Bye bye, Lappy

RIP LAPTOP, 2003--2008

You were always kind of lame, and too heavy to bring places, but I loved you nonetheless. You got me through university and many a MSN conversation with boys I had crushes on. You hold (and hopefully will let me have) all of my favourite photos and many years worth of crappy writing. I tried buying you new parts, but, alas, you will not accept them. Now I am without cable or the interweb, and will silently suffer with my collection of VHS, hoping someone will call me on the telephone, as I have no better way to communicate.

Remember that time we went to Montreal, Lappy? We watched Suspiria in a cheap hotel and Google-Mapped our way around the city. Those were the good times, the fun times, back when you accepted electricity and didn't permanently exist under my couch. I miss those days... the days of your youth that will never be again.

I will continue to mourn thee until something new comes around, and I'm saved from perhaps doing housework or taking up a hobby.

Sigh,
Lauren

Weirdo Meme!

Another meme brought to you by dessert-maker extraordinaire, JB!

The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blog.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I cannot stand seeing most movies more than once (sometimes to the dismay of my boyfriend who once watched Detroit Rock City every day for a month), but definitely don't feel that way about books. There's a random assortment of books I'm sure I've read more than fifteen times, including The Robber Bride, Scarlet Feather, every single book in the Narnia series, a kids book called From Anna that still makes me weepy, Little Children, The Gunslinger, Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, some book on werewolves I basically tried to steal from the library when I was 10, Sophia Loren's guide to beauty, and so forth.

2. I don't consider myself a picky eater, but refuse to eat pretty normal things like tomatoes, raisins, bananas, candied fruit/fruit in any dessert form (with the exception of apples), pineapples, most things containing gelatin, olives, pickles, any kind of hot pepper... and on and on and on...

3. Despite my aversion to supposedly delicious food, I have eaten ants, crickets, tree roots, various plant-life I've dug up from the ground or picked in the woods, and once slept for three nights in a lean-to I made from pine boughs... in the rain.

4. I love-love-love online shopping, and own stuff from ModCloth, LuLu's Fashion Lounge, Label of Hope, Pretty Raccoon... constantly looking for new, DIY, OOAK beauties!

5. I have a friggin' dent and a scar on my leg from when I fought with my sister and fell "shin first" onto an upturned rake. I have a scar on my chin from when I face-planted in the church parking lot in grade 10, resulting in stitches and having gravel picked out of my face. I have only broken a bone once in my life... when I was moving during the summer before second-year university and broke my foot just in time for "back to school".

6. Monkeys creep me out and I kind of hate them. Really. The only monkey I ever saw that I liked was one in the Biodome in Montreal. It was tiny and cute and nonthreatening. The rest should be shipped into space.

7. Some friends and I were once kicked out of a Dan Aykroyd concert. Really. Not before we had the chance to yell "PSI FACTOR!" at him, though. We spent the rest of the show perched on a windowsill trying to look in.

I'm tagging... The Blah Blah (double-tagged!), Inspired By Hope..., Crafty Bitch (double-tagged!), Justin Gill, The Decisive Moment, Ruby Red and the Secrets of the Century, and Just Putting it Out There.

Blog Love!

JB at La Belle Ecrivaine was lovely enough to gift me with a Brillante Weblog award (acceptance speech here as relayed by RDJ)... and I'm passing on the favour! In random order, here are my five pics:

1. If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger... There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats

An amazing series of photos, art, albums, posters, and other signs of the times... this collaborative blog walks you through an astounding collection through categorizing its entries. A is for Arbus, Great Canadians of the 20th Century, Sex Education, Annals of Crime, Tricky: Scenes from a Life, and Seminal Images are all worth checking out. Spend time exploring the site... there is something for every culture junkie.

2. Ultra-Condensed Movies

I have been known to watch a sickening amount of movies... but this lovely blogger makes me feel like I am not alone! Great gobs of films are watched and smushed down into bite-sized morsels... if a morsel could be HILARIOUS and WITTY (to borrow her use of CAPS). Some fave entries of mine include Jaws, First Wives Club, Princess Bride, and Sex and the City.

3. Travelling Two

Ever wish you could sell all of your possessions and travel by bike around Canada, Europe, and Asia until your money ran you. Well, this Canadian couple did it, and are STILL doing it after TWO YEARS. Check out their map. I am sore just looking at it.

4. Living the EC (East Coast) Life

I love reading Kimberly's entries on books, movies, her adorable dog Tofu, and her various travels... but, strangely enough, I get really excited when she blogs about restaurants! I think I like food too much. Kimberly also heads up a great Literary Association/Journal---check it out!

5. The Blah Blah

For sharing an unabashed love of uncommon music and film, and his tales of horror and joy from retail work, Josh gets an A+. For the lulz, read about the Fantastic Disaster Weekend that I shared with him, or, unknown to Josh at the time, the shooting of the infamous Jonzed movie.

Enjoy! I am off to see Encounters at the End of the World tonight, which is cool as I've been interested in Antarctica since a big space-ship flew out of it in Fight the Future AND Herzog is Crispy Glover's favourite director. Win, win.

Holy frak!

Things that make me sad:

My laptop is once again... DEAD. It may rise from the ashes in a zombie-like stupor and work again in a few weeks, but I doubt it. It wouldn't be one of those fast-running Danny Boyle zombies, either, but a stumbling, mall zombie that's easy to take out with a baseball bat. Tom Savini needs to get ahold of this sucker and give it a bad-ass makeover. Or maybe I'll just save up for a Mac.

Things that make me happy:

At the moment.. TELEVISION. It has been my savior Communications Blackout '08. Can't check your email, facebook, twitter, et cetera? Watch an episode of Weeds, catch up with Dexter, or get excited about the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Sensing that the next few weeks will be completely sans interweb? Watch, oh, three friggin' seasons of Battlestar Galactica thanks to an oh-so generous friend who also tuned you into Firefly.

The same generous friend has gifted me with a lovely little award! I am not worthy... I am scum! Seriously, JB's blog is great, with tons of recommendations if you like fun TV/Movies and generally great life stories. In the coming days I will think of five bloggers to pass the award onto.

Back to... my impending socially awkward phase. Friends, I am now one of those nerds, happy to be labelled "sci fi". Wheras before I merely treaded the line with an over-zealous X-Files and Buffy appreciation (and Robert Downey Jr. stalk...err...supporter...), I am now happy to be known as someone who curses using the word frak.

In correspondence with this new phase of nerd, I've put together a pretty geeky Halloween costume courtesy of eBay. I'm very excited to reveal it to the world come Halloween. Your clue: Eddie Furlong's gonna get it... he better put down his cigarette and Rock Star beverage and RUN (obvious enough). Andrew's got a pretty cool thing going on, too, so I'll have to have a photoshoot on the 31st. You Better Work!

In the spirit of Halloween, I'm asking all of you to tell me your absoulute favourite costume ever! Mine, this year excluded, is a bad-ass zombie costume I wore in 2006. When you see a zombie with a gun, walk, don't run!

Show me your get-ups, lest I make you watch The Gate or The Gate 2!

They should have put this in the job description...

Wanted: one PR pro who is interested in Nova Scotian history, has a knack for writing and design, and is willing to dress up like an old broad once in a while. A really old broad.


Here I am, a deadly mix of Les Mis style peasant, Copacabana regular Lola, and Dawson City showgirl. All in the name of spreading the good word about responsible government.

A few archives cronies and I hit up Province House for Democracy 250 celebrations on October 2nd. We were there to show of our brand new virtual exhibit, Voices of the People, which features petitions and correspondence from (and to) the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1758 to 1800. If you want to know what the average Maritimer of the day was concerned about, have a look through this exhibit. Petitions range from complaints about roads around the province (sound familiar?), a widow asking to be released from debtors prison, a surgeon asking for compensation for innoculating poor people against small pox, and the ever important subject of rum.

The celebrations at Province House were very well organized, and featured dozens of reenactors that livened up the day. A performance from cast-members of DRUM and a smudging ceremony started off the event, and a proclamation was made by the Premier. The house adjourned for some democracy cake (mighty tasty) shortly after, and were treated to lively dancing, actors portraying famous Nova Scotians (Joe Howe was amazing), and displays of documents from the Leg Library.

Throughout the day I was able to meet three premiers, and even shared a few glasses of wine with one. Everyone who came through Province House seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves, and quite liked seeing our web product, along with the ever-popular Nova Scotia Genealogy site. This was my first time going "on the road" with the online resources team, and it was a great experience... even if we were just down the street.

Here's a few more pictures from the day:

Gamblin'

Lovely symphony quartet

This guy was extolling the virtues of France when he noticed the flag behind him. O fie!