Boo.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and for those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a good weekend/holiday Monday.

Me? I don't really remember much of Christmas Day. I somehow managed to contract the plague on Christmas Eve. We were opening presents (Austrian tradition) when suddenly it felt like someone had shoved sandpaper down my throat, scratchy side out. I then had a sore throat that lasted until sometime last night while I was sleeping. The sore throat was THEN replaced with that fun "inability to turn over in bed without coughing" that is so wonderfully reminicient of summer...when I had pneumonia. Whee! I seem to be getting better though...so we'll see. This is why I haven't been social.

Today I didn't feel like going anywhere, but I sucked it up and went out to Mundy Park where Dave and some other guys were playing disc golf. I opted out of playing, instead going around the park sort of with them, shooting about two hundred pictures. (As always, they can be found on flickr.) I had originally planned on photographing birds, but...well...the birds were camera shy, so I didn't get anything except a raven. Which was cool...don't get me wrong! One of the things (er...two, I suppose) I got for Christmas were two bird books. One is an Audobon identifying book for Western Canada and the US, and one is Vancouver/Lower Mainland based telling which birds are found where. In this, I discovered that my favourite bird of all time, the American Kestrel, actually is a fairly frequent visitor! I'm super excited about that, and will be going out on specific photo shoots to see if I can get myself some pictures.

Now, it's time for bed, because I would like to try and get to as many stores as I can tomorrow to give me Friday off-ish.

One of my favourite pictures from this afternoon...

*ding* Lightbulb

Maybe people aren't commenting on my posts because Haloscan SUCKS and hasn't been allowing it. *grumblesnark*

My interview is on January 10th...don't know the time yet. I'll find out in the new year. I'm so happy that I found out now...what a nice pre holiday present.

BTW, Happy Solstice everyone...it'll only get lighter from here on in! WOO!

Do you believe...

...in ghosts??



As always, more photos at Flickr.

Dum da DUM!!!!

Why doesn't anyone comment on my postx any more? Well, you all better comment on this one.

I'VE GOT AN INTERVIEW IN MY NUMBER ONE CHOICE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT!

Hell YEAH!!!!

So, hi! Again!

After being all excited about getting Blogger Beta...I've posted, what? Three times? Bah.

Things I've been doing:
READING! Yay! I've missed doing that. I've been reading a series by Steven Erikson called the Malazan Book of the Fallen. I'm on book four, which Dave has just finished. It's kind of fun to be reading the same series. I kind of liked the first book, but found it hard to understand what was going on, got very confused in the second book and HATED the ending of the third book. Based on Dave's recommendation, I decided I'd give book four a shot. So far, it's the best one.

I've also been reading one of my MANY Chapters bargain books. This one is called "Last of the Amazons" and I don't know who wrote it, but I bet Google does. Ah, yes. Here we go.

Because I participated in the generic-winter-holiday-pay-it-forward event, I received a copy of "Amy Unbounded" in the mail last night. Written by Rachel Hartman, it's an amazing graphic novel with a great story, wicked dialogue and great art. I highly recommend it. Shoo! Go over to Amazon and buy it! Go now! I want all of the rest of it now!

Ok. What else have I been doing?

Working: Working at the stores is going well. I had a crazy busy week last week. I think I went to roughly...eleventy billion stores. Give or take. Friday morning, it took me an hour and a half to go 20 km. That was...somewhat unpleasant. I'm looking forward to my paycheque. :D That and tutoring. I've managed to keep my students generally taught, so I should have a pretty fair chunk of change by the end of the month. This pleases me.

Karate: Haha...I forgot to post about this. I passed my grading! I was not happy at all with my execution of the techniques, but I will feel better for my next one because I'm already training for it, even though I haven't talked to anyone about it, or been given a date or anything like that (this awkward sentence requires brackets {especially nested ones.}.). If I start now, I may actually feel better about how I do.

Knitting: Finished a hat. Real wool, for the first time. I'm pretty happy about it. I found out that the wool that I used to knit some soaker pants for beverly_sutphin's son isn't very good because it will pill. Ick. I was going to make some soakers for a new baby of some friends, but I believe I will instead finish the quilt that I pieced a few weeks ago.

Cleaning: I almost have a craft area. I have a bunch of books organized, and my brother dug out the rec room, which is where all my paints are. I'm feeling pretty creative, and I'm excited about using up some of my stash.

So that's it. I've been busy, and you know what? I'm happier now (despite total exhaustion after working every day...holy crap, climbing ladders all day sucks the life out of me) than I have been in months. I knew I was a little depressed, but I didn't realize just how awful and down I'd been feeling until I suddenly didn't have this shadow hanging over me. Yep. Ok, done. Bedtime.

Oh. A special shout out to Dave. Go congratulate him, mmmmmkay? :)

End of Year Meme

Stolen from many

The guidelines:
1) Go into your archives and find the first sentence of the first entry of each month of 2006.
2) Copy and paste that sentence into your blog.

January: I had a good evening last night...good friends, good food, fun games and movie.
February: KARIN http://metaatem.net/words/
March: I'm still kind of sick...this sucks.
April: I went to a great vegetarian restaurant today, Naam...it's awesome.
May: It's already the first of May.
June: I have so many things I've mentally noted to write about and I can't think of many at the moment.
July: Hey all.
August: I don't really want to post what I actually did to get my arms all scraped up...I like the guesses better!
September: Happy four year anniversary, Dave.
October: Gwynabella tagged me.
November: Just a note: I won't put any spoilers here...so people who aren't going to read along with it can read here without worry.
December: Or: how to make sure more is given than received.

So...hi!

I've got a job! Basically, I fix displays at various stores around the Lower Mainland. It's not a bad job, the hours are flexible, my boss-who-doesn't-want-to-be-thought-of-as-a-boss is fun to work with and the pay is decent. It's exhausting though...I'm not used to working 8 hour days any more...and I'm definitely not used to climbing ladders and/or standing all day. Even when I was doing my practicum, it was only 5 hours of teaching, and there was a lot of sitting and/or crouching. Very little climbing.

So far, I'm doing pretty well I think, although I came home for a half day today because I felt like utter crap. I slept for a while and dreamed some freaky ass dreams about hurricanes and the horse I had that we sold when I was 16. I've got some serious residual guilt about that...it's been 11 years and I still dream about her occasionally. Gah.

Light Spiral

I'm sure I'll get tired of long exposures on Christmas lights by the time the Christmas lights get put away. Until then, I'm afraid I'll be subjecting you to the occasional vomit inducing long exposure picture....as seen above.

*nervous*

I'm testing for karate today at about 6:15. Think happy tai-sabaki (body displacement techniques) at me...

Playing with Light

I had to update

This is my 1337 post.

I'm such a freaking nerd.

kthxbye...

About Freaking Time!

I finally got my "switch to Blogger Beta" option today. I was getting cranky, since I'd been here for AGES. *snark* Anyway, I'm finally part of the cool kids club. And look! I've only got 3000 posts to go through and tag! Whee!!

I'm in the process of writing out an application form for a non-teaching job that I'm starting tomorrow. Yup. Got the job already. It should be fun. :D I'm looking forward to it. I didn't mention anything about it earlier because I didn't want to jinx it. So there we go. I start tomorrow and will be training all week.

I've done a bunch of stuff with my flickr account, including geo-tagging all of my photos. The ones at UBC are pretty accurate down to the building/road. The ones taken at my house, Dave's house, the school I did my practicum at...not so much. I live at a 711, according to the map. I'm just conceited enough to think that anyone would want to stalk me, hence the elaborate subterfuge.

Not sure if I've mentioned this or not, but I went and saw Casino Royale a few days ago. MUST SEE AGAIN! Anyone interested?

What is This?, originally uploaded by Random Synapses.

Leave a comment with your guess as to what this photograph could be of. Maybe there will be prizes...like cookies! Or something!

GLEE!!!

So freaking excited! My best friend got me a Pro Flickr account for my Christmas present. Woo! *runs over to flickr to play with the sets and the maps and ALL THE PHOTOS THAT ARE AVAILABLE!!!!*

Star Trek and the Holy Grail

OMG...don't watch this at work, or with liquids in your mouth.

"I have to push the praaaam a lot!!!"

Victor Scott - Gotta Go

My cousin Victor has his first music video out and I absolutely love it. You must look at it. I compel you!

Frosty's DEAD!!, originally uploaded by Random Synapses.

Someone ran over Frosty! Actually, it's a bunch of tree branches that we hadn't hauled to the dump yet. I'm a sick, sick individual. I should've stuck a carrot and top hat there.

Yes, another quiz

I was a true alternative, but I got irritated with the way it screwed up my template. :P

Quiz is here

Hahaha!, originally uploaded by Random Synapses.

SO TRUE!!!!

Telegram

To: Internet
From: The Teacher
Computer less broken stop Probably will update later stop Hooray for Dave exclamation point full stop

The pay-it-forward generic-winter-holiday gift-giving game!

Or: how to make sure more is given than received.

Rachel didn't start it, but that's where I found it. Here's the deal: the first five comments to this post get a present from me! Here's the fine print:

1) It's then your turn to make a similar offer on your blog, obviously.
2) You must be willing to let me have your snail-mailing address, obviously.
3) The present from me will be an 8x10" framed photograph that I've taken. You may offer up whatever you wish. I accept no responsibility for any subsequent participant's offering, obviously.
4) If you really want a present and don't have a blog, please wait until it's apparent I'm not going to get five takers, and I might be willing to entertain your offer.
5) It's okay if you plan to re-gift this present.

In other news...LOOK! It's Day 31! ;)