Attic-y goodness

I went to the Attic for the Wide Mouth Mason concert at some point in the apst week...probably last weekend, but my sense of time is gone. We didn't relaly pay attention to the band, we just kind of sat around and relaxed which was even better. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure:

I'm there.

March 10th at the Cohn.

I'm having a bit of a *blah* day and spent much of the latter part of it feeling cranky.

I slept in, then headed out for a mildly successful group meeting for my Policy Analysis project about the African Union. Then off towards Bagtown for a haircut, stopping along the way in Bedford to use the HBC gift card I got for Christmas to buy a lint brush - which every aspiring political actor needs. Turns out that this particular gift card had actually been purchased in 2003 (GAH!) and is now useless. So I had to cough up the money myself. Then I killed about an hour in Sackville, only to show up for my hair appointment at 5:15 and find out that is was not,in fact, today but rather tomorrow. So I had to reschedule because Adam and I are making dinner for my parents tomorrow...

And then I was cranky. So Adam and I went and got groceries and made some sambar with basmati and chickpeas and watched some Smallville (I am hopelessly addicted). So that part cheered me up and so did looking at my Montreal pictures:











"Canadian Political Science Students Ass."

You Should Date A Japanese Guy!

You're an interesting blend of traditonal and modern And a Japanese guy is likely to be on your wavelength Maybe you'll show your love by dying your hair the same color Or get married in a traditional white kimono!

Which Foreign Guy Should You Date?

Speaking of things that are Japanese, my shiitake log finally has mushroom buds on it! Woohoo we've got fungus baby!

You Are Basic Panties

You are a laid back chick with a real natural beauty. You can make unwashed hair and minimal make-up super sexy. Men tend to notice you show the "real you" - and they appreciate it. And while basic makes boring for some, it looks classic on you.

What Kind of Panties Are You?

I officially have a Quizilla addiction. It's quite sad.

Anyway my new Threadless t-shirt arrived today. I got the adorable "She Doesn't Even Realize" which was FINALLY reprinted. So cute.

I also find myself more and more linking to everything that I reference and it's amking me feel a little like Wikipedia and then I feel silly but I just. can't stop.

Heading into Sackville today...I've been taking time since Spring Break started to catch up with people I don't see that often so I'm spending the day with Becky and Amanda, who were my best friends in high school but who I never see anymore.

Guilty pleasure: eavesdropping on strangers' conversations in public

A dude on the bus with a guitar case and afro: "The room where we rehearse is so, like, Gestapo."

Anyway forgive me for being crude, but this week has been assraping me sideways. Jonathan couldn't work his Wednesday morning shift that I traded him for Tuesday nights, so the last three days have gone something like this:

Tuesday:
-work 7:45am - 2:00pm, work on take-home midterm for tomorrow
-class 3-4:40
-work 5-9:15, work on take-home midterm
-10-midnight, finish take-home midterm

Wednesday:
-work 7:45am - 10:30am
-class 11am - prof acts us to actually think and discuss in groups. Philosophy. Nobody's actually read the chapter because we were doing the midterm.
-12:30 - 4pm nap at Adam's. Sleep through Spanish class.
-5-7pm Tri-mentoring

Today:
-work 7:45-noon. Try to accomplish the 300-some pages of reading for today's midterm.
-noon-3 more reading.
-3-4:30 skip class for last-ditch study group
-4:30-7 midterm - it involves a bunch of case studies i didn't read. Fortunately she has a photocopy of them and I just have to read it really really fast.

Spring break is upon us at last. Which means more work and less socializing. But I get to sleep in.

As the snow piles up i'm debating whether having another snow day would be a good thing or a bad thing. I could use the extra time to work on a few assignments and maybe bake some tofu and do some laundry...but then again, I could also use the money that would be a result of my shift in the morning. Even more so with Spring Break looming and the store being closed next week.

My political philosophy midterm requires me to reflect on this whole Danish cartoon controversy. It's an interesting dilemna. I can certainly appreciate the principle of refraining from displays that will offend deeply-held beliefs such as this is for certain groups within Islam, and I know enough about Islam to realize that it's a much bigger deal than it would be for, say, the majority of Christians. I also recognize that Muslims have been the subject of unacceptable racism in the West in recent years...and the argument that the newspaper editor was originally trying to make in the article accompanying the cartoons - that censoring religious criticisms is inconsistent with freedom of speech - could easily have been made without including the drawings. It was an irresponsible bit of journalism, especially in a time of such conflict and sensitivity.

That said, I have a problem with people forcing their religious rules on others, and the issue originally stemmed from an author who couldn't get his book illustrated because the artists he approached were scared off by ACTUAL VIOLENCE AND MURDER committed against others who had depicted Mohammad in their work.

It's also interesting that the most offensive images in the dossier given to Islamic world leaders were not in fact published in the newspaper in question, and one of them was taken completely out of context - it was some French dude in a pig-squealing competition or something. So does anybody even know where these came from? Somebody intentionally trying to escalate the furor? Because I seriously doubt that the original 12 drawings, although a few of them are highly questionable, would have led to embassies being torched. Some Islamic groups strongly oppose the depiction of Mohammad, but it's been done before plenty of times - on South Park, for crying out loud - and that failed to arouse anger on this scale.

There was an interesting comment in a letter to the editor of the Globe last week: why is it that the reaction of Muslims to to those who use their religion to justify unspeakable acts, so much weaker than the reaction to a set of cartoons? I would argue that it's not so much that the reaction against extremists distorting their religion is necesarily WEAKER, it's that it's more PEACEFUL...and unfortunately peaceful doesn't sell newspapers.

Anyway sorry for the disjointed and possibly incoherent post. I'm just trying to work through a compliated issue and, well, I'm simple. I really think that this needs to be discussed openly and the media have shrunk into a very guarded discussion of it so as to avoid further controversy. Comments?

My roommate has the funniest cat alive. I think we gave him too much nip and turned him into one of those crazy permafried cats.

Noramlly KC will meow at you until you pay atention to him, then promptly ignore you once you have; even more so if you pick him up and talk to him in a high-pitched come-here-and-give-grandma-a-kiss kind of voice. This evening, however, he was not to be ignored for a second. I picked him up, expecting him to put up with it for 30 seconds before struggling to get away...but instead he looked at me. Purred. batted at my had. Purred louder. So I had to do that thing that you do with babies, where you wlk around with them and bounce them a little and show them furniture and decorations and pictures and tell them all about whatever you're showing them and they looka t you with total awe even though they have no idea what you're saying and you're just telling them about how a lamp works.

Then I went to do laundry and as I was emptying out my hamper he boldly crawled inside while I was still pulling stuff out. I tipped it over on its side and partially closed the lid and he sat inside and purred so louldy I could hear him halfway across the room. Funny cat.


Not KC. But it made me giggle.

I'm on a Natalie Dee kick lately...I have arbitrarily decided that C.I.L.F. stands for "corn is le fabulous."

Just a note on state support for the arts: the hazards of doing an essay on things that sort of interest you is that by the end of it you generally no longer care to think or speak of them ever again.

Hahahahahaha

My life is at once obscenely busy and boring, thus my recent sntries are silly and insubstantial.