When I was a child, I was taught that you write out a rough draft with a pencil and paper, and then type it up when you're done.

Now, on those increasingly rare occasions where etiquette requires a hand-written letter, I type up a rough draft in Word, edit it until I'm satisfied, and then copy out the final version by hand.

In the interest of general public safety, OHIP should cover eye exams for all drivers who are required to wear corrective lenses as a condition of their licence.

For my own reference, the books whose reviews I lost in the whole mail-to-blog debacle:

The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch: Good concept, would have been much better if it had focused on Eliza Lynch instead of that doctor guy.

Muriella Pent: I'm not the target audience of this novel and am unfamiliar with the culture that it is satiring (can satire be used as a verb?)

The Lucky Ones: Excellent tying together of the various threads of the story, but I'm not the best audience for vast reflections on parenthood.

The Ultras: Meh.

The Collected Stories of Carol Shields: Some excellent short stories, but most are rather meh. Less humour or irony than I'm used to in short stories. The best one is Absence.

FYI: Eye exams are covered by OHIP until Nov. 1, not July 1 as originally planned.

I just had a really bizarre dream. It started at my Babcia's house, where some of my cousins and I were trying to get rid of an infestation of Creatures (these Creatures had a name that corresponded with the name of a real life animal that might infest a house, but I forget what the name was). Although all these Creatures were apparently of the same species, no two looked alike. Some were large white gelatinous blobs, and some where small insects in a ludicrious shade of purple. You got rid of them by sprinking confetti on them, which made them disappear.

Then I turned into Bucky Katt from Get Fuzzy. Because of something stupid Bucky/I had said (Bucky said it before I became him), I had to climb up on this huge arch made of scaffold (it resembled the arch on top of the Skyway Bridge, except the scaffolding went all the way down to the water below) and jump off into the water. So I climbed to the very top of the bridge, held on with my hands and hung down, then let go. I plunged straight down into the water. As I sank, I remembered that I should make the vertical "footprint" of my body wider, so as to slow the sinking, but I couldn't. I tried to swim upwards, but vaguely remembered that you might lose your sense of orientation when underwater and you should open your eyes and swim towards the light. Unfortunately, I've lost my ability to open my eyes underwater. I suddenly found myself having to breathe, but still underwater. Then I woke up.

When I woke up, I was filled with doubt about whether I can still swim at all. It has been year's since I've gone swimming, and even longer since I've swum properly instead of just splashing around in a pool. I have no idea if I'd drown or not if forced to jump into the water. I wonder if my building's pool is still open?

Sprechen Sie Deutschland?

At my previous job, I was once having a conversation in English with a francophone co-worker, and he mentioned something about "speaking Germany". I started laughing. Not at his mistake, but because I always do the same thing in French: I confuse the words "Allemand" (Germany) with "allemagne" (German). When I quickly reassured him that I wasn't laughing at him but at the apparent universality of this error, he just stared at me. "You mean there are two words?"

So the other day it occurred to me to Google the phrase "speak Germany" and see what came up. Turns out a lot of people seem to make that error. :)

If you arrived here at my blog trying to find a solution to this problem, Germany is the place, and German is the adjective and the language.

Pour les francophones, "Germany" est le pays, parce que l'on peut y aller.

If they put you under general anaesthetic, when you wake up do you feel like
you've slept?

A poll:

Suppose you were buying a new computer today. Would you get one with a floppy disk drive?

The problem
With the Bloor line platform
Of St. George station
Is that
There are no arrows
Pointing
In the direction
That the train is going.

Sometimes
One wants to know
Which way the train is going
So one can get on the front of the train
Or the back of the train
Or the second car in front of the DWA
Or whichever car is nearest
To the most convenient stairs
At one's destination station.

We cannot do this
Without arrows.

I think school is good for me. The whole "sitting through classes and doing homework" thing satisfies some Aspie need for order. Plus, forcibly delaying my arrival home for another two hours puts me at an optimal level of tiredness come bedtime.

Crazy poll of the moment:

How long has it been since you last vomited? I haven't vomited in 10
years. Can anyone beat that?

I had to make a personal phone call that I didn't want my co-workers to overhear. So before class, I went to the park part of Queen's Park, found an isolated bench, and made my call. Then I left Queen's Park promptly and went to class.

And my arms and legs are covered in bug bites! I was there for under 15 minutes! And, to add insult to injury, the party I called wasn't even there!

Attention prank phone call people: I don't know from personal experience, but I'm sure the people who are responsible for making arrangement for the delivery of porn don't refer to it as "porn" when talking to their customers. Especially when the supposed customer is male and the person who answers the phone is female. Get a plausible situation already!

All the patron saints in the world! Catholicism must be terribly interesting to those who have never had the misfortune to be bound by it.

I think I am going to adoptSt. Dominic of Silos, patron saint against insects.

A poll! In all cases, this is for people a) who do not live with the person in question, b) who are not estranged from the person in question, and, of course, c) for whom the person in question is still alive:

How often do you talk to:

1. Your parents
2. Your siblings
3. Your grandparents
4. Your aunts, uncles, and cousins

I got free cat food with my morning paper. So what do I do with it? Leave it in the lobby with a note: "Cat owners: help yourselves"

ETA: Further problem: My newspaper smells like cat food

I've lost like three blog entries. And I have a zit under the nosepad of my glasses.

I tend to comma heavily. The person who edits most of my work at work tends to comma lightly. Since he is responsible for editing my work, he tends to remove any commas that are not strictly necessary. As a result, I'm starting to find myself inclined to remove any commas that are not strictly necessary when revising my own work! GAH! My commaing habits have been corrupted!

I wonder if there have been any attempts at airplane terrorism since Sept. 11?