Gestation

If you've been in my apartment you may recognize this from my living room. Its pretty darn inspirational. Click through to see the big one. Can you guess what it is?

Groooove!

She loves to laugh
She loves to sing
She does everything
She loves to move
She loves to grove
She loves the lovin things!!











I felt like such a star this morning grooving to work, listening to Journey. I felt like an 80s icon- oversized sweatshirt, leggings, hobo bag... LOOK AT ME GO! I'm just a perm and giant honker away from being Jennifer Grey. (P.S. Its so depressing that she got a nose job.)
N.B. This was from a few days ago. It was in my drafts waiting to be sent and I guess it just wasn't. I'm so cool.

Birthday Plans

My 21st birthday is on the 30th of this month! I am having my party this Saturday and I'm so excited. People are actually coming!! Normally I get a lot of "maybes" and like 5 people show up. There's nothing wrong with that, I just always plan for a bigger bash then normal. I guess also I've felt a little isolated lately. I've done it to myself- constantly working, going to Picton on all my days off this summer, etc.

SO THE PARTY!
I bought a pretty nice bottle of rum that I'm going to turn into rum punch (any recipe suggestions?) I'm also stopping by the bakery after work to order two dozen cupcakes. (I think about a dozen people are coming, so we each get two!) Then I can put a little candle in mine! haha.



As far as snackies go, Joel wants to make this fig and goat cheese hor d'oeuvre that he had at a restaurant. He's going to do a test run of it today or tomorrow I think. There is a little prosciutto involved but I think it tastes fine taken off. That's going to be the nicest thing. Besides that I'm probably going to pick up some spring rolls and a fruit plate or something. Something prepared and trashy because that's really what I'm all about.

Afterwards we'll head to the market. I want to go to Zaphod's but I think there is like $6 cover. :( I don't want to go up Elgin or Bank though. I want to stay in walking distance. If everyone wants to split cabs I'd love to head up to Babylon. Saturday nights is "GRIND - Dancehall and Southern Hip Hop" :) There's live music at Zaphod's though.

My birthday wish is that Joel doesn't drink too much. He can really over do it.

An Email to Nana

Nana!

I'm in a class and the professor is saying that nobody sees their elders as fountains of knowledge or cherishes the information of previous generations anymore. I think that is the opposite of our relationship. As soon as I don't know how to do something (polish silver, innovate meatloaf, train puppies, find good blues/jazz album) I pretty much depend on you and Poppy for those things!











haha How the heck would I know how to do ANYTHING if it wasn't for the "knowledge of my elders". Geez, how do people know how to function?

Thanks for all the knowledge!

Love Amanda

Shame

I read a lot of really insightful, funny, active, intelligent blogs. I like to check my "trends" on google reader to see what I'm reading the most of. I'm always ashamed of what my number one is. Here is my top 15 this month. (I have 60, so to crack my top 15 is a feat.)

15. Pioneer Woman
14. Totally Looks Like
13. Penny Arcade
12. Graph Jam
11. Joystiq

10. Cute Overload
9. Deus Ex Malcontent
8. Spring 4 Sims
7. Geek Sugar
6. Apartment Therapy

5. Feministing
4. Mental Floss
3. Pajiba
2. Lifehacker

AND NUMBER 1???? I'm sure you've guessed it. God I feel horrible admitting this.

1. Perez Hilton

*SHAME*
I have to go to sleep now because I can hear Joel snoring which is usually a good cue that its past my bed time. I'm sorry I didn't link to all the blogs but I guarantee if you put them into google and hit "I'm feeling lucky" they'll come up.

My Life According to FOTC

I mark my triumphant return (fizzle) with a meme.

Using ONLY SONG TITLES from ONE MUSICAL ARTIST OR GROUP, find a clever answer to each of the following questions. Pass it on to 21 of your friends, including me. You can't use the artist I used and you can't use the band "No Doubt" ('cause that's cheating!). Try not to repeat a song title. Oh, and it's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "My Life According to [YOUR CHOSEN ARTIST NAME HERE]"

**I was going to do David Bowie but that would have been waaaay to easy. I will judge you if you repost with David Bowie.**

Artist: Flight of the Conchords












Are you a male or female?
Ladies of the World

Describe yourself:
The Prince of Parties

How do you feel about yourself:
Demon Woman

Describe where you currently live:
Inner City Pressure

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Rambling Through the Avenues of Time

Your favorite form of transportation:
Bus Driver's Song

Your best friend is:
Friends (This is totally our song now!)

Your favorite color is:
Carol Brown (see: earth tones)

Your favorite food is:
Too Many Dicks (I couldn't resist)

What's the weather like:
Hotties

Favorite time of day:
Business Time!

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Foux du Fafa

What is life to you:
Pencils in the Wind

Your past relationships:
If Your Into It?

Your fear:
Petrov, Yelana and Me

What is the best advice you have to give:
Cheer Up Murray

If you could change your name, you would change it to:
Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Thought for the Day:
Think About It

How you would like to die:
Robots

Your soul's present condition:
Hurt Feelings

Your motto:
A Kiss is not a Contract

Meeting Leonard Nimoy

Amazing!

Frugal

My boyfriend's notorious frugality often rears its head in the form of old man stories about how cheap things were in a different country many years ago.

I picked up an Ottawa Citizen this morning (yeah, I still read print news) and was reading it. Joel noticed and piped up: "Are there any coupons in that!?" I said I didn't think any of the major newspapers came with coupons... He spent time growing up in Colorado so I shouldn't have laughed as hard as I did when he said: "Yes they do! The Denver Nugget did!!"













Correct me if there actual is a newspaper called "The Denver Nugget". Bless his heart.

(P.S. The Denver Nuggets are a basketball team... not to be confused with The Denver Post which has won several Pulitzers...)

Chin Hair Theorum

Could it be that I'm turning into the evil version of myself?

No one must know!!!

*PLUCK PLUCK PLUCK**

Ellie's House for The Sims 3

I finally finished Ellie's Dream house from Pixar's "Up"!
It wasn't accepted on Mod the Sims because it doesn't look close enough, but I'll keep it on Sims 2 Boogaloo. I'm not good enough with roofing to make it exactly similar, so I guess better luck next time.

For more pictures and a download link go HERE!

Ellie's House

Hello faithful followers!
*crickets*

I want to make the house from "Up" on the sims and I need some reference material. There are plenty of great shots of the front of the house but I am looking for shots from the side and the back as well as interior shots and layout information.

Any reference materials you can find would be super helpful. I promise to upload it so you can have your Ellie's and Carl's live out long happy lives together!

Thanks!

Ethic

Would it be unethical to use my birthday money to put towards a new iPod? I feel so guilty just thinking about it. Whenever I think about buying something I get this sense of dread like everyone would judge me for buying something expensive... nonetheless I troll eBay looking for deals (never logging in or bidding of course).

Every month I put all my money into my line of credit, visa, bills, and groceries (etc etc) but would it also be so bad to put $20 into my my iPod Jar every once in a while? I rarely eat out any more or go to the movies or go to the pub or anything.

Another shameful confession = every time I get a tip or commission I ALWAYS spend that money on myself. Chocolate bar, movie, etc. Its rare and not much- could I put commission into the iPod Jar instead of getting a treat?

We'll Drive Home Backwards!

I'm at work- off my rocks on Red Bull. Mourning John Hughes...

I watched Ferris Bueller (I know, I'm a hard worker) and I am now depressed because I want to be Ferris. He really is my hero. Its easy to be a Ferris when all your friends are Camerons (I mean that in the best possible way) but I'd really love to be a genuine Ferris. Super confident and lucky... "How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?" has pretty much been my motto since grade 6 (Oh Mr. Stone... you dupe.)

I had a Mr. Rooney too- the great depths she took to catch me. They did one time when I faked a note to spend an afternoon with only girl at our school with a mohawk.

Back to work!
Sincerly, the Sausage Queen of Ottawa... (oh the imagery)

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

I should really think before I speak.

I'm in class and we're getting back our papers and discussing our results and the horrible injustices of our marks, etc etc.

One girl next to me was grossed out by the presence of an eyelash in her paper. The fact that this grossed her out should have deterred me from saying:

"You could CLONE them! All you need is a healthy ovum!"

It didn't.

Crash 2.0

Twitter and facebook are hating me. I not really on the up and up as to why. Facebook won't let me post anything and twitter doesn't even load in my browser and won't let me log on via twitterfox. I tweeted from my cell but no dice. So yeah. The 2.0 has died- finally...

I called my bank to ask about some activity info on my account and to change it to the infinity transations (because I pay twice the price of the acount fee anyway).
The guy I talked to was seriously so dreamy. He sounded like the voiceover guy from the GM Reinvention commercials. ("Down to business indeed.") I almost opened a new savings account because of his delicious man voice. I assume he looks like a mix of Ryan Reynolds and Brad Pitt 15 years ago. (See composite image right.) In reality he's probably a total dweeb.

Anyway, I have to go to the bank and get loonies and then go to the laundromat and do laundry. I probably have like 5 loads of laundry to do. THATS 10 DOLLARS! Oh man... Ryan Pitt/Brad Reynolds- tell me how to SAVE ON EACH TRANSACTION!

Laundry!

I was tidying the bedroom today. I put all my dirty clothes in a bag to take the laundry tomorrow and put all of Joel's dirty clothes in his laundry bag. Little did I know, there was a "clean" pile and a "dirty" pile and I had upset the delicate balance.

I almost scooped up the bag and chucked it on the front stoop.

Quote of the Day

"So here we are with the first expansion pack for The Sims 3. World Adventures seems like a departure from the norm, though, isn't it? Expansions for the first two games were focused on nebulous themes, such as Night Life and Open for Business. But now we've got China, France, and Egypt? Does this represent a new direction for the series?" -From the IGN Interview regarding the new Sims 3 expansion pack...



Ah yes... a destination expansion pack... a great leap from ANYTHING the Sims have EVER done. A "departure from the norm" ... a "new direction" indeed.

Fear Spam

Last Fall I had received a few forwards from concerned family members in regards to an internet hoax that had them desperately worried. I have started receiving them again and just wanted to post an email that I sent around last year as a counter measure against this "fear spam". I received the email from a family member who works in public safety who had in turn received it from somebody in the police force- so its not that these people were silly, its just that they were so concerned that they forwarded the message without critically examining the details. The case I was discussing regarded a business card laced with a drug called "burundanga".

Here is the email! Forward it to all your friends!!


This story is an email hoax that I've received a few times this year based on an urban legend. Thanks for passing it on to me anyways. I don't want you to be scared unnecessarily, so I've done some research for you. You could send it to your colleagues as well and advise them to investigate the background of these stories because forwarding these kinds of "warnings" only spread fear and anxiety. I'm sure they've already caused you a great deal of anxiety. If I've learned anything from school its to think critically! (Which, of course, I've done tonight.)

A simple google search of "burundanga business card" comes up with tons of info. (Snopes is the most reliable source for overturning urban legends, but other hoax identifying websites like Hoax Slayer and Urban Legends have looked into it as well.) I think if you look at these websites you will see that the email sent to you was directly copied and pasted from the original hoax email. The websites also point out inconsistencies within the story, the description of the drug, and that there are NO credible sources on such an attack ever taking place- no police reports or news stories.

I.E. The story above is a fabrication. Two details betray it as such:

1. The victim allegedly received a dose of the drug by simply touching a business card. (All sources agree that burundanga must be inhaled or ingested, or the subject must have prolonged topical contact with it, in order for it to have an effect.)
2. The victim allegedly detected a "strong odor" coming from the drug-laced card. (All sources agree that burundanga is odorless and tasteless.) (from Urban Legends link above).
   

In women's studies this was brought up and we discovered that burundanga is also known as the Columbian "zombie drug" or "Columbian Devil's Breath" which is very terrifying and scary. We watched a documentary on it in the class which I can link you to here. It's real name is scopolamine. Its used in a lot of South American countries to take advantage of tourists. In Haiti, they use a similar drug to "zombify" a person ostracized by the community. Despite the real drug's terrifying effects, I have no reason to be afraid here. After lots of research, I've found no substantiated reports of it being used in the United States or Canada except as a treatment for motion sickness.

To ease your mind I refuse to touch anything strangers give me because normally they are normally religious propaganda or dirty hobos.

Pass THIS email on!

Brief Explanation

I'm aware of my radio silence and I apologize. I really have been focusing on other things lately like school and family and trying to keep my house clean. I've also rediscovered how much I love reading BOOKS with physical pages and a scent. So I have been reading online less. My focus brought me a B+ on a recent paper! I have another paper awaiting results and one more to write, so hopefully the added focus and time will increase my academic success. I really need to raise my GPA because its embarrassing right now.

P.S. I'm getting kind of fat. Acknowledging it makes me feel better about it.

Uncanny Valley

My new profile sim at thesims3.com!!























Of course, if you are interested she's available to download. To make her look exactly like the picture you'll need this stuff.

Skin: peggy
Eyes: rockermonkey
Hair: peggy

(p.s. Check out Motoki's post at MATY for non-conversion hairs!!!)

THAT IS ALL! Good day!