Procrastination

So, I have that presentation tomorrow morning. Actually, it's in 10 hours from now. Am I worried? No. I am posting on my blog. Here is another link to Pork Tornado's blog. God this guy is funny. This is him talking about his morning one day. I almost choked on my Quaker Oat Squares this morning I was laughing so hard.

Other stuff: Operation Hair Dye was successful. I think it looks OK because Janice came up to me today and exclaimed, "You dyed your hair! Great! It looks so much better than it did before!" I didn't say anything, as I wasn't sure what she was implying, but I don't think she meant it the way it came out, so I started laughing then.

Not much to say besides this. I had a fun trip to the grocery store. The actual trip wasn't fun, but the food I bought was. I had fish sticks and green beans for dinner, my best home-cooked meal in a while. Then, I bought some cinnamon today so I had cinnamon toast for dessert (yummy!) followed by After 8 flavoured hot chocolate. Food is the only thing around here that I have to splurge on, so splurge I will, on such luxuries as no name gelatin dessert (65 cents), hot chocolate ($3.49) and cinnamon ($2.69). Yes, I'm a big spender.

The other good thing that happened today is that I cleaned my kitchen. It needed it. I no longer feel ashamed to have people over, as long as they don't need to use the bathroom. My bathroom is still covered in hair dye from last night (dyeing your hair yourself is a messy process) and it has dried to look like blood stains, so it looks like I have killed something in there, but I haven't. I assure you, it's true. No murder in my bathroom. That happened in the kitchen, which is now clean. (Just kidding!!! Ha ha ha... That was close...)

Today is my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! I called home to say that to him directly. They were eating cake. I was eating fish sticks. I felt the inequity. In the background I could hear my niece talking, which was a teaser. But, I'll be home in what, 9 days? I can wait until then for cake and 3 year old nieces.

OK, I'd better find quotations, and, oh, I don't know, a thesis for my presentation. Good night all!

10 worst album covers ever

Guys! This is so funny! Chantal sent me this link this morning and I laughed my ass off over breakfast. Click here to see it. My favourite is Joyce, although 12 Top Hits is fun too.

In other news... well, there is no other news. I'm still plugging away at my assignments. If anyone has anything interesting or mind-blowing to say about Bryden MacDonald's Whale Riding Weather, please let me know.

Oh, I am dyeing my hair back to brown. This is not big news really, though it is for me. It will be interesting to see what I look like as a brunette again. Will I still be as hot? That is the question.

I'll let you know.

Pitfalls of Living with a Penguin

Much as I love these flightless birds, and as often as Chris C. and I have stayed up late on MSN talking about how much fun it would be to live with and be friends with these tuxedoed darlings, there would be downfalls to having a penguin in the house. Of course, I like to think that these sacrifices would be worthwhile if it meant that you had a penguin friend around, but I'm not entirely sure that that's true. Anyway, here is a look at what it's like living with a penguin. The other strips in the series elaborate on this idea, but things don't end well for the penguin, so I'd suggest that you be prepared if you choose to read ahead.

I am still working on the "Penguins with Sweaters" post. It will probably have to wait until I'm home for Christmas.

Bridget Jones' Diary 2

As planned, we went to see the movie in New Minas. We saw the second Bridget Jones movie. It was about as good as I expected, and in some places better. Some parts were really funny and others quite heartwarming, of course. It was the most humour and the most heartwarmingness that I've had in a long time, besides from That 70's Show. And, more importantly, we went out for dinner! I had a burger! And orange pop. Mmmmm.... And after the movie, (and this is the most exciting part) WE WENT TO DAIRY QUEEN!!! FOR ICE CREAM!!!! I had a dipped cone because I was actually still full from eating meat and warm food that was not prepared by me.

The social part of it was good too. It was us five English MA girls, and then two other friends of Janice's. It was cool to just, well, do something social first of all that didn't involve the phone or the internet, and also to hang out with these girls and not talk about school. I feel like I was kind of quirkily humourous in a good way, which was neat. I don't often get the opportunity to be quirky these days, and I like being reminded of that side of myself.

I'm sleepy from all this social interaction, so I'll stop here. I might have more to say later, though. (Knowing me, of course I'll have more to say). I'll go to my dreams of ice cream... oh how I've missed it...

Random Thoughts

Today the weather was yucky. It was warm, but rained all day and was so windy. That's the thing about living near the water - there is so much more wind. I'll have to take a picture of the pile of branches beneath one of the trees outside of my apartment building. These storms have really taken a toll. As a result of today's weather, I stayed in the apartment all day. I had a bath (the perfect thing to do on a blustery day) and read part of Huckleberry Finn. The class I'm TAing for is studying it in class so I figured that I'd better read it. I read it when I was younger (although I don't know if I ever made it all the way through - Dad, do you remember? We read it together) but I don't remember much. I also did some cleaning - I did the dishes and vacuumed and... well, that's all so far, but I have big plans for the evening. Oh, and I checked my bank balance for the first time in a really long time, and it's looking better than I thought, which is encouraging. I do much less impulse buying here than I do in Ontario since there's not much to impulse buy (although it is important to note that I have avoided the used bookstores in town so far).

Last night I started one of my last three essays. I am quite encouraged by how it went. I am already on the fourth of 10-12 pages, and I don't even have quotations yet and have only talked about a third of what I want to. This essay is talking about the discourse of law as it used in British Family Law of the 20th Century. I'm looking at how the law's ideology about marriage gets imposed on the citizens, and about how this is problematic. It will sound a lot better in essay form, or so I'm counting on to pass. I'm planning on writing at least another four pages tonight, and hoping to get it done by Monday.

Oh, and good news! I found out yesterday that my thesis proposal passed this time! Thank God! So I'm on track to do my 20-30 pages for December 20. And, I've booked my flight home. I'll be home the evening of December 9. I'm hoping that I've left myself enough time to pack, etc. I should be OK.

Tomorrow night the other English girls and I are planning on taking in a movie in New Minas. We're seeing the sequel to Bridget Jones' Diary (not my choice, but it should be OK). That should be fun. It will be my first time inside of a car for a month. Crap, why did I mention cars? It made me remember how I don't have one anymore. Oh well.

My favourite CD right now: the soundtrack to The English Patient. I've recently remembered how much I like it and it's been on constant rotation ever since. This is also a good book that I might have to re-read while I'm home at Christmas (important note: the book is much better than the movie. If you read the book first, don't watch the movie).

Anyway. I should get back to my law essay. *Sigh* Off I go!

The car thing rethought

I've been thinking about this new lack of car situation, and I've realized that my life more closely resembles my politics now than at any other time of my life. I'm against urban sprawl, and I live in an apartment building. I'm against the overuse of cars and driving because it contributes to air pollution, and I no longer own a car, so I walk and take the bus (and at Christmas hopefully carpool) everywhere I need to go. I'm against being a brand whore, and my fridge is full of the yellow label of no-name products (of which, by the way, my favourite is the gelatin dessert - much better than Jello). I'm earning my money by helping other people learn, and while being a student myself, which is good. I don't own a TV so my indoctrination that way has been reduced (in theory, anyway). All of this is pretty cool. I like thinking that I'm no longer so much of a hypocrite politically.

Although, I have to admit that I'm still sad about the car.

I keep forgetting to tell people...

I keep forgetting to mention that my car has been sold. I don't think I've even remembered to tell Andrew yet. This is partly because I don't like thinking about it because it makes me sad, but also because this is such an abstract concept for me right now. I haven't had my car in Nova Scotia at all, and I'm not getting the money for it until Christmas, so at the moment this knowledge is more or less academic.

I'm sad about not having my car anymore because it was my first car and we had some great times. Plus, not having a car could be problematic in the future. However, the whole reason I sold it was because I'm here in Nova Scotia for a year, and not using it. Plus, this means an extra $130/month in my pocket from what I was paying in insurance, and it means that I don't have to care about gas prices and I don't have to worry about car repairs. And, the money that I'm getting from the sale of my car ensures that I can eat and pay rent next term, which is always good.

But still, it was my car and now it's gone. *Sigh*

The votes are in!

Well, the votes have been tallied, and according to Andrew's count, I am the Doodle Duel winner. The score was 3-2 in my favour, although as Andrew points out, there were more spoiled ballots and bribe attempts than anything else.

This victory gives me some much deserved bragging rights, as it means that I am a better artist than Andrew, or that I have more friends, or that I have more friends who are easily coerced into voting for me (thanks Ashley!), or all of the above. Granted, the Doodle Duel and the voting happened rather too quickly for a lot of publicity, so the results of our next (and presumably better advertised) duel may be a bit different, but for right now I'm enjoying the sweet taste of victory. And it DOES taste like saltwater toffee.

Doodle Duel Results

OK, so we had the duel. Since no one posted a suggestion at 3pm, we went with Jason's suggestion of "Nothing". (Sorry Andrea, we'll draw your impossibly difficult suggestion next time). As you can see, mine is far superior. I'm still working on the formatting to get them to be bigger and nicer to look at, although you can click on the pictures to make them big. There is also commentary to post. I'll post it now. And don't forget to vote for your favourite. I'm hoping that since this is my blog, people will vote for me, but I guess we'll see. Vote by leaving a comment because I can't set up any fancy html code for voting.

Heidi: I don't know why we look like we're made of weiners in your drawing

Andrew: OK, so you're a smart person, but what I don't understand is ... why did you dress up the mouse in a sweater?

Heidi: It's not a mouse. It's a thing. See, he even says.

Andrew: so, it's a talking mouse in a sweater? That's very clever. I hope that you have bribed many friends to judge this on your behalf.

Heidi: I'm not worried, sausageman!

Andrew: And perhaps you missed one very important point - 'nothing' is not the same as 'not a thing' or 'no things allowed,' which you do not seem to understand.

Heidi: Le Bank? Where do you bank? Switzerland?

Heidi: Nothing: The absence of things. If Thing is not present, then he is absent, in which case there is nothing, or no Thing.

Andrew: Yeah, but that's clearly a 'no things allowed' sign. Which I don't understand, because who wouldn't like such a cute mouse in a sweater? And yes, I bank in le Switzerland, where they have far too much class to be dressing up their mice in lipstick and sweaters.

Heidi: Why are we wearing flat hats in your picture?

Andrew: Flat hats are all the style in Switzerland, where they have le bank. Why is your mouse wearing lipstick, sicko?

Heidi: And the confusion in your head is probably because you're wondering why you're made of sausage and only have hair on the very top of your head. Where did your hair go? And why is my bum so big in your picture? Thing is not wearing lipstick. It's a great big happy grin.

Andrew: My hair is under le hat, and I am not made of sausage. I used rounded rectangular shapes because they are the best figure for proportionate human beings. Notice, for example, the size of your butt.

Heidi: I'm also noticing the absence of shape in my chest region... what's up with that? And you look like you've put on a few pounds there... mostly in the butt region. Your hair must have migrated down...

Andrew: The thing is clearly wearing lipstick. No living creature has lips that red. You have no shape in your chest because you are running away. Unless, since you've moved to Nova Scotia, you've grown boobs out of your back?

Heidi: I also have no feet. I must not be running away too quickly, since I have no feet!

Andrew: they are running away so quickly with my money that you can barely see them. That is also why your hair is a mess, and why I am so confused.

Heidi: You look like a robot.

Andrew: Would you suggest that I be dressed up in brown, fuzzy footed pajamas, like your abomination of nature?

Heidi: Oh, I thought you were confused because you were wondering how you got stuck in such an ugly drawing! Well, it would certainly be an improvement over your oversized, sausage shaped body.

Andrew: Yeah, at least I understand ENGLISH, Ms. English major. Nothing is clearly the same as 'no things allowed' I think the judges will clearly understand that.

Heidi: Look: Nothing no thing - Both mean the absense of thing. Or, in this case, of Thing. And your picture is a blatant lie. It implies that you spend money buying me presents, which is untrue. Or that I've robbed you. Which is also untrue.

Andrew: my picture heralds the truth from the highest points in the information superhighway! See, you can't even critique my picture without a grab for more presents (=more money).
.
Heidi: Why is there a random green spot on the wall behind us?

Andrew: It is money, flying through the air, slipped through your fingers as you dash away in a hurry.

Heidi: Then why is it an oval?

Andrew: Why is your thing standing in midair? Is it a flying thing? With lipstick, footed pajamas and a voice?

Heidi: Because that's the only shape you can draw? I went for the minimalist look, so that my meaning could more easily comprehended. Unlike you, Mr Fancy-Dancy sidewalk. And bank machine.

Andrew: more easily comprehended ... to cover up for your lack of artistic skills, no doubt.

Heidi: To reduce the clutter... my drawing is clean, simple ... and not spreading slanderous lies, I might add.

Andrew's Doodle Duel Picture 

Heidi's Doodle Duel Drawing 

Doodle Duel at 3pm

If you read the comments below, you will see that my foolish boyfriend has challenged me to a Doodle Duel (you can find the original Doodle Duel here). At 3pm today (EST) I need someone to post an idea for a duel. At that point, he and I will spend until 3:30pm in MS Paint drawing the suggestion. At the end of that time, we will post our pictures and harangue each other on MSN about the relative badness (or, in my case, goodness) of each picture. Our trash talk will then be posted and we will give our friends a chance to vote on which picture is the best (I will win).

Got it? So, at 3pm (EST) be here and post a Doodle Duel topic!

This is my first attempt at posting a picture. It happened by accident. 

These are a few of my favourite books

I haven't been able to think of anything to post for a few days. There have been no more exciting incidences - no snowstorms, no fire drills, etc. I did download another good computer game, but that's hardly worth mentioning. Anyway, I've decided to make a list of my favourite books that I've read for courses this term. All of these books are either Atlantic Canadian or British Gothic. It's an interesting combination. Anyway:

1. Strange Heaven by Lynn Coady
2. Asylum by Patrick McGrath
3. Sleepwalking by Julie Myerson
4. River Thieves by Michael Crummey
5. King of the Castle by Susan Hill
6. River of the Brokenhearted by David Adams Richards

These are in no particular order, just the order that I thought of them. If anyone has free time, I recommend you pick one of these up. Or borrow from me at Christmas (but let me know ahead of time so I know to bring it home).

About posting comments: I know that it looks like you need a blogger account to do so, but you don't really. You can post as Anonymous without getting an account. Go into the comments thing, and when asks you to login, don't, but follow the small link in blue under the login boxes that says, "Post as Anonymous User". This should let you post.

Would anyone read a fictional blog? I've been thinking of starting one about my imagined life, since my ordinary life is not yielding too much. Lately, the only entertaining real-life thing that I can think of is some of the really really bad essays that I had to mark. However, I don't think it's ethical to post excerpts on here (and probably only English people would get why some of it is funny anyway). So, a fictional blog is appearing more and more appealing all the time. Not that I have time to really do it, but wouldn't that be fun? Does anyone want to collaborate on one? I've also been thinking about making one for Nutty Nut. As a superhero, his life provides lots of stuff worth reading about.

I'm working on pictures for this blog. I'll see what I can do, anyway. I was having fun following Dan's suggestion and playing with MS Paint. If I come with anything decent, or exceptionally bad, I'll see if I can figure out how to post it, or even if I can. Those of you who have played Pictionary with me can imagine the results of my experiments (although I've played Pictionary with Andrew before, and I think I can safely say that my art skills are better than his).

I need to get more groceries soon. It's amazing how good eating real food makes you feel. I even had vegetables the other night, and will try some more tonight. Mmmm... so satisfying! So, I'm heading out for that. Wish me luck!

Are my posts too long?

I have been looking over my blog, and I realize that all of my posts are very long. I try to condense my stories as much as I can while still making them make sense and be somewhat amusing, but they still come out long. I'm worried that in today's fast food world, my style is out of date. Should I condense even more into sound bytes and factoids? Anyone have an opinion? Speaking of which, why does no one post comments? Please post comments. Oh, but thank you to those who have told me (without making comments) that they are reading my blog and enjoying it.

Is there anything that would make my blog more fun? Should I add more links? Why don't you post your response in a comment? Why am I asking so many questions? Do you enjoy being asked your opinion? What's your favourite food? Are you wearing underwear right now?

Let me know.

P.S. Coming soon: A special post on pen-gu-ins in sweaters! Keep your eyes peeled!

There I was, left out in the cold again

This evening my building had a fire alarm. This was the second one since I moved in here in September. I was napping when at about ten to six the alarm went off. Not sure how seriously I should take it, I leapt out of bed and decided to grab my wallet and such so that I could get groceries since I had meant to do that anyway. The last time there was a fire alarm, I was the only one who went outside. This time, to prevent further embarassment, I wanted to make it look like I had a reason to leave the building that was totally separate from the alarm. However, I had no reason to worry as by the time I got downstairs, there was already a cluster of people huddled near the doorway. Strangely, the fact that a number of people had obeyed the alarm made me think that there was an actual problem. It's strange that I feel like the fire alarm needs a confirmation from outside.

Everyone stood shivering and not interacting with each other for a good ten minutes. I thought to myself how happy I was that I had slept in my clothes. I imagined the same scene with me in my pj's and it was much less pleasant. After a few minutes, I considered leaving for groceries, but I was concerned that there I would look even sillier returning with groceries if my apartment burned down in the meantime. After ten minutes of shivering (well, others were shivering. I was wearing my red hat with earflaps and my Thinsulate gloves, and no pajamas) and non-interaction, I said, "Shouldn't the fire department be here by now?" People laughed and agreed. One couple standing across from me told us that actually, the fire alarm does not notify the fire department. So, in case of a fire, we must all leave the building and wait for someone else to call the fire department. Needless to say, this does not make me feel protected, especially since you can't really see the building from the road.

While all of us were standing there, a few people arrived home from work or wherever. They all went into the building, which made me wonder why the rest of us were still standing outside. Finally, one of the people at my door went back into his apartment and found the phone number for the superintendent (I don't know why we didn't just go to their house as they live right next door, but anyway) and the landlord. I thought to myself that the whole situation was ridiculous. People were going in and out of the apartment building. Obviously, they weren't seeing signs of fire or destruction. Those of us outside all agreed that there was no fire. However, we stood out there anyway. I finally just said, "Well, I was going to get groceries anyway. I didn't want to if there was an actual fire, because it seemed kind of pointless." (Here there was laughter). "But, if there's no fire, it seems like a good time to do it." After saying goodbye to my makeshift acquaintances, I set off. When I came back twenty-five or so minutes later, everyone was inside and the alarm was off.

This was an interesting experience. A somewhat unique way to meet the neighbours, anyway. I learned that there are a lot of young people in my building, and that no one seems to know each other. This is an interesting dynamic. The situation also raised safety issues both with the fire alarm going off without a fire, and with the fire alarm not actually notifying anyone who can help. I mean, it's good that in theory we will all make it outside and live, but I like to think that since the firehall is a thirty second drive away, the firepeople could be there in less than the thirty minutes that everyone was standing outside.

The moral of this story is, as one of the men in my building put it, "This building just doesn't want us to be warm."

Here Comes the Hard Part

The hard part, my friends, is finding interesting things to say now that my life has returned to relative normality. I am hoping to keep this blog fairly entertaining, though my life on a regular basis amounts to writing essays, marking essays, reading for class and playing Insaniquarium (that wacky game where you keep a virtual aquarium and defend it from invading aliens... very addictive). Anyway, it's difficult to turn a life of assignments and video games into something interesting. My quirky sense of humour only goes so far.

For instance, my big news for today is that I'm doing laundry. One benefit of the blackout was that I was able to procure large numbers of quarters from Ashley, which means that my days of wearing uncomfortable underwear are coming to an end. See, this is exciting news for me, but for other people, much less exciting, and the comment about the underwear might even be downright awkward for some.

Actually, the even bigger news for today is that I have hot water again. This is great! It has been many many days since I had a hot shower (before you wrinkle your nose at this, I did have a tepid one yesterday. I'm not dirty. I just wanted to make that clear). So, my exciting evening began with a nap, is continuing with laundry, and will finish with a hot shower.

Why I felt a need to post this information is unclear.

The Power Outage Rethought

Now that I am comfortably warm and soon to eat hot cereal for breakfast, I realize that there are a number of things that I will miss about having no electricity. I have compiled a list below. The main theme is that having no electricity gives you an excuse to do a lot of things that you would otherwise be unable to do. For example, it was OK to:

- Stay in bed all the time as bed was the only remotely warm place in the apartment
- Eat junk food since I couldn't cook and my nutritious fridge food probably spoiled
- Not do homework as it's too dark to read at 5pm and my laptop had no battery power. Also, daylight hours were spent searching for a warm building and looking for supplies
- Not bathe, since there was no hot water. Similarly, it was OK to not do the dishes or clean in anyway (this is only fun for a brief period)
- Wear your pajamas outside. Since it was equally cold everywhere, people slept in their warmest clothes and then left them on during their forays outside
- Use candles for light. They provide such a pleasant ambient light, and I have a million gazillion of them now, so that I believe that I will have to continue this tradition in the evenings.

Today, while I feel like my perspective has already been changed by the fact that I had a warm night's sleep with a hot water bottle, I am already feeling a little nostalgic for the time off. Tomorrow is back to school, which means back to my commitments and my assignments, which are now 2 days even more behind than before. How blissful the darkness was!

No Electricity = No Heat

I just had my power restored less than half an hour ago after it had been off for over 40 hours. This was my second major blackout, and I have to that fun-wise, it was much inferior to my first. This blackout was caused by a winter storm this weekend that dumped wet snow all across the province and downed power lines and major transfer stations across the province. The full story can be found at CBC News. The gist of it is that 100 000 homes across the province were left without power, and full power is not expected to be restored until the end of the week.

I'd like to say that I learned a lot from this trying and somewhat traumatic experience, but I don't think I did. I did learn that I can deal with these unexpected trials and not go crazy (though it was touch and go for a while last night) and I learned how good it feels to get in touch with people that you haven't talked to in a long time, since this is how I passed the time. And, most importantly, calling an old crush is much less scary than total darkness when you live alone. Nothing too life-changing, really.

This is why the blackout last summer in Ontario was more fun than this one:
1. It was much warmer.
2. There were more parties, probably because of point #1.
3. August is a warm month.
4. It was shorter, at least in my area.
5. I lived at home with a generator.
6. It was warm then.
7. The sun sets at 10 in the summer and at 5 in November.

This experience did have some fun times, though. Yesterday, when I did my recon trip and noticed that the entire town was without power, there was that same feeling of relaxed craziness that there was during the Ontario blackout. Once the regular rules no longer apply, there can be a real feeling of freedom. Of course, I also didn't know how serious the problem was at that time, either. It wasn't until I found my tiny battery-powered radio and got the calls from home that I was told that it could be Friday before my power was restored. That made me panic. As I mentioned above, though, since I couldn't see anything I spent most of the evening making calls to people that I hadn't talked to for a while, and that was a lot of fun and made me feel a lot better.

Today was also a lot of fun. My apartment wasn't too cold this morning, and classes were cancelled at school today. When I went on a downtown recon to see if I could secure supplies (since my scented votives were burned most of the way down and I had no bottled water) I found a pleasant variety of stores ready to serve me on a cash-only basis. Luckily, Andrew had paid me back in cash for the laptop I bought for him, so I was all set. After buying 6 litres of water and various foodstuffs, along with a whack of candles and a barbecue lighter, I felt ready to face the rest of the week. The gossip in the Pharmasave was that the power would be out until Wednesday morning at least. Armed with my candles and water, I felt ready for anything.

Five minutes after I got home, Ashley, a fellow grad student, called and asked me if I wanted to go for a walk. She met me at my apartment and we headed out again into the cold, munching on Nutri-Bars that I found in my cupboard. We went back to the Pharmasave, where the gossip now was that there wouldn't be power until Friday. Chasing an elusive cup of coffee, we travelled to the Irving Centre on campus where we had heard there were hot beverages. Our quest came up empty as the coffee there was out, but the Irving Centre was lit and heated, and was full of students charging their laptops. After debating whether or not to bring our laptops to get charged, Ashley and I set out to see if there was coffee anywhere else on campus. We ended up in our TA office, where we sat in relative warmth until Andrea, another grad student, showed up. The three of us went across the street to the Baptist church where Ashley, with her keen power for finding caffeinated beverages, was sure she'd seen a sign advertising coffee. We went in, and sure enough there was a man with a small camping stove boiling water and handing out instant coffee and tea. I cannot describe to you how absolutely wonderful it felt to hold that steaming cup of coffee - to just hold it. It was the most warmth that I had experienced in over 30 hours. While we were there the power came on. It felt like a miracle and we all started praising God, figuring that we were in the right place for it.

I headed for home as soon as I could after finishing my coffee, but found that my apartment was still without power, and now much colder than it had been. However, I was confident that my power would be on soon, since it was across town, and, let's face it, Wolfville is not a very large town. As the evening wore on and my apartment got colder, even with my candles lit, I began to doubt, but Andrea had assured me that she heard that all the power in Wolfville would be on before the end of the night. Clinging to that hope, I crawled into bed with my new batteries for my reading lamp and tried to read.

It actually took until about 10:30pm tonight for the power to be restored so that it actually stayed on. My heat still isn't working properly, but I have a hot cup of tea and a hot water bottle on my lap. Dressed in two pairs of pants, 3 shirts, a sweater and a hat, I feel quite comfy. I have also been assured by Andrea that the school is again closed tomorrow, which means that I can spend the day comfortably in the bathtub doing all the work that I should have done the past two days but couldn't because there was no light. And, the task that I don't even want to think about: cleaning out my fridge.

Moral of this story: Winter blackouts are cold. Really cold. Try to avoid them.

Use of the Semicolon

I am editing essays right now. I have one essay that has a semicolon in about every third sentence. Now, I have nothing against the semicolon. I think that it is a useful piece of punctuation and can be very effective when used properly. That being said, no one seems to know how to use it properly!!! It does not replace a comma. It does not replace a hyphen. It cannot be placed randomly in a sentence and still work. A semicolon joins two complete sentences together. That means that if there were no semicolon, the two sentences would still make sense as two separate sentences. What a semicolon does is create a link between the ideas in the two sentences. Here are some examples:

Marking essays is tedious; there are many errors that should have been fixed before the essays were handed in.

Few people really know how to use the semicolon; those that do understand its proper use look smarter than the average bear.

Heed my words and not only will people think that you are smart, but your essays will improve and the sanity of those marking your essays will be preserved.

Welcome!

Welcome to Chronicles of Acadia, the story of my life in Nova Scotia as I try to finish my Masters of English. This blog will outline the pleasure and the pain of world of academia, as I negotiate through essay marking, essay writing and endless presentations and literary discussions, all while trying to keep my electronic aquarium well-stocked with pretty fish. Look for plenty of book recommendations and bitter comments about the English faculty at Acadia. I'll even try to be witty and amusing sometimes.

Thanks for coming. Don't be afraid to post comments.