dead to the world

This blog is officially dead. All posting, from now on, will be done here.

new site in progress

Well, I've got the "new" site up and running. Nice new layout and everything. I've got my portfolio up, and I'm working on getting the blog working properly. For some reason, I'm having trouble getting a blog to properly publish to the site. I'm wondering if Moveable Type, or something similar, might work better for me. Either way, I'll probably be sticking with blogger if I decide to do the whole "write a personal blog under a pseudonym" thing.

various things

1.

My article will run next week. I guess it (the Palestine one) just got bumped to make room for the newbies. So much for seniority. Any who...that's that. The "spelling" one will probably not be running, but I'm not too worried about it.

2.

I'm thinking of making some major changes to my website, not least of which would be making this blog the index page of http://www.ualberta.ca/~asnider. I plan to make the whole site into more of a "weblog," similar to sites like die puny humans, plasticbag.org, or Allan's defunct Chem Defender.

What I want to do is make the site look nicer (not that Allan didn't make the main, portfolio section of the site look nice) by getting a new template for the blog (i.e.: not the current one), and by using a smaller font so that you won't have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see the side bar links.

Additionally, since I would like to keep this blog linked to my portfolio, I will probably not be going into as much detail about the more intimate parts of my private life.[1]

So, to sum up, I plan to do a complete overhaul on the appearance of the site, make it more user friendly, and make it some what more professional. Over all, I think the changes will be better for both myself and for my readers (and, don't worry, if you want to know the intimate details of my life, you can still talk to me in person or over MSN).

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[1]The main reason that I want to keep the blog linked to the portfolio is because, in theory, it will give potential employers a "living" example of my writing. Sure, the portfolio links to various articles I've written, but the blog shows different writing styles, which don't necessarily appear in the articles. This was the original reason that I put a link to the blog on the portfolio index page. Unfortunately, the blog ended up being much more of a personal confessional than I ever intended it to be. The problem, of course, is that linking from a professional page to a blog of this sort just isn't, well, professional. Add to this the recent incident involving a certain student councilor and his blog (i.e.: I'm trying to be something of a journalist, so I don't necessarily want all of my personal, unobjective views plastered all over the net), and you can see why I'd want to change the format. So, while I'll most likely leave the archives intact, this blog will soon be changing it's format. I might start up a new personal blog under a pseudonym but I am, at the moment, undecided about that. Damn, this was a long footnote.

of dictionaries and double-doubles

So, tonight I spent about 4 and a half hours at Remedy. After we went to the dictionary lecture (which, considering the subject matter, was surprisingly awesome), Stacey and I headed over to Remedy for coffee[1]. We were chatting about all sort of random shit -- classes, writing, civic elections, music, Shakespeare, wishing we could speak French -- and, at some point, she checked her watch. We were both thinking that it was, at the latest, around 7:00pm. It turns out it was nearly 9:00. Apparently, time flies when you're having fun.

So, yeah, things went exceedingly well. Stacey is really an awesome girl. I fled rather quickly when we reached the point where we were to go our separate ways for the night, but hopefully she realized that I had a good time and wasn't trying to run away.

I don't know that there is a lot to tell. We have a lot in common -- we're both English nerds, we both have an eclectic taste in music, we seem to have similar outlooks on social issues, I don't know. It was a good time. I hope I don't sound like I'm gushing too much.

Any way, yeah, it was a good time and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her again (as soon as we make plans to do so).

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[1]She reads this blog, therefore, she gets identified by her name, rather than a pseudonym.

nerds for words

I've been doing the Lavalife thing again lately. I met this girl, let's call her She Just Laughs (SJL, if I am feeling lazy), and she seems pretty awesome. She googled me before adding me to her MSN list, so she reads this blog now. She wasn't scared off, so that's probably a good thing.

But, the actual good stuff is that she seems to be as big an English nerd as I am, if not more. In fact, we're going to a lecture about the Canadian Oxford Dictionary together tomorrow. Awesome, no? After, we'll be heading over to Remedy for some coffee and chatting.

After that, I have a photo shoot to attend for an ed magazine article about NaNoWriMo that one of my fellow NaNo'ers wrote. I assume, if the photo shoot is tomorrow, that it will be appearing in this Saturday's ed. If not, it should be running sometime this month, so you might just see my ugly mug in there.

In other news, ExpressNews did a little write up about my English 407 prof, and about the concept of the class itself. This is probably of no interest to anyone but myself, but I figured I'd post it any way.

aging makes for anger

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. As she has been for as many birthdays as I can remember -- at least five -- she was irrationally angry for most of the evening. No effort is good enough. One of these years, we're all just going to stop trying. No matter how hard you try, there is always something wrong.

The weird thing is, she generally isn't the "nothing pleases me" type. I mean, sure, if she's in a particularly bad mood, she might act that way -- who doesn't, once in a while? -- but generally she will appreciate the effort, even if the actual result isn't quite what she was hoping for. However, on her birthday, nothing can be done properly. I really have no idea why. The only explanation I can think of is that she has issues with aging. Given the way our society tends to look at the elderly (not that she's old enough to be considered "elderly," but you know what I mean), especially elderly women, I can't say I blame her. Still, that's no reason to make your family feel like shit. It isn't our fault.

fuck d h lawrence

I should have been reading Women in Love. Instead, I was reading nunt. Mingus Tourette is fucking amazing. I read the entire book in essentially one sitting (books I - III were read in a single sitting, book IV was read about two hours later). It is incredible.

I don't understand much of it yet -- that will take several more readings -- but it is amazing. Seriously, it's some of the best poetry I've read in a long time. Better even than Bukowski. Well, maybe not. But definitely very close. Maybe better. I'm not sure. But awesome, whatever the case.

Go pick up a copy of nunt. It's only $14.95. Less for my one or two American readers (who will probably have a harder time getting the book than the Edmontonians in the crowd). Get it. Now. Or I'll tell Mingus to kill you. He'll do it, too.

too much food

I ate way too much today. Rob, Kyla, and I went to lunch at Wendy's. This meant that I still had my bag lunch that I brought from home. I would eat this on the bus ride home, after the pizza at the GSJS AGM, and before the pasta I ate when I got home. I feel like such a glutton.

None of my articles ran this week, but, Dave said that my "spelling" article will probably be modified and run as a Burlap Sack. The Israel one, obviously, wasn't going to run this week because I didn't submit it until after today's paper was already sent to the printers. However, it will likely run next Thursday (no paper Tuesday, because of Thanksgiving).