. Me… in the meantime, I enjoy my nasi goreng and much deserved sleep. I work, effectively do work. I teach French to the Professor, and I bide my time. After lunch at the Chinese place, I bought a pack of kretek.

I had dinner at the Pizza House (an imitation of Pizza Hut, yes yes) and after a walk back home in the putrid and strange smells of Banda Aceh, amidst the loudness of the becaks I sit to write this.

With every whiff of the clove-scented tobacco, I find inspiration. (See below post on Week 1, day 1.)

I am zen.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Setting the scene : EuroTrip (Week 1, Day 1)

2008-05-05T09:15:00.004-05:00

A promise is a promise, and so the Beaver has many to keep, including the one to tell nothing and everything about her time off travelling. For a travelling beaver to chronicle trips abroad is nothing extraordinary, but these trips were not as ordinary as usual.

Why, you ask, oh gentle reader? Because this one beaver has, to this day, never blogged about personal trips, and always about work-related ones. Why, you ask again, o curious one. Because this has never happened before. Ta da! Now it has. I got 6 weeks of unpaid leave to enjoy myself, and between work and other things, I planned the whole thing almost to a tee.

Week one was special, because it was the onset of the trip. The stepping stone. The alpha. It was my arrival in England, and my first experience couch surfing. Well… let me tell you that the whole thing was a complete success.

Day 1 (Tues): Setting the scene

I arrived at Heathrow at around 12PM, and had agreed with my host to make my way to his home, in an ex-centred academic town. At the luggage pick-up, I strike a conversation with (you’ll never believe it!) an American contortionist who lives is Wales and works on cruise ships in the Caribbean. Thanks to him, I locate the bus station, or at least, the beginning of the way. In the tube transfer, I lose him and step on a lady’s foot who is a French-friendly English lady, actress by profession. After a short conversation on worldly things like the beauty of Niger and the pleasantness of TS Elliott’s writing, we split and I finally find my ticket to Ox.

Again, in the bus, I strike a conversation with a gentleman, Canadian (!), who just came back from volunteering in Tanzania and is off to visit a friend in Ox. After an hour of so of commute, I get off at my stop, and five minutes later, my host, whom I have never met, picks me up. For the sake of this blog, I shall refer to him as the Maltese Falcon. There is a joke in this, but only those who know will pick it up. Too bad, such is the nature of my blog.

The Maltese Falcon is a lovely man. Twice my age, crafty, story-telling, generous, quirky, full of life. His house, where I get my own room AND a set of keys, is a mish mash of items he cumulated throughout his life. I suspect they all have a story to tell, but he tells me they don’t. I choose to believe him, but I really don’t. Within 10 minutes of my arrival, a friend of his pops by, and a long conversation about diving in the Maldives and the Indian Ocean ensues … a universe I know nothing about. Another couch-surfer is bound to come by, and I am asked if I mind sharing the room. Since it’s not a bed I’m sharing, I don’t mind, and thus arrangements are made to meet at the bus stop the next day.

That done, I rest some, and wake up to join Falcon at the general rehearsal of “The Mary Rose: A boat of ill-repute.” The comedian, Kate, is wonderful. Her text is funny and socially-relevant. The interpretation of all parts is magisterial, particularly considering the fact that all are performed by Kate. After a pint of Cider at King’s arms, which is now my favourite pub in the known universe, my day ends.

Next:
Wed Day 2 … the mysterious Couch Surfer arrives
Thurs Day 3… A magical encounter
Fri Day 4… Off to London, and the underbelly
Sat Day 5… The bus tour, The Eye, Drinks at the Fire Station
Sun Day 6… The cruise and The Tower of London
Mon Day 7… A restful day and LOTR

Week 2
Tues Day 1... A silly day
Wed Day 2… Solitary at the Gallery and the Abbey
Thurs Day 3… A one hour flight
Fri Day 4… Dinner with family
Sat Day 5… Notre-Dame and Red-Beard Red Beard
Sun Day 6… Brunch with the girls, Ballons and missing the Train
Mon Day 7… Day one in Lux, walking around, the Tube and Zanzen, dinner with Matt

Week 3…
Tues Day 1... The City Museum
Wed Day 2… Art museum again, piscine and drinks at the Tube, meeting Loren and Elle
Thurs Day 3… Lazying around, and an evening entre filles
Fri Day 4… Le petit-train… Drinks at Scott’s and Café des artistes
Sat Day 5… Party at Andrews’
Sun Day 6… Bus to Frankfurt and flight to Madrid
Mon Day 7… A sick day

Week 4…
Tues Day 1… Walking around Madrid to Puerta de Alcala and Tapas
Wed Day 2… El amor en el tiempo del cólera ; Goya at the Prado and the Palazo Real ;
Thurs Day 3… Living Spanish, cooking for Gemma
Fri Day 4… A day in the air
Sat Day 5… On the town and a family dinner
Sun Day 6… Boot Sale, A Soldier’s Tale and crepes
Mon Day 7… Homebound

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Coming soon, Week 4 (Part 2)

2008-04-29T15:36:00.002-05:00

Last set of notes... I'll be putting up some stories very soon, AND some pictures !

A multi-lingual day ;
A second home-coming ;
Running errands in conquered territory ;
Meeting the Lily ;
Boot sales ;
Fleeting ghosts ;
Home at last.

There, you have it, all in a nut shell. I'm going to work on putting the stories up in the upcoming weeks, plus the current developments. I'm home, now, but traveling again, for work, this time, back to Aceh. There will be much to say on the matter as well.

Peace,

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Coming soon, Week 4 (part 1)

2008-04-24T12:41:00.003-05:00

More notes, imagine all that will be up when I'm finally ready to start blogging....

One last night of madness in the fortress of time;
A foggy morning;
A day of rest;
Walking around a new town;
A palace by happenstance;
Political insights;
A moment of unexpected grace;
Tapas y tapas;
The lost and found Museum;
Enjoying laziness for the last time.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Coming soon... (Week 3)

2008-04-19T07:43:00.007-05:00

Yet more notes on things I should blog about eventually... so I won't forget...

When madmen are of public service ;
Tchou-tchou!
The legal trinity ;
An overlooked historical treasure ;
Teaching the enjoyment of art ;
Mad nights in a quiet town ;
Chi chi, my new discovery ;
Resolutions made to be kept ;
Harassed by work during LOA.

Et ouala ! Soon friends, I hope to sate your curiosity.

Thank you, Merry in Oregon (THE BEAVER STATE), for popping by and placing your pins on my guestmap.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Coming soon... (Week 2)

2008-04-14T10:34:00.003-05:00

More notes on things I should really blog about later.... still pressed for time...

A cathedral heavy with history ;
Duplicates across the channel ;
Bright - on or how to be silly ;
The tower of despair, or... a lesson in history ;
Up the eye ;
Flying to the city of romance ;
Couch-surfing experience n. 2 or how I became friends with an actress ;
Pilgrimage in Paris ;
A high-speed transition to the country of banks.

Cricketina, here's a clue, my new love is a city. Hahaha !

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Coming soon... (Week 1)

2008-04-04T09:48:00.005-06:00

I don't have enough time to write ALL my stories here, but I'd thought I'd put up a list of things I should really talk about when I have time.

The low-down on my first Couch Surfing experience (totally awesome) ;
How I became a stage-hand for the first 2 days of my vacation ;
Crashing a very posh reception, and going undetected ;
Discovering the most well known and best kept secret of one of the foremost unis in the world ;
Sneaking in with accomplices ;
PASTIES !
Apologizing to a bike ;
New friends ;
My new love (no, he does not have a name, or a job, or even a gender. My new love is not a person.)

On this mysterious note,

Tata !
The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Oh my flipping gawd !

2008-03-30T23:11:00.000-06:00

I’ve been so remiss, it’s an embarrassment. I left Benin 2 weeks ago now, and had time to go to Burkina Faso, Niger, and be home for a week by the time I’m putting this emergency update together.

It’s no excuse, but between serious computer problems in Niger, working on sites rather than in the office, and then being home and swallowed into backlogged work and social events, I forgot to update my online life. Sincere apologies.

Even worse, I’m about to leave YET again. I’m on leave, and so I’m going to spend the month *yes, darlings, the whole month* in Europe, visiting friends and enjoying the freedom to visit a foreign country without having to work under pressure.

I’ll be going to several places, but for the fun of it… I’m putting this blog’s time on GMT+1, since it’s my hub, altogether.

It will also be my first time traveling without a laptop, so forgive me, but updates will be somewhat scarce for a while.

I’ll have plenty of wonderful stories to tell… upon my glorious return.

Much love and everything to y’all, and again, sincere apologies for disappearing !

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Sort of an update

2008-03-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

So…

I’ve been gone. True enough, it’s been a week and a half of hectiness, and I will concede that I’ve been too tired to even write up my days, or think about writing them up.

I went all the way up to Natitingou, in the north of Benin, where very surprisingly the accommodations were quite nice. Of course, nothing ever happens smoothly in Africa, so when we left early Sunday morning for the 7 hour drive, my bag was left behind. By the time the driver got the phone call, it was too late to turn around, so I had to depend on the clean underwear I had in my backpack and spend 48 hours in the same clothes until my stuff came on the next bus.

The following day I drove down to Parakou, also in the north. Both destinations were dryer, and so the heat was much less stifling, thank God.

Work went well, overall. Of course, I had a million awaiting me, and more work to tend to this week.

I’ve been a bit under the weather too, so that might explain my reluctance to write. I did enjoy a night out with a bunch of Interns I met my chance, but have otherwise been busy working and sweating.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Awol

2008-03-01T17:40:00.001-06:00

So I'm getting swallowed in the boonies once more. I'll be back next weekend. Be good, fellows!

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Acrostiche n. 1

2008-02-29T04:46:00.001-06:00

There is little to say today, I
Am exhausted, bewildered, burnt.
Kindly have patience with my poucing
Instincts, with my broken limbs and my
Negations, my abnegation, my wanton
Guile which is only self-protection.

Think of those days of summer,
Hear your heart break asunder,
Elate yourself for your own joy.

Have you not found that you missed her, the
Elegy to lost dreams, the muse to madness, the
Anti-heroin who incessantly, madly, relentlessly,
Tries to keep the flame of hope alive with her loyal heart.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Balakot - Earthquake aftermath Bird's eye view

2008-02-29T02:34:00.002-06:00

Balakot - Earthquake aftermath Bird's eye view
Originally uploaded by The Travelling Beaver

I was just toying around with my Flickr account, and realized that this is my most viewed picture. Interesting...

I guess a bird's eye view of an earthquake sight isn't something you get to photograph everyday....

A quick dip in Cotonou

2008-02-28T15:39:00.002-06:00

So I'm quickly reappearing before I go back to the bush.

I just spent four days working in a place (completely lost place, I promise you) called Lokossa, in Benin. I was assessing an NGO for a grant - the same kind of job that I do, though with a different finality. I usually audit for audit's sake. This time, there's a carrot at the end of the stick, for the people I deal with.

It was just a bit more airy than Cotonou, which was nice, though the place where I stayed was VERY depressing. Food? Not bad, but richer than I'm used to. I feel fat.

On the way back, I took pictures of lake Aheme, lovely place which BH refered to as the "Ozarks in Benin". Photos are here.

We also made a quick detour through Ouidah, the home of voodoo and a slave trade historical site, as long as colonial city. The streets had something of Antigua, I'll admit.

To visit Ouidah through my photo set, click here.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Slalom is not only for skying

2008-02-24T07:00:00.004-06:00

So....

I'm in Benin, at last. How is it, you ask? It's HOT! Hellish, horribly, monstruously HOT! But... the Beninese are very nice, calm people. Peddlers don't insist when you say no, and smiles are readily offered and returned.

I don't have pictures yet, but here's some from Trek Earth.

I arrived on Friday night - I was exhausted, to be honest. For starters, my inflatable neck pillow died during the MTL-CDG leg of my flight, and that, to be honest, was terrible. In CDG, I actually paid a fortune for a back rub in the hopes of getting my stiff neck some relief.

I'm happy to report I'm now back to a normal state of suppleness as far as my neck is concerned, and that adventures have already started.

You see, my friend and colleague (Bleeding Heart, a.k.a. BH) likes her sunday morning worship, but had no clue where to go. Helpful as I am, I decided to investigate it, and got the local guardsman to show us to a place that may suit her needs. So here we were, in the hellish Cotonou traffic on a pair of Moto-Taxis (also known as the yellow shirts).

Thank you http://www.ik1pmr.com/ for the pic.

We didn't find the object of our search, but at least it was fun, sort of. The best part, for me, being to watch BH actually gnaw her hand in anguish over the experience har har har. (Having been raised in Burkina Faso, which is the kingdom of two-wheelers, and having slalomed in such traffic myself on my bike at the age of 13, it didn't really freak me out....)

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

On the road again....

2008-02-22T03:43:00.001-06:00

So I had a short interlude at home (completely unplanned, mind you,) and now, I'm waiting for my flight to Cotonou, sitting on a hard chair in Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.

Thanks to Boingo, I'm connected, and so I can update.

Honestly, I have little to say, save for the fact that I am alive, and hungry for some happiness. I'm realizing I've been living in a state of emotional death for the last few months, and that it's not the way I should be.

Unfortunately, absence of strong emotions is starting to become a rather comfortable place to be.

Thoughts, anyone?

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

On the mend

2008-02-16T18:08:00.003-06:00

So my homelessness found a cure. I'm currently in Miami, waiting for my flight to Montreal. I won't lay if I say that I look forward to getting home, even if its' only for a few days, even if I'll have to work from home to justify this escapade before Benin.

I'm breathing, I'm alive, I'm dying to get at long last to Europe. Madrid, Lux and Londond beckon, as does Paris. (Mickelino, STFC, ca va etre le moment de le faire, ce cafe!!!)

Countdown: 90 days to fulfilling my ever unsated need for freedom!

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Cursed?

2008-02-14T20:52:00.001-06:00

Saturday

An email from my boss goes out. The war in Tchad is overflowing the office in Cameroon, and the Cameroun team therefore cannot go visit. The assignment starts next Monday, she has three extra staff. I get re-assigned from South America to Africa because of my language skills. This is still unknown to me at the time.

Monday

In the morning, I hear about this through the grapevine. During the day, we rush to finish our reports. The boss arrives and we take her to dinner. The same night, my boss confirms verbally the change, and I get the ball rolling.

At midnight, I email my counter part in Africa to get budget details to pay for my flight, and the travel agent to get them in the loop and have them research flights ahead. I need to cancel my flight to Bolivia as well, this needs to be done quickly.

Tuesday

Morning email: the travel agent says she can’t guarantee she can work on this the same day, and requires that I submit a formal request, then whichever agent can get to it first will. Problem is, I don’t have the budget info for the formal request.

I email my counterpart in Africa to get this information, along with info pertaining to the visa requirements. Unfortunately due to timezones, they won’t reply until the next day.

The BFH is onsite and advises me not to cancel my flight until budget info has been obtained, just in case. I rush to modify my instructions to the travel agent.

At the same time, my mother, well connected, contacts the diplomatic representation in Montreal and obtains visa information. Throughout the day, I file all the necessary information with her, but put her on hold until budget info is obtained.

All the while, I finish my last tidbits on my report, and in the evening, take the BFH out for dinner.

Yesterday

My Africa counterpart advises me that I cannot get a visa at the airport. Apparently, immigration takes travelers’ passports and the visa is obtained the next day. Despite her assurances that all will be fine, I remain wary – I am unpleased with the idea of parting with my documentation, and have had past experiences where the local office didn’t show at the airport. I opt for getting the visa home, with my boss’s approval.

Later in the day, budget information is obtained. I file my formal request for a new flight and give the go ahead for visa.

At the end of the workday, my travel agent holds a ticket for approval. Due to timezones, once more, we have to wait until the following morning.

That night, I stay in. I’m exhausted.

Today

I receive an email from my counterpart in Africa contesting my dates… apparently I should be staying two more weeks. Impossible, for I have a planned leave and a plane ticket. Both the BFH and I scramble to explain this. An agreement is reached that one of my colleagues will fill in for the two missing weeks.

Half the day is spent out with the BFH, first escorting/translating for her in a charity visit, then at art galleries in Antigua.

Upon my return, I find out that my flight is finally approved. I have a flight out of Guate to Canada for my visa purposes on the following morning. I receive this at 2PM. At 3PM my flight out of Canada into Africa is in my inbox. Meanwhile, the BFH is getting her nails done at a nearby spa.

At 4:55 PM…. I get notification that my flight out is cancelled and rescheduled for Saturday. I go to pick up the BFH at the spa and share this information with her.

At 8PM, the hotel informs me that they don’t have a room for me.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Close enough....

2008-02-14T15:07:00.001-06:00

Some girl in my building is blessed because she is loved madly... but she's going to have to remove some of them so she can get home.

Poetic Justice.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Love’s Eulogy…

2008-02-12T22:16:00.003-06:00

On the eve of St-Valentine’s day, some beaver sour grapes on the matter of love….

Don’t buy me chocolates today,
Don’t take me to the Cinema,
Don’t bring roses to my doorstep
Or tell me sweet unordinary things.

Don’t pretend to love me today
Just to be like all the others
Love me yesterday, or the day after
Love me without presents or bleeding red hearts.

Don’t protest that we are perfect
Don’t take me to that romantic place
Rather, hold my hand in silence
Kiss me, hold me, want me, choose me.

Say nothing, do nothing,
Let what you feel be true and real,
Let your heart be sincere
Let your smile be my only, my unique…

My beautiful Valentine.

P.S. This is me, trying not to be cynical on this ever commercial day, despite my notorious bad luck in the affairs of the heart.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

A Whirlwind Update

2008-02-11T21:15:00.001-06:00

So.... Antigua was positively awesome. First, it's a lovely town, very colonial, inhabited by locals, of course, but also by many foreigners who go there for the lovely, laid back lifestyle it affords. In the park, people sit on the floor, play the guitar. It's not uncommon to come across a giant blond rasta-endowed European.

Here are the pics. No blond rastas, though. I'm including a teaser pic below.

I went there using the local transport system, against all prescriptions I'd been given, and have no regrets. It was dirt cheap, remotely comfortable, and the people were nice. I spent Saturday night at a backpacker hotel that was absolutely horrible, but in truth, I didn't care. It was nice to be out of the bounds of work. I think I'm getting tired of those fetters. I shall break this glass prison, and descend from my ivory tower, she says decisively.

My return to reality was harsh, though - mostly because.... horror.

I'm not going to Bolivia. Instead, I'll be cooking in Benin and Niger. Joy unbound. Sure, I'm at ease in West Africa. Sure, it's French speaking. BUT I LIKE LATIN AMERICA. And well, the amount of time I spend in this area of the world is directly disproportional to the amount of time I've overall spent in Africa in my life. Oh, the irony.

I had dinner with the BFH tonight, and my cute childish pouty lip was ignored, so it seems I have no choice but to abide.

I feel cursed.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Interlude

2008-02-09T13:57:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm off to Antigua for the weekend to hang out with some backpackers. I'll be back soon with some stories, but in the meantime, let me celebrate the return from cyber-silence of a few rather missed bloggers:

Tina's "Just Breathe" blog... her "release valve on life" as she puts it. She's considering resuming her writing, and I think it's a great idea, so let's welcome her back!

Amias' "Liquid Plastic" blog, thoughts about the human condition, and beautiful poetic thoughts. She's a published writer, and we can never be thankful enough.

G's "Library Bitch" blog, the world of a next-gen librarian.

Peace,

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Is this how it’s going to be?

2008-02-04T14:54:00.000-06:00

Just a little ditty I scribbled to pass time. It's hard to rhyme in English, so it's an exercise more than anything else.

You will smile and I will melt,
My heart will skip at your sight,
You will talk and I will listen,
My body will respond without a fight.

You will laugh and I will grin
I’ll enjoy every thing you do
I will follow your every whim
Without thinking a thing or two.

I will belong to you always,
Feeling ever so miserable,
Because I will count all the days

Whether or not I am able
To stay away from my loved daze,
Only dreaming up this fable.

A Nights' Tale (I still got it)

2008-02-04T06:26:00.000-06:00

I had a mind to travel to Antigua this weekend, but I had work to do, and well… I was feeling a little bit lazy. So instead, I stayed home and did a few things, though I promise myself to go this coming weekend, since it will be my last occasion to go.

On Friday night I went out to dinner with my colleagues. Our leader’s husband came to spend the weekend with her, and it was lovely to meet him – though I kind of felt like I was out to dinner with parents, seeing as everyone was twice my age.

To shake it up a little, I decided to go out for a drink at the Irish pub on the corner, and ended up chatting with a legal assistant and her friend, a business man. All this of course happens in Spanish, but it goes well, until they leave and a man starts chatting me up. Not that I mind, actually – it’s nice to have some attention once in a while. But it turns out he is an auditor for another organization, and though he wasn’t unpleasant, it was a bit blah to be (again) with auditors.

Saturday was spent working and lazing away, though I did take a long walk in the afternoon in the hopes of alleviating my ever painful back ache. My idle feet took me to a shopping mall and I ended up buying a white sweater and a black shawl, and reserving a pair of black ballerinas. I need those for Bolivia anyway – my standard packing habits don’t take into account colder climates.

Later on in the day, I opted to go out for a drink again, and ended up chatting it up with a high-ranking French official and his wife. I daresay that aside from the fact that they were charming, it was nice to speak some French. Later on that night, I decided to scout a club, just to see what was happening on the night scene, and ended up being pursued by a young man who was 10 years my junior... and a pleasant dancer. To quote one of my good friends, “You still got it, girl!”

It’s nothing truly yeehaw, but it’s nice to know I can still be pleasing to the eye.

The Ballad of the Wandering Soul

2008-02-02T14:27:00.000-06:00

The sunlight struck my face today.
It wasn’t a slap or a kiss, it was a smiling greeting,
Gentle like the touch of a million rose petals
On a clear morning sky.

I slipped on shoes and roamed the town.
It’s not pretty, or even interesting,
But smiles were returned as I threaded in my dream,
As I let myself walk off the strangeness of my days.

They are spent in idle attempts
At fulfilling empty dreams and shallow goals
They are lost in waiting or in fancies
In hoping and in sketching...

The mad designs of my complicated thoughts
The insane views of my lonesome soul
The solitude that plagues me
The freedom that lifts me.

It’s not a song from Elton John
Or something by Philip Jeays,
But it is what I can write
Original and personal

To tell you, again and again,
My patience knows no bounds
My fickle mind battles my loyal heart
But if you ask if I still, I will tell you,

Unabashedly, sincerely, madly,
With all the strength and energy of my entire being
That I never stopped.
Yes, I never stopped.

Cut me, I bleed

2008-02-01T11:16:00.000-06:00

Just a little poem by yours truly....

I am not made of stone, or wrapped in sky-spun fantasies,
I am not the one who carries naught but phantasms of lost prayers.

I am the wind in the galleys
Where dancers breed perfected graces

I am the heart and the pulse
Of the ever changing cities of the new century

I am the beat the drummer makes
With bleeding sticks that reflect no more than his own fury

I am the tempest that cleans
The storm that rebuilds, I am the hope that refuses to die.

I am not the solution to your idiosyncrasies
I am not the messiah come to thread unbidden in your stagnation

I am a free horse in the pampas of Chile,
An unknown stranger offering help unexpected,

I am the lovely brush of a sensual hand,
Waiting to give a caress of love to skin divine, sublime

I am wilderness uncaged,
Whose heart belongs to no-one and all, open and innocent.

I am the prayer and the request
Of a little girl in a silent church, believing against all odds in what may come.

Cut me, I bleed.
Love me, I live.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Blah

2008-01-30T18:58:00.000-06:00

Blah. That's how I feel. I'm late on my work, unmotivated, and somewhat depressed. I'm also noticing the low level of activity/comments on my blog. I feel lonely tonight.

I'm going to have a glass of wine, a shower, and try to get some work done. This is turning out to be a catastrophe. I'm never taking a three month break again - I'm way too distracted to be able to produce anything.

Hopefully, I can turn things around.

Blah.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Poesie en prose....

2008-01-28T09:54:00.000-06:00

This is just a little bit of embroidery on a well-known theme. I'm nowhere close to jumping off a bridge, worry not.

He used to keep me sated with his endearing hedgehog ways, his intelligent comments, his warm heart and his well-chosen words.

Silence feels akin to darkness and forgiveness only gives a limited sense of sensibility. Indifference or despair? I try not to ponder the question, and only to wish him well – true affection is such, or so they say, and so I struggle to forget my own need for reassurance to the benefit of patience.

Work beckons. Immersion in fetid business idioms will hopefully alleviate my own need to forget, my own need to taste the absolute. It was an Equal Music. It is enough to taste such perfection from time to time, not too much, or the soul could not sustain it.Such is what I tell myself, and yet I cannot help but feel my mind stretching across the universe in a secret caress which never reaches its goal.

Patience.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

A lil Vid....

2008-01-27T11:38:00.001-06:00

Not mine, but indeed, this is Rabinal, wherre I spent a part of the week. Enjoy!

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

First CSMeet in Antigua, an unlikely jam and those dang frijoles

2008-01-26T14:14:00.000-06:00

So… I’m back from Antigua, and had an absolute blast. The people I met on the CS network are simply amazing. Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, Canada (coast to coast, with Nova Scotia and BC represented at the table), the UK, Poland and of course Guatemala all had representatives onsite, all wonderful and interesting and stimulating.

I’d love to say “Hey, I took some pics of Antigua, here’s a link”, but… I don’t. We arrived at night, left at night, mostly because some of us had to be back in Guate in the morning, yours truly, amongst others. Instead, I'm borrowing from Ryan Fox one of his pictures:But I had a great time, and plan on doing it again, if I can – it’s wonderful to at last meet some like-minded people.

Curious about what the CS Network is? Click here.

Oh, another little anecdote from the field:

In Rabinal, I met a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers, and we went out to lunch. Amusingly, we decided to test out a new place… that had a total band set up, with battery, keyboard and guitar. Turns out the owner is a one man band, and he was more than willing to jam.

So between a stock card count and a discussion about accounting systems, I actually jammed on the keyboard with a PC volunteer who missed his battery direly.

How cool is THAT?

Last but not least....

"Frijoles Volteados" - Refried Beans from Guatemala

Category:		Side Dishes & Condiments
Style:		Latin
Special Consideration:		Vegetarian
Servings:		4-6

Description:
Here, a recipe for the famous frijoles. I'm not a big fan, but maybe you will be...

Ingredients:
· 3 cups (or two cans) cooked black, red, or pinto beans with liquid
· 1/3 cup chopped onion
· 1-2 cloves of crushed garlic
· ¼ cup chopped green pepper (optional)
· ½ teaspoon ground cumin

Directions:
1) In a blender, crush (or puree) all the ingredients above except for the ground cumin.
2) Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a medium frying pan and add the pureed bean mixture from above and the ½ teaspoon ground cumin
3) Simmer all the ingredients uncovered, over low heat, stirring occasionally. Let the beans thicken (this will take about 10-15 minutes).
4) Place beans on a serving plate with rice and tortillas.
Or use in burritos etc.

*Option: mash beans with a potato masher or fork. Saute veggies in the oil & add the mashed beans & spices. Cook as directed.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

La Ferria....

2008-01-25T10:27:00.000-06:00

So I've been awol again, because it's so difficult to resist the call of the field... Anyway, here's the deal: I have a few pictures to share, not as many as I'd like to, because I ran out of battery. (New set is here.)

There was a Feria (a fair) in Rabinal while I was there, and so I had a chance to take some pictures that were rather typical.

But mostly, it was hard work and long commutes between Salama and Rabinal - the drive was one hour in the morning, one in the evening, and many twists and turns that made my stomach churn a little.

It was great, though - the people I worked with were wonderfully helpful, and I'm happy to report I didn't have to survive on beans (frijol) and atoll (some sort of maize oatmeal), which is a good thing. As much as I adore the people, I'm still struggling with the food, for the first time in a long time. I do get fried plantains, though, and for that, I am incredibly grateful. (Thank you, Guatemala Solidarity Network for posting the photo.)

On another note, my ability to express myself in Spanish is increasing at mach 3 - something else for which I am beyond grateful: there is nothing more frustrating, than being able to understand what's going on, but not to be able to contribute to the discussion... particularly when the group actually *wants* your opinion.

Anyway, I'm not back in Guate, and this weekend I'm going to Antigua with the Couch Surfers, so stay tuned for more adventures !

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Chitomax!!!

2008-01-19T17:43:00.000-06:00

So I've been gone a little. It wasn't my fault, it was for work, possibly the most fascinating part of my job. I attended a food distribution. (For pictures, click HERE.) I'm exhausted, but in truth, it was worth it, even if 24 hours later my back remembers the long hours of driving to, and from my destination.

So now, at long last, I can really say something about Guatemala. For one, it's a country with a lot (and I mean it) of mountains. My poor body certainly remembers the pain of the road, the slight nausea at all the twists and turns, and the back pain for all the sitting.

Secondly, Guatemalans are wonderful, warm, pleasant people. I like them very much - not only is it a pleasure to work with them, but it feels almost like being with family. I feel constantly huge, though. Sometimes, I don't dare stand, for fear of insulting them with my freakish height.

Thirdly, it's amazing what being bathed in a language will do to you. My ability to express myself in spanish is increasing at Mach 3. I'd studied it in school as a teen, and not practiced it - but I'm amazed at what my long term memory retained. I hear words, and they make sense, even if I couldn't come up with them on my own.

Fourthly, God bless subtitles. Thanks to the spanish subtitles, everynight, I get a bit more vocabulary. All in all... life is good.

The Beaver
P.S. Congratulations to Lynn, from California, for being the first reader in six months to post on my guestmap.
P.S.2 Belated thanks to Forever Restless and Pine River Spirit for linking to me !

A forklift saved my life...

2008-01-16T22:47:00.000-06:00

Ok, not my life, but I might have had to spend the night sleeping on a pile of CSB if it hadn't been for the forklift...

Here's the deal.

I'm afraid of heights. I've been steadily trying to vanquish this very irrational fear for the last 2 years, especially because occasionally, I have to climb on stacks of food.

Well... I did, and it was all well and good, until I had to go down the ladder. I froze. It hadn't happened to me in YEARS. They had to get the forklift to help me down, and I was a bit mortified.

The good news is... well, I have a sense of humor. Thank god. Otherwise, I'd have died of embarrassment.

On the upside, I now can see life from the point of view of a bag of rice.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Chrismas in the sun

2008-01-13T02:51:00.000-06:00

So I spent Christmas in the Carribean, on a very posh cruise this year. Yes, I owe you guys a million stories about it.

In the meantime, here's a million pictures: CLICK HERE

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Reflections on First World Contemporary Art

2008-01-11T14:37:00.000-06:00

This is much belated. I’ve been having trouble with chronicling my life recently, for reasons I won’t discuss here. But it looks like cath up is coming at me. So here goes. This blog will not be only about

Guatemala

. I’ll also be catching up on stories of the past month, as they bubble up in my mind. Poof.

While I was home, I spent an afternoon at the Modern art Museum of Montreal. It was... odd. Modern art always does that to me. Three artists were presenting. A Brazilian whose art is basically... err.. huge pictures of representations made of epheremeal material. That's the best way I can put it. There was a Raft of the Medusa, in chocolate sauce. Weird.

But anyway, what he had to say about his work was this: "The object in the picture seemed to satisfy an eternal longing for its own sublimation. A body, freed from infinit materiality, meeting its own spirit." This is a note he made on a series called Individuals, basically 60 sculptures made of plasticine, though he recycled the material, so one had to be destroyed for the creation of the next one to be possible. So I guess, in his case, the final work of art was the photograph. That was the original. The things the human mind can come up with. Maybe I should start making strange, very odd things with paper clips and quit my day job. Or maybe not.

There was also a German fellow called Tomas Hirschhorn who exposed a... gods, I don't even know how to describe it. A giant set that I guess would qualify as a sculpture, except it took a whole room. The darn thing (I didn't like it, it was grisly, disturbing, depressing) was an allegory for globalization, I guess. I still took notes on it, at the time, wanting to discuss them with you - then, well, life got in the way. But here they are.

So... the thing is called Jumbo Spoons and Big Cake, and the "big cake" is our society of excessive consumption, while the "jumbo spoons" represent 12 twentieth-century utopias that have failed, in the artist's view. Examples include Fashion, Rosa Luxemburg, Degenerate Art, Rolex, the Chicago Bulls, the Moon, Nietzche, China, Venice. You know, I think in theory, I agree with him. But the presentation itself was... yuck.

Anyway, he did say something that I liked : "I realized that I had to make the choice to be an artist because only as an artist could I be totally responsible for what I did. The decision to be an artist is the decision to be free. Freedom is the condition of responsibility."

I guess I liked it because it resonated with me. I feel the need to be free. I'm slowly learning to accept to take this responsibility.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Ever heard of Couch Surfing?

2008-01-09T12:40:00.001-06:00

This is a new thing I’m trying. It’s come to my attention that I need to meet people, outside of work. I need to hang out with people who are closer to me in age. I need to have some fun.

I stumbled, through a discussion with a friend a while back, upon couch surfing.

"CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance and facilitate cultural understanding. As a community we strive to do our individual and collective parts to create a better world, and we believe that the surfing of couches is a means to accomplish this goal. CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding free accommodations around the world; it's about making connections worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!" This is how it is defined on Couch Surfing (dot) com.

Membership in the organization is free and is obtained simply by registering on the website. The core activity of the organization is exchange of accommodation. Acting as a host, a member offers the possibility of accommodation at his or her leisure; it is not required, but obviously it is encouraged. Acting as a surfer (guest), a traveller may search for and request accommodation at his or her destination. Accommodation is entirely consensual between the host and surfer, and the duration, nature, and terms of the surfer's stay are generally worked out in advance to the convenience of both parties. It is also expected to be free; no monetary exchange takes place except under certain circumstances (e.g. the surfer may compensate the host for food).

And so I decided to log on, fill out a profile. I don’t need a couch to sleep on, but community members are also people who are willing to meet you for coffee or whatever, if you are in their general area. So last night, I went out for drinks with Pampa, and met three other couch surfers. A bit younger than me, but not much. Certainly closer to me in mindset than the senior managers I work with. It was a blast. We laughed, shared life stories, debated on politics, love, life, values, and the way Oscar Wilde sees the world. Locals and foreigners mixed together and had fun, like a little family, until we parted ways and split the bill. It was grand.

Is it safe? I think so.

As Wikipedia puts it:

There are three methods to ensure security and trust, which are all visible on member profiles for potential hosts and surfers to see prior to arranging anything with each other:

Personal references, which hosts and surfers could leave for each other at their option after having used the service.
An optional credit card verification system, which allowed members to "lock in" their name and address by making a credit card payment and entering a code that CouchSurfing mails to the billing address. This also allows CS to recuperate some costs by requiring a fee for verification. For fairness the verification fee is based on a sliding scale, taking into account the Purchasing power parity and Human Development Index of the country of residence.
A personal vouching system, whereby a member that had been vouched for — originally starting with the founders of the site — might in turn vouch for any number of other members he or she knew or had met through CouchSurfing, and trusts.

Also, the organization is registered with the IRS, and is listed as a non-profit. It does lend credence. Just have a look at wikipedia. It's quite detailed research.

For more information: www.couchsurfing.com

There are some contentions about Couch Surfing, and they have been heavily documented on Wikipedia and on www.opencouchsurfing.org. I don’t discount them, although since they aren't about safety, but rather about internal controls (yuck), as far as I’m concerned, last night, I met great people who were wonderfully open-minded and fun.

It was a breath of fresh air. God bless the couch surfers.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

2008: Back with a vengeance

2008-01-01T16:22:00.000-06:00

So.... I've been AWOL for a while.... I'm so sorry everyone, it's only that at one point.... well I sort of got caught up in the world, and cut off from the Net simultaneaously.

I will make amends soon with many many stories and pictures, in the meantime, though.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Everyone, all the best, health, riches, love, friendships, eventful adventures, change and stability in reasonable proportions and overall peace and joy to all !

I leave you guys with an extract of Paul-Emile Borduas' Total Refusal:

Make way for magic! Make way for objective mysteries! Make way for love! Make way for necessities!
To this global refusal we contrast full responsibility.
The self-seeking act is fettered to its author; it is stillborn.
The passionate act breaks free, through its very dynamism.
We gladly take on full responsibility for tomorrow. Rational effort, once in its proper place, will be available again to disengage the present from the limbo of the past.
Passions shape the future spontaneously, unpredictably, necessarily.
The past is contingency of birth, it thus cannot be sacred. We are always quits with it.

For full text: http://www.artotheque.ca/image/refus-a.html

What is the Total Refusal? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refus_Global

Much love to you all!

--------------------------

-------------

BONNE ANNEE, tout le monde, je vous souhaite le meilleur, sante, prosperite, amour, amities, aventures palpitantes, changement et stabilite en proportion raisonnables, et surtout paix et joie a tous !

Je vous laisse mediter un extrait du Refus Global de Paul-Emile Borduas:

PLACE À LA MAGIE !
PLACE AUX MYSTÈRES OBJECTIFS !
PLACE À L'AMOUR !
PLACE AUX NÉCESSITÉS !

Au refus global nous opposons la responsabilité entière.

- - - - -L'action intéressée reste attachée à son auteur, elle est mort-née.
- - - - -Les actes passionnels nous fuient en raison de leur propre dynamisme.
- - - - -Nous prenons allègrement l'entière responsabilité de demain. L'effort rationnel, une fois retourné en arrière, il lui revient de dégager le présent des limbes du passé.
- - - - -Nos passions façonnent spontanément, imprévisiblement, nécessairement le futur.
- - - - -Le passé dut être accepté avec la naissance, il ne saurait être sacré. Nous sommes toujours quittes envers lui.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

City adventures....

2007-11-06T10:50:00.000-06:00

On Sunday... S. picked me up an hour late, and so instead of going photographing (no light, urgh), we spent the evening on our favorite street in Montreal. This street is called Saint-Denis, and it is located in what people call here the Latin Quarter, because of the UQAM, one of the two French-speaking universities here. Our first stop was a place called Juliette & Chocolat – and it was decadent. It's chocolate-lover heaven, purely and simply. And so she and I gossiped over a chocolate (dark, sour chocolate if you please) fruit dip, and some coffees. It's a long wait – but so worth it. After that, we went to the movies and saw a French comedy called "Le prix a payer" – something about men who are neglected by their wives in their conjugal duties, and their theories that they are merely being used for their wallets. It wasn't high art, but it was amusing, and I did like seeing the streets of my beloved Paris, and Gerard Lanvin was simply sublime (I hadn't seen him in a movie in oh, a decade, and he is still ravishing, though old.) And we concluded the evening over a pipe at a place called the Hookah Lounge, one of these places where the musical background slips from Portishead to Brassens, and where the sitting arrangements vaguely ressemble tents out of the 1001 nights. But it was fun – as it always is, and a nice change for me. I spent Saturday in relative solitude, and had no complaints about it – in fact, being locked up with my bath, my bubbles, Mozart's Requiem and a good book was just what I needed. But I was happy to go out on Sunday.

Notes about Halloween in Montreal

2007-11-03T12:03:00.000-06:00

Montreal, on Halloween night, felt like it suddenly was a carnival. It wasn't unusual to pass by vampires, witches, devils, angles, Vikings, pirates, and other phantasmagoric figures. I noted, amongst others, several 1920 belles, a belly dancer (how could she? It was so cold today?), and a Cleopatra look alike. But my ultimate favorite was Edward Scissorhands, complete with raggedy metal appendixes at the end of his figures. I guess Montrealers are a kiddish bunch. Me? Not dressed up, not one bit – no, it was juste moi, with my torn jeans, and my corduroy jacket, and my hair up in a bun, and my glasses – apparently I looked like a seductive intellectual...

Just a survey, for no particular reason

2007-10-28T07:39:00.000-06:00

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night. Someone called Dom, who had a few good jokes.

2. What were you doing at 0800? Writing an epic

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Chatting with Lady Twist

4. What happened to you in 2006? I got dumped, I had dengue, and had an encounter with the Divine on an Indonesian beach.

5. What was the last thing you said out loud? *snorts* "Sorry, I didn't here myself do that"

6. How many beverages did you have today? - 2- coffee and peppermint herb tea

7. What color is your hairbrush? *shrugs* Black, I think.

8. What was the last thing you paid for? "I really, really need to go to bed. Ta ta !"

9. Where were you last night? Out at a halloween party, dressed up at a Play Boy Bunny.

10. What color is your front door? Transparent (it's glass)

11. Where do you keep your change? Pockets, wallet, empty cup on the kitchen table.

12. What's the weather like today? Sunny and fresh.

13. What's the best ice cream flavor? Cookie dough, or course.

14. What excites you? Freedom.

15. Do you want to cut your hair? Hell no! I've had it short way too long.

16. Are you over the age of 25? Unfortunately, yes. But I feel 15.

17. Do you talk a lot? I have my verbose moments, but I can also shut up and listen.

18.....

19. Do you know anyone named Steven? As a matter of fact, I do, sort of. I'm supposed to call him, and I keep on forgetting. I think I lack motivation.

20. Do you make up your own words? On a regular basis. I am particularly proud of "Sushigasm".

21. Are you a jealous person? I try not to be. I think I'm more greedy than I am jealous.

22. .....

23. ......

24. Who's the first person on your received call list? Delphine. Dinner tonight at mum and dad's.

25. What does the last text message you received say? "Great. We have communication loud and clear".

26. Do you chew on your straw? I chew on everything. I'm compulsive.

27. Do you have curly hair? I wish. It seems to get frizzy when it rains though.

28. Where's the next place you're going to? Probably home for lunch. I really need to clean.

29. Who's the rudest person in your life? Oh, Iikely someone I don't care to offend. The BFH, of course.

30. What was the last thing you ate? Toast and ginger jam.

31. Will you get married in the future? That seems a rather unlikely possibility, and I don't care.

32. What's the best movie you've seen in the past 2 weeks? Silk. F'n amazing.

33. Is there anyone you like right now? It's easy to like people. It's more difficult to love. I'm proud to say, I acheive both, the former in a more general way, the latter in a more individual, personnal way.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes? Last night.

35. Are you currently depressed? Nope. I am in fact in an excellent mood. I haven't been depressed in a while.

36. Did you cry today? Oh, gods no.

37. Why did you answer and post this? I'm whimsical.

A week end in the Belle Province

2007-10-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

Now about the Saturday at the Mountain… it was positively a trial, and a confirmation that my own appreciation of occasional physical exertion, is usually something that happens after the fact. We literally hiked over 9 kilometers, up to the top and down, and I'll admit I am always ashamed at my lack of physical prowess. I have asthma and so as I said, I have no cardiovascular capacity whatsoever, and it was a trek, really a trek, and I did make it up and down that hill, but it was at times a painful exercise, though I am incredibly proud of myself. (I am also amazed that I still had an active day the next day– resilience just took on a whole new meaning for me.)

But the colors of the fall were beautiful, and at times it was like walking a Golden Path, and that made me think that Herbert's golden path was also one that included pain for the greater good. But what was wonderful about my occasional lapse in ability to breathe was that I was left somewhat to myself at the end of the trek, and I took it slowly and painfully, but I also had often times the sentiment of being in a world of dreams, or in an enchanted forest. The token leaf tree is the maple, (duh) and it has the remarkable trait that the leaves are wonderfully vivid, crimsons and rusts, and golden yellows and burning oranges, and strangely there was moss every where that was a bright green, and rocks that reminded me of malachite. As one goes up the hill, there are aged maple trees that create a natural step for the climber, and they seem to be almost alive, and their tortuous shapes are rather otherworldly, eerie, and full of what I can only describe as spirit.

Then of course there was the pleasure of the company, there were four of us, R. and her new boyfriend, and S., whom I hadn't seen in three years because she is now an architect in Boston. It was a rambunctious reunion, and lots of reminiscing, teasing, and gossiping, and catching up, because us three girls put together would drive any male insane, I think, for all our childish chatter. Of course, we've known each other for over 15 years, and so basically we turn to children when we hook up again.

Sunday was spent at the Museum of Fine Arts with S. (I guess R. and her male were in need of time alone) and we had a fun time revisiting the permanent collection which I know by heart. Of course, since my last visit, there were changes, and I was appalled that they moved Picasso's "Embrace" to the basement, and very glad that Octobre was still in place. In the process I noticed a new Renoir, though it's not a very remarkable piece. I did reunite happily with Henri-Joseph Harpignie's "Clair de Lune" which I adore, because I love the way he treated the light and the perspective, even if most people I showed it to found that it was… ordinary. (Heathens!)

We also went to the bookstore, just a large bookstore, and it was a complete catastrophe for my wallet, but I am beyond pleased because I bought new books, including Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White. I'm in love, Faber has me captivated from the second sentence – the only thing I can say for now is that it is beyond promising. I also replenished my supply of music with Debussy, Chopin, Rachmaninov and the Requiem. It was a complete heresy that I didn't have the Requiem anymore in my collection. So I am broke, but happy, ha ha. And that was concluded with a walk downtown with coffee in hand, and it was a complete caricature of Sex & the City, because S. and I were discussing relationships, after a day at the museum and book shopping, in a completely North-American city.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Plans for a sociological study...

2007-10-19T08:22:00.000-05:00

A few nights ago, my best friend came to pick me up for dinner and drinks. Now you must know that she is an old and dear friend, one whom I love very much. She is as brown haired as I am blond, and we are beyond different one from the other – wisdom (hers) vs. wildness, demureness vs. debaucherie (mine), studiousness vs. genius (mine - yes, I am also humble), piousness (hers) vs. spirituality. Together we form an amusing duo, though we enjoy each other's company greatly. We had a feast (Indian, oh, how I enjoy paratha and chicken tikka, and wonderful so wonderful kebab and daal), and finished the evening over martinis at a very quaint jazz club. Now, this is where I get my excuse. My body, it seems, does not like martinis in the morning, though I'll confess I did enjoy they tremendously last night. And so with her, I have made some plans, one of them being to spend a day next week photographing Montreal (a common hobby) and of course, ha ha, the results of such a quest are intended for your pleasure. Another plan, and that one amuses me greatly, is to take her to speed dating – now, she has been celibate for 7 years, mostly because she is both picky, and flirts like a donkey, and I myself am very skeptical – mostly, it is intended to be a sociological study of North-American urban male singles in their natural habitat. Should be highly amusing, and will very likely provide for some long and vivid discussions.

Some news....

2007-10-14T23:50:00.001-05:00

So... I haven't been posting at such as rabid pace as usual... that will likely keep on happening for the next month or so. On the up side, I do have a LIFE now that I'm home, and am very happy - with studying, seeing friends and family, etc. So posting may be lessened, but it is expected to go up in quality.

So, yes, I'm doing great. I have *my* head screwed back on. Had some great encounters/interactions, these past few days, and more to come.

I'm home at long last but don't have internet at my place (Yay I am at last settled in) and so I'm either doing the starbucks thing or hanging at my friends to have access. I have a radio - and my laptop plays MP3s - that's pretty much the set up in the appartment. I was able to latch on to my neighbour's network for 10 minutes today, but the connection sucks, so bleh - i'm back at Cafe El Mundo where wifi is free and chai lattes cost 4 bucks. The apartment is spartan, but comfortable, and I have internet tonight (surprisingly) so here's to unsecured wifi.

Amusingly, I have to live in French, which is making my life rather more complicated - I spent 2 good minutes explaining "nail polish remover" to the kid at the drugstore today. Couldn't for the life of me remember the French word. Considering it's my mother tongue, it's fascinating.

Amusingly, I happen to be plagued by a cold as well. My nose is just a little bit runny - enough to annoy me, not enough to warrant medical attention - and my throat is about as moist as the Sahara desert. But I'm still in a great mood.

I am enjoying the turmoil of a busy personal life and of fulfilling encounters, though there is a cynical part of me that is reluctant to die, fighting for dear life for its survival. I guess old habits die hard. A friend and I had recently been musing on the idea of crime fighting... coincidentally, today, I met a police officer, through mutual friends, who is willing to assist me in joining the provincial corps. Apparently, he thinks I would be great of undercover work. I am highly amused. My life used to be on the strange side, but should this materialize... Gods, I'll admit it would be beyond weird.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!

Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

MIA

2007-09-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

Addendum, October 8th 2007:

So I'm home, at long last.

It has a few implications, the greatest one is limited internet access for about the next 3 months, and a drastic improvement of my stress levels and fatigue.

I am realizing I needed home. I needed real people. I needed a cell phone that rings, and my mum's cooking. I needed home.

So....

If you are in Montreal, call me up, ring me, send me a text book message (they go to my cel), but don't email me, because I won't get it for a while.

Sorry.

I'm busy having a LIFE.

_______________________________

I realize I may be in need of a break from blogging. I've been uninspired for a while now...

So without further ado...

THIS BLOG IS TEMPORARILY SLEEPING. Send the dogs, they will wake up.

Comments do make their way to my email, so drop a line if you need to protest.

I'll be back - just don't know when.

The Beaver
My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!

Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

An update

2007-09-21T15:06:00.000-05:00

I'll post more about it soon, but suffice it to say I am unaffected by the current events in Lebanon.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

A new start

2007-09-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

So I'm in Beirut now, and I still haven't posted my long post. Man, I have no word.

Well...

That only means I will be posting more for this location, and add to that the fact that I still have some things to post about Palestine.

That should make things a little more exciting for you guys.

In the meantime, have some Labaneh! It has been the discovery of the past month for me. Hmmmm it's amazing - and I still get some here in LEB.

Description:
Amazing, tastes like goat cheese !

Labaneh is yogurt cheese, a wonderful invention for everything from pasta to sandwich spread. It takes a minimum of 8 hours to drain the yogurt, transforming it into cheese, and the cheese can be refrigerated for several days. More than once, it has taken 2 days for the yogurt to drain to the desired thickness, so plan accordingly. Minimal time for preparing the yogurt cheese is included in the cook time.

Ingredients:
2 cups nonfat plain yogurt
1/2 clove garlic (optional)

Directions:
1. Line a strainer with 2 layers of cheesecloth; place the strainer over a bowl and pour the yogurt into the strainer; set aside at room temperature for at least 8 hours or until very, very thick.

2. If using the garlic, push it through a garlic press and stir into the thickened labaneh.

3. Refrigerate.

Thanks for you patience,

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

Bleh

2007-09-05T04:22:00.000-05:00

I'm saying bleh because it's really all I've been thinking.

It's amazing how one person with a little bit of power can turn otherwise pleasant working experiences to trauma.

I'm tired, I want home, and a hug.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

The West Bank

2007-09-02T07:08:00.000-05:00

My pictures in the West Bank

It's been a bit of a rocky ride. I do have a long post I want to put up - I'm still working on it. In the meantime, have a look at the West Bank, this much contested area of Palestine.

It's hauntingly beautiful, even though I don't think I've been quite able to render it.

The Beaver

My guest map is wonderful ! And you'd all be wonderful to post, all of you lurk mode readers!
Thanks and may the winds of Fate blow your way !

The Beaver

Actually! Question!

*cough*

Epic long post so that you will all forgive me

I love Virginia Woolf more than is healthy

Why does he get more worms than I do…

The cavalry is always late

The Bookish and the Beautiful

Me and my ever bubbling social life.

This week, on as the book turns…

Yay

Loads and loads of stuff

This is SO not funny

Emotional fears, cont'd (it gets better)

Yet another entry from the Emotionally Scarred

Meh

Updates and some ramblings

What I've been doing lately

Hm.

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Tweets for Today

Lazy tweets

Lazy tweets

Lazy tweets

Lazy tweets

Lazy tweets

Manual Tweets

Lazy tweets

Erhem

No longer a Hobo

297 tears

A bunch of random things

Oh me. I'm late again.

Yeah, I live

AWOL

So. I suck.

Catching up...

Unkept promises

Troglodyte

I don't get this

Big UFO Landing pad

Once upon a night in Banda

A commute…

Setting the scene : EuroTrip (Week 1, Day 1)

Coming soon, Week 4 (Part 2)

Coming soon, Week 4 (part 1)

Coming soon... (Week 3)

Coming soon... (Week 2)

Coming soon... (Week 1)

Oh my flipping gawd !

Sort of an update

Awol

Acrostiche n. 1

Balakot - Earthquake aftermath Bird's eye view

A quick dip in Cotonou

Slalom is not only for skying

On the road again....

On the mend

Cursed?

Close enough....

Love’s Eulogy…

A Whirlwind Update

Interlude

Is this how it’s going to be?

A Nights' Tale (I still got it)

The Ballad of the Wandering Soul

Cut me, I bleed

Blah

Poesie en prose....

cough