5.31.2007

Task # 41: Watch all of Sarah Polley's films

So, the first step in this one would be making a list of the films she's in/worked on, etc. I am pre-emptively crossing out the ones i've already seen. update: i'm putting the word "central" for the roger's video on central. so i know where to rent it in a hurry (yes, i'm procrastinating)...

1. Mr. Nobody
2. Beowulf & Grendel (central)
3. The Secret Life of Words
4. Don't Come Knocking (central)
5. Siblings
6. Sugar (central)
7. Dawn of the Dead (central)
8. Luck
9. Dermott's Quest
10. My Life Without Me
11. The Event
12. The I Inside
13. No Such Thing
14. The Claim (central)
15. The Law of Enclosures
16. Love Come Down
17. The Weight of Water (central)
18. This Might Be Good
19. The Life Before This
20. Go
21. eXistenZ (central)
22. Guinevere
23. Last Night
24. White Lies
25. Jerry and Tom
26. The Planet of Junior Brown
27. The Hanging Garden I thought this one was quite slow, but very beautiful to watch. And it was when Ashley McIsaac was all the rage..remember that??
28. The Sweet Hereafter definitely one of my favourite movies
29. Joe's So Mean to Josephine
30. Children First!
31. Exotica

as a director...
32. Away from Her
33. All I want for Christmas
34. I Shout Love
35. Don't Think Twice
36. The best day of my life.

Well, that's a big list! Even amid unpacking, I'm going to try and watch one of them this weekend! yes!

5.30.2007

you're one with the burden of intuition...

well, moving sucks. the house is a mess. there are boxes everywhere. and i'm tired. and i'm hot (it's hot out). and i'm just feeling lethargic and a little whiney. and, well, simply unmotivated. i was thinking about adding my to do for today to the list of 101. but will add a few more things here in a few minutes. i think i might go and cuddle with my cat and then get up and do those tasks. i was supposed to work this afternoon but i guess there was some sort of mix up and the job share came in. so, i'm home now.

i woke up with some sort of bug bite this morning (not bed bugs) and just had a twinge of freak out because two people i know are dealing with or dealing with the fallout of the bugs. so, i'm beginning to feel a little like a bed bug expert. yuck. what a thing to be an expert of! that experience so scarred me for the rest of my life. that's for sure. but vancouver is just rife with them. which is kind of scary. my prof's step-father lived in berlin when it was bombed to the ground and he said while the bombing was awful it did kill all of the bed bugs. i guess more than one thing got to start from scratch. i'm curious as to how vancouver got so infested!? off to distract myself with bedbug research! yay?

5.27.2007

Sleeping is giving in, no matter what time it is.

so, we're back from vancouver. and i'm exhausted. i handed in an assignment super late. the banks/government are breathing down my neck. i'll probably get a third job. i'm having to cut back my extracurricular activities that were awesome and creating social change. grrr. but wanted to share this picture of organ trail who we saw play their last show (tba.) at hoko's (i ganked the picture from their myspace). which was a lot of fun. i didn't buy anything on my trip, except for a new punk haircut (with mullet) and lip balm and two postcards. honestly. i mean, stewart bought me a copy of venus. but nothing else. no craft supplies, no sequins, no music, etc. wait, i bought some stuff at lush, in my depressed state.

so, moving on from suck. i've been inspired by a friend's 101 in 1001 list and it's starting and posted here! yay! i'll be keeping people updated on adding to the list and updating the list, etc.

my 101 in 1001
The theory is I have 1001 days to complete the 101 goals listed below. I'll make entries (maybe even with pictures sometimes) whenever I reach a goal and I'll cross that goal off the list. If an item is in italics it means I've started working on it and a separate post has been made to explain.

1. acquire a second bike. one that is more utilitarian.
2. do a 7 day fast
3. do a 1 day fast
4. go vegetarian for 365 days
5. finish my master’s thesis and defend with clear pass, no revisions.
6. read six canadian fiction novels (one MUST be by farley mowat)
7. read a rushdie novel
8. get married (with a ceremony)
9. sell 10 things in my etsy store
10. build ohsweetie.net
11. attend an academic conference out of country
12. publish an article in an academic journal
13. publish a piece in a non-academic, but substantial, publication (ie. nylon)
14. record an album
15. do a fairy oracle reading without my book (for someone else!)
16. grow yams
17. watch the o.c. season 4 with stewart
18. go for a bike ride every day for 2 weeks
19. learn to crochet
20. sell things that i’ve crocheted
21. acquire and learn to play the lapsteel
22. move to montreal
23. get a job teaching at a post-secondary institution in quebec/montreal
24. make 10 canvases
25. See all the "best film" winners of the Independent Spirit Awards
26. yoga. once a week. 10 weeks straight!
27. buy all of devendra banhart’s albums
28. learn how to screenprint, from start to finish (including screens)
29. read biographies about burt reynolds, pierre trudeau, and elizabeth taylor.
30. see the new harry potter movie in theatre
31. see all of Lars von Trier’s films
32. learn to skateboard and be good at it
33. go back to japan
34. get pregnant
35. dumpsterdive
36. watch all of Pedro Almodóvar’s films
37. read miranda july’s writings
38. write kathleen hanna, courtney love, and beth ditto admiration letters
39. buy something online from lush
40. go blonde, bleach blonde
41. watch all of sarah polley’s films
42. sell my wares at the farmer’s market
43. work in a job for more than 1 year
44. create riot grrrl education packs and sell them to music appreciation teachers
45. mentor someone
46. make an egg free hollandaise sauce
47. learn to make the foods my grandma made when i was a kid
48. go swimming in the ocean
49. see blonde redhead live
50. fit the women’s clothing at american apparell.
51. have someone write an article about me
52. tour with a friend’s band
53. interview tegan and sara
54. give away two articles of clothing that i love and couldn’t live without
55. hold a 30 minute conversation en francais
56. sell my car
57. switch all the lightbulbs in my home to energy efficient ones
58. teach someone how to sew
59. finish this list
60. move to our new place
61. sign up for zip
62. pay off the money i owe to the federal government
63. sort out that msp bullshit
64. sew kieran's hoodie
65. pay off my line of credit
66. buy a pair of ice skates and go skating at the public rink downtown prince george
67. finish my stress and relaxation workbook
68. sew three bikini tops and give two of them away (keep one for me, of course)
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74. and on and on...it'll get there.

5.18.2007

i think it was in ottawa that i had the best time...

collage 003
so, i just sewed up this little 'hip purse' for the shows we're attending next week. it'll allow me somewhere to put my wallet, some keys, lip balm, and still look cool! my sunglasses will even fit in it! maybe i'll take a picture a little later and post it on artificia. i thought i would post a list of stuff i'm loving and listening to lately, particularly for ye ol' girl of the north country.

1. the beast and the dragon, adored - spoon
2. tokyo witch - beach house
3. dr. strangeluv - blonde redhead
4. listen up! - the gossip
5. rotten little buggers II - hey everyone
6. kill me in my sleep - chad vangaalen
7. sweepstakes prize - mirah
8. anything by snoozer, especially the song "winterclothes"
9. my own fault - maria taylor
10. cakewalk into town - taj mahal
11. comfy in nautica - panda bear
12. this month, day 10 - cansei de ser sexi

5.17.2007

stay, and monkey with me...

collage 004

stewart and i spent the evening together: we ate potstickers with peanut sauce, and then had a later dinner of pasta *yum* and organic soy strawberry icecream, and we watched this HORRIBLE movie (needless to say that the picture cryer enjoyed it) called shadows in the sun with the ridiculous joshua jackson, claire forlani (with an italian accent), and harvey keitel. there were parts that sincerely made me feel like vomitting and i do not blame all of the carbohydrates!!

the other day my supervisor for school sent me a call for applications for this exhange trip to Japan for three weeks in July. in her email, attached, she said something sarcastic along the lines of, "it's not like you have too much on your plate"... and it's like every time i feel like things are going to get less busy, they get busier. i know that the ONE TIME i saw a counsellor, who is now a co-worker (weird!), we talked about how i keep busy as an excuse to deny the act of taking care of myself. in that by being busy with all this stuff i get to just run away from what's really going on for me, and i kinda thought, well, "duh!" and its not like i'm keeping myself busy with benign crap: i'm busy with important stuff. and i honestly do not feel like i need to save the world by doing all this stuff (phew!), i'm pretty much doing all of it because i want to and setting up boundaries where i can. so, two lists!

things i have taken "on" in the last month:
1. i was asked to be on the "leadership" committee for the MCF youth advisory council. i basically said to the organizer on the phone that i wanted to do everything, but could only do ONE, so he could pick.
2. a new job (i think this still might be a secret).
3. moving my radio show to wednesdays for 2 hours and being a volunteer office coordinator for the radio station on campus on wednesdays
4. a new class! english! and i sillily said i'd do my presentation today (it's done at this moment and my perfectionist is screaming, "it went horrible", but i'll just have to wait and see what the mark says), am already behind in the readings, and have another assignment due next week already.
5. moving. we're moving. june 1st. to this new wonderful house, but it has had a variety of pressures.
6. just today i said i'd help work on a chap book, which i'm excited about! woot!
7. this japan thing....who knows if i'll even get it (i mean, being a team leader for "youth canada" or something or other at an international gathering in tokyo..what? impossible! i'll know by the end of next week-ish though. hmmmmmm.)
8. working with some other cohorts at school to secure $40,000 for a future of feminisms conference next year.
9. going to terrace for the weekend (nice, but SO draining)
10. going to vancouver for a week! can i just say, MSTRKRFT!! METRIC!!! HOT HOT HEAT!!! ARCADE FIRE!!! ORGAN TRAIL!!! THE LINES WE DREW!! gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
(that list was not an even 10 on purpose!!)

things i have said "no" to, or set appropriate boundaries for this month
1. i did not stress out when someone asked to borrow money and i couldn't lend it. previously i would have felt bad and thought i let them down. but not this time.
2. not feeling bad about literally mooching lodging off of people for a whole week when in vancouver.
3. i said no to being a CASHS rep on the graduate student society's board.
4. i said no to joining/taking a "leadership" role in the student initiated "women's studies club".
5. i said no to getting stressed about the wedding. there are things that could stress me out, like, oh, um, having NO money to do it, all of these people who like formal-ish/fairytale weddings, when i want a hip, punk, fun, no stress, little work wedding. i mean, who knew it would be a big deal that after stewart and i got married we'd be living in a house with other people and still be poor. if you get married does that mean you have to have your own flat!? so strange! all of these expectations that people happily THROW on you the moment you say, "we're getting married!" grrr.
6. i said no to meat! i've gone back to veg! yes!
okay, and probably more than that, but i'm really thinking of the wedding pressures right now. people who want other people invited, people who go "oh" when i tell them that we're having a ska/punk band play our wedding and some dj that's a friend of ours, and the 80s inspired attire required! even people i don't know well are passing their judgements as if it's THEIR wedding! and their values and family we're destroying! bizarre! (okay, maybe i just need to go to bed).

so, with that, i'm GOING to bed.

5.12.2007

are you going?














'cause we are!

more on vancougar adventures and current plans soon! new news and life-style updates and just a moving madness to begin probably around tuesday! xoxo diandra.

5.09.2007

i made to pee outside just in case you needed the water...

tonight we went cat shirt crazy with the meow records sponsored event! so much fun!
oh the lovely stewart. rocking his camomile lemonnn, er vanilla, tea.


the lovely cake that skyla and torie made for the event! we were late and missed the full ideation of the beauty.


torie and i peering through the hole of our lovely shirt that we made for the meow records cat shirt crazy evenT!

at one point danny and i crowded around the table housing this shirt and its bids to perhaps intimidate the woman who was so entrenched in the bidding war with him over this shirt. he scored it for 87.00cdn. nuts!

5.02.2007

as long as the room keeps singing..

the blurry gang
i just spent the last hour packaging up swap items for craftster swaps (i think i'll be swap free for a while..maybe for a few months..it's time consuming you know!!) and packing up an item for a buyer from the ohsweetie store. which is exciting. my shipping costs tomorrow are going to be collectively through the roof! this evening we went to cimo and at PASTA and medi fries with garlic mayo and got toasted on wine. lovely kelly gave me the rest of her wine and i felt so sick coming home (i determined it was lunch from the cafe). today i began to spend my student loan and we got some sweet stuff like groceries and a record player, and the queen is dead vinyl, hounds of love, etc. and the new blonde redhead and feist. man, music makes me. sewing makes me. dancing art bikes (of which mine is now in the bike shop till next week) bikes are dancing crafts!! i'm stressed about going back to terrace this weekend, but i can get through it!!!

for you to pick at other people who don't know what's love like yours

leather bags 004
i just emailed everyone i had hot dates with over this coming weekend and cancelled: i'm going home. my dearest in terrace is not on a positive path and i feel so compelled to go home and save her, so that's what i'm going to do: well, the going home part. i don't intend to save her, i just hope it's a byproduct of LOVING her with all my heart and bringing her back with me, if possible. it's hard knowing how to create a workable language, a compassionate and understanding language when you're trying to talk about someone with "mental illness" (note: i dont even belive in fucking menal illness) and how do i even begin to imagine that first conversation with this lovely being? i haven't spoken to her in so long i wouldn't even know where to start. the positive thing is that i don't feel responsible or guilty for her relapse-like behaviour, but rather i feel inspired and energized to help her heal and just to be near her and hold her and to cry together and sew togther and make veggie dogs and yam fries and yam friends and just be together again. be together.

on a lighter note, the other good things about going back to terrace are watching oprah with my mom, thrift shopping, buying stewart some chucks at urban colour, and CRAFT SUPPLIESSSSSSSSS!@!!!!LKJDLKSJFLSJF!@@#ERJEWQORUJ yay craft supplies! woooooTTTTT!!!