Why didn't our newly legal same-sex marriage make Fark? Why didn't it make Salon's news wire? I know it isn't finalized yet, but same-sex marriage is currently legal in North America, people!

My thoughts (seriously) upon hearing what Michael Lishner does for a living: "I'm surprised he came out as a crown attorney."

The question currently being debated: "Does consenting to sex mean consenting to parenthood?"

My opinion: Ideally, a het couple who doesn't want kids should fully communicate and adhere to their birth control standards. They should also decide in advance what they would do in case of pregnancy. If the couple does not agree ahead of time what to do in case of pregnancy, the male partner will have to accept that the woman has the veto. After all, any parental rights he can claim she also has, but it's also her body.

Some guy just said that we're getting to the point where we need a pre-sexual agreement. Why is that a bad thing?

I wish I had a camera, because there are two things I want to take a picture of. The first is my suite, so I can show everyone how cool it is, and keep a record of what the couch looks like (because I like the couch and I might want to acquire one like that). The second is the front page of today's Globe and Mail. Even though I don't agree with the phrasing, it's a beautiful thing.

Things I wonder from watching RDI:

- How come in provincial legislatures the MPPs can address each other directly, but in the House of Commons they have to address the Speaker?
- What's up with Giant Moving Day in Montreal? I understand the concept of everyone's leases expiring at once, but do they all get kicked out when their leases expire? I always thought you can just sign your lease for another year! Does this mean I have to find a new home in February?

People use the "au fur et au mesure" construction A LOT around here! I'm glad I learned it in 3rd year, or I would be totally lost! I always thought it was too formal to use verbally, but I hear it at least twice a day.

My face is not used to wearing makeup. I hardly used it during all of May, and now when I get home I can't wait to take my makeup off. So why do I wear it? Because I don't feel professional with a bare face. Perhaps I don't look completely professional in makeup (my "design" is still rather youngish, and probably gives the impression of lack of self-confidence), but I need to believe that my zits are covered and the darkness around my eyes is hidden, or I feel like everyone sees me as being the nervous insecure nine-year-old I feel like.

I must look like an anglophone. More often than not, when I approach the person behind the counter without saying a word, they greet me in English. I haven't been here long enough for people to recognize me as an anglo, I'm not wearing a nametag, and I'm going for "professional yet nondescript" with my clothing and accessories, none of which have visible brand names. I take these English greetings as a gift, (after taking care to make sure I don't have anything on me that identifies me with my professional affiliation), but so as not to come across as the Ugly Ontarian I affect a vaguely Eastern European accent. I do this in slow and precise English, to which I systematically add phonetic features of German, Russian and Polish. Worst case I'm taken as an Ugly Ontarian, which I am. Best case I'm taken as a random allophone who is using the official language of her choice (in which she seems to be fluent).

You have to cross the road differently in this neighbourhood. The cars don't seem to think they need to let pedestrians cross. They aren't disgustingly aggressive as in some European cities, but at a 4-way stop it doesn't seem to occur to them to let the pedestrians go first. In my neighbourhood, pedestrians seem to have right-of-way at intersections on back streets. But then my neighbourhood has enough of a street life on the main streets that people are always running across the street, and cars on the main streets expect pedestrians to dart out at any time. No one goes to the intersections to cross Yonge Street, they just wait a couple of minutes at the curb until there's a break in traffic, or until a few other people have accumulated near them at the curb, and then just run across. This behaviour translates to the back streets, where everyone assumes the cars at the stop signs will let the pedestrians across. But in the neighbourhood where I am now, one main street is a sort of cross-town expressway that doesn't have its own street life, another contains big government buildings that empty at 5 and leave the streets abandoned. The back streets contain random slightly shabby-looking houses (picture the type of house that you could find both in the north end of Hamilton and in a formerly propserous Newfoundland fishing village). There are buses, but this is the terminus of the routes, and they seem to serve only the government buildings. So even crossing tiny streets just block from bus routes, you still can't assume that the cars will expect they have to yield.

Mad props to the Ontario Court of Appeal! (I hope that's the proper name, I'm following the news in French and working without terminology banks).

And a reminder to our federal Liberal representatives that their actions on this issue over the next few days will win or lose my vote.

Here's a mission for Torontonians who find themselves travelling:

1. Acquire a SARS mask.
2. Put it in your purse.
3. When someone says "OMG, you're from Toronto, do you have SARS, LOLOLOLOL?", say "No, but I have a spare mask if you're worried." and offer them the mask.

Bad experience this morning. there was a you-know-what in my bedroom. I didn't have anything to kill it with but I had to. So i did it with kleenex for the first time. I used literally half the box of kleenex, but i did it. it was bad. i panicked. I'm still jumpy. I don't know if i'll be able to sleep tonight. This is jumpy and bad and icky.

Randomness from the first 24 hours of my trip:

- There are so many cows along the 401 corridor! It's so funny! And in some fields, every cow has a baby, so they're walking around in these matching big+little pairs. MOOOOO!!!!!
- VIA 1 is very cool. In my 4 hour ride, they offered me 2 rounds of salty snacks, 2 rounds of alcoholic beverages, 2 rounds of water, and a 3 course dinner with wine and coffee. Plus comfy seats with lots of legroom, free coffee or water or pop and newspapers in this cool comfy lounge beforehand (no standing in line), and men in suits to help you with your luggage.
- VIA 1 attendants are like snooty butlers. But replace the English accent with a French accent (but with flawless English).
- My hotel is also very cool. My suite is almost as big as my aparment, has separate bedrooms and living rooms, and a kitchen that's fully stocked with kitchen tools! Very cool! I'll mention the name when I'm not longer physically here.
- Neither of my local depanneurs sells frozen instant dinners! WTF kind of depanneur is that? They both have beer and wine, but I can't find any frozen instant dinners, instant noodles, or salad in a bag. What am I supposed to do for convenience food?
- I was exposed to so little Quebec French at school! I had French French, Franco-Ontarien French, African French, Acadian French, but I never quite picked up on joual, so now I'm having trouble understanding some of the people around me.
- I went to Subway to get a sandwich. I ordered in French (because, after all, this is Quebec). The lady behind me ordered in obviously anglophone English. I mentally noted that I can order in English at this place, and proceeded to pay. The cashier speaks to me in English. I assume it's because of my accent, so I pay and collect my food. As I walk off, I hear the cashier speak to the woman behind me in French. WTF? Is this the Opposite Cashier?

This is sociolinguistic research, so I'd like everyone to comment please.

When I get out of the shower, I put on a white terrycloth garment that has long sleeves, goes down to my ankles, wraps around my body and ties closed around the waist. This sort of garment is a key part of your wardrobe in student res because it's the only decent thing for walking to the shower in. A stereotypical hausfrau wears this thing with curlers and slippers as she drinks her morning coffee, and sometimes they provide them in hotel rooms (and sometimes people steal them).

Please post in the comments with a) what you would call this garment, and b) your geographical location, if I don't know it already. For the anonymous lurkers, your name isn't necessary.

In my neighbourhood pet store, there are these tiny little bunnies that they call micro-bunnies. Apparently they're full-grown at 4 pounds. They're so cute! I want one! I don't know if micro-bunny is the actual name of these rabbits, because a Google search returns mostly a band. They're so adorable though! If you're ever in my neighbourhood, go to the pet store in the mall and take a look!

I have a mission for anyone who will be in Toronto while I'm away: keep an eye on the ads in the TTC and find out if they'll be doing a weekly pass during the last full week in June. It would be really useful for me if they did.

Why is the Statue of Liberty called the Statue of Liberty? I mean, why is the word Statue in there? We know it's a statue, we can see it's a statue. But if you referred to it as Liberty, even if the context was perfectly clear, people would look at you funny. Is there any other statue that's actually named "The Statue of [something]."? Some statues are called "Monument" or "Memorial", but I can't think of any that are regularly refered to with Statue in the name.

I was just reading a friend's LJ. This friend inexplicably went on hiatus 2 months ago, and is now back sans explanation. What I learned from this is it's REALLY ANNOYING when someone goes on hiatus and comes back sans explanation. So here's what happened over the last 6 months. It's intentionally oblique, so if you don't fully understand that's probably on purpose.

I stopped blogging because I had foolishly written something that got someone else in trouble. I stopped writing because I figured I had to lay low for a while, and I nuked the blog because that was the only way to destroy the evidence. The blog looked upgefukt for months because that's what a blog with zero content looks like, and at that point in history you couldn't delete a blog.

I finished classes at the beginning of April and moved out of res into my very own apartment. It's a nice, clean, tiny place in one of my favourite Toronto neighbourhoods. Rent is atrociously expensive by most standards but not too bad by Toronto standards. That's all I'll say here, but if you want to know more (for legit reasons, like if you're in the market for a Toronto apartment yourself) I'll entertain questions privately.

At the end of April, I finished my exams and my previous job ended. I was lucky enough to be promptly offered a new job that has reasonable pay and benefits and excellent security. I leave for training next week and then start work 2 weeks after that, so for the month of May I've basically been on vacation. but I'm working in the field my degree is in, and I'm working with the organization that I interned with, but I can't say anything more.

That isn't to say that this all came easily - the apartment company didn't want to give me the apartment because they work on a strict 1/3 rule, so my apartment is technically in my father's name until I start work, although I'm paying for everything. I'm not proud of having done that and I hope I never have to resort to that again, but it did save me moving back under my parents' roof and then trying to apartment-hunt and job-hunt long-distance.

The job situation didn't come easily either. I had been informed that no appropriate positions existed for me in Toronto with this organization, so I was job-hunting outside my academic field (in the field that I paid my way through university in). In between my final shifts with my previous employer and finishing off exams and final projects, I had been going through the purgatory of agencies and interview, with interviewers who would take phone calls during the interview or accuse me of being over-educated because I have a BA or act as though there's something wrong with me because I wasn't being instantly promoted with my former employer (even when I explained the economics of work-study and the fact that there were more grads than total 2nd-level positions and, at that point, no one was leaving any higher positions anyway). Then one day I received a phone call offering me this position that I've accepted, so I was very relieved when that happened.

Hope this clears things up.

Why isn't anyone questioning George W. Bush's qualifications to be a peacemaker in the middle east?

Why isn't anyone asking where Saddam Hussein is?

Get on it, liberal media!

I need book recommendations! By the time I get back from my trip I'll be through my big list of library books (except for a few titles where I'm approxmiately #2000 in the hold queue so I'll have to wait a few more months), so I'd appreciate any titles you (yes you personally, the person reading this) have enjoyed.

I also need good black eyeliner recommendations, but that's neither here nor there.

Yonge&Bloor station, Yonge line, northbound platform, near the DWA. There's this light on the wall. It's one of those square lights that you often see on the outside walls of schools with an orange halogen bulb. This light was indoors, on a subway platform. It was glowing red. I was looking at it, wondering why there's a red light on the subway platform. Then it turns white and starts blinking. I'm increasingly curious, but the train I'm in starts moving and that's all I see of this light. I wonder what it's for?

The Star is asking reader's what they would have done in Hillary Rodham Clinton's position.

That's an interesting question. I don't know what I would have done, but in this case it's much more complicated than that sort of situation would normally be. Every marriage is different, and every cuckolded spouse has a different blend of mixed feelings. But in this case, Mrs. Clinton not only had to consider the elements of her marriage, but also the political implications. On one hand, someone in that position might well want to ruin her husband's career. On the other hand, she did support her husband's politics, and certainly didn't want to give the right wing a reason to come into power.

I have no idea what I would have done in that position, but I don't envy her.