March 28, 2002

Bye-bye

Well, this is it for a week. I'm going to a special intensive IB revision course to strengthen my French and chemistry. (It doesn't sounds very fun, but I'm sure it'll be useful, and a lot better once I'm there.) I'll be staying in Oxford at St Annes college (yes, it's part of the university).

Since I won't be around to say it at the date, have a really great Easter!

Posted by Laura at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)

I'm sure I've forgotten something

I'm sure I've forgotten something important. I just can't think of what.

Posted by Laura at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2002

mail

Opps, I've got mail. Need to reply. Add that to the list.

Posted by Laura at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

Calvin

Posted by Laura at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)

To do

I must:

*Put more money on my phone

*Charge phone and pack charger

*Make sure I have all my chemistry and French notes packed

*Buy more narrow lined paper and pens

*Find film for blacks camera

*Pack clothes

*Pack tolletries and medicines

*Pack batteries, cds and cd player

*Write up final CAS form

Posted by Laura at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)

Werther's

Werther's toffees tast like soft Werther's Originals. Almost like you left it in your pocket too long.

Posted by Laura at 06:02 PM | Comments (1)

grand plans

When I woke up and saw what wonderful weather we had this morning, I started forming grand plans.

As soon as I was out of school I would come home, grab my camera and go out to Hyde Park, maybe further. It'd be good exercise and I'd probably get some decent pictures out of it. Only I forgot to take Andrei's birthday present to school, and had to come home and get it because I don't have school tomorrow. Opps, but he's a good friend, so it's okay. I get home and am about to call my Dad at the office to arrange to meet up later when my Mom says "He's in Paris for the day. He'll be home at 10." That's the same person I ate breakfast with this morning. Okay, so maybe I'll just change my walk then, but my camera's battery is dead. Then, I'll just go to the gym for a bit and pack when I get home. I'll read a bit first...

I wake up at 4:30. Opps.

I've never been so bad at planning something. Heh.

Posted by Laura at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)

beautiful day

It looks like a really beautiful day outside. Yeah!

Posted by Laura at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)

Question 4

Where would you most like to go on vacation?

Posted by Laura at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)

March 26, 2002

Opps

There are moments when I'm speechless, even though those are the few times that I'm really sure of what I need to say.

Posted by Laura at 09:46 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2002

Star Wars

Up until today I had a very strong feeling that the new Star Wars movie 'Attack of the Clones' was going to be stupid. Not to mean I wouldn't go see it, but looking at that name, 'Attack of the Clones' and the 'romantic' trailer that I've seen a few times in the cinema, I felt disappointed with what this new effort was going to have to offer. Sure the effects looked great, but what's up with 75% of the trailer being lovey-dovey moments between Anakin and Padmé/Amidala. "Obi-Wan's holding me back."

Ugh...

Well today after school some friends and I sat around in the computer lab and had two computers downloading the other trailers and I will say that while they haven't removed all doubt, I am now pretty confident, that no matter what, I will enjoy going to see it.

Then I have to wait for the Two Towers trailer, but I'm pretty sure that will rule in any case.

Posted by Laura at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)

lost and found

"Hey, what are you looking for?"

"My jacket."

"Did you lose it?"

"No, I just can't find it."

Posted by Laura at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

wasting time

"You're the FONT tag- some people ignore you, some people adore you. When you like someone, you like them a lot, but when you don't like them- watch out."

Here.

I know, wasting perfectly good time doing it, and space by sticking the results here.

Posted by Laura at 01:09 AM | Comments (1)

no more school

There are only 2 more weeks of school. That sounds frighteningly short.

Posted by Laura at 12:35 AM | Comments (2)

March 23, 2002

I've been trying out this

I've been trying out this 20 questions thing. I've done it three times and it's gotten the right object right each time.

Posted by Laura at 09:47 PM | Comments (1)

Quiz

Posted by Laura at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2002

Sick

I almost forgot how "sick" the waiting room smells.

On the bright note, I thought I'd humour you by saying my Dr.'s name is Dickie Hooker. (Actually it's Richard Hooker, but all the staff call him Dickie.) Heh.

Posted by Laura at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Go figure

Go figure that the chemistry test was mostly on the couple of pages I didn't study. Although the teacher says he doesn't care what I got on this, it's only what I get on the final exam, and that this wasn't important, I think it remains to been seen until the tests have been marked.

Posted by Laura at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Five

The Friday Five

1. What is your favorite time of year? Early autumn/ later summer.

2. What is it about your favorite season that, well, makes it your favorite season? For some reason that just sticks in my mind as one of the most beautiful times of the year.

3. What is your least favorite time of year? Well it used to be early spring, but now that I don't have snow anymore, it's got to be winter. I don't take 'rainy, grey and cold' well.

4. Do you do anything to celebrate or recognize the changing of seasons? Other than anouncing to me friends/family, "It's the first day of srping today."

5. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Anything so long as the weather is decent. Sometimes it's nice to just be outside.

Here

Posted by Laura at 07:37 AM | Comments (0)

e-mail

"Oh goodie I got an e-mail! Hurry up and load I want to read it! I wonder who it's from? Mail!...."

From:

Subject: Test

Content: Testing the outgoing information. -L

Go figure I send myself a test e-mail and it shows up 4 days late.

Posted by Laura at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2002

Words

I've always had the somewhat romantic idea that secretly your lost words end up saved. You know when you're typing in a window, only to realised you haven't clicked into the text box, and that every word just isn't there? Or have you started typing something and deleted it because it just wasn't what you wanted to say? Somehow I developed the impossible notion that in some place, all those words end up, jumbled together for someone else to read. All those broken sentences and starts of letters saved even though you forgot them.

Posted by Laura at 10:47 PM | Comments (2)

Globe of Blogs

Heather of the Friday Five has set up a new directory for people with weblogs. If you've got one, head over to Globe of Blogs and get listed.

Posted by Laura at 10:24 PM | Comments (1)

Mirror project

Newest submission to the Mirror Project.

Posted by Laura at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)

Figure skating

I watched the mens world figure skating championships today. It was good fun, but I was suprised how it didn't feel like as big a deal as it normally does. I only found out when they were showing highlights yesterday on Eurosport. Another part of me cringed when I realised very few of the 'big' names were there to compete (for the mens). The commentators said that had to do with many taking a break after the Olympics. I wonder why they would still choose to hold the events so close together then? It's like how the world cup for ice hockey is always held during the Stanley Cup.

Posted by Laura at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2002

Not my day

Yesterday I couldn't think of anything to write. Well I did, but everytime I thought of something, I'd put it down because I felt it wasn't worth writing. So the message window stayed open and I sat looking at it for a while. Nothing came.

Today: it's not really been my afternoon so I'm just going to use these few words to fill the silence until this foul mood passes.

Posted by Laura at 08:17 PM | Comments (2)

Question 3

What bad habit do you really wish you could break?

Posted by Laura at 08:26 AM | Comments (7)

March 18, 2002

Opps. Books!

Okay, so I take back what I said about sales at book stores, because I bought a bunch of books today. All of which were in the sale. I also bought a packet of mini origami sheets. Now I just have to learn to make something other than a crane or a frog.

Posted by Laura at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2002

Must be true

It must be true... I read it in the tabloids. (The Week)

When a trawler sank near Japan recently, the crew claimed it had been damaged by a cow which had fallen out of the sky. No one believed them - except the Russian Military. That day, pilots of a Russian military cargo jet had found a cow wandering on a siberian airfield and loaded it on board. While cruising at 30,000 feet, the terrified creature ran amok and was expelled from the plane.

Posted by Laura at 11:45 PM | Comments (3)

decisions

I can't make decisions. Not on my own anyway. It's always easier when there is someone else who agrees, to encourage me, or even better, to make the decision for me. I'm like those two vultures: "What do you want to do?" "I don't know. What do you want to do?" "I don't know. I asked you first..." Etc.

I have until the 4th of April to reply to my Ontario university choices, one way or another. That leaves me 18 days, not including the postage time. It should be no surprise when I tell you that I really can't decide.

Of course, I still have the two I got offers from here in England; UCAS form, I only had three choices and all of them were pretty high in the ranking table. On the college councillor’s advice, I decided to try and fill out the other three choices. I put down Kings College, because it was in London, and East Anglia because they had an English/Creative writing joint programme and a fairly good reputation. I'd never been to either (shun my bad geography skills, but I didn't even know where Norwich was) and didn't have the prospectuses for either. 6 months ago, I could remove myself from the possibility of not getting into at least one of my first three choices.

Did you know, in the U.K. English applications were up 12% on last year?

So, while I'm pleased to have gotten decent offers from both Kings College and East Anglia, there's that nagging feeling that I really didn't even choose those. I picked names of a Sunday Times newspaper clipping because then it didn't matter as much then.

Luckily, I don't have to tell them yet. UCAS allows me to hold two offers until I get my results, one firm, and one insurance; so there are my two. That gives me another 4 months.

McGill doesn't want a decision until I get my results.

Ontario universities are the problem though. Yes, I'm more prepared for these; I've been to all of them (minus the university of Toronto, but I know the city, and they aren't being very good about sending me information, so with -18 days, I'm not going to worry about them), and I've got the prospectuses. So I've got to consider; Queens, Western and Wilfred Laurier. (Yeah, so I put them alphabetically...No decisions remember)

Queens, I can't say much for or against. I don't remember being to Kingston before the summer. Really nice campus but the area around it wasn't all that beautiful. Of course, I only saw one set of streets on the taxi ride to and from the train station. The admissions person who talked to me about the English programme made it sound really good, but that's his job isn't it?

I can't remember having been in London before either, but I know people (vaguely) who went to Western. Again, I didn't see much other than the campus, which was really nice too. It's also a very big university considering the school I'm going to now has less than 300 people from junior kindergarten until grade twelve. According to 'Adam' who gave the tour, I don't have to decide my major right away so that makes any insecurity about course choices easier. My mother also reminds me that we have family who live near London, so it's not like I'd be completely stranded (not that I'm too worried about that).

Laurier is an interesting choice for me. Both my parents went there and I know a lot of people who went there (granted they all took the commerce programmes, but still.) I also know the area fairly well because my grandparents live really near-by in Kitchener. My mother mentions the family again here, but then again, aunts and uncles are different then grandparents, especially mine. It's also a smaller university than the others, although I honestly can't say how much a difference size makes to me.

Really, I don't know much. Even what I've gone through above has next to nothing to do with the universities themselves. My parents tell me that it doesn't matter where you go, but what you do there, and I know that's true. It just doesn't make the decision any easier right now, and with 18 days, it's got to be made soon.

After that, I've got to consider what country. My family is staying here, at least for another couple of years. I know my parents are looking to get a house somewhere else in London, because the dealing with the landlords and a changing neighbourhood is getting a bit much. And I do love living here, I really do. I'd be deluding myself though if I said I understood British schools, because I'm in an International School, and there is only one English person in my grade. Not that I've been in a Canadian high school either. And really, it doesn't matter.

See, I can make up issues to make my decisions, but it never helps. I'm just making things harder for myself by getting all wound up over this. It doesn't help when everyone else seems to know.

I'm not writing this to get answers from anyone, because the only person I should rely on to choose is myself. I'm just hoping to see this muddle of thoughts written out might help to clear my mind.

Posted by Laura at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

Answering machines

I can't stand to hear myself on tape or on the answering machine. Surely that can't be me.

Posted by Laura at 08:20 PM | Comments (3)

March 16, 2002

bees

I came to sit at my computer, and when I went to look out the window there were three huge bees sitting on my window ledge. Now, I don't particularly like bees, but I can't close the window with them in my room, and I can leave the window open until they decide to leave because more will probably come in (I only left my window alone for an hour when they arrived). So I take a folder and try to scoop them out the window. The first two worked fine, but the third, instead of flying out, dropped down into my radiator. Well, it got stuck flying around in there buzzing like nobody's business.

Why does this kind of stuff happen when I'm home alone? Heh.

Posted by Laura at 02:40 PM | Comments (4)

Over

Those were the quickest 40 minutes of my life, but all went well. I got there 20 minutes early, and ended up walking in circles going over my notes, even though I knew that anything I read right before won't stick. Same with any kind of exam. Then I went into the preperation room, and the helper held out two envelopes, one with an Arabian Sands passage and the other with a passage from The Tempest.

Left or right... Left or right... Left or right... Left or right... Left... Sure? No. Left or right... Right.

When I opened it up and got The Tempest, I'm not sure if I shouted out in happiness, but I did jump around with a goofy smile, before settling down to prepare.

The oral went well, and somehow I managed to remember all the things I had wanted to talk about. Luckily the passage was from near the end so I could justify bringing in all the earlier events to back up my points.

I don't know the exact score yet, but the teacher was really encouraging about it. When I saw others waiting around, I realised how happy I am sometimes to be at the top of the list because I'm a 'B'.

I am so glad it's over.

Posted by Laura at 01:36 PM | Comments (1)

March 15, 2002

Finished

I finally finished Arabian Sands. Never, ever again. Never.

Posted by Laura at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

The Tempest

Know anything really insightful to say about the tempest? Because I'm not sure I do.

Posted by Laura at 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

html problems

Apparently my site is schizophrenic, and the css which has been working fine for over a week now, seems to have decided (if you're on Win. IE) that really, it doesn't want to work anymore. Considering I haven't touched the souce code for a couple days, and the problem only started today, I don't know what's up with it. Once my Eng. oral is done, I'll try and fix it.

Posted by Laura at 06:29 PM | Comments (2)

The Friday Five

The Friday Five

1. What's your favorite animal? Don't know that I have one. If I said cats it would only be because I've had one as my one (and only) pet.

2. What pets have you had in your lifetime? I had a cat, that my parent got before I was born, and we ended up leaving him in Toronto when we moved here because he was so old that it wasn't fair to stick him in quarantine. For about a month when I was small we had a second cat, but Kitty (the first cat) kept trying to push him down the stairs and eating all the food, so we gave it away.

3. Is there any specific pet that you've wanted but never had? Not that I can remember. I've been wanting another cat for years now. I think way back I wanted fish.

4. Are you allergic to any animals? Yup, I'm allergic to cats and dogs, but it's not deadly and I have pills that cover it.

5. Do you have any 'pet' pet peeves (your pets or others')? Cat puke, shreaded furniture and fur everywhere (Hehe, it was only annoying when I was wearing black and was going out because the cat was cream coloured). I've never had problems with other peoples pets.

Here

Posted by Laura at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2002

Arabian Sands

I'm finally starting to get into Arabian Sands, partially because he [Wilfred Thesiger] has stopped name droping places / people / tribes, and there is starting to be a bit more thought behind the words than just the "Then we walked to the next well, drank and fed our camels" routine he seemed stuck in for the first 65 pages.

As we rose to go an old man approached. He mumbled a salutation and we replied. He stood and stared at me, wrinkling his eyes; he wore a short dirty loin-cloth and carried a stick - he was evidently too poor to own a dagger. Grey hair sprouted on his chest and eldritch locks fell around his emaciated face; a single tooth wobbled as he spoke. He looked at me for some time and then mumbled again, 'I came to see the Christian.' I wondered what he saw as he peered at me with his bleary eyes, this old man whose ancestors were tabled in Genesis. Perhaps dimly he foresaw the end.

Now I think I'll take my coughing and sniffling elsewhere. To bed with tea sounds good.

Posted by Laura at 10:27 PM | Comments (1)

cold

Laura: "You'd better not start spreading germs, because if I get sick before my English oral or my exam you're dead meat."

Dad: "Yeah. No worries."

:::Sniffles and grabs some more kleenex:::

Posted by Laura at 08:09 PM | Comments (1)

weather

Ack! I went to a couple of book stores today looking for some guides to Shakespeare to help prepare for my oral on Saturday, but it was only the last one, the Waterstones nearest my house, that had anything even related. I really love this book store, but really, they didn't have to take down the 'recommended contemporary fiction' table. Well, they didn't so much take it down as cover it with 3 for 2 offers. It was kind of dissapointing because I've been using that for reccomendations for almost 3 years.

Not to mention the weather here is... London weather. Heh.

But not everything is down. I got an extra free period while other people were doing their French orals so I got to come home and hour and a half early, which meant more time to prepare for English.

Posted by Laura at 06:13 PM | Comments (1)

March 13, 2002

loud music

Well, eventually Andy called and ended up walking home, but mom got home before him so I ran over to the library before it closed. I don't think I've ever seen that library so busy, but I figure it has to do with it being only 10 minutes before it closed, and everyone was really hurrying around to make sure they got their books taken out. Well, having to actually stand there and swipe books with the wand, gave the librarians all really foul moods.

Then again, I wasn't full of sunshine either because I ended up paying £2.50 in fines (for one bloody day!).

After that, I went grocery shopping with my mother, because the food level in my house has been dwindling on dismal for a few days now. Only problem is that you want to buy a lot more food when you're hungry, but on the positive scale, we won't be hungry for quite some time. Heh. We also got a bunch of those 'computers for schools' tokens, which is especially useful for school since they have still to replace the stolen iMacs.

Of all the embarrassing things though: our grocery store has a second level for other items which is open, overlooking the food area. My mom and I were looking for bath mats because when the bathroom is all steamed up, you can really fall all over the place. Well I spotted one of those listening booths where you can test out their newest 8 CDs. Instead of having headphones to listen, you stand under a little dome with a speaker in it, which is supposed to contain the sound. So, I get there and it's playing the Shakira single, and I decide to change the cd. So, I press down, and am passing through the next CD when music starts blasting out of the thing much louder than it was before. I start moving away when I look around, and see all the people standing in line for the cash, on the level right below, and standing in the closest food aisles are looking up at me. The thing was playing through that whole end of the store now. Luckily some girl, who I think worked there, but wasn't on her shift yet, came and reset it, and I tried to walk away quietly and slip into some remote aisle like frozen foods or something. Heh.

In any case after that I tried downloading some new mp3s but the first one I tried took a whole hour, so maybe I'll bug my parents for a cable connection, and in the mean time just give a blank zip disk to a friend and have them copy me some tracks. Speaking of which, I seriously need to buy some 100mb zip disks.

Posted by Laura at 10:47 PM | Comments (2)

About as good as a

About as good as a day off, I only have 1.5 hours of school on wednesdays now. I planned on going to the library to return the movie I rented as well as a book I missed when I took the rest back Sunday, but Andy might not be going to student council (he doesn't have a key to get into the house) and mom's out seeing The Shipping News for her book club. So... I'm going to have to hang around here until either Andy calls home, or mom get's home from her moive. It's not all that bad. I get the house to myself to really try and finish Arabian Sands. Heh.

Posted by Laura at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)

Question 2

Question: What was the last thing you read / saw / heard that made you laugh?

Posted by Laura at 08:26 AM | Comments (13)

March 12, 2002

Pictures

New pictures up. (This is my favourite of them).

Posted by Laura at 11:38 PM | Comments (1)

dinos

This is funny in a twisted way. Hmmm, some people.

Posted by Laura at 08:45 PM | Comments (0)

speed bumps

My street had the hugest speed bumps (aka humps) I think I have ever seen. A whole car can be on one when going over. Apparently, this has been damaging the underside cars who hit our street with speed (and trust me, I've seen some poor fools try), and so a complaint was offcially raised with the council.

Today they gave the go ahead to remove the speed bumps, basically tear out whole sections of our street, to replace them with the 'grooved pavement.' So now, instead of having it raised, the pavement will now be textured, in meter sections like this: ^^^^^^^^ so that the car vibrates going over so you reduce the speed.

But what really catches me, if they were trying to effectively reduce the speed on the road, isn't keeping the speed bumps the better option? There's no car damage if you are actually under the limit.

Posted by Laura at 08:38 PM | Comments (3)

oral over

I should start by saying how wonderful the knowledge that I don't have to speak French again, ever, is. Really. I know I probably will use it, but after my oral today it becomes my choice to speak it. (my just general preperation as opposed to writing out pages of notes, worked much better, or so the teacher said, which means I probably got a decent grade!) In getting that out of the way I can stop being so nervous until Saturday when I have my English oral.

Other than that it wasn't my people day. Got blown off by 3 people all together, but I'm blaming it partly on the weather. Another grey London day. I don't know how well you can see it in the picture, but the air pollution was really bad today (visible). I should check what the air quality rating for today was.

Posted by Laura at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)

March 11, 2002

brilliant

This is an absolutely brilliant idea, and it's one of those things I'd like to participate in. Why not? Until I have a mailing adress separate from my parents I can't give out a home adress to anyone. Something came for me once from a friend online, and my parents freaked out and it took me a month to get them to stop bugging me about it.

So maybe I'll grab a pad of paper and bug some friends instead. Heh.

Posted by Laura at 11:10 PM | Comments (1)

mirror project

New submission to the Mirror Project.

Posted by Laura at 05:20 PM | Comments (2)

Crisps

Walkers 'smoky bacon' flavour crisps are, the packet declares, "suitable for vegetarians". The 'cheese and onion' variety contain "cheese powder made with animal rennet" and are not.

Ohhh-kay.

Posted by Laura at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

SendACrush

"Someone you know checked your email address after receiving a crush from a secret admirer! Click here to find out who likes you!"

Baffling on so many levels.

Posted by Laura at 12:19 AM | Comments (5)

March 10, 2002

hungry

I was reading my book and feeling rather queasy when I reaslised I haven't eaten a single thing today. The only things I put in my mouth were a tooth brush and a piece of gum, but I didn't swallow either of those so they don't count.

Tsk tsk, bad me.

Posted by Laura at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

Books and covers

Books and Covers

Five years ago I was fairly chubby, had pretty bad acne, had braces and had a very bad, short haircut.

Four years ago I lost the braces, and now have a nice smile.

Three years ago I started losing weight.

Two years ago I took one of the worst medications of my life to get rid of the acne for good.

The hair is still growing.

And now, I find myself wanting to walk up to all those people who publicly humilated and verbally bullied me and say "so there". Not to mean these changes were a product of their treatment of me, but more as a way of standing my ground. Perhaps it's also wanting to prove myself. Not that I really needed their attention, but secretly I wanted it. I realised fairly early on that I was never going to be cool or popular, or anything like that. That didn't bother me, but the feeling of not being worth anything. That stuck with me for a very long time.

So now that I have confidence on my side, I just want them to know that they put me through some hellish times, and that at some point I really did hate them, but now I've become my own person, and no matter how important they think they are, I don't need or want their permission or acceptance to be my own person, and most of all, that one day, I hope they realise how important that is.

Really, I'll never have the courage to tell them. I moved across the Atlantic before I changed, and never bothered keeping contact. Maybe someday.

Just remember people aren't always what they look like, so don't judge a book by a cover. It hurts, and I can't guarentee they'll forgive you. It's a lot harder than you think it is.

Posted by Laura at 09:03 PM | Comments (2)

Lists

Mmmm. Lists to keep me busy:

Stuff I keep by my (desktop) computer at home:

* Small cd rack

* Bottle/glass of water

* 4x4" scribble pad

* Post-it's (blue, purple, yellow, and the flag kinds.)

* Pot of bodyshop hand cream.

* Story journal

* Pen holder (5 gel pens, 2 blue pens, one erasable pen, and a couple coloured pencils)

* Paper crane

* Empty salt liquorice tin

* Stapler

* Books I'm reading

* Angel figure (old present from dork)

* Stapler

* Dictionary

* Star stickers

* Usually my digital camera

Stuff I have on my cork wall: (Well, I have one of those, but it's behind my wardrobe so I'll answer what's on the equivalent part of my wall)

* School time-table

* Photos of Anna and I, Julie and I (old), Tory and I (old), Lisa and I (old), my dad and I (very old)

* Last year's hug day heart

* An old scrabble score sheet

* Exam time-table

* frequently used and forgotten phone numbers

* A couple print outs of song lyrics

Stuff I always have in the refrigerator:

* Orange-pineapple juice

* Lettuce

* Salad dressing (Viniagrette)

* Yoghurt

* Carrots

* Sweet peas

* Cheese for pizza

* Sparkling water

* Mushrooms

* Celery

* Cream cheese

* Fred (my live sourdough)

* There's other stuff but it isn't mine.

Stuff always in the pantry cupboard:

* Pastas

* Rice crackers

* Rice

* Saltines

* Olive oil

* Sesame oil

* Bagels (cheese or sesame seed)

* Teabags - "Regular" and decaffeinated, plus various herbals

* Cereals - Cheerios, Special K and Cinnamon Grahams

*Again other stuff I don't touch.

Stuff always in the freezer:

*Mmm... Not much because the freezer is like one drawer.

Stuff I keep on my bed:

* Sheets

* Blue and white comforter

* 5 pillows

* Extra blue fleece blanket

Stuff I keep on my nightstand:

* Alarm clock

* Moisturiser

* Gameboy

* CD/radio remote

* Water bottle

* Lamp

* Kleenex

* Pens and jot pad

*(There isn't room for anything else)

CDs that are in easy reach at all times (at the moment):

*Well, I suppose this is asking me to make a current playlist type list, but in all honesty all my cds (approx 70) are in a tower beside my desk or on my desk, but usually I just listen to itunes (mp3 player on my computer) on shuffle and I have about 430mps... Heh.

Stuff that I have in my bag (purse):

* Digital camera

* MiniDisc player

* Lip balm

* Batteries

* Pen

* Kleenex

* Wallet

Okay so that was a royal waste of time, but fun. Your turn.

Posted by Laura at 07:22 PM | Comments (2)

css 2

After further testing, and some mucking around with tables, the layout stays css. Why? 1) the text wrap problem happens to the right menu in tables too except not for the same reason or 2) if I make the three columns part of one tables, I can't get the grey borders (dividers) to work.

Since there's no problem in 1024x768, only 800x600 (it may be cruel but I'm discounting 600x480 all together), and that's only when the window is resized on a mac in IE 5, it stays with the warning that the site will only work in resolutions 1024x768 and 800x600, browser IE5+ (windows and mac) or Netscape 6+, and if you're using a mac at 800x600 it's best to bew viewing this at full screen.

At some point I'll move the warning down from the top there.

Anyway, I don't like talking about these kind of problems in the blog. So, um, yeah.

Posted by Laura at 02:25 PM | Comments (2)

March 09, 2002

argh

All together now: SCREAM!

While the css seems to work fine in 1024x768, when resized in 800x600 the right navigation panel drops to the bottom. So I can either ditch the whole right hand panel, or rewrite the page in tables which is going to be annoying and timely.

I am very very very frustrated at the moment.

Posted by Laura at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

Between reading Arabian Sands for

Between reading Arabian Sands for English and watching La Haine for French, I'm going to go take a look at Kings College today. That's one of the few universities that I haven't seen yet (I did a week long special tour of them during the summer.) The real important question: bathroom to student ratio. Trust me, there are some places where there are pratically none. Heh.

Posted by Laura at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2002

English oral

Yeah! I picked the two of four sets of works that I could get for my English oral exam, and I didn't get poetry. (In case you were wondering it's been an hour and I'm still breaking into goofy smiles of happiness. Poetry is great as long as I don't have to analyise it for 15-20% of my final grade). I ended up getting the Tempest (Shakespeare) and Arabian Sands (Thesiger). So all I really need to do now is cram read Arabian Sands this weekend and I'm set. Yeah!

Posted by Laura at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Five

The Friday Five

1. What makes you homesick? Whenever I think about my cottage I get homesick. The only other thing which makes me homesick is when I try to remember a small detail about my house or people in Toronto, but can't remember. It makes me realise that I've been away for longer than it feels most of the time.

2. Where is "home" for you? Techically the house I've lived in the longest would be our last one in Toronto, although I'd sometimes be more likely to say London because that's where I'm living now, and I really love this city a lot (apart from the air! heh)

3. What makes it home for you? People? Things? People and memories. How much I associate with a place makes the feeling stronger.

4. Where is the furthest you've been from home, miles-wise? According to that link, 13,637km. It's the distance to Bangkok, Thailand.

5. What are your plans for this weekend? Well, I know Saturday I'm going to play golf with my dad. Other than that I can't really say. Now that most of my work is done, probably sleep. A lot.

Here

Posted by Laura at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)

re-design

Probably the last re-design I'll make until a while after exams. So far I've only tested it in Internet Explorer (5 mac). I have a sneaking suspicion it won't work in Netscape although I'm not very worried about that. I will test it on IE windows this weekend.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Posted by Laura at 01:42 AM | Comments (3)

March 07, 2002

Shoes

Anna would like to me to say she really (really) wouldn't mind if anyone bought her these shoes.

If not, come up with a sly way she can get someone else to buy them for her.

Posted by Laura at 10:15 PM | Comments (1)

M&Ms

Vote for the next M&M colour here. (Purple! Purple!)

Posted by Laura at 09:32 AM | Comments (2)

IQ caution

A higher IQ score is not a guarantee that an individual will achieve happiness, maintain sanity, or obtain spiritual growth.

Posted by Laura at 12:32 AM | Comments (2)

March 06, 2002

Posh and David

David: "It'll be a good documentary see."

Victoria: "Shut up. You weren't even in yours."

Posted by Laura at 09:17 PM | Comments (2)

report card

Tomorrow I give my TOK presentation on 'intelligence tests'. (IQ, etc) When looking through my school files for the different test information (I've taken quite a few with widely varying results) I can across my second grade report card. Here's some examples of how to be polite to parents when you hate their child and think that 'the little bugger is brain dead'.

Term 1 -1991

..."She is becoming more confident in her ability to meet expectations. Laura is a competent reader, and has creative ideas for stories and pupet shows. She does need time and encouragement to formulate her ideas coherently. I am encouraging Laura to learn the conventional spelling for high frequency words. She enjoys a wide range of activities, especially art and computers."

Term 2 - 1992

..."She is becoming more coherent, however I would like her to be more attentive. In math Laura has few problems understanding new concepts, althought I would like her to persevere when she encounters difficulties in regrouping. Some errors in arithmetic occur due to reversed numbers. She is learning the conventional spelling for high frequency words."

Term 3 - '92

...."When she concentrates her spelling is close to conventional. She is able to recall information and can retell the main details. However she is not listening in group discussions and socialising with Julie ---- during writing time results in work well below her capabilities. Her presentation on herring gulls was quite well done, with a joke to reflect her sense of humour.* Laura has a firm grasp of most of the math concepts taught, although differentating between the two hands on the clock was a problem."

*I did a project on sea gulls. The joke was "My Grampa says they shit a lot." I got a note home about that. The next animal project I did was with Julie. We dressed up as skunks, and put some nasty cologne under our 'tails', walked up to people we didn't like and held up our 'tails' in their faces. Ms G.o.d.l.e.y. clearly knew she wasn't my favourite teacher.

Posted by Laura at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2002

aren't I a sneak?

I really don't like FTP. It probably has something to do with the fact that I don't actually have a proper FTP client, only a trial version one (Fetch 4). The trial version expires after 30 days, which was approximately the 25 of January.

But the sneaky little person I am realised that while you can't use it off the main menu, if you click purchase, and then cancel, the open connection window opens up and use away!

Fetch Softwork: 0 , Laura: 1

Posted by Laura at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

Question 1

Question: What moment in time would you have most liked to witness?

Posted by Laura at 08:18 PM | Comments (7)

chemistry

So, for 4 years the teacher's been telling me about protons, neutrons and electrons. Positive, neutral and negative respectively. Got it.

So after understanding how most of the behaviour rules depend on these definitions the teacher decides to tell us that it's not really how it always works.

Now I have to get my head around neutrons splitting into protons and electrons; protons and electrons combining to make neutrons; and the fact that something can decay and move right on the periodic table.

And the physicists in the class knew all along. Hmph.

Posted by Laura at 06:13 PM | Comments (0)

cat food?

Those were disgusting. Never eat 'sweet herb' flavoured rice crackers.

They taste like cat food.

Yuck.

Posted by Laura at 12:00 AM | Comments (3)

March 04, 2002

conspiracy

It's some kind of conspiracy. Whenever I have inspiration or ideas for my stories, it's always when I don't possibly have any time to write them.

So I've taken to writing them down on scrapes of paper and sticking them to my computer or my wall. I'm going to run out of post-it's soon.

Posted by Laura at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)

napping

Mmm... A nap can make me feel so much better.

Posted by Laura at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

dreams

Did I mention I've been having dreams? Well, more like nightmares I guess. They all start out the same way. I wake up. At this point I don't think it's a dream, because everything is just how it is when I normally get up. So I get ready to go to school; get dressed, brush teeth, wash my face, pack my school bag. It was only until the third or fourth time I dreamt this that I realised that I never turn my alarm clock off when I wake up. For 6 years I've turned off the same alarm clock every school day. I remember. Of course, I always reason, maybe I turned it off in my sleep.

Then I get in the car, and my mom drives me to school, because I'm a little bit late. It happens all the time. I sing along to the radio and she concentrates of turning onto Holland Park Avenue, because that's a busy street in the mornings. Even later I realised that this was my second hint. She's playing Virgin Radio and not Capital. Really, it's not that big a difference, but she always listens to Capital in the car. I always try to swtich it to XFM, but she'll reach over and switch it back. I've gotten used to pop music on the way to school now.

She pulls up outside school and asks when am I going to be home, and I give my usual evasive answer "School gets out at 4."

"Okay, see you then. Have a good day at school."

"Mother, it's school." She rolls her eyes.

"Love you."

"You too." And she drives off. I walk into school. Thats when things start making me worry. People are there who shouldn't be. People who I haven't gone to school with for years are there, talking about our classes with other people. They think they go to my shcool.

Through my classes no one talks to me too much, or maybe I avoid them because I find it too weird. At some point I check the student directory. Their names are are all there. I go to the library and check last years yearbook and they are there too, smiling out at me in black and white.

I'm getting seriously freaked out. At lunch I sit in the student lobby and quietly eat. Some of my friends come and sit beside me and talk about classes we just had. I try to talk about the others but they just want to talk about classes. I try talking about anything; what was on tv, the bad weather, anything and they just give me a strange look. Then they go back to talking about classes.

When school is out I can't wait to get home. I walk my normal way, crossing streets in the same places. I see the same people too. The two mothers who take their daughters for a hot chocolate after school. The old lady with two dogs that she can barely keep up with. The man with the braided hair who walks his bike up hill. There, the silver Audi TT is in the same place. The securty guards outside the mansions are there, and give me the same greetings they do any other day. Yes, I manage to assume myself. Everything is normal. Maybe I just didn't get enough sleep last night. That's it.

When I get home my mom is on her way out. "I'll be back in bit. There's some soup on the stove. I'm going to pick Andy up from his piano lessons."

The radio is playing in my room. Probably started during the day when our neighbours used theirs. It's overly sensitive and works with just about any other remote in a 3 house radius. I turn it off, and turn my computer on. The smiley Mac OS9 face shows up. Normal. I check my e-mail, put my computer to sleep, get some water and start my work. And as I sit down on my bed I see an envelope.

A beige envelope with my name in flowing cursive. It was written with a black fountain pen. Whoever wrote it was was right handed. I don't recognise the writing. I flip it over. There's nothing on the back.

I tear decide to tear it open, and unfold the thick paper inside. I mean thick; it's got to be expensive or recycled paper. In the same black, tilted cursive, across the page is written.

You have failed.

The alarm clock goes off.

And I realise it's time to get up.

Posted by Laura at 01:15 AM | Comments (1)

March 03, 2002

pictures

Some pictures I took on the way home from school on Friday: