No words are necessary*

[bending_sickle]

Today was alright for the most part, except the bit where I lost the last hour of work, which involved painstakingly going through all the the lion videos and screencapping a particular lioness. All those wonderful photos I'd copy-pasted to her ID sheet are lost and must be redone. I also lost a table I'd worked out, but that's easy to redo. Although the file ate all the tables in the document, I'm not worried because I save the document in three different places. It's the second or third time the university computer does this to me, flailing about claiming errors in saving or corruption of files or changing everything to squares and squiggles.

The good thing is that I'd intended to stop work early anyway (I wouldn't have been able to redo all that again right after losing it) because I had to go register for an international student dinner on Wednesday. (Socilizing, here I come!) Funnily enough, they tell you the location only when you sign up and pay, and the (very cute) guy who signed me up literally whispered the location. Hi-larious.

I then hung out at a cafe waiting for Anna, a classmate from my winter's Science-Based Business course, to show up. Socializing! We talked for an hour about her new job which she's starting in October (in a bank! in London!) and other related things.

Word Meme via chaosvizier:

Reply to this meme by yelling 'Words!' and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Lions: Currently, what this word means to me is "Argh! Work!". But back when they were flesh-and-blood lions as opposed to statistics-in-the-making, lion research was glorious. I even got to recognize a few of them and seeing them felt like catching up on a good friend. Who doesn't know you. Whom you are stalking. ...still.

In the general grand scheme of things, lions mean much more than just the current subject of my research. For one thing, there's the concept of Aslan (and Rrrrrrumbleroar!). I'll admit to never quite wrapping my head around the whole "he's a wild lion" thing, but as a child I believed quite fervently in him, Christian allegory be damned. In other news, a while ago there was a video of a lion saying Allah. I shook the science stick at it in an old post (which I will not spend more time looking for, so take my word for it). Also, the lion appears in a vast number of fables, legends, sayings, etc. It's usually paired with either the fox or the mouse, and never in a fair light.

I also have a great fondness for photographing lion statues. (Asking me to prove this to you, oh internets, would be cruel, as I am hardly that well organized.) They're quite common, but yee gods, are some hideously deformed. The ones at Trafalgar Square and at the Chicago Art Institute are my favorite.


Sickles: I don't have much of an attachment to sickles. My user name is from Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 (whose rosey lips and cheeks within his bending sickle's compass come), which my English teacher in Lower Six (Grade 11) made us memorize. I just love the rhythm and sibilance of that line.

I've held a sickles which my uncle rescued from the corners of my grandma's tool shed and spruced up. Never used one, though.

I just learned yesterday that the song "Scarborough Fair" is not the lovely romantic song it seems to be, but is rather a list of impossible things an ex-lover must accomplish before he can be forgiven. One such thing is to reap with a leather sickle. That's got to be hard.


Europe: When I think about Europe, I mentally erase a huge number of countries of which I know nothing about. The best thing about the continent is the European Union and the bliss that is the Schengen Agreement. Ah, traveling across international borders has never been so easy! The EU Passport line at the airport! Taking my money everywhere! Not being allowed to carry wine from the Duty Free in Canada to Spain because I had a stop over in Italy and they'd throw it out! Wait, no, that last isn't exclamation worth.


Travel: I like to travel. My panicked posts prior to my travels fail to reflect this fact, I'm sure, but that's only because I hate to pack. Trying to be omniscient and psychic, planning for every emergency, even a week of hail in summer, is rather nerve-wracking.

But travel, the actual act of being in some sort of mode of transportation and going somewhere, I love. Whether it's long walks, bikes, canoe treks, or the more motorized versions, I like the concept of moving. I love taking off on a plane, the feeling of being trapped in a time bubble whilst cruising over the Atlantic, being reduced to yourself and your carry-on (stuffed, of course, with "essentials" that will tide you over for a week). I like train rides, although I miss the chugga-chugga rhythm of old trains that engineers have so thoughtlessly removed from modern trains. I love car trips, the long hours of staring out at an ever-changing scenery, the hum and rocking of the car zooming along. I even like the adventure of motel rooms. As a child I'd lie on my back and watch the trees, upside down, zoom past, or the telephone wires dip down and up again in a mesermizing rhythm.

I'd love to take a holiday involving only driving through a country. No sightseeing detours, just zoom-zoom. When I envision this, of course, it's in some backwood dusty corner of the US, which for some reason always makes road trips seem grand and exciting. And yes, I would abide by the metaquoted Road Trip rules (although I'm torn between attempting to dress like a muggle at all times, or dressing solely in gas station clothes).

Car trips that've involved more than one day that I've been on include a) Toronto to Nova Scotia, with numerous detours to explore the East Coast, b) Toronto or Montreal to New York c) Toronto to Chicago.

What I don't like is travel for necessity (which is not travel for holiday, or visiting). The whole, "Hey! Put your life in a box and say buh-bye!" type of travel I've had enough of. (Although I can't wait to do it again.)


Pie: Ah, pie... The Weebls say it's good, Dean Winchester loves it (and, at one point, almost died because of it, but the apple pie was worth it anyway) and while her tears may've altered the flavour, Sookie'll rip anyone who touches Gran's pie a new one. (Gods, do I ever want to make Granny Stackhouse's pecan pie!)

I've delved in baking (lemon or banana cake, peanut butter cookies), but I've yet to make a pie. Oh sure, I've made pies with mom before, but never one myself. I want me some pie!

You know how people say, "As American as apple pie"? And you know how that statement is utterly false? If you want to be picky, it ought to be "As Dutch as apple pie" instead. Although I suspect the Dutch version is very different from the American. Their pie has chunks in it, and isn't covered up. The wonderful thing about apple pie being so Dutch is that you can have a slice in virtually any coffee shop. Mmm, appeltaartje met slagroom...


Links of the Day:
leonidaslion's Bright Lights of Disturbia, part 31 (Sam/Dean)
henrygalelovers's ABC's Commericals - Hi-larious! Losties, Frasier, Friends, they're all living together!
Doctor Who Audiobook read by Tennant
Hubpages: Screencapping with VLC
Forum: Screencapping with VLC
The Book With No Name by Annonymous
Gadsby: A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter “E” by Ernest Vincent Wright
A Void by Georges Perec

* Anon. or uncredited

Comments

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Nice words. I'd love to do something like what you did with lions in Kenya. Of course, it would really just end up being me singing the "Lions and Tigers in Kenya" song OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Now, words, por favor!

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

1. Jersey
2. comestibles
3. humour
4. foreign
5. earworm

:D

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Done and done!