keep warm, eh?

just what a girl needs - a knee-length down jacket! merry christmas to me, merry christmas to me. . . thankyou grot and bbb!

i can't see a thing when the hood is down (though, to be fair, i do have my scarf up over my nose in that picture), but damn it's warm. sooooo warm. . . and it says 'keep warm, eh?' on the inside, which is so tacky i love it. the fake fur trim is removable, but very fashionable, so it may stay for a while.

lubs on padded coat. . .

downtown (snow)

made a quick trip downtown today, scuttled round to the post office and bank and some other places, then went to catch the bus before they close the roads again. it's started snowing again! lovely warm day, didn't get below -2. hah! we've expected to get another 5 or 10cm of snow, then it will start raining tomorrow.

very pretty in the city, especially once it started up again. pretty much business as usual. there was a very cranky pug in a little coat, all covered in snow. my students were complaining yesterday of their parents making them shovel snow, and telling stories of their dogs. one of them had a little dog who likes to play in the snow. running round the backyard he would completely disapear except occasionally when they'd see him leaping up over a drift.

last tutes this week. i shall miss my thursday group. they're such fun.

anyways, here 's downtown:

B.C. coasters can drink the water if it isn't frozen

Globe and Mail Update

Beset by weather woes all month, Vancouverites received their first good news in weeks Monday, as health officials lifted a boil-water advisory that had hampered daily life here for the past 11 days. But, the good news comes amid another hectic weather day in the province, this one caused by a heavy snowfall and chilly temperatures, following weeks of record rain and wind.

A blast of winter weather swept through the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island Sunday and Monday leaving between 20 and 50 centimetres of snowfall in its wake. Environment Canada officials predict temperatures will drop below minus 20 C Monday evening.

snow *and* mountains!

this is from today. it's stopped snowing and was clear and sunny, so you could see clear out to the mountains on the other side of the river. god i love these mountains.

defacto extensions on both assignments due the whole uni being closed.
minus eight degrees and counting.

snow photo

this is one of my favourites. the kid was just sitting there looking cranky.

the inty is back!

gosh, so now i can post all the photos i've been sitting on. it's so beautiful and i feel like such a tourist. plus i have to take off one pair of gloves to use the camera. . .

photos from yesterday. this is a view of the courtyard. the water has frozen over now.
nice tree shots:

me looking dorky (but warm!):
and some steps:
this is for grotty. my american beauty moment. in snow. (with accidental and not particularly appropriate soundtrack.)

campus closed

-4 degrees and sunny

aaargh! lookit:
"CAMPUS CLOSED - November 27th snow day
Burnaby campus of the University will be closed all day today. There are no classes, and the library and daycare centre are also closed. "

we're snowed in! luckily buses are still running (though the inty isn't). i feel all laura ingalls wilderish and keep getting the urge to make little newspaper sticks to put on the fire.

extra day to do my proposal! huzzah!

still stunningly beautiful, though very very cold. now it's cleared up a bit you can see out to the mountains, though they're still a bit foggy. and the boiled water advisory has been lifted! bet you'd all forgetten about that! yes, i have been boiling every drop i drank for the last what, week? yea gods.

good to hear from you all.

still snowing!

okay, i suspect this is one of those i care much more than anybody else things, but it's still snowing! everything is covered! last night the library was closed and the buses cancelled. i gave up studying at about midnight and went for a walk around in the snow (wearing so many layers i could only move in a very limited fashion). it was so beautiful. all the grotty teenagers were out making enormous snowmen and having vicious snowball fights, and the uni snowplows were doing the rounds (for serious! they have the school logo on the side!).

but today the inty is down. aaargh! so i am up at grad computer lounge. after i print off a draft of my essay i'm going to put all my layers back on and waddle off the little supermarket to see if they have the paper. lots of photos to put up once the internet connection at res comes back alive.

zero degrees and snowing
4500w

so beautiful

this is from my window again. it's hit zero. but i think maybe the snow piled up on my themometre might be skewing the results. ha!

snow!

various views round campus:
view from the train station:
and the only sensible response to such weather:
so i got snowed on while i was doing my shoppping. huzzah! pretending like this is normal, what fun. bloody cold but. also went to a lovely "i heart crafts" market and bought some funny handmade clothes with feathers and prints from artsy hippie student types, to keep self warm and support independent artists. very good fun. and when i left the legion hall (like an rsl, even smelt the same) it was snowing! so pretty!

good party last night for muffin's bday. (his partner let slip his petname, haha, so winifred made him a 'don't mess with muffin' tshirt, which i think he liked) good people, good chats, good bubbly. the abba karaoke with fork-microphones at 1am was a bit much. hee! this leaving my room business is fun.

pretending homework is not there. hmmm. blaaaaah. snowing! must run around in snow and wear odd clothes!

current conditions

1 degree and snowing outside.

3000w.

told ya it was cold!

the view from my window:
doesn't it look like a tacky christmas card???
this is so very cool!

faites la pause. . .

glorious dark snow-covered mountains, view from downtown.

i did my bit for democracy this morning. toddled off to the australian consulate (with passport in funky moomintroll holder) and voted. it was a bit flat. i realised i'm used to voting being very much a community thing. like last election, i dressed up like a witch and our whole household went and voted together then played tag on the playground at yarraville primary, freaking out the kiddies. and i was working that night and kept checking in with the chef to see how it was panning out (a very politically engaged workplace) and getting gradually more and more resentful with the bastard customers for voting the bastard back in. or the year i was voting back home and had the parental figures handing out how to vote cards for two different parties and a girl i went to school with crossing me off the electoral roll.

anyway, it wasn't as much fun, just me in a little room, but i do like voting.


so then i went off and bought the new tamora pierce from chapters and several pairs of woollen stockings from sears. to go with new outfit from the weekend! (budget has gone out the window - but do need new warm clothes). new outfit thus. can be dressed funky for going out or boring for teaching.

i have 1,500w done. 4 degrees and raining outside.

i like traffic lights

i can post in colours!

satisfying intellectual sort of day

satisfying intellectual sort of day. we had a special session for our second last asian-canadian class, with two guest speakers in a spunky lecture theatre in the business school downtown. a very interesting debate about dionne brand's "what we all long for". good to have external input to discussion. i volunteered to respond to one of the presentations, and that was fun. i got to hop up front and blather, and, more importantly, i read this particular paper over three times carefully beforehand and could contribute meaningfully to discussion. how things have changed over the semester. . .

also started actually writing my essay (got freaked out cos all the phds, whose lead i try to follow, had written 6 pages already) and it's flowing. i love this stage of essay writing. let's hope it lasts. if i can push it one step further this could be a good one.

that was way harsh, thai

this was actually a gorgeous pink sunset (at 3.30pm) which the camera has chosen not to render in its true colours. taken from my office, waiting for one of my students to drop by. she emailed me saying she had forgotten to hand in page 4 of her last essay and would i mind discussing how much influence the missing page had on my comment that her argument was a little incohesive? which would be fine except that she got the highest mark in the class. . .

no news. left my room, talked to humans, all good. went for a swim, did my renaissance presentation, ate strange holiday-themed biscuits. getting very bored with boiling all my water.

oh, that's right! i had an enlightening cross-cultural discovery. when nth americans say 'entree' what they mean is 'main course'. it's a hangover from the french or something. this explains two things: 1. the menus which have page after page of entrees and no main courses. 2. that scene in clueless where she says she's divided the food donations into entrees and appetisers.

it's so nice when these things fall into place.

smile sweetly and carry a hatpin

www.phrynefisher.com

these books are a world of fabulous. i want to be a flapper!

ta to itchyfingers for the lead.

a bad moon on the rise

Yeah now don't go out tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
Baby there's a bad moon on the rise

for some reason i remembered the song as having something to do with a blue sky on the horizon. which would scan and rhyme, almost. oh well. who brings their children up on credence clearwater revival anyways?

that's the weather forecast for the next week. huzzah! (sorry the quality is so shoddy. stupid blogger is being stupid and won't take a screengrab.)

that's all my news. i have been procrastinating like a wild thing. good grub.

studying

i've got my desks organised nicely now. i figure if i'm going to spend up to ten hours a day there it should at least be interesting.


and this is a little insight into my working methods. (isn't this exciting, boys and girls???) these are my essay plans for my essay on "salt fish girl". i've got distracted by ideas of the posthuman. i still think i've got far too much material to discuss in a 4000w essay though.

Did I Miss Anything

Question frequently asked by
students after missing a class

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 per cent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring this good news to all people
on earth

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human existence
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered

but it was one place

And you weren't here



Tom Wayman
Originally from: The Astonishing Weight of the Dead.
Vancouver: Polestar, 1994.

(sorry, blogger stuffed up the formatting. each 'everything' stanza is indented, as is the first stanza)