Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Canadian Math Cub's InsaneJournal:

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Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
1:23 pm	Escape pod engaged Ok, so having read the news and such about the death rattles of LJ, I'm preparing my own little escape pod, and looking at alternatives. I've already done a backup of my journal using LJarchive, so I at least have my own access to my entries I'm also making a temporary backup account of my journal at Insane journal where I will migrate my entries via these transfer instructions However, I'm not sure I want to make insanejournal the permanent home of my journal. I just feel that LJ-esque sites are not highly stable what with the roller coaster that LJ has put me through with 'OMG what's going to happen now, we're selling? we're shutting down? everyone's jumping ship? etc etc etc" and it's a roller coaster I don't need to be on. I've been looking into other sites that will allow me to do the kinds of things that I want with my blogging. Maybe take the next mature step in my 2.0ing :P I've been looking at blogger but it doesn't feel like there's a lot of community there. I'd still like to gather people together for my personal reflections, daily life, whatever. Stuff I'll be writing regardless, but if I can't find something appropriate that feels worthwhile I'll just be going back to a personal offline journal. Writepress is another blogging site that I've used in the past, which allows you to maintain multiple blogs. This is a feature I really like because it would let me separate some professional kinds of things I'd like to blog about, personal side projects, and my own personal journal, and yet maintain it all on the one site. It also seems that there's a way to set up something like a friends list where I can have a pubically displayed RSS feed of other blogs that I'm interested in, linked in my own blog. I have yet to explore this feature, though I'm assuming each blog would have it's own feed. Right now I'm leaning towards writepress, but I want to know if there's another blogging site out there that offers: stability free-ness tracking of blogs of interest (in site or out of site) levels of posting, private, friends only etc separate streams of posts (multiple or subblogging) If someone knows of a site that has all of these or most of these that I haven't already talked about then please do let me know! (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
11:24 am	Dreams Had a couple interesting dreams the past couple nights. The other night was a Buffy dream. I think I was Xander in this because I don't remember having any abilities, and I recognized most of the others but didn't really see him. There was some kind of demon force going around in this old building. We had managed to do something to study it scientifically but the equipement was being messed with. It looked a lot like the transponder access program we use at work, but the demon force was causing all the straight lines to blend into each other. Eventually it smashed into the room and caused all sorts of crazy havoc, but then disappeard again. There was a huge central portion to the building that led all the way down, it wasn't really a staircase but a gradual slope downwards in the building in a circle. Then suddenly all these toys had been demonized, so you had toys with half cutsie faces and half angry skulls that were marching out of this warehouse. I was marching with them and we passed by this sign that told me it was McGill lol, and since I've never seen it I wouldn't have known otherwise lol. I was playing some death march drum beat on my knees with plastic mallots and we were marching into a field where there was supposed to be a huge battle with this demon thing. The other dream I had involved taking an old school bus to this out of the way campground. I checked in with 2 other guys and we were wearing bowler hats. After we checked in, we ended up going to the back room of the main cabin and there were a bunch of people there. We formed this secret society which eventually started participating in cannibalism for some reason. Eventually we all turned into zombies, but zombies that could think significantly. They decided they needed to bomb us, but for some reason the a-bombs they were using weren't getting us until they used a smaller payload that would smash into the building before exploding. Even so, there were still some people in the dark parts of the remains of the cabin, you could see them shaking their fists at the planes that had dropped the bombs. I blame the second dream on the complete zombie survival guide I have next to my bed at the moment :P (Comment on this)
10:59 am	What have I been up to? Well, I haven't really said much of substance in the past few weeks. There's been good reason for that. The past few weeks have been my hell weeks assignment wise for school. So mostly when I haven't been in school or at work, I've been working on assignments. Yesterday was one of the first days where I could just relax because I didn't have anything pressing. And the next week looks good too Most of my courses just have the final major projects left. Indexing and my Thesaurus class have a couple other smaller assignments left, one which informs the final in Thesaurus stuff, and a subject indexing assignment, and a small little paper that I haven't thought much about. I'm more worried about the final paper for indexing because I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to write about. I've also got to finish writing content for the webpage I have to put together in my web design class. The proposal just got handed in, but I need to gather pictures and such for it and somehow manage to make something a little better than paint sketches. The site is about big and tall shopping, so most of it I can pull out of my ass from personal experience. I did end up going out for Hallowe'en. Stayed in London and joined a friend and a bunch of his friends to go to a bar and loaded up on mini-pitcher's of killer kool-aid. Though being that close to the live band definitely left my eardrums rattled. I defaulted to dressing like a biker like I did back in one of my teaching placements, so I thankfully had the costume all together already and just had to whip the pieces back out of the closet. It was that or my werewolf sign :P So that's me! (Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
10:19 pm	Facial hair Writer's Block November is National Beard Month. Muttonchops, Van Dyke, goatee, soul patch, ZZ Top–style—tell us about your own wild and woolly facial fuzz. Even better, post a picture. I inadvertantly ended up participating in this. I've had a beard for a few years now. But on Friday I finally worked up the courage to try something new (without even knowing about the beard month thing). Which of course is a HUGE deal for me. I'd never thought I had enough to pull off other styles than 'as much of my face as I can cover' But I finally managed to convince myself that I might be able to pull off something else. Here is my usual style for the past few years And here is the new style I've attempted. Just ignore the crappy clip on tie from work and giant bruise on my forehead :P oh and the crappy cell phone quality ( the new face ) I'm really anxious about this still. Every time I'm in a situation where someone I know is going to see it for the first time I have some anxiety about it because it's the first time I've every really played with my look like this. And my mother saying 'oh, you trimmed your beard.... interesting" DID NOT HELP lol (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
11:18 am	Hallowe'en! And this is where the old joke comes from. How do you know you're Canadian? Your Hallowe'en costume is designed to fit over a snowsuit :P In other news, I haven't decided if I'm going to take advantage of my good schedule to do anything for Fri night. Especially since I'm walking wounded. But I just never really get into Hallowe'en. I'm not all that creative or motivated to make some costume. Though someone in one of my classes said that I was really super creative. If that's the case the world is in deep shit. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
9:45 am	Dreams Well, last night I had the strangest dream. and oddly realistic too. Never had a dream like that. I was having sex with a woman, and I think a significant portion of it took place in a bathtub. (a big one, mind you, to accomodate someone my size and this woman).. it was so odd, not only because I clearly have no interest in the activity in reality but also because it felt so real. I swear it felt like it was going to turn into a wet dream in the end. And when I woke up I could still feel many of the sensations. They felt SO real. It was just so strange for a dream to feel that way. I don't remember much about her, except that she was slim, with long blond hair. But I don't remember much beyond that. It was just such a strange experience for me. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 13th, 2008
8:55 am	Organ donation So, relatively recently, I was downtown getting my health card renewed for the next X years, which is basically just upgrading me from the green card to the new improved green card. The experience was more or less the same as the last time I had to do this with one thing that stood out in my mind. The woman at the desk that I was dealing with asked me if I wanted to be marked as an organ donor. My response? "well, I would, but they won't let me" She clicked away, snapped my photo and we were done. To be honest, I don't know what she put. My new card doesn't seem to have anything that would designate me as a donor on it. Though I'm not entirely sure what that would look like. It could always be on the magnetic strip or somehow encoded into the card. I'm assuming she clicked no to avoid a longer discussion, or for fear of an argument or something like that. Though I kind of at least expected a 'soooo... no?' It reminds me of the time I took my sister down to the blood donor clinic near Vic hospital. She went and checked in and the attendant turned to me and asked if I was there to donate as well. I merely said, 'you won't let me' My sister quickly covered with 'yeah, he got his ear pierced a little while ago' which was technically true. I'm more or less used to the idea with the blood ban since I got banned years back. To both, I've sort of taken the stance of 'fine, if you won't take it, it's not like I'm the one letting people die, it's on you' I also think back to the battleground that was the CBS presentation, (CBS vs SAQD) where neither side really convinced me that they were 100% right, but at best, SAQD came across as childish (and gave me another reason to withdraw from the queer campus culture) not really trying to resolve anything. More point out how people would rather avoid the whole discussion. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 6th, 2008
3:37 pm	Audience participation please! ie. HELP Alright, Some of you may remember that I posted awhile back about the possibility of constucting a thesaurus relating to fetishes. I am pushing forward with this project idea, but in order to make the thesaurus as complete as possible I'm going to need a bit of help. Here's what I'm asking you, if you have a moment. I'm going to give you a copy of the basic list of subjects (basically title like subject statements). This will give you an idea of the kinds of things I'm going for. Don't be offended if I put something in a way that may not put it in the best light. I'm trying to approach these from every angle I can so that I can make this guide as broad as possible. After you look at the list, if you can think of other fetishes (or even kinks, which I know are different and you'll see some that can serve as kinks, but again, I'm being broad here) that I've left out, or even suggest some other title like subject statements (these are basically questions that people may approach the study of fetishes or even just seeking personal resources on them may ask) please feel free to suggest them too! Sexualization of car accidents in major motion pictures Techniques for safe practice of rope bondage Sewing patterns and suggestions to modify plush toys as sex toys Realistic portrayals of death in the low budget snuff pornography films Vegan leather practices that are cost effective Psychological profies of the 'adult baby' as a childhood lacking. Fetishizing para/quadrapalegics as a form of dominance and submission Fursuit construction ideas for Furry Convention costume contests Possible long term health effects of regular participation in amateur electrostimulation Transformation fantasies as a manner of addressing unattainable body dysmophia Ethical aspects of role-playing scenarios that would otherwise be illegal or immoral Sanitary issues relating to scenes of watersports and scatology. Comments will be screened in case anyone is particularly attached to a fetish they want to add. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
11:21 am	Ha! Ok, usually I don't do these writer's block things, but Invent a political party for the nation in which you reside. What does your ideal platform consist of? This one is perfect because we were joking about this at my placement this summer. Canadian Association of liberal Librarians: National Organization Or: CALLNO. and do note the small 'l' liberal (Comment on this)
Friday, September 26th, 2008
11:14 am	A dream So I had this dream that my sister and I had these eggs. There were 4 of them and they were roughly the size of golf balls. I don't know where we got them from or what we thought was in them, but we were being very careful with them and doing everything we could to make sure they hatched. We were sitting with them in our old living room from out west, though we were our current ages. Every once in a while one of them would hatch and I'd try to get my camera out and ready to make a little video of it. Every time I tried, though, The egg would finish hatching before I got it set up to take a video. :( so there was one egg left and I kept tucking it into various warm crevices in my body to keep it warm and make sure it would hatch. Eventually this one hatched too. All of the eggs hatched something that looked like little chicks. but quickly became obvious that they were not. Shortly after, this one looked like a little black bird with a predominantly blue parrot's head. It flapped a bit out of site, and I found it behind the coffee table curled into a ball with feathers puffed out. I went to scoop it up in one hand and it panicked a bit at first but eventually settled down and nibbled a bit on the end of my finger. I put it with the others, where there was another bird like one, and one that looked kind of like a guinea pig crossed with a mouse. I didn't get to see the third. Eventually they grew up, but I had regressed, and we were moving to Africa for some reason. And we were going to let the animals go to see if they could survive in the wild, but Africa wouldn't let us (duh!) so we had to leave them behind. At the time I remember there being 2 cats, a snake and I think a bird, but it might have been something else. I woke up as they were putting those little animal control nooses on one of the cats and I was struggling to stop it from happening. I woke up with just the tail end of a little wail on my lips. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
8:40 am	oooh pretty bear! So I walk into my morning class in the main lab in FIMS this morning. Who do I see at the front of the room? no, not the prof who I would have expected. Instead, I see the pretty bear that I've seen on campus, but never figured out what he was affiliated with. He's fixing something with the computers. So I'm assuming he's ITS or computing services or something. I almost thought he was a TA who would be teaching the class today instead. Ah well, another little piece of information about him and I can daydream about pretty bear being mine. He has a hot voice too. I finally tried to get a picture of one of these super cute guys that I see since so many of you demand it. Alas. he came out smaller than a pixel. :( but the picture in my head is oh so clear. and oh so naughty lol (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
9:43 pm	Meme! ok this one was far too awesome I could survive for 60 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor (Comment on this)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
8:31 pm	Bad signs you want to know what's a really bad sign that you're enjoying thinking about cataloguing too much? Thinking about how you would assign classification numbers in LCC to all of your blog entries..... ooooooh dear. (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
1:06 pm	insta-me meme ganked from everyone Take a picture of yourself right now Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair... Just take the picture Post the picture with no editing Post these instructions with your picture (this also doubles as my first public display here of my new glasses from this summer) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
7:10 pm	Oh my! Perfect! I might have a very exciting volunteer opportunity that is particularly relevant to me and the courses I'm taking. I can't go into much detail because it's mostly just an idea right now that a former prof of mine will be working to make happen and she had me in mind when she heard about it. I just don't want to jinx it, you know? But it's exciting because I'll be able to use it as a project AND do some good volunteer work for a non-profit, AND get to basically carry out a professional librarian type of project. I'll post more when I can (Comment on this)
Monday, September 15th, 2008
1:28 pm	Dreams Been having a number of dreams lately, but mostly they've been disappearing. Even this dream is just a vague summary and not as vivid as many of my dream logs have been, but going to try and get some of it down. I dreamed I was a Harry Potter esque kind of person. Or at least it was based in that world, with a touch of the 'his dark materials' series. There was some sort of wizard resort thing built next to the ministry of magic (which isn't where it was in book 5) and in wandering around the resort I ended up in a dark hallway that was sort of a prison like stasis place for dark wizards. One of the wizards had a snake daemon and I remember talking to it using that Parsyltongue snake language thing. I also remember ending up in the room that wizard was in, looking down at him laying on the bed unconscious or in stasis or something. There were a lot of reddy-brown's in this dream. The walls, the hallways, the footpaths and footbridges. But I've lost the rest of the dream (Comment on this)
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
2:50 pm	Class ideas Alright, so I've gone through one of every one of my classes so far. They should be good. But that's all I'll say for now, but here's a couple things that some of you might find amusing/interesting/something I've been given a few opportunities where I'm allowed to pick the topic for my big term project. Somehow I've managed to have my brain settle on the following 2, though I'm still mulling them over. 1. For classification and indexing, analyzing multiple classification systems for how well they would handle the classification of pornography, possible remedies to the systems, etc. 2. For subject analysis and thesaurus construction, creating a thesaurus of terms that would be appropriate for indexing practise at a resource centre relating to sexual fetishes and/or kinks. The title would be: Quantum Fetish Mechanics. At first I wasn't entirely sure about either of them, though I'm pretty settled on number 1. I just have to run it by the prof to see if she thinks it would be doable and/or if she can stomach it. The 2nd one I'm still working through in my mind. I can only imagine the scope notes that would go with it. He said the best way to pick a topic is to think of a special library that might deal with a topic and then build the thesaurus for that library, and I picture a library that would be a resource centre for those seeking to study, research kinks/fetishes or just looking for resources about them. So everything from health and safety to psych info to self help and community organization information. We'll see how that develops (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
11:19 pm	Summer Theatre! A Happy Gay Musical - Sky Gilbert at Buddies in Bad Times. This was a cute play, 4 players with some fun songs. I really liked the woman who was in the play, she was a lot of fun. The play kind of centred around 2 story lines. The creation of a play, which was sort of the creation of the play that they were already in, they would talk about a number, or a song would happen and then they'd be talking about if they should keep it in the play or not. So it was funny because it made the play so self depreciating. There was also a story line of the withdrawal and change this guy goes through when he gets in a relationship and the problems he has in it because of the sexual proclivities of his partner. Overall not a bad show. Evil Dead: The Musical - Diesel playhouse. Well, certainly going and seeing this 4 times points to being a good show. Or that I don't have taste. But certainly rising to some sort of longest running record because of it getting extended over and over is another more objective sign lol. I had been skeptical at first, having seen one scene on youtube and not being particularly impressed. I thought people were laughing only because of a song that swore a lot. In context it was so much better. I laughed hard. had a fantastic view no matter where I was in the theatre, but of course the most amazing part was watching the show in the splatter zone hehe. And seeing the one woman reading a magazine down there when she wasn't coming up for a scene lol. It was an excellent combination of the 3 movies. Having gone back and rewatched them I can say how it's mostly set in a combination of the 1st/2nd movies with a lot of famous lines from the 3rd. I only wish there were a video version of the play that I could purchase, but alas. Avenue Q - Elgin Theatre I have matthewpilon to thank for my introduction to this musical. One time hanging out at his place, I heard in his massive collection of music one of the songs, and he played a number of others for me. It was so good to finally get to see the songs in context (rather than tonnes of out of context 'internet is for porn' spoofs). The bad idea bears were my favourite, and I went down to the souvenir stand to see if they had plush versions of them to purchase. so sad that they didn't. I swear, there were tears. I had a lot of laugh out loud moments in the theatre that I'm sure with my laugh could be heard by the actors on stage above the others. The guy who played Brian was a cute bearish guy, though his reviews apparently weren't all that good. Though I didn't check the dates on these reviews so they might have been from before he had to pull out for the health of his family or something I read in the program. The theatre was beautiful too, had a great view up in the balcony, and thankfully I was able when I booked to request seats in areas where I could put my legs out. The Pastor Phelps Project - Cameron House My sister's partner mentioned this to me in a fun phone message left for me. It seems that Phelps or some of his crew was slated to show up and protest the show. However, I heard 2 different stories about their planned protest, they were held up at the border and that they had planned to sneak through the border by mailing their bus sign and pickets and such ahead of them but ended up protesting something else up here. Regardless I saw nothing about them actually protesting up here, so I'm assuming it didn't happen for whatever reason. Anyway, the show was excellent. Lots of disturbing stuff in there, but all based on quotes from Phelps and followers. Things I remember most from the show? Tyra Banks impersonation with the fun head movement whenever the top model show name is said The last supper pose while reciting bible verses that we'd clearly find outdated and ridiculous today. The 7 scarves dance of Ann Coulter Phelps in a box the scared little boy with the St. Sebastian doll Henry the VIII dance to the recitation of a speech on the sanctity of marriage. God hates figs? Definitely a great show! (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
11:45 pm	HIV tests So when I got back to London I decided to go and get and updated HIV test. I really hadn't done anything to be worried about, but it's always good to keep up to date on these things. anyway, negative as usual. What was different is that Options clinic had a different kind of test available that I hadn't tried before. It was a rapid test, so I had my results that day with just a little prick of the finger. It was very cool, she did her little mixing thing with the chemicals and showed me the single blue dot which meant I was fine. Pretty slick system, just a quick prick the most minute bit of blood and quick results. I liked it, definitely better than the week long waiting period. She seemed pretty hopeful about getting the oral swab eventually if it ever gets approved in Canada, though I think I'd still opt for this one (Comment on this)
7:22 pm	Sometimes I wonder Sometimes I wonder if the response to pain with an ouch or something is more about the noise and less about it's meaning. I've noticed that occaisionally I'll have a pain in my head, don't know what it is, but it's enough that I'll feel the need to say ouch or something. but a lot of the time I usually end up just humming a single note, and it goes away. It's odd. anyways, some random thoughts (Comment on this)