User:	shmeen
	Date:	2010-01-07 01:31
	Subject:	End of Year thingy and top music of 2009
	Security:	Public

2009 Year in Review!
1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?:
Went to Denmark and saw Salma get married

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?:
Well, my major resolution was to finish my thesis. that didn't happen (but it's almost done!). I did resolve to start kickboxing and I started doing that. Being somewhat regular to the gym. I resolved to cook more at home and that didn't really happen.

This year, as i anticipate to be done in a few weeks, I want to be more creative. More writing, learning photography and spanish lessons. I will also continue to work my three jobs and starts making small indents in my student loan. More community radio.  And with the thesis almost over, I can't wait to be more flirty and crush out on people again.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?:
My aunt Molly gave birth to my cute cousin Ginger.


4. Did anyone close to you die?:
No, but the main singer (Vic Chesnutt) I listened to when B. passed away also died in Dec. And I kind of felt close to him. It's cheesy, but he kind of helped me a lot in those dark days.


5. What countries did you visit?:
Cuba, US, Denmark

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?:
More passion, more politics, more creativity, more polyamoury

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?:
Jan 1 and celebrating the Cuban Revolution with thousands of people in Havana. Visiting Emma Goldman's house with Deanna.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?:
Being able to do ten push ups. Those things are hard!

9. What was your biggest failure?:
Not finishing my thesis

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?:
I have not been sick at all in 2009 except for a two day flu in October.

11. What was the best thing you bought?:
A Canon rebel which i need to learn how to use. Right now all the pictures I take are blurry.


12. Whose behavior merited celebration?:
Clayton Thomas Mueller for still kicking tar sands ass!


13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?:
My sister.

14. Where did most of your money go?:
tuition and trips

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?:
Seeing Grizzly Bear live after their new album was released. And Denmark.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?:
When I Grow Up - Fever Ray and Psychic City - YACHT

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or hardened?: hardened
ii. thinner or fatter?: thinner (oh so slightly)
iii. richer or poorer?: poorer (thank you student loans!)

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?:
write more letters - i used to write a letter or postcard once a day. Now all i find are half written letters, which is more depressing than not writing at all.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?:
Eating out and watching old re-runs of Melrose Place

20. How will you be spending Christmas?:
I spent my xmas in Calgary being grumpy. But then my mom took us to a Bollywood film, and it became amusing.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009?:
Yes

23. How many one-night stands?:
I had a late night make-out session in a lake, late at night. We never talked about it again. I guess that's kind of a one-night stand.

24. What was your favorite TV program?:
Dexter

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?:
Myself. Kidding! I guess Obama.

26. What was the best book you read?:
Outlaw Woman - Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?:
Little Dragon and Class Actress

28. What did you want and get?:
To spend the 50th anniversary of the revolution in Cuba (been wanting that for years!) and the go ahead and date of my thesis defense

29. What did you want and not get?:
A fulfilling job that would inspire me.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Fantastic Mr. Fox

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?:
Turned 32 this year and spent a wonderful day with Krisztina and then came home and hosted a party with my wonderful friends.

32. What's one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?:
sorry to be repetitive - to have finished my thesis. or if rehab had worked for my sister.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?:
Lots of shirts with images of headphones on them and t-shirt dresses over jeans.

34. What kept you sane?:
laughing with Geordie

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The attacks on gaza that spilled over into this year. Morales winning again in Bolivia.

37. Who did you miss?:
Vancouver friends. I wish Toronto and Vancouver would merge. Been missing my friendship with Brian a lot as well.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Feel like I connected with Clare super well this year. And my co-worker Aruna rocks my world.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
It's ok it took 4 years to finish an MA - at least I'm finishing.

Top Ten Music of 2009

1. Alela Diane - To Be Still
2. Little Dragon - Machine Dreams
3. Fever Ray
4. Grizzly Bear - Vecketamist
5. The Antlers - Hospice
6. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns
7. Built to Spill - There is no Enemy
8. florence and the machine  - lungs
9. memory tapes - seek magic
10. Bear in Heaven - Bear Rest Forth Mouth

Almost on the list: Yo La Tengo, Mos Def, Kid Cudi, Dead Prez, Lightening Dust

	User:	skumbucket
	Date:	2010-01-04 00:29
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

I highly enjoy and feel an odd kinship to the lead character in the movie "500 Days of Summer." It is a highly wonderful movie. I especially enjoy it when Jo-Go sings "Here Comes Your Man" by the Pixies in the style of Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy. Pretty good.
_____________________

I'm trying to get my iTunes back down below 15,000 songs. I've literally run out of hard drive space and there's probably a lot of stuff I never listen to on there that I've got backed up on my external hard drive that I can ditch. That will mean deleting 1,750 or so tracks.

	User:	just_studying
	Date:	2010-01-03 20:05
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

I am really jazzed about reading right now, partly because I joined a book club in November and partly because I have decided to record the books I read this year. My list from last year, which I recently posted here may not be complete and there are a few books on there that I can't exactly remember when I read them. Anyway, this year I am going to keep making time for reading and keep track of what I read. The book club I joined has only met once and quite a few people hadn't actually finished the book but I think that was because of the Christmas season (we met on Dec 17th) so I am optimistic that our next get together will be better. Our first book was Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden and our next is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

Here is a list of books that I am interested in and hoping to read in 2010:

Six Months in Sudan by James Maskalyk

Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

The Man Who Forgot How to Read by Howard Engel

Committed  By Elizabeth Gilbert.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater By FRANK BRUNI

Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places By BILL STREEVER

Lit: A Memoir  By MARY KARR

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Payback by Margaret Atwood
The Disappeared by Kim Echlin

Light at the Edge of the World by Wade Davis.

Can't wait to get started!

	User:	skumbucket
	Date:	2010-01-03 15:43
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Every few weeks I fall into a hole of snarkiness when I remember that it has been a few weeks since I visited Stereogum/Videogum. Then I lose an entire day catching up on posts. That's where I found this: the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. It is old, but that is fine.

	User:	just_studying
	Date:	2010-01-01 15:46
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

BOOK I READ (and remember) in 2009
1. The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry – Kathleen Flinn (I was reading this one over Christmas/New
Years last year)
2. Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant – Jenni Ferrari-Alder (ed)
3. Deadly Canadian Women by Patricia MacQuarrie
4. The Book of Negros – Lawrence Hill
5. Obasan - Joy Kogawa
6. Itsuka – Joy Kogawa
7. The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
8. It Sucked then I Cried – Heather Armstrong
9. Things I Learned About My Dad In Therapy – Heather Armstrong
10. Rockabye: From Wild to Child –Rebecca Woolf
11. Shake Hands with the Devil – Romeo Dallaire
12. A Short History of Progress - Ronald Wright
13. We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda –
Phillip Gourevitch
14. Human Cargo – Caroline Moorehead
15. A Boy of Good Breeding - Miriam Toews
16. Julie and Julia – Julie Powell
17. My Life in France – Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme
18. The Jade Peony – Wayson Choy
19. Three Day Road – Joseph Boyden
20. The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek – Sid Marty
21. Angela’s Ashes – Frank McCourt (still working on it)

	User:	skumbucket
	Date:	2009-12-31 07:29
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

	User:	skumbucket
	Date:	2009-12-30 22:32
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

	User:	skumbucket
	Date:	2009-12-29 17:04
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Checking back on my banking records I actually haven't bought groceries since November 30th. So I'd call this little experiment a success, although it really feels like the kind of thing a guy shouldn't necessarily be proud of. Still, I should have no problem making New Year's Day and I might even try to push it further. There is a bit of a grey area as I've gone to Beer Brother's a couple of times for beer and snacks, but I used gift certificates so I'm not counting it.
_____________________

My parents are jerks.

They told their children last year, upon retirement and the purchase of a winter home in Arizona, that they were now officially on a fixed income and would cease giving big-ticket gifts for birthdays and Christmases. Fine by me, I said, knowing that I'd been spoiled far more than most in that department and having a low-paying job the last four years has helped me appreciate that fact.

So I was more than happy when they offered their Air Miles up as a means for me to travel to Arizona for a visit earlier this month. I told them straight-up that was the best Christmas present I could hope for, considering they also picked up the tab for most of the meals we had down there and all of the golf. I explicitly told them not to do anything else.

So of course what do they do? They give me a goddamn 40" LCD flatscreen HD television. I was so angry, you guys. Who do they think they are? They're on a fixed income.

Moreover, I'm the last guy that needs a big-ass fancy TV. I don't have channels! Or a DVD player! I hooked my Wii up to it and it looks good, but I don't really play it that often. Its just going to sit there like a black void, waiting patiently for me to make more money so I can afford to use it. How sad.
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I've already learned a half-dozen or so songs on my ukulele. The Library Voices inspired me to learn Magnetic Fields' "the Book of Love." Sad songs sound weird and awesome on the uke, so I also picked up Bad Astronaut's arrangement of Armchair Martian's "Jessica's Suicide." Bruce Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" sounds better than ever on four strings, and I threw down on a couple of Chuck Ragan songs for good measure. I'm working on some more challenging ones that require more than simple chords, but so far its been a goddamn treat to play with.
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I have like five more days off starting tomorrow. I wonder what I will spend my time doing, as my parents fly out tomorrow as well.

	User:	shmeen
	Date:	2009-12-28 21:43
	Subject:	words i thought i would never read
	Security:	Public

Hi Sharmeen,

The last draft is defensible and can proceed to examination once it has been:

1. spell-checked (particularly - media is plural, it is not mediums);
2. check that your references are consistent in terms of use of caps for titles
in all;
3. the font in the footnotes are standardized;
4. the offset single-spaced quotations font is the same (I think five spaces is
all that is necessary for indent and I would avoid lengthy quotes); and
5. recheck that all references cited are in the bibliography and that the
bibliography is consistent.

As to defense dates in January, I am available:
1. York or Ryerson after 9 a.m. on Thursday 21 Jan or
2. Friday 22 Jan, or
3. Ryerson, before noon on Thursday 28 Jan (I have another defense at Ryerson at
3 p.m.); or
4. York or Ryerson Friday, 29 Jan after 9 a.m.

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

Um, but what happens in a defense? i picture a long table with academics asking me quick questions. better read up on my raymond williams so i know what i am talking about.

It's gonna be weird to finish this. i'll need to find another excuse feel in a rut.

but yay!

	User:	skumbucket
	Date:	2009-12-26 02:44
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Driving home after work on Christmas Eve I thought about Brandon.

I remembered a Christmas there. You gave me Scrabble. We bought the cat many toys. We made a roast. Things were new and exciting, still kind of awkward in a way. We were going our separate ways for the holiday. I didn't call you. I should've called.

Merry Christmas.

	User:	just_studying
	Date:	2009-12-25 12:12
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

We had a fantastic celebration with Tim's family yesterday and today we are relaxing, packing and getting ready to travel to SK. I won't see my family until tomorrow (boxing day) but I am pleased at punch with the way this holiday is working out!