I had a dream last night that I was in class asking my classmates what I missed last Thursday. It seems we covered the life of Glenn Gould. As I was copying a classmate's notes, I mentioned that Glenn Gould was dead. They all gasped, got mad at me for ruining the story, then started to mock me for having read ahead in the book.

For future reference, good shirazes:

1. Vendange
2. Goundrey Homestead
3. Domaine Paul Mas Que Sera Sirah Syrah

In the tunnel that goes under the street to Eglinton Station, there was a large piece of black tissue paper lying on the floor. The peculiar wind currents in the tunnel were causing the paper to glide along the floor like a hovercraft. It was perfectly flat and moving along the floor instead of blowing through the air, but it was gliding along quite quickly and smoothly.

It reminded me of a Lethifold.

Update on the doctor situation:

I called today, and they were able to get me an appointment to renew my prescription for a week Monday. The question just remains of whether the doctor will be willing to actually do so.

The next mystery is why on earth they want me to fast for 12 hours before I have my physical???

In the Globe and Mail today I happened to get an advertisement for one of the condos I was considering buying at some point in the future. It included a layout for the two bedroom plus den suite, which is the size I have in mind for matrimonial life, so we can each have an office.

I HATE the layout! The one den isn't really a den, it's just a random corner wide in the open, the livingroom is crouwded, there's a lot of wasted floor space that isn't conducive to furniture, and apparently all the 2+den units face north! I am not going to pay nearly $300,000 to spend the rest of my life without any direct sunlight through my windows! (Although, interestingly enough, they've drawn the layout with generous quantities of sunlight flooding through the windows).

I hope they'll build some better 2+den units in this neighbourhood!

This morning I inadvertently shaved only one armpit. Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I had already put deo on that armpit, (aside: why do we put deo only on our armpits?) and I was already running late so I didn't have time to de-deo myself, shave that armpit, re-deo, and continue getting dressed. It's amazing how much it can throw off your day just KNOWING your armpits don't match!

I realized today I don't actively like coffee. I find it hot, comforting,
caffeinated, and socially convenient, but the desiccating, diuretic effect
isn't my very favourite thing in the world (except on those very rare
occasions when I'm constipated). I can appreciate good coffee over bad, and
I actively enjoy the taste of some lattes and other fancy coffee beverages,
but I would never classify a cup of coffee as "refreshing", which is a label
I would put on most other beverages (even tea, under some circumstances.)

However, I will continue to drink coffee because there's nothing like a cup
of Second Cup Early Edition to chase away the morning gallicisms.

The Shadow of the Wind (La sombra del viento) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is one of
the best books I've ever read! I can't believe it didn't make Amazon.ca's
"Best of 2004". (And I can't believe Muriella Pent of all things was #1!)
The Shadow of the Wind one of the few mysteries (it's not a traditional
mystery in the sense of detectives and stuff, but it's definitely a
mystery!) I've read recently where you actually don't know "whodunit" until
the end. And even if you do manage to guess who, there's the whole tragic
tale of why.

I ended up reading this in English because the library didn't appear to have
the Spanish version (which is surprising, considering how popular the
Spanish version is). However, I'm glad I did read it in English because it
was such a page turner - I wanted to badly to know what happened next - and
I read faster in English than in Spanish. I will definitely be reading it
again, and maybe even in Spanish.

Highly recommended!

What does "I resemble that remark" mean?

I saw the BEST DOGGIE EVER! It was a little wiener dog puppy - only 11 months old. Its body (minus head and tail) was about the size of my foot, and the whole dog was shorter than my boot (ankle boots with 2-inch heels). It got all excited and tried to jump up on me, but it couldn't even make it to my knee. And because it was only a baby, its floppy ears and waggily tail were disproportionately large. SO CUTE!!!

In other news, there's a sign on 7-Eleven saying "1300+ hot drink creations". 1300+? How? Do they count a double double and a double double with milk as different drinks?

Some blogs have a "next blog" button at the top. Sometimes a random passer-by clicks on this button and ends up at my blog. My Sitemeter tells me what page they came from. Sometimes I go back and look at those pages just out of curiosity.

I've noticed that in these pages, there are quite a few blogs with a title like "John Doe's Blog" and an address like "johndoe.blogspot.com". But instead of being a proper blog, the content appears to be links to every page that appears as search engine results for a particular keyword, like the name of a city or a disease. Every page that is like this has that template with pale green dots in the background.

I wonder what they're trying to achieve?

I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow. I hate the part of my job that requires me to impose on my co-workers. And I'm not looking forward to being promoted because then that aspect of my job will feel like even more of an imposition. Logically I know I should just be a grown-up about this, but I just can't flick that switch and make that happen.

And I just realized something else that I can't blog here.

Things They Should Do A Study On: Which religion produces the greatest
proportion of atheists?

Study children who are born into each religion and are raised to be actively
religious, and look at how many of them end up being atheist, how many end
up being agnostic, how many end up lapsing, and how many end up converting.

They could also find out which religion causes the most crises in faith, and
in which religion the most people have crises in faith and ultimately decide
to go back to the religion.

One thing I really do not understand is the "technical quality uber alles" approach to media. I read a review of a DVD, and they go on and on about sound and picture quality. But how's the movie itself? People rave about the quality of graphics in videogames. That can certainly be interesting, but is the game itself fun? I even once heard someone say that he decides which radio stations to listen to based on the signal quality. While I know it can be annoying to listen to poor reception, doesn't he care about the content?

I just have no interest in watching a movie that I don't enjoy in impeccable surround sound, playing a boring or too-complex-to-relax videogame with amazing graphics, or listening to dull or infuriating radio with a crystal clear signal. I'd much rather watch a great movie with mediocre picture quality, play a fun, relaxable DOS game, or listen to informative or entertaining radio in mono. I just can't understand why some people would rather do the opposite.

I wonder how often people who want to commit suicide by jumping think to
jump headfirst? It never would have occurred to me until I recently heard
about a case where the guy must have jumped headfirst.

Kitchen Stuff Plus has a shotglass checkers game! It's a checkerboard with as many shotglasses as you have checkers pieces, and when you jump a piece you get to drink the shot - just like on MASH! I am highly impressed.

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?