Did the US actually declare war on Iraq, or did they just wander in with a
bunch of soldier and tanks and stuff?

Seen in Dominion:

An older couple, both in electric wheelchairs with baskets on the front, with two small dogs in the basket of each wheelchair.

In re: a person's chance of being struck by lightning:

Is the number they use when comparing it ("You'd have a better chance of
being struck by lightning") like your chance of it happening at all during
your life, or your chance of it happening while standing outside in a
thunderstorm?

MASH today was the one where Col. Blake died.

I wonder if that's for Remembrance Day, or if it's just because that was the
next one scheduled to play in the series.

I've noticed that since I started working full-time I never take naps any more. The only exceptions are on days when I don't have to work, when I wake up early to exercise then go back to bed (but that's more a deliberate sleep plan), and the occassional day when I nod off on the subway on the way to class. But I never get grumpy and cold, snuggle up in a cocoon of my covers, and sleep until I'm not grumpy any more like I used to do in university.

One of the strangest (as in "most foreign to me") attitudes that I've seen
among adolescents (i.e.. my younger classmates and people online) is the
thought that people are unattractive unless they are tanned. I mean
actively tanned - like it is essential to regularly spend time in a tanning
bed. I've never seen people impose that attitude on other people before.
Among people my age, I have occasionally seen someone make disparaging
comments about the pallor of their own skin, but never about other people -
everyone just seemed to accept that people come in different degrees of tan.
One of my grandmothers has this attitude (and she seems to think I'm wasting
my potential by not tanning), but I never thought I'd see it among young
people in the 21st century.

I am so relaxed today. I was kind of resentful about being on call on a holiday, but I like it because being on call makes me not feel obligated to do anything else. If this were just a normal day off, I'd feel obligated to do certain errands and household chores and studying right now. But instead I'm just like "I'm on call. See, I'm being productive!" and I don't feel obligated to do anything else.

Why I am pissed off: I called my doctor this morning to schedule my annual physical.

They aren't booking any appointments until January.

In what world is that acceptable? I'm on my last pack of pills, and I never thought to call earlier because I have never, not even for busy clinics, had to wait more than three weeks for an appointment.

Tomorrow I am calling them back and emphasizing the time-sensitivity of the whole thing. If they can't come up with some way for me to have a prescription in hand by the end of the month, then I will have to look for a new doctor. This completely defeats the purpose of having a family doctor.

And if they can't come up with some way for me to have a prescription in hand by the end of the month, I am blogging my doctor's name so other people can be warned away.

Seen in Bloor station: a little 5-year-old girl, gleefully dancing to the music played by a nearby busker, oblivious to the rush of commuters all around her.

If my life were a movie, that would be a significant symbol of something.

Ethical dilemma: should I get a flu shot?

There aren't enough flu shots in North America. There are enough in
Ontario, somewhere, in my doctor's office or at Toronto Public Health, there
is a flu shot with my name on it. Later on in the flu season, leftover flu
shots may be donated to other jurisdictions that have a shortage, but I have
no way of knowing for certain that my flu shot will be donated if I don't
use it.

For several years didn't get a flu shot and didn't have the flu. I am not
in contact with high-risk people myself, but I am in contact with many
people who are in contact with high-risk people. The powers that be are
marketing it as being my duty to get a flu shot. If I did get the flu, it
wouldn't be too severe for me, comparatively speaking - I am healthy and
strong and could afford the time off work and school, and can plausibly
quarantine myself without too much difficulty.

So I don't absolutely need it, I am being instructed to get it, I am
entitled to get it, there are other people who need it more than me, and if
I forgo it my dose may go to someone who needs it more than me, but I don't
know that for sure.

I've noticed quite a few articles lately to the effect that the Left is alienating people (this isn't the best article ever because it's from ID, but it gives the general gist of the argument).

The bit I don't understand is that the Right is doing all the things mentioned in this article too, just reverse some things, change some names and places. So why isn't it a problem for them?

On MASH, why is going to the stockade undesireable? It would get them out of the war, and the conditions can't be worse than their camp. So why not just desert or something so they can get court-martialed?

you know how in Britain they evacuated all the children from the cities while they were being bombed? Has that ever been done before, since or elsewhere? It does kind of make sense, but I've never heard of another instance of evacuating children and it seems that it would be done more often.

Nuvole Pinot Grigio is one of the best whites I've ever tasted. It's fruity
and smooth and sexy, and I could totally drink it every day. It's
everything a white wine should be, and definitely one of my first choices if
I ever have to get wine as a gift.

Adventures in pan-Asian cuisine:

Now I don't really eat a lot of Asian food, mostly because when I tried it as a child I didn't like it, and I'm hesitant to experiment with foods I know nothing about. I don't want to spend money (and my limited lunch time) on something I might not like.

However, a couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with some co-workers, and one of them ordered this soup from this generic Asian place called Noodles. The soup had vegetables and noodles and broth and looked really healthy and tasty. So a couple of days later, I decided to try this stuff myself. I really enjoyed it, it was tasty and comforting, but there was rather a lot of it and it filled me up so I couldn't finish it all. However, a lot of it was water, so I found myself hungry again before I even finished work (which isn't good because I have class after work, so my lunch has to keep me full until I get home at 8).

Then a couple of days ago, due to various circumstances,I wasn't able to take my lunch until 3 pm, and I would have to eat at my desk. So I went down to Noodles and got some of this soup to go, as the thought hot soup in my cold office was comforting, and I would surely be able to finish the whole thing in the two hours of work left. I noticed that their takeout containers were these tall styrofoam things, about as wide as a normal takeout soup bowl but twice as tall. This made me happy, because just that morning I had been thinking that takeout soup should be available in large cups, so you can sip it if you want. But when I went to pick up my order, I found that they had given me two containers! There were people behind me in line so I didn't stop to ask, but it turned out that one container had broth and vegetables, and the other held the noodles. What am I supposed to do with that? I couldn't just dump the noodles into the broth because the broth container was full, and it's not like i have a bowl in my office to mix them in. So I ended up eating half of the veggies and broth, then putting the noodles in the rest of the mixture. But does anyone know the correct thing to do in that situation?

My other story is about sushi. I'd never had sushi before - initially because I thought all sushi contained raw fish, and then because I didn't know if I'd like it and, as a student, I didn't want to spend money on something that I didn't know if I'd like. But today I decided to try sushi for the first time, so I bought a thing of 8 little vegetarian rolls from Loblaw's.

I don't like it. I can't stand wasabi and whatever that pink stuff is, and the rolls themselves are just meh. I could eat them if there was nothing else, but I don't really like them. I ate 2, then decided to have a peanut butter sandwich instead.

I'm so plebian!

I want a t-shirt that says, in Mandarin or Japanese or some other language I don't speak that has an attractive foreign script: "I don't understand what this says."

Ontario to require students to stay in school until age 18 (If it asks you to log in, you can also go to BugMeNot.)

But what about students who graduate from high school at 17?

Mackerel Sky by Natalee Caple. A man returns home to Quebec to meet his
adult daughter for the first time, only to find that she, her mother, and
her mother's younger lover are all embroiled in a crime ring. Bittersweet
melodrama ensues.

The good: descriptions! Beautiful, lush-without-going-overboard
descriptions of everything. You know what people's skin feels like, what
places smell like, what food looks like, it's like you're right there.

The bad: the plot could be more compelling, and I'm not too impressed with
the crime writing aspect of it. In parts of the book, the criminal element
is underrepresented, and in other parts it's overdone. I think more balance
is needed in this area. Also, the cover borders on possibly inappropriate
for reading in public. It has a picture of a woman's body, clad in what may
be lingerie or may be a skimpy dress, posed in a way that suggests a state
of dishevelled undress. Nothing explicit, but very suggestive. It's okay
for public reading if you don't care what passers-by think of you, but if
you prefer to come off as dignified and respectable in public this might not
be the best choice.

I woke up this morning with two inch-long cuts on the back of my right hand and wrist, and I have no idea how they got there.