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[Jul. 10th, 2009|09:12 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  introspective | ] |
Tonight I decided my life needs more wine and more poutine. Unfortunately there is no poutine to be had here, but I bought a bottle of rose that no one wanted to drink with me, so the wine part is all taken care of! I can even feel good about it because part of the money goes toward some sort of breast cancer foundation.
Tomorrow is my bachelorette party, and in a week from then, I will be married to Rob. I feel like I have always wanted to be married (even though I hadn't really thought precisely of how I wanted to be married, which probably caused some hitches in the organization process) so this is a big step and I will be more me afterwards, you know? Although I love Rob very much and I think that our personalities complement each other, I don't believe that a person is only complete after they've met their soul mate, because if you can't be a whole person by yourself... I think my point is that two "whole" people can bring more to a relationship that two people who are looking for someone to complete them. No, this is more like having a life goal that you can finally cross off, and feel fulfilled for it. Like, "See Naples and die", sort of. Except my list has many more items on it! Being a wife and being a mother are way up there though, and one is going to be crossed off very soon.
I've also been thinking about my life in general, and how I think things are going to be a little bit hard in the next while, but at the same time, we are stepping closer to what we want. I have done my admittance test for the translation program at university, and it was the same one I did two years ago, so I have no doubt I will be accepted again. However, Rob hasn't yet found a job in the Ottawa area that would allow him to stay here with me. He might stay in Val-d'Or, and I might stay in Ottawa. At first glance this really sucks, as we expect people to live together once they've married... But at the same time. I wanted to be a translator, and gave it up to follow Rob in Val-d'Or. Rob quit the IT industry because he wanted to become a teacher, and in Val-d'Or he is able to teach. See what I said in the previous paragraph about whole people in relationships. Sure, it'll be hard if we have to live apart. But we might be better for it.
Also, when I had my cyst and I was "fat", I used to long for a flat belly... I was asked almost daily about my "baby". In retrospect, I should have used the line "It's not a baby, it's a tumor!" Kuddos if you read that far and got the reference. I used to tell myself that I didn't want to be skinny of anything, I just... wanted a flat belly. But, guess what? Since losing that 40-pound cyst under the scalpel, pretty miracously instant way to lose weight, is it not? I have mysteriously not become more comfortable with my body. I have that flat body now, yes with lots of extra skin just hanging there, but still. This is the body shape that I thought I'd be happy with when I had my cyst, and now that I have it, I'm still unsatisfied. I know I could be healthier and thinner, but at the same time, it's not really the end of the world if I'm not. I much prefer women with curves to skinny girls. Why would I want to be skinny? I just need to remember this sometimes.
Anyway. Let's wrap this up and say all this wine was just practice for my bachelorette party tomorrow, alright?
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| Ugh... |
[May. 22nd, 2009|12:08 pm] |
Rob and I went to see Wolverine on its opening weekend, in French because the movie theatre here only has 6 rooms and only ever plays one English movie at a time. I really don't like French dubbings. It sounds like they're always using the same voice actors for every movie. They have like 2 or 3 template voices that they keep using over and over again and it drives me nuts. The dubbing for women is especially bad as they seem to go down to one template voice for EVERY female character in EVERY movie ever made. I swear the girl in Monsters and Aliens sounded JUST LIKE Laurie in Watchmen.
Well. This week Wolverine is playing in English -_-
Also I ordered two pairs of shoes from Aldo for the wedding. Neither was exactly what I wanted but I was pretty happy with them anyway, and I got free shipping for my order too. One design was really really close to what I wanted, except the colour was lighter than I would have liked, and the heel was very high too. I figured I could wear those shoes for the ceremony, photos, dinner, first dance, and then when the high heel became too much I could switch to the second pair, which are flat.
Well. To thank me for my order Aldo sends me a special code to enter the discount section of their website. One of the first shoes I see on there is almost exactly the same design as that first pair I described... Except they're EXACTLY the right colour AND the heel is an inch shorter. Figures! But I'm happy enough with my original order that I think I'll keep it. It's already been shipped and the shoes were like half-price so it's probably a final sale. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 3rd, 2009|10:35 am] |
Work didn't pick up Friday, but it did Saturday, a bit. I may go in for a bit today and check the answering machine and make a couple of calls to make sure that all of today's transports go well.
We went to see Wolverine last night. It was pretty good! I'd give it way more than the measly 38% it gathered on Rotten Tomatoes. I was a bit disappointed that Dominic Monaghan's appearance was so short - but then again, before I saw his name in the opening credits, I didn't even know he was in the movie so I didn't expect much. Also that guy who played Gambit was REALLY yummy. He also had a much too small part in it! And, yay, Patrick Stewart cameo as Charles Xavier at the end! I wonder if the title, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, implies other "Origin" movies for other X-Men characters. I'm not a huge X-Men connoisseur, but I do think Wolverine's past was the cloudiest so I'm not sure what other character would need an "Origin" story. Then again there might be some that it would be neat to see, even if their past isn't a big mystery.
On a completely off tangeant: I keep seeing photos of bedrooms where girls have hung up dresses/outfits on their walls as decoration - a bit like Kaylee hanging her ballgown on her cabin wall at the end of the Shindig episode. I'm considering doing this with my wedding dress after the wedding... I have decided that whereever we move next, we are retrieving my bed from storage, and getting nice bedding, and decorating the headboard with fairylights and/or lanterns, and hanging my wedding dress on a wall. And if Rob doesn't like it because it's too girly he can sleep on the couch.
For those of you who are artistically and/or litterally inclined, Crossed Genres is accepting submissions for serial novels and webcomics, to run weekly for a year. I am planning on submitting a little something. I need to flesh out my idea a bit more so it'll fit into 52 pages, but I think it's coming along well. I've got the main characters and a premise, now I just need to detail the plot a bit more, and see if I want to go with a more straightforward "quest" type thing, or more of a "here are these characters and this is what happens to them and this is how they react to it" kind of thing. I tend to prefer stories where there isn't a set goal the characters are pursuing, so I'll probably stick with that second option.
Off to enjoy my one free weekend day.
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 29th, 2009|04:19 pm] |
I think this is my first art update of the year? If so I am ashamed that it took until April for me to post anything!
I suppose spring, or what little of it we're actually experiencing here, is making me obsessed with flowers! These are all done on watercolour paper.
I am very very happy with this one (disregard the cropped bit at the bottom). The flowers are Forget-me-nots, I used a reference for them. This is a remake of a drawing I'd done, but the pose was much more natural, whereas I was going for a more rigid, sculptural ballet sort of stance. The flowers were also much smaller, and imaginary. The spiral is inspired by the logo of the art gallery where I work.
I don't really like this anymore. Not enough flowy hair, I guess. Too static. I need to revamp it, like I did that first one. I guess even my scanner doesn't like it because no matter which way I put this drawing in, it refuses to scan it entirely so that the sides are always cropped off. It must be a sign.
This one is my favourite, even though when I was drawing it I hated it. I don't know why I finished it but I'm glad I did. I love how the hair becomes sort of confused with the branches. I mean to colour this soon, I'm picturing sky-blue hair to contrast the pink cherry blossoms.
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| Happy Earth Day! |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|11:19 am] |
What am I doing for Earth, LJ asks? Why, I am promoting Crossed Genres' Earth day subscritpion sale! This is a wonderful initiative by a magazine that's published some of my illustrations, as well as some short stories by my good friend Marie! Actually I am passing the word along from her own journal.
For Wednesday only, get a year’s subscription to the E-Book of Crossed Genres for only $7.50! Twelve issues in environmentally-friendly electronic format for less than the cost of ONE issue in print! Please help us out - for 83 cents an issue, what have you got to lose? Go here to subscribe.
NOTE: Also, lock in this price forever! If you get a subscription at $7.50, your renewal price will be $7.50/year for as long as you choose to keep renewing!
Please encourage this magazine! It's growing bigger with every passing month and they're showcasing some real talent. Wouldn't you like to say you were subscribed to Crossed Genres before it became huge? Because it will!
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 21st, 2009|05:35 pm] |
It's a bit hard to believe how quickly the wedding is approaching! It is just a little over three months away now. We've done a good chunk of preparation already, and we still have loads more to do. It's very awesome and a bit scary at the same time.
The newest big step we've taken is booking our honeymoon. We don't really know what we'll be doing next year, so we contemplated a simple weekend retreat to save money for rent in case finding work proves difficult, but in the end we decided that if we keep putting things off, they might just never happen after all. And we were both so looking forward to Prague! We got a really nice hotel-flight package through Expedia, so that we will be there for seven days, and we will be staying the first night is a really (reallyreallyREALLY) swanky five-star Alchymist hotel and spa, and the rest in a slightly less swanky but still absolutely beautiful Waldstein hotel. We looked at day tours as well, there is a bone chapel outside of Prague that I must see and a city whose unpronounceable name I forget right now but which has been dubbed the City of Beer that of course Rob is insiting we visit. There is no opera during the summer, which I find a bit disapointing, but between the museums and excursions I'm sure we will not be bored.
We ordered our rings on Easter weekend and we've already received a call informing us they've arrived at the store. I don't have a photo right now but they are a yellow and white gold twist. My engagement right has the two gold colours, and we both plan to keep on wearing our silver Claddagh rings, so it will match.
I have apparently had a big influence on everyone, getting my dress handmade. The girls are considering having a seamstress make a dress for them from a design that Jue found in a catalogue, and I got a call yesterday from Rob's mom saying she booked an appointment with a designer she met at the spring craft show. I don't know if my mom will get a dress made, but she's seriously looking at the handmade boleros from the seamstresses who made my dress. The boys, on the other hand, are all just renting tuxedos! But I'm sure they'll look good too ;-) Actually Rob tried on a cream-coloured tux that looked awesome on him.
Still to do:
- confirm the menu
- choose wine to go with the dinner
- decide on a getaway vehicle
- build up a playlist
- rent tuxedos for the groom, groomsmen and dads
- find someone to make a small cake for the cake-cutting
- meet the officiant and write the ceremony
- get mariage certificates
- etc. etc. etc. Still lots to do, like I said!
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|11:59 am] |
My dad's operation was yesterday, I got a message from my step-mother saying it went well. He had a bad case of diverticulitis, and was on the table for about two and a half hours, and now has roughly six months of recuperation ahead of him. I will try to get in touch with my step-mother today, and send my dad a get-well card as well. When I saw him for Easter I gave him some herbal tea called "Keep Well", I thought it fitting! Hopefully it's one of the things he'll be able to drink once he gets home. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|07:25 am] |
Happy birthday to Jue and Bibi, who are almost birthday twins! Eek! Jue was premature, if she'd come out one day earlier still... But clearly the world would implode if two such awesome people were born on the same date so the universe had to interfere! ;-)
Hope you had a good weekend gals!
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| 50 Books Challenge: 13/50 |
[Apr. 4th, 2009|12:05 pm] |
I read a LOT this month. I've been taking advantage of my library card. The downside is that there aren't very many English books at all here, much less good ones - they have a big Harlequin selection and no way am I resorting to that even if it's read Harlequin or never read anything else ever again. Good news: they have three Charles de Lint books (in French), two of which I haven't read yet.
Ghost of Ottawa, Glen Shackleton: We got this book because it was written by one of Rob's friends, who runs the Ottawa branch of the Haunted Walk. It was a fun, extremly quick read, a collection of some facts and stories by Glen himself and some of the other tour guides (among them Margo, another friend of ours) for the Walk. I was feeling particularly homesick when I read this so the familiar setting of Ottawa was nice.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy: Very very good book. A nameless father ("The man")and his also nameless young son ("The boy") are travelling south through a burned-out, ash-covered landscape in a post-apocalyptic setting. They are each everything the other has. The story is in turns depressing, hopeful, or downright chilling, depending on the duo's encounters and discoveries in their journey on the road. The writing style is very disjointed, there are no chapters and the sentences are all very fragmented. The style takes some getting used to, but it's very appropriate for the setting of the book: after all, this is a world where nothing except survival means anything anymore, and with the father and his son constantly at each other's side, what is there really to talk about? A movie version will be released this year, in which Viggo Mortensen plays the father and gets to be scruffy and oily again.
Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons: If a (graphic) novel ever was everything the praise on its jacket says, it's this one. I didn't get to read it fully until after I after the movie, and I have to say that I did prefer the movie's ending. I won't go into big details here because I'm sure everyone's seen the movie by now, if not read the comic. My only complaint is about that little side story from the comic the boy at the newstand is reading: I can see how it's fitting with the story, but I don't really see what it adds to the story. And the one thing that makes Alan Moore's stories so fantastic is the way he explores not only the main characters' lives and actions, but also the surrounding, background characters's interactions. It makes his world seem that much more real, and underlines the fact that we really are all connected. Also, the storyboarding for this was unparallelled. For every. single. pannel, the image is relevant to the narration or dialogue. It's obviously been a painstaking job t match it all so perfectly, and it's really amazing to read.
Les Chevaliers d'Emeraude, Anne Robillard: Okay, is there any GOOD, French fantasy out there? 'Cause I've never been able to find any. This is the first is a series of ELEVEN BOOKS, and it's definitely, definitely the only one of them I'm ever reading. I was really disappointed because a big fuss was made about these books when they came out so I thought they must be good. I guess it was just that there isn't a lot of French fantasy and suddenly there was a French-Canadian author publishing a fantasy series...
Eragon, Christopher Paolini: I read the French translation. It was... entertaining. After the Chevaliers it couldn't be that bad. It's extremely predictable so I'm almost just reading it for the fun of seeing all my guesses turn out right. It's like Paolini read How to Write Fantasy for Dummies and Eragon came out of the notes he took while reading. It's like... a trace-out of all the archetypes of the 90%-travel fantasy story. But it's still fun. It doesn't have the emotional depth of Harry Potter and so it's hard to become attached to the characters (also it's hard to sympathize with anyone when you can totally call every shot) It will probably not ever become a classic, but it's fun anyway. I'm going to read the next one in the series, Eldest. I'm like 200% sure Eragon is going to turn out to be the son of the evil king. I also read a bunch of books on Prague, where we're headed for our honeymoon, and a few comics at the library. I'm not counting those because they were a fairly quick read and I wasn't going to count American comics, only graphic novels. By the by, there are good French fantasy comics. Maybe I'll elaborate on that later.
ETA: Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice: How could I forget that one! This was a very, very heavy read, and so took me a while (I'd actually started this a few months ago and put it down because it was too much). I didn't care much for the ending, which involves the main protagonist, Tonio, dressing up as a courtesan and seducing his father. I also didn't care much to read about how many men Tonio slept with once he got to Rome. I suppose I'm not very big on homo-eroticism... But otherwise the characters are very solidly built, and the descriptions are so detailed and vivid that you can't help but conjure these beautiful mental pictures of every setting, and dream of visiting Italy someday.
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| We meet at last, Mrs Dress! |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|03:36 pm] |
Never mind my previous post. I hesitated for about 3 seconds before I decided to open the package!
( Pretend you were with me to open it! )
Isn't it great? Even the WRAPPING was awesome!
Mimi has now taken residency in the empty packaging. The box being just big enough for cat, food and water, I briefly considered packing her up quickly and shipping her back to Ireland, but somehow the gift of a nervous, jetlagged, clawed cat seemed a poor way to thank these girls for the wonderful work they did for me. Seriously, if any of you are ever looking for that something special to finish up a soiree outfit, I really really recommend them. They don't do individual commissions anymore though, so I was super lucky to get to them while they were still taking personalized orders. Still, their shop is chock-full of beautiful stuff!
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 30th, 2009|01:57 pm] |
MY WEDDING DRESS JUST ARRIVED!!! I went "Yessss!" when the delivery guy handed me the box, and he asked, "Something nice?" and I told him it was my wedding dress... So he wished me a happy wedding before he left. I wonder what sort of other weird/funny reactions he's gotten delivering stuff to people.
So, should I open the package right now? Wait till Rob gets home? Wait till my trip to Ottawa? |
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| Fashion victim? |
[Mar. 16th, 2009|01:11 pm] |
Re: The trial of the old Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter in a basement cellar and fathered 7 children with her - most of whom were also imprisoned with their mother.
According to a news article, prosecutors are trying to charge him with murder (one of his children died, not having access to medical care) and slavery. The defense, however, is going to argue against the slavery charge because the daughter had certain rights, like eating and choosing her own clothes. Right. Because being denied the right to refuse sex and denied access to the outside world and medical care, not to mention being occasionally deprived of electricity as punishment, SO pale in comparison to being allowed the right to choose what you're wearing. I have to wonder what condition any of her wardrobe was in, too, seeing as she was stuck there for 24 years and never allowed out to shop for new clothes... |
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| Honeymoon Plans |
[Mar. 14th, 2009|11:49 am] |
More wedding news: we have decided on Prague for our honeymoon trip.  We wanted to go to Europe, but the exchange rate for the euro is just... really scary right now. However the Czech Republic won't be adopting the euro as its currency until something like 2011-2012, and the exchange rate for the koruna is definitely more attractive. That and the fact that the cost of life, as in Spain and Portugal, seems to be very low overall, so that a trip to to Europe is suddenly within budget for a high school teacher and an artist.  Plus, can I really say no to a city that calls itself the heart of Bohemia, boasts a giant moving astronomical clock, and houses the Mucha Museum?  Oh and the Lennon Wall. I view this as a nice sequel to my last international trip, which took me to New York City and its Strawberry Field.  Also there is a bone chapel a little outside of Prague that my inner goth absolutely must visit. I am so happy at the thought of getting on a plane and leaving the continent! I haven't been to Europe since my trip to Portugal in 2000.
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| WEDDING DRESSS!!!!!!!!!!!! |
[Mar. 12th, 2009|08:48 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  excited | ] |
I got the pictures of my finished wedding dress today!!! I'm so excited! Doesn't it look gorgeous? I'm just going to ask them to chance a small thing about the string of pearls at the skirt, but otherwise this is it!
( More under cut )
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| 50 Books Challenge : 7 out of 50 |
[Mar. 1st, 2009|09:41 am] |
I didn't reach my reading goal this month. However I have the excuse that February is a shorter month and that I had three days less than I normally would have had for reading! There is a lot of driving to be done next week so hopefully I can read in the car. Still planning to buy one of those little lights you can clip to your book.
Scar Night, by Alan Campbell: I loved loved loved this book. Campbell's strength here lies in world-building: the whole story is set in Deepgate, a city built over an abyss and supported by thousands of giant chains. The people of the city worship the God of Chains, an angel who is said to have built the city after being cast out of heaven and is now living somewhere in the abyss below, where the bodies of the deceased are cast to swell the God's army for his eventual war against heaven. Much like China Mieville's New Crobuzon, Deepgate has such a presence in the book that it becomes its own ubiquitous character. The main character, an angel named Dill, would have been more aptly named Dull, but the supporting cast - an assassin, a priest, a poisonner, a murderous angel and a scrounger - is engaging and well-developed, enough so to support the story. The pacing is also brilliant: the story unfolds slowly, taking its time in introducing all the characters and exploring every corner of Deepgate, and the ending suddenly builds up and basically explodes in a full-scale war. I really, really recommend this book!
Iron Angel, by Alan Campbell: As a fantasy book, this isn't bad, but as a follow-up to Scar Night, it is very disapointing. It's like Alan Campbell didn't know how to stop the explosion of action and violence the first book ended with. This book explores too many settings, introduces too many characters, without ever focusing on one. That was perhaps its greatest weakness. Some of the settings were very interesting and I would have liked to see them fully exploited as Deepgate was in Scar Night. Also, the first book revolved around human characters, and the speculation (in spite of the presence of two living angels in the city) as to what there really is in the abyss below Deepgate - a god, or simply a pile of bones? Whereas in Iron Angel there are as many gods as humans, if not more. The religious mystique from Scar Night is lost. Campbell has a third book coming out this spring, I don't know if I'm still interested enough to go and buy it. Don't let this discourage you if you're curious about Scar Night: even though the ending is open to a sequel, it can definitely be read as a stand-alone.
Only Forward, by Michael Marshall Smith: Courtesy of John's library. A very good, somewhat surprising book that is not entirely sci-fi, and not entirely fantasy either, but a blend of many different genres. The story is told by Stark, who sounds like a private detective of sorts. He lives in a dangerous futuristic world divided in AI-enhanced Neighbourhoods, all of which have a certain theme which governs the lives of its citizens. The story begins with a routine missing person case - it is very transparent and the reader will probably guess most of the turns, but it is narrated in such a way as to remain interesting nonetheless... The narrator even acknowledges that the reader has probably guessed how events would turn out. But as Stark succeeds in his mission, he discovers that his quarry suffers from bad dreams, and a new story arc begins. This is the real story, what the sci-fi detective start was leading to: Stark's journey of self-discovery in the world of Jeamland, which he once discovered with an old friend and where dreams litterally come true... but not necessarily in a good way. From there the novel becomes decidedly darker and more introspective, without necessarily slowing the pace. This is Smith's first novel, and I'm very interested in reading more by him.
I still haven't read Watchmen, and it's becoming urgent seeing as I'm going to the movie on Friday when it comes out. I'm also almost done Cry to Heaven by Anne Rice, which is making me really really want to visit Italy and attend an opera.
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 5th, 2009|01:14 pm] |
YES I start back at the exhibition center on Monday!! Not my old job, but the administrative assistant is on leave for an undetermined period and so they need help with secretarial work. My first contract is on until about mid-March. Whoot! |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 4th, 2009|02:39 pm] |
Woohoo! I saw my first Coraline trailer on TV last night while watching Fringe. However the moment was slightly marred by the fact that I was having my hand chewed off by Mimi, who perhaps did not like to see another black cat on TV.
( Click here to watch the preview )
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