5th Donation

I gave blood again yesterday and it went well. I know - I wasn't expecting that either. It went so well, in fact, that I really have nothing to write about. I went, they took my blood (the technician kept playing with the needle while it was in my vein which made me really uncomfortable), I ate my cookies, and I left. Alej did come collect me afterward, just in case. But I was totally fine. I even walked up a flight of stairs. Fingers crossed this spells the end of my I-almost-fainted-giving-blood stories.

Speaking of blood, Happy Halloween!

Finally, a printer that won't get phantom paper jams

I've been having no end of printer problems at work. Among other things, it jams every 4-5 pages, and each jam wastes 3 sheets of paper. It's absurd. It bothers me because it's so damn cliché to work in an office and hate the printer with a fiery passion. The printer made me a cliché. That alone should justify me throwing if off the roof. When did I become a character from Office Space?

But this printer...this printer makes me happy. I wouldn't throw this one off the roof, even if it did jam.

More up?!

On Thanksgiving weekend Alej & I took at little road trip to New Brunswick to go hiking in Mount Carleton Provincial Park. I choose that destination based on the pictures on the Tourism NB website. Basically my criteria were 1) hiking trails and 2) lots of pretty. I have to say, Mt.Carleton had an abundance of both.It also had lakes which enticed us to borrow a canoe and strap it to the roof of her vehicle. Little did we know it is very, very windy there.

Don't tell Earl about the giant worms

I think this is the movie that started it all for me. I think this is the experience I'm unconsciously searching for when I watch all those bad/good monster/animal movies. This movie is 20 years old now and it stands up really well.  I haven't seen it in 10 years, and even though I watched it frequently in the 90s, I'd forgotten just enough to really enjoy seeing it again. The main difference between this and, say, Shark Attack 3, is that this movie is actually good, whereas the other is good because it's bad.

What movie am I talking about? Have a guess...

You can have information or you can have a life, but you can't have both - Doug's Law

The new Doug Coupland is available. He wrote it for the Massey Lectures, so it's a novel that takes place over five hours and is being read by Coupland over five lectures.



I don't know what to make of the book yet. I think I want to hear the lectures before I form an opinion. It's very Coupland, though. There are so many echoes from his other works, and this contains themes he's been coming back to in his books since the 90s. It makes me want to reread the entire oeuvre.

Happy Thankgiving!

I just got back from here:

But more on that later.  For now I hope everyone enjoys their holiday! 

Ontari-ari-ario

I was going to write a post about my trip to Ontario. I was waiting for Kimm-my to send me the pictures she took at my cabin, but she never did. I figure a public shaming would get her ass in gear***. Where are those pictures, Kimm? Huh?

In lieu of an actual post, I'll just give you the highlights:

• We had a surprise party for my mom's 60th. It was an actual surprise. At least, she was very confused when she saw my brothers. If she wasn't surprised, she's a damn fine actress. 
• I got up to my cabin for a few days. I went for a swim every morning. Read all day. Saw lots of chipmunks. There’s been, like, a chipmunk population explosion this year. Don’t you think that "Chipmunk Explosion" would be a really good name for a neopunk high school band from North Bay?
•  Kimm-my came up to the cabin brought Litttle Edddie. He’s just red-headed bundle of cuteness. And, boy, he can cry - which is also cute because I don’t have to deal with it, or pay for his tuition (ha! Remember that when you tease me about being 30!).
•  I attended the wedding of ¼ of the Core Four. The wedding was also part of the subsequent ¾ of the Core Four 30h Reunion Extravaganza (as called by me, completely after the fact. Although, now I think we should have named it. And made t-shirts).
• In addition to the wedding, the ¾ of the Core Four 30h Reunion Extravaganza took us to Canada's Wonderland where we screamed the day away on such awesomely awesome rides as the Behemoth.
• On one of the rides (one I remember from my childhood), I noticed the manufacturers label on the ride: it was made in West Germany. West Germany! When the ride started and began to make all sorts of creaking noises I began to wonder how much I should trust the craftsmanship of a ride make in a county that no longer exists. I’m still alive, though, so W. Germany didn’t let me down.
  

An appropriate store name?