Month: April 2010

continuing the run down

  • Yet another reason not to fly United Airlines.
  • Responsibletravel.com, devoted to environmentally friendly travel across the world.
  • MyFootprint.org estimates the amount of land and ocean area required to sustain your consumption patterns and absorb your wastes on an annual basis.

    Yesterday I applied for four jobs, had brunch with Michelle on the Drive, (where Fitz and his love happened to be), then brought her to Kyle’s, where we all exercised like mad. (Swearing it will be a weekly thing from here on in). After that, we took the skytrain out to New Westminster, where Michelle went home, and we went to the Debonair Wedding Store, where we and the rest of the groom’s party were fitted for tuxedo tail jackets for his wedding. Deposits were put down, then we drove to Metrotown and found purple shirts for our tuxes and potential pants. I skipped out on Maria In The Shower show at the Rio due to the hour and affordability issues, but I cleaned my room some more when I got home, sorted some books out of my collection for charity, and walked them over to the donation bin. I also set up a time to pick up my new glasses, did some studying for the GED, and repeated the written practice driving test until I got at least 92% correct every time.

    Today I’m picking up my new glasses, then heading down to Seattle to celebrate my one year anniversary with Tony! How did I ever get so lucky?

    • a tiny bit simplified, but still pretty cool

    A magnet won’t work on plastic, bananas or girls.:

    In 2001, Marc Bertrand was tasked by the National Film Board of Canada with creating 26 one-minute films about science. The only constraints were that he had to use both archival footage and animation. The result was Science Please!

    And because the NFB is awesome, you can watch all 26 of them online: Part 1 | Part 2 | Or, in French

    The films are fast and frenetic, utilizing a wide range of animation styles as Bertrand drew from every corner of the NFB’s talented stable of animators. In a recent interview (translated from the French) Bertrand looked back fondly on his time working on “Science Please!” and announced that, after a nearly ten year delay, he is working on another series of science films for kids.

    link via Scott

    it hailed today and blessed us with fox rain

    tony

    To Do List (updated)

  • Sell giant mirror.
  • Paint the livingroom white. Ready the livingroom for painting.
  • Purchase paint for the mirror frames.
  • Paint my bedroom. Ready my bedroom for painting.
  • Obtain cat-resistant curtains.
  • Obtain new bed sheets.
  • Reorganize hall closet.
  • Frame the posters/art.
  • Get new glasses. Pick up glasses/contacts. Learn how to use contacts.
  • Learn to drive.
  • Pass highschool.
  • File taxes 1999-2009. Fill out my 2009 Tax Forms.
  • Take a dance class.
  • Learn something new.

    Work on my life continues to escalate, much of it thanks to Tony.

    There’s other things too, (like job hunting, love letters, cleaning my room, completing my workspace, writing and compiling the picture book, working on Thread of Grace, charting out some travel plans, getting more exercise, being more social, finalizing the groom’s party wedding planning, researching schools, and finally, finally, catching up on my massive photography back-log), but those are all being chipped at, bit by bite, and don’t feel quite as much like “one good shot and they’re done” kind of tasks. In regards to this list, I’m trying to take at least one step forward every single day. Monday I applied for five jobs, picked up my 2009 tax forms, officially requested my employment slips, had an eye exam and a contacts fitting, visited with Jay, and significantly made a dent in the clutter in my room. Today I applied for three, returned all the phone calls and most of the e-mail I’ve been neglecting, started pinning down travel plans with Lung, dropped by Dominique‘s, edited a chapter of a friend’s novel, and bought a pail of white paint. Tonight I’m going to start on my tax forms, hook up my printer and scanner and clean more of my room. Tomorrow I’m planning on finishing what I don’t get done tonight, prepping my livingroom for paint, sorting some of the front hall, visiting with Randa, and still finding time for a bike ride with Kyle.

    • Dine-Out Vancouver, the yearly blurb

    Dine-Out Vancouver started this week, an annual food festival that involves wickedly-worth-it expensive restaurants offering three course menus for either $18, $28, or $38* per person. (This doesn’t include drinks, tips, or taxes). Running from April 26 – May 6, it’s a wonderful opportunity – delicious, cheap, and super fun. There’s around 200 restaurants involved, which can make it seem a little overwhelming, but they all have searchable on-line menus posted, and easy to find phone numbers for reservations. (The trick is to always call them in. The place you pick might claim on-line that they’re full up, but anyone with experience with this knows better.) They’re sorted alphabetically, by price, or by the type of cuisine they offer. Scroll down to the middle of the page to find the Search Box.

    So now you’re all properly In The Know, where are you planning on going?

    *I admit I loved it more when it was $15/25/35.

    contacts!

    Tried contact lenses for the first time today, and I think I’ll like them once I get over the AUGH-AUGH-OMGWTFBBQSAUCE-THERE-IS-SOMETHING-TOUCHING-MY-EYE. They apparently come free with the Image Optometry Eye Exam + Glasses package. Really it’s an Eye Exam + Glasses + Contacts Fitting + Contacts package. (All for $90! I should find out if I get future discounts for talking about how awesome they are. Seriously.) I thought I would have issues with them, always having been nervous with the idea, but the fellow at the shop was incredibly reassuring, treating the topic with such aplomb that I felt like a country mouse for doubting at all.

    After half an hour of fumbling and learning how to properly poke my eye, (AUGH), I couldn’t master how to put them in, so the man at the optometrists put the first one in for me, which was quick, painless, and completely bizarre. It took, like, a millisecond.
    Pow
    and that was it.
    I had a thing on my eye.
    I didn’t even have time to react.

    Wearing only one contact was very strange, as everything was both clear and not clear, and if it weren’t for the many, many drug sequences I’ve seen in movies, it would have played havoc with my sight. As it was, it looked, as far as I can tell, like mescaline, and I was fine. The second one was much easier, as then I could see what I was doing, (AUGH AUGH), a fact that blew my tiny mind a little bit all by itself, given I was still in elementary school the last time I saw myself clearly in a mirror.

    Once they were in, I could barely stand, as the sheer amount of detail in the world was overwhelming. I had periphery! The carpet was polka-dot! There were individual raindrops outside! EVERYTHING HAD EDGES, NOT JUST THE MIDDLE OF WHERE I LOOKED. I tried walking around a bit and bumped into almost everything possible, because without the world warping effect of glasses, I wasn’t sure how far away anything was. The worst moment, however, was far more personal. Considering my face properly in a mirror for the first time since grade five almost broke my heart. I had hoped, when I was younger, to grow up to look like a far happier person.

    Continuing onward, I was then supposed to learn how to take the contacts out. I say supposed to, because I just couldn’t figure it out. I was quick to learn how to touch my eyes and how to push the contacts around, (a terrible feeling), but actually lifting them up off the surface was a trick I did not master. Once again, the nice fellow working at the store helped me out, and popped them out for me as easy as blinking, as if I had not just spent fourty minutes struggling like a child with the top of a pickle jar.

    The practice ones came home with me, and there they are, sitting accusingly on a shelf in my bedroom, as I muster up the courage to try again. (Probably tomorrow, once my eyes stop feeling bruised from how much I poked them today.) I’ve decided that I likely shouldn’t try to learn them outside of office hours, in case I need to pop out to a glasses store and ask someone behind the counter for help, but I’m pretty sure that once I catch the knack of reliably putting them in and taking them out again, I’ll be glad to have a pair. Really, no matter how steep the learning curve, I love the fact that once they are in, I CAN SEE THROUGH TIME.

    he makes me laugh

  • Fighting allergies by mimicking parasitical worms.
  • Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now.

    Tony was just here for a week on a languid “vacation”, semi-officially off work after his product shipped and Microsoft turned a winking eye on the staff. Good work! Yeah, you, uh, should, you know, “work from home” this week, everyone, yeah. You know? We were slothful, staying up until four every night and indolently waking up at noon every day, something I haven’t done in years. I was concerned such a state of affairs might drive me batty, my itch to accomplish scouring my skin, but instead it was oddly refreshing. We were lazy and lovely and cuddly and snuggly and warm, and Dominique called me sappy, and I thought, how wonderful that sap has replaced my blood. I felt a bit like a battery being recharged, like my inactive down time would pay off in a burst of focus.

    And, so far, it has.

    When I put up my to-do list, Tony stepped in and offered to fund a “Jhayne Diagnostic Test” for my birthday. Kicking the tires, he called it, to see if I’m alright. Making sure I can see him, making sure I’m smart enough, and eventually, that I’ll be able to drive him around. Can’t have a girlfriend that isn’t up to par, he said, and smirked, and if he had been sitting beside me, I would have bashed him with a pillow. He was in Seattle, though, so instead I shook my fist.

    So this week we found a place on-line that sells lingerie for more full bodied ladies, BreakoutBras, and snagged a batch of Harlequins that were on sale, and on Saturday I went to Image Optical, an optometrist who offers a free pair of glasses with every eye exam, which includes a contact lens exam/fitting, got my prescription updated, and picked out some frames. (Not that my glasses will be free. My vision is terrible and to purchase lenses that will not warp space and time costs a significant chunk extra. The blind tax, I call it. Unavoidable. Only $140 in this case, though, half of what more places expect.)

    Today I go downtown for an appointment with the tax office to request my employment slips of the past ten years, then head over to the optometrist, credit card the glasses, (my mother is going halvers with me), and have my eyes measured for contact lenses. My eyes have apparently stabilized in the last few years, not entirely, but the prescription is no longer a bizarre, finicky one that requires custom attention, so the lenses are fairly basic, and the glasses will be finished and ready for pick-up tomorrow. Once that’s accomplished, and I can see without fog again, I’m going to march right over to the ICBC Driver’s Center and take my written Learner’s test.

    The ball is rolling, ladies and gentleman. The gloves are off.

    • (‘Non-stop madness’)

  • Richard Schiff, (Toby in the West Wing), is starring in a religious comedy about a muslim who discovers he’s adopted and was born a jew, Infidel.
  • Jean-Pierre Jeunet, (of Amelie and The City of the Lost Children), has released a fantasy revenge comedy satirizing the world arms trade, Micmacs à tire-larigot.
  • Chris Morris, (of Jam and The Brass Eye), is coming out with a religious comedy about inept, young radicalized muslims in England trying to wage jihad, The Four Lions.