Follow the Mome Raths

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

I got to go on the Old Strathcona ghost tour tonight, which was pretty interesting. Lots of good stories about Edmonton. The Hub Cigar shop on Whyte has been running since 1910! Of course, those of you in Edmonton will know that the weather is fairly miserable, 50 km/hr gusts, snow, and -3. Not very cold, but quite a windchill and very wet. Plus none of us are acclimatized seeing that on Sunday it was 18 degrees.

I should really write more of my 225 paper though. Bleh.

Karlie@11:18 p.m.

Gemstones

Here's some cool pictures, some are emeralds from Ghost Lake (my parents have a cabin on this lake, so I have some serious prospecting to do!), and others are the brand new gemstone found in the Yukon, a blue beryl. All the images are copyright True North Gems, Inc. blah blah blah

Karlie@1:43 p.m.

Saturday, October 25, 2003

I checked out CKDR's website today (my hometown radio station) and they had a picture of the new theatre they're building. It's getting pretty big and nice. It's too bad it won't be finished by the time choir tour is going on. That's right, I get to sing in my hometown with my choir! YAY!

And I'm going to the choir dance tonight, so I get to get all dressed up. I'm going as Nymphaedora Tonks from the 5th Harry Potter book.

Karlie@5:58 p.m.

Thursday, October 23, 2003

The virus that started digging it's heels in a few days ago has hit with a vengance. I thought I was going to pass out on my exam, I just thought "if I do that I'll fail it" and scared my self sufficently to return to myself until the end of it. Of course it didn't help that we had some sort of monsoon going on this morning, my pants were actually wringable and my shoes were squishing. It soaked through my backpack and into my notes. I need both a real rain jacket (mine has finally started to fail) and a waterproof backpack. Especially if I'm going on field school next year. Oh well, at least this week is pretty much over. Now I just have a lab midterm (Monday), a 15 page paper (Nov 6), my second Mineralogy midterm (Nov 7) and my second 290 midterm (Nov 12). And then of course it's about time to start studying for finals. DAMN I HATE SECOND MIDTERMS. Of course it's even better that my prof decided to make the 290 midterm the day AFTER the long weekend so I don't even get to relax, no, I'll be studying. Are they being vindictive because when they were students their profs did it to them? Or are they just sadistic? Or is it that they're so clueless they forgot that that's a long weekend?

Anyway.

Here's a couple of cool comics:

Karlie@11:56 p.m.

Monday, October 20, 2003

I have studied SO much for EAS 230 and EAS 225, that I don't even know where to begin. Or end, maybe I should say. I think I know most of my stuff, I have a little more to memorize but most of it is intuitive or - I don't know. I just don't feel like I know enough, even though I've studied for midterms more this year than I ever have in the past. I guess I'll just keep going along, trying to remember enough to pass.

Karlie@10:37 p.m.

Sunday, October 19, 2003

Ah, today has been a good day. Elizabeth and I were going to go to Kingsway, and had waited at the bus stop for half an hour when someone took pity on us and told us that the bus doesn't run on Saturdays. So we went down and caught the West Ed bus instead. At West Ed we wandered awhile, and eventually wandered into the Build-A-Bear Workshop. Here you get to make your own teddy bear. Well, we'd both had pretty rough weeks, so we both made bears. I'll see if I can get a picture up, but since blogger doesn't host images and my web page is funny about them I might not be able too. Anyway, now I gots to go study the dead things and the glaciers some more. Fun fun fun.

Here's the bear, her name is Anne. Elizabeth's is a lot like mine, but with a blue shirt and pants and is named Olivia.

Here's a cool picture of Hurricane Isabel of the coast, it's pretty cool:

Karlie@5:33 p.m.

I'm frustrated, and tired of feeling lonely. I keep trying to get people to do stuff, and no one has the time to or wants to. When I'm not stuck in this stupid apartment I'm at school, where there's not a lot of social life because I'm in class or a lab. It's kind of like last year but not, and I'm trying really hard not to fall into my old pattern of recoiling into myself because that doesn't solve any sort of problems. Hopefully once midterms are over things will be better.

I should be studying palaeo. Some more. Why do I need to know about dead things that don't exist anymore?

Karlie@12:03 a.m.

Thursday, October 16, 2003

There's lots of things I want to do if I become rich and famous (mostly just rich) - chiefly, buy myself this:

This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Boesendorfer M 290. Which sounds like a fancy car but isn't. It just happens to be one of the best pianos in the entire world. This is the tag that goes along with the picture from the webpage:

" It is the only concert grand in the world to have nine sub-bass notes, down to bottom C, giving it a full eight octave compass keyboard. These extra notes enable some compositions to be accurately performed, which were originally scored with lower notes, by composers such as Bartók, Debussy, Ravel and Busoni. Special construction features have a very positive influence on the overtones produced when the piano is played, and helps to create the maximum range of both power and volume, and allows the smallest subtle variations in sound to be heard, across the whole range of the piano.

97 keys l: 290 cm w: 168 cm net: 570 kg
l: 9'6" w: 5'9" net: 1255 lb
"

I don't even want to think about how much this thing costs. But I'm going to drool over it until I can afford it.

Karlie@11:21 p.m.

I decided to cut my hair today, it was driving me crazy and not looking very good long. So I cut it short. And dyed in fuscia highlights. My hair is happy, and I mostly am, although I'm stressed about the midterms I've got coming up. Two on Wednesday and one on Thursday, then a paper due in two weeks. It's a 15 page paper about the sedimentary features in the river valley of Edmonton. I'm not really sure what to write, or what he wants me to put down. Thankfully, a few of the theories I'd developed about the till (why there are delicate, undisturbed pieces of coal next to big boulders) and the lake sediments (clay squooshed up through the sand, moving blocks of it) seem to be plausible, if not right. I'm going to ask around a little more, and see maybe what some of my classmates have come up with.

Karlie@6:22 p.m.

Tuesday, October 14, 2003

This Thanksgiving was pretty good, I went down to my Aunt's (who's not really my Aunt but a second cousin once removed or something). I watched two of my cousin's hockey games, he plays Midget Triple A. He's really good, in fact the whole league is really good. A lot of the kids go on to get scholarships, or play for JHL, AHL, or NHL. So besides sitting in a hockey rink a did a lot of cooking, and yesterday my Aunt and I drove out into Kananaskis Country. We followed a kind of not-so-good highway to Sheep River Falls, where I took some pictures because it was absolutely gorgeous there. I also took a picture of the big-horned sheep we ran into on the way there. There were about 6 on the road, and another 3 way way up the hill on the rocky peak. They look pretty funny coming down, they just barrel straight down the slope. The unfortunate side-effect of going away for Thanksgiving meant I had to get up at 6:30 this morning. Normally that isn't too early but for some reason today it seemed a God-forsaken hour.

And it snowed in Kananaskis. Old Man Winter is starting to move in.

Karlie@8:24 p.m.

Thursday, October 09, 2003

Well today was interesting, around the LRT station at University there were at least 4 fire trucks, a few police cars, and an ambulance along with fire line tape around the station building and bus stop. A girl on the bus told me that some "questionable and potentially dangerous substances" had been found in the LRT station, so I'm assuming HazMat is checking it out. Just before the bus pulled away I noticed some firemen putting on the oxygen masks and stuff, presumably to venture into the building.
I'd like to thank the US for causing every country to now assume that any white powder (ususally turning out to be Tide, sugar, or salt) may be a lethal virus intent on wiping out mankind in that particular locale. But for all I know it may turn out to be a truely hazardous material and I'll have to eat crow.

Karlie@8:34 p.m.

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

Here's a poem I wrote this summer but couldn't post on my website (because my ftp program is on THIS computer):

Hiding in a dark corner of my mind
the dark thoughts
play raquetball

bouncing ideas
off my skull, off my nose

"would she really? do you think?"

the sharp sound - reverbrates
hurts my head

the sharp thoughts - resonate
hurt my heart

then in a darkened room
a cool bed
soft pillows

they reluctantly retreat

lurking in the shadows

I had either a migraine or a sinus headache at the time I wrote this. FYI, did you know that you can get a migraine from a sinus headache? Weird...

Karlie@8:09 p.m.

Here's an interesting but somewhat sad article

Karlie@12:51 a.m.

Sunday, October 05, 2003

Last night was the Pigless Roast with choir. We had a blast, sitting around the campfire, eating burgers. Being that we're a choir, it (of course) turned into a sing-along. We sang 'Joy to the World' (60's, not Christmas), 'Cecilia', 'Ice, Ice, Baby', and the 'Quartermaster's song'. Instead of singing the real words to the last one though, we made up rhymes about the people around us to help the newcomers know the names of everyone. Mine was "There was Karlie, Karlie, revvin' up her Harley in the store, in the store" Of course I've never been on any sort of motorbike. The closest I've been is a four-wheeler (Quad for all you Westerners). Oh well it was a blast anyway, but now I have to study for EAS 290. I'm not really sure what to do about that. It's a class all about how we as a human population are affecting the environment. Most of it is common sense, along with current events stuff. Multiple choice and short-answer. I guess I'll just reread and check the notes.

Karlie@12:40 p.m.

Friday, October 03, 2003

I find this article weird and frightening, but also oddly amusing...

If you're ever bored, check out www.fark.com. Lots of weird news stories from around the world.

Karlie@9:50 p.m.

Karlie@12:23 a.m.

We have bars on our windows now too. Yay! Plus, exterminators came and put poison in behind all the sockets and light switches for the ants. That is all the excitement for today.

Karlie@12:13 a.m.

Thursday, October 02, 2003

BOOYAH! As a couple people (And I) were trekking back up the valley after our geomorph lab, we heard the beautiful strains of cheap music. Lo and behold, it was the ice cream man. Feeling devious, we sneaked over and got some popsicles and ice cream. A few minutes later when the rest of the group came up, he drove by again and we ALL got ice cream and popsicles. Mmmmmmmmm creamsicle...

Karlie@7:57 p.m.